I had a minor procedure done a few weeks ago by a Dr. Baciagalupo.  For those of a certain generation this name evokes pleasant memories of the Abbott & Costello television comedy series of 1952-54. I was a faithful viewer of the reruns as a kid.  The show was part of my TV viewing that included the hilarious but controversial Amos & Andy. 

Baciagalupo was an occasional character on Abbott & Costello.  Depending on the episode, he appeared as a baker, fruit peddler, grocer, or ice cream man – always mustachioed with a heavy Italian accent.  (Curiously, he never sold pizza.)  But he wasn’t the butt of all the jokes, rather it was Lou Costello who was often confounded by Baciagalupo’s various skills.  One classic exchange between them concerned bakery owner Baciagalupo making Costello a birthday cake. Confusion reigned over the double meanings of “dough” and “knead”– one was thinking cost, the other preparation:  “The more dough I gotta, the more I kneada.”  You can see this 5-minute skit on YouTube: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rajzp9d9Mc4)

I used to think that Baciagalupo (comically pronounced Baciagaloop) was a made up name for the character. No, it’s a real surname that translates as “Kiss a Wolf”.  But over time it became a fun name in Italian American culture, sort of like baccalà is used to describe an abnormal person. And even a Louis Prima song: “Baciagaloop (Makes Love on the Stoop)”. In fact, there’s a blog on the subject if you’re interested: https://www.roccoshoppe.com/blogs/news/bacigalupo-baciagaloop-the-evolution-in-theory-of-an-italian-american-expression.

The actor who played Baciagalupo was the very talented Joe Kirk, born Ignizio “Nat” Curcuruto (Sicilian roots).  He was very much a knowledgeable Italian American who even cracked Lou Costello up during filming by ad libbing Italian comments during their skits.  During the bakery skit I understood him to call Costello “faccia di cane (dog face)” while trying to control his temper, or as he says, “losa my temper-ture.”

Coincidentally, Kirk was married to Lou Costello’s sister Marie Cristillo (Lou’s real name, Calabrian roots) but divorced her in 1953.  They probably met during his radio days with Costello in the 1940s.  His career as a bit actor encompassed fifty feature films, including the Jackie Robinson Story.  He usually played heavies or extras.  His last gig was in the Bob Hope movie I’ll Take Sweden, in which he donned a bunny rabbit costume – that had to be the final career killer.  He died in 1975 at age 71.

Kirk’s few gangster roles were of the American type, no accent, no goombah stuff.  His Baciagalupo was never stumbling.  Even with an accent he was fluent, and in his exchanges with Bud and Lou he was always the smartest.  Lou often drove him to distraction but he never hesitated to smack Lou around on occasion.  When I compare him to early character actors like Henry Armetta, who often played the overweight and overwhelmed immigrant always with ten kids and a bossy wife in tow, or Spanish singer Josep Lluís Moll who used the stage name “Fortunio Bonanova” to play a clownish Italian general in Five Graves to Cairo (1943) and as Lou Costello’s freeloading Uncle Bozzo in one episode, Baciagalupo was just good fun. -JLM