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Bob Hope RIP
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Glenn Folkvord (Hyperion Media)
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Jul 28, 2003 11:49 PDT
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http://apnews.myway.com//article/20030728/D7SIL6S00.html
Bob Hope, ski jump-nosed master of the one-liner and favorite comedian of
servicemen and presidents alike, has died, just two months after turning
100.
Hope died late Sunday of pneumonia at his home in Toluca Lake, with his
family at his bedside, longtime publicist Ward Grant said Monday.
The nation's most-honored comedian, Hope was a star in every category open
to him - vaudeville, radio, television and film, most notably a string of
"Road" movies with longtime friend Bing Crosby. For decades, he took his
show on the road to bases around the world, boosting the morale of
servicemen from World War II to the Gulf War.
"Bob Hope, like Mark Twain, had a sense of humor that was uniquely American
and like Twain, we'll likely not see another like him," Dick Van Dyke said
Monday.
President Bush said "the nation lost a great citizen" with Hope's death.
"Bob Hope served our nation when he went to battlefields to entertain
thousands of troops from different generations," the president said. "We
extend our prayers to his family. God bless his soul."
Hope perfected the one-liner, peppering audiences with a fusillade of brief,
topical gags.
"I bumped into Gerald Ford the other day. I said, 'Pardon me.' He said, 'I
don't do that anymore.'"
He poked fun gently, without malice, and made himself the butt of many
jokes. His golf scores and physical attributes, including his celebrated
ski-jump nose, were frequent subjects:
"I want to tell you, I was built like an athlete once - big chest, hard
stomach. Of course, that's all behind me now."
When Hope went into one of his monologues, it was almost as though the world
was conditioned to respond. No matter that the joke was old or flat; he was
Bob Hope and he got laughs.
"Audiences are my best friends," he liked to say. "You never tire of talking
with your best friends."
He was admired by his peers, and generations of younger comedians. Woody
Allen called Hope "the most influential comedian for me."
"It's hard for me to imagine a world without Bob Hope in it," Allen said
Monday.
Hope earned a fortune, gave lavishly to charity and was showered with
awards, so many that he had to rent a warehouse to store them.
Through he said he was afraid of flying, Hope traveled countless miles to
entertain servicemen in field hospitals, jungles and aircraft carriers from
France to Berlin to Vietnam to the Persian Gulf. His Christmas tours became
tradition.
He headlined in so many war zones that he had a standard joke for the times
he was interrupted by gunfire: "I wonder which one of my pictures they saw?"
So often was Hope away entertaining, and so little did he see his wife,
Dolores, and their four adopted children, that he once remarked, "When I get
home these days, my kids think I've been booked on a personal appearance
tour."
Hope had a reputation as an ad-libber, but he kept a stable of writers and
had filing cabinets full of jokes. He never let a good joke die - if it got
a laugh in Vietnam, it would get a laugh in Saudi Arabia.
"He was very much at home in the TV studio or on stage live anywhere, that
is where he really lived," comedian Phyllis Diller said Monday. "And, you
know what, it was never a chore for him. It was never nerve-racking. He was
always so completely prepared by his tremendous organization that he had put
together."
On his 100th birthday, he was too frail to take part in public celebrations,
but was said to be alert and happy - and overwhelmed by the outpouring of
affection. The fabled intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street
was renamed Bob Hope Square, and President Bush established the Bob Hope
American Patriot Award.
"He can't believe that this is happening and that he's made it to his Big
100," son Kelly Hope said at the time.
He was born Leslie Towns Hope on May 29, 1903, in Eltham, England, the fifth
of seven sons of a British stonemason and a Welsh singer of light opera. The
Hopes emigrated to the United States when he was 4 and settled in Cleveland.
They found themselves in the backwash of the 1907 depression.
The boy helped out by selling newspapers and working in a shoe store, a drug
store and a meat market. He also worked as a caddy and developed a lifelong
fondness for golf. A highly competitive golfer, he later shot in the 70s and
sponsored the Bob Hope Golf Classic, one of the nation's biggest
tournaments.
Hope changed his name to Bob when classmates ridiculed his English schoolboy
name.
He boxed for a time under the name Packy East - "I was on more canvases than
Picasso" - and also tried a semester in college before devoting himself to
show business. He quickly veered from song and dance to comedy patter, and
his monologue routine was born.
By 1930, he had reached vaudeville's pinnacle - The Palace - and in the '30s
he played leading parts in such Broadway musicals as "Roberta,""Ziegfeld
Follies" and "Red, Hot and Blue," with Ethel Merman and Jimmy Durante.
During "Roberta," he met nightclub singer Dolores Reade and invited her to
the show. They married in 1934.
After a few guest radio spots, Hope began working regularly on a Bromo
Seltzer radio program. In 1938, he was hired by Pepsodent to create his own
show, and that led him to Hollywood.
Paramount signed him for "The Big Broadcast of 1938," in which he introduced
the song that became his trademark: "Thanks for the Memory."
Soon he was teaming with Crosby in the seven "Road" pictures - "Road to
Bali,""Road to Morocco,""Road to Zanzibar" and so on - playing best friends
who lie, cheat and make fun of each other in comedic competition for glory
and Dorothy Lamour.
In between, there were such pictures as "Cat and the Canary,""The
Paleface,""Louisiana Purchase,""My Favorite Blonde,""That Certain
Feeling,""I'll Take Sweden" and "Boy, Did I get a Wrong Number." He made 53
films from 1938 to 1972.
In 1950, he entered television, and his successes continued. Even 40 years
later, he could be counted on to pull in respectable ratings. He also
appeared more than 20 times at the Academy Awards, first on radio and than
on television, as presenter, cohost or host between 1939 and 1978.
Hope started playing to troops well before the United States entered World
War II.
He tried to enlist, but was told he could be of more use as an entertainer.
He played his first camp show at California's March Field on May 6, 1941,
seven months before Pearl Harbor.
His traditional Christmas tours began in 1948, when he went to Berlin to
entertain GIs involved in the airlift.
"For more than five decades, through four wars and years of peacekeeping
missions, Bob Hope came to symbolize, for every man and woman in uniform,
the idea that America cared for and supported its troops," said Edward A.
Powell, president and CEO of the United Service Organizations.
His 1966 Vietnam Christmas show, when televised, was watched by an estimated
65 million people, the largest audience of his career. But his initially
hawkish views on Vietnam opened a gap between the comedian and young
Americans opposed to the war, who sometimes heckled him.
Later, Hope said he was "just praying they get an honorable peace so our
guys don't have to fight. I've seen too many wars."
In 1990, he traveled to the Persian Gulf to entertain troops preparing for
war with Iraq. Because Saudi Arabia bars female entertainers, he had to
leave Marie Osmond and the Pointer Sisters behind in Bahrain.
Hope never had a regular straight man, but he worked often with crooner
Crosby, first in radio, where they developed a routine of insulting each
other merrily. Crosby helped make Hope's nose famous as a "droop snoot" and
a "ski run." For his part, Hope replied: "Only in Hollywood could a meatball
make so much gravy."
Hope's awards included scores of honorary degrees; special Oscars for
humanitarianism and service to the film industry; the George Peabody Award;
the National Conference of Christians and Jews Award; and the Medal of
Freedom from President Johnson. He received honorary knighthood from Britain
in 1998.
He was the author or co-author of 10 books, including his 1990
autobiography, "Don't Shoot, It's Only Me."
Hope's 85-year-old nephew, Milton Hope, said Monday he hopes his uncle is
remembered not just for his jokes, but also for donating his money and time
to charities.
"All I can say is he sure made a lot of people happy," Milton Hope said from
his home in Aurora, Ohio.
In the mid-'90s, Hope played charity dates around the nation, but he seemed
to slow his schedule. What was billed as his last NBC special, "Laughing
with the Presidents," focusing on his long friendships with many occupants
of the White House, appeared in late 1996. His more than 60-year association
with the network was said to be a record.
In recent years, his hearing eroded, although he refused to wear a hearing
aid. He suffered recurring eye problems, once remarking: "I've got a
hemorrhage in the right eye now, and I used to have one in the left eye. I'm
a walking hemorrhage."
Until increasing frailty slowed him down, Hope repeatedly pledged never to
quit entertaining.
"I'm not retiring until they carry me away," he said. "And I'll have a few
routines on the way to the big divot."
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