Booze had alot to do with it as well. The man liked his liquor. I don't think Bud wanted to initiate the split, he was drained of his fortunes by the I.R.S. He had to work. I think it was more of Lou's idea. Lou probably wanted to for a while, but when he saw Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis part ways, the bug was in his ear to break up the team and within a year, it happened.

After Lou's death, Bud tried to start a new act with character actor/comedian Candy Candido in 1961 as well as appearing in a General Electric Theater TV drama with Lee Marvin the same year. But his increasingly poor health forced him to retire, returning only to do voice over work for the Hanna-Barbera cartoons.