''Costello was one of the greatest clowns that ever lived,'' said Joe Franklin, radio host of Joe Franklin's Memory Lane on WOR-AM and the Joe Franklin Report on WBBR-AM, Bloomberg Radio. ''I'm getting more and more requests for Abbott and Costello routines.''

Lou Duva, a Paterson native and boxing trainer and promoter who has worked with Evander Holyfield and other boxing champions, knew Costello when the comedian was an amateur welterweight. Mr. Duva, 80, led the effort to erect the Costello statue in 1992, and he and his friends continue to look after it. Recently, they had the stairs in the park near the statue fixed, but they continue to worry about pigeon droppings. Mr. Duva also supports the Lou Costello Sportsman's Club, where a banner with a picture of the comedian hangs over the ring.

''I tell you, he loved this town,'' said Mr. Duva, who now lives in Totowa. ''He loved his people, and he loved good people.''

'' 'I'm a b-a-a-a-d boy?' '' Mr. Duva continued, referring to one of Costello's classic lines. ''He was never a bad boy. He was a good boy.''

Louis Francis Cristillo was born in Paterson on March 6, 1906, went to School No. 15, which was on Market and Summer Streets, and is now School No. 11, and to Central High School, which was on Hamilton Street. He played on Garret Mountain, swam in the basin of the Great Falls, boxed at Mike Connolly's gym, which was on Main Street, and won a contest imitating Charlie Chaplin at the Paterson Armory. He broke into vaudeville between acts at Paterson's Orpheum Theater.

Paterson natives who remember him, like Mr. Duva and 82-year-old Lou Cuccinello, who now lives in North Haledon, tell stories of his loyalty to the town. After he left Paterson for Hollywood, he returned many times, they said, to visit children in local hospitals and to raise money for the new St. Anthony's Roman Catholic Church on Beech Street, where there is still a plaque dedicated to him. He performed at local benefits for children's athletic clubs, gave out turkeys at Thanksgiving and holiday baskets at Christmas, and brought trade unionists from the Wright Aeronautics Corporation in Paterson out for a visit to Hollywood. During World War II, Costello let it be known that his door in Los Angeles was always open to soldiers and sailors from Paterson, and that dinner and a $20 bill would be waiting.

He loved to mention Paterson in his movies and television programs.

''We would sit in the theater waiting for that one moment, and we all started yelling and screaming in the old Rivoli Theater,'' said Joseph Rigolio, a 67-year-old lawyer from North Haledon who grew up in Paterson.