Bob Hope

At 100 years old, Bob Hope has this physical status:

Leslie Townes Hope (born May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003) was an English-American stand-up comedian, vaudevillian, actor, dancer, actress, and author.

With a career spanning nearly 80 years, Hope appeared in more than 70 short and feature films, with 54 feature films with Hope as co-star, including a series of seven "Road" musical comedy films starring Bing Crosby as Hope's top-billed partner. He appeared in many stage productions and television appearances as the host of the Academy Awards show 19 times, more than any other host, and was the author of 14 books.

His signature tune, "Thanks for the Memory," was released.

Hope, who was born in southeast London, England, with his family at the age of four, and grew up in the Cleveland, Ohio area. He began his career as a boxer in the late 1920s, first as a comedian and dancer on the vainville circuit before appearing on Broadway.

Beginning in 1934, hope appeared on radio and in films.

He was praised for his comedic timing, specializing in one-liners and rapid-fire delivery of jokes that often were self-deprecating.

Hope, who was honored for his long service with United Service Organizations (USO), continues to entertain active American military service personnel, who served in the United States Army from 1941 to 1991, was named an honorary veteran of the United States Armed Forces in 1997 by an act of the United States Congress in 1997.

He appeared in numerous NBC television specials beginning in 1950 and was one of the first cue card owners. Hope was involved in golf and boxing as well as a minority interest in his hometown baseball team, the Cleveland Indians.

Hope retired in 1997 and died at the age of 100 in 2003 in Los Angeles' Toluca Lake neighborhood.

Early years

Leslie Townes Hope was born on May 29, 1903, in Eltham, County of London (now part of the Royal Borough of Greenwich), in a terraced house on Craigton Road in Well Hall, where a blue plaque has been erected in his honor. He was the fifth of seven sons of an English father, William Henry Hope, a stonemason from Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, and Avis (née Townes), a Welsh mother and a light opera performer who later worked as a cleaner, and later worked as a cleaner. William and Avis married in April 1891 and lived at 12 Greenwood Street in Barry before moving to Whitehall, Bristol, and then to St George, Bristol. The family immigrated to the United States after a brief period of living in Southend Road, Weston-Super-Mare, in 1908, sailed on the SS Philadelphia. They passed through Ellis Island, New York, on March 30, 1908, before heading to Cleveland, Ohio.

Hope began earning pocket money by busking (frequently on the streetcar to Luna Park), singing, dancing, and performing comedy. Lester Hope, a musician, entered numerous dancing and amateur talent competitions as Lester Hope, and in 1915 he received a prize for his impersonation of Charlie Chaplin. He attended the Boys' Industrial School in Lancaster, Ohio, for a time, and as an adult donated substantial sums of money to the department. In 1919, Hope began to fight under the name Packy East for a brief period. He had three victories and one loss, and he was involved in a few staged charity bouts later in life.

In his teens and early 20s, Hope served as a butcher's assistant and a lineman. He had worked at Chandler Motor Car Company for a short time. He was standing atop a tree that crashed to the ground in 1921, crushing his face; Hope was forced to perform reconstructive surgery, which contributed to his later appearance.

Hope and his partner signed up for dancing lessons after deciding on a show business career. Hope, who enjoyed a three-day engagement at a club, developed a friendship with Lloyd Durbin, a friend of the dance school, and was encouraged. Fatty Arbuckle, a silent film comedian, attended them perform in 1925 and discovered them in Hurley's Jolly Follies, a touring troupe. Hope and the Hilton Sisters, conjoined twins who performed a tap-dancing routine on the vaindeville circuit within a year, formed the "Dancemedians" group within a year. Both Hope and Byrne performed as Siamese twins; they performed and danced while wearing blackface until friends told Hope he was amusing as himself.

Hope officially changed his first name to "Bob" in 1929. In one version of the tale, he named himself after racecar racer Bob Burman. He chose the name in another because he wanted a 'Hiya, fellas!' It's a good thing to hear. His legal name appears to be Lester Townes Hope in a 1942 legal document; it's unknown if this refers to a legal name change from Leslie. Hope was "surprised and humbled" after he failed a 1930 screen examination for the French film production company Pathé in Culver City, California, after five years on the vaudeville circuit.

Personal life

Hope was briefly married to vaindeville's Grace Louise Troxell (1912–1992), a Chicago, Illinois secretary who was the daughter of Edward and Mary (McGinnes) Troxell. They were married in Erie, Pennsylvania, on January 25, 1933. In November 1934, the couple married.

At the Palace Theatre in April 1931, the pair had headliner status with Joe Howard, who appeared on "Keep Smiling" and the "Antics of 1931" (with Joe Howard). In June of that year, they performed together at RKO Albee, appearing on "Antics of 1933" with Ann Gillens and Johnny Peters. Dolores Reade, a singer from Hope's vaindeville troupe, was performing with him at Loew's Metropolitan Theater during the following month. She appeared at several private social functions in New York, Palm Beach, and Southampton, describing her as a "former Ziegfeld beauty and one of society's favorite nightclub entertainers."

His long-awaited marriage to Reade was fraught with ambiguities. In his 2014 book titled Hope: Entertainer of the Century, Richard Zoglin wrote a book titled "Entertainer of the Century."

Dolores had appeared on Broadway in Roberta as one of Hope's co-stars. Linda (1939), Tony (1940), Kelly (1946), and Eleanora (1996) were among the couple's four children. Bob and Dolores were also the legal guardians of Tracey, the youngest daughter of prominent New York City bar owner Bernard "Toots" Shor and his wife Marion "Baby" Shor.

The couple married in 1935 in Manhattan. They then migrated to 10346 Moorpark Street in Los Angeles' Toluca Lake neighborhood, where they would live until their respective deaths.

Hope had a reputation as a womanizer and continued to see other women throughout his marriage. "Bob Hope had affairs with chorus girls, beauty queens, singers, and showbiz wannabes through his 70s," Zoglin wrote; he had a different girl on his arm every night. "He was still having affairs into his 80s."

As Hope was in Dallas on a press tour for his radio show, he encountered Barbara Payton, a Universal Studios employee who at the time was on her own public relations blitz, just one of many. Hope opened Payton in a Hollywood apartment shortly thereafter. Hope was not able to please Payton's definition of generosity and her desire for concern. Hope brought the affair to an end. In an article published in July 1956 in the tell-all magazine Confidential, Payton later revealed the affair. "Hope was... a mean-spirited individual with the ability to respond with a ruthless vengeance if sufficiently stimulated." His advisors advised him not to avoid more publicity by denying the Confidential news. "Barbara's... revelations caused a minor ripple, but then sank without causing any appreciable damage to Bob Hope's legendary career."

The Authentic Life of Bob Hope, Hope's subsequent long-term affair with actress Marilyn Maxwell was so public that the Hollywood community used the term "Mrs. Bob Hope" in Arthur Marx's 1993 Hope biography.

Rosemarie Frankland (Miss World 1961) was a beauty queen who, according to Zoglin, was involved in a 30-year friendship with Hope. She was "the greatest love of his life," he said.

Hope's infidelities are a part of the film Misbehaviour, which follows the Women's Liberation movement's 1970 competition that Hope hosted; Greg Kinnear plays Hope.

Hope, who suffered from vision problems throughout his childhood, served as an active honorary chairman on the board of Fight for Sight, a non-profit group in the United States that funds medical education in vision and ophthalmology. In 1960, he hosted the Lights On television show and gave the Bob Hope Fight for Sight Fund $100,000. Several leading celebrities have been tapped to help with the annual "Lights On" charity. For the April 25, 1971 show at Philharmonic Hall in Milwaukee, he hosted boxing champion Joe Frazier, actress Yvonne De Carlo, and singer-actor Sergio Franchi as headliners.

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Career

Hope's career began in the early days as an actor on stage in vain deville shows and Broadway productions. He started on the radio in 1934, mostly with NBC radio, and then moved to television as the medium became more popular in the 1950s. In 1954, he began hosting regular television specials and later hosted the Academy Awards nineteen times from 1939 to 1977. He was portrayed by this film, from 1934 to 1972, as well as his USO tours, which he led from 1941 to 1991.

Hope has been working with Educational Pictures of New York on six short films. Going Spanish (1934) was a comedy; Going Spanish (1934) was a drama. "They'll make him sit through it twice" if they catch [bank robber] Dillinger," he said in newspaper gossip columnist Walter Winchell. Although Educational Pictures dropped his contract, he soon joined Warner Brothers, directing movies during the day and appearing in evening Broadway shows in the evenings.

When Paramount Pictures signed him for the 1938 film The Big Broadcasting of 1938, which also stars W. C. Fields, hope went to Hollywood. In the film, the song "Thanks for the Memory," which later became his trademark, was introduced as a duet with Shirley Ross, as well as Shep Fields and his orchestra. Hope's writers—who relied heavily on joke writers throughout his career—weren't able to create adaptations of the song to suit specific circumstances, such as saying the names of towns in which he appeared — were able to perform.

Hope was best known for comedies like "My Favorite Brunette" and the highly successful "Road" films, in which he appeared alongside Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour as a film actor. The film features seven films from 1940 to 1962: Road to Singapore (1940), Road to Utopia (1941), Road to Utopia (1948), Road to Bali (1952), and The Road to Hong Kong (1962). Hope had seen Lamour perform as a nightclub singer in New York and was offered the opportunity to work with his United Service Organizations (USO) tours of military installations. Lamour was often set for filming with her lines, but Hope and Crosby's completely rewritten scripts or ad lib dialogue interrupted them completely. Hope and Lamour were lifelong friends, and she remains the actress most well-known, including Katharine Hepburn, Paulette Goddard, Hedy Lamarr, Lucille Ball, Rosemary Clooney, and Elke Sommer, although she made films with scores of top women, including Katharine Hepburn, Paulette Goddard, Hedy Lamarr, Hedy Lamarr, Judith Lamarr, and Elke Sommer.

Hope and Crosby teamed up not only for the "Road" pictures, but also for many stage, radio, and television appearances, as well as several brief movie appearances together over the decades until Crosby died in 1977. Despite the fact that the two partners invested together in oil leases and other company ventures and lived near each other, they rarely met face to meet together socially.

Hope's film career flourished after the debut of Road to Singapore (1940), and he had a long and fruitful career. After an 11-year absence from the "Road" genre, he and Crosby reteamed for The Road to Hong Kong (1962), starring Joan Collins, 28-year-old Joan Collins in place of Lamour, who Crosby felt was too old for the role. They had intended to film one more movie together in 1977, The Road to the Fountain of Youth, but filming was interrupted after Crosby was injured in the fall, and the project was cancelled after he died of heart failure in October.

Hope appeared in 54 theatrical features between 1938 and 1972, as well as comedies and short films. The bulk of his later films struggled to measure his 1940s efforts's triumph. He was dissatisfied with his appearance in Cancel My Reservation (1972), his last film in theater; critics and moviegoers condemned the film. Despite the fact that his film career came to an end in 1972, he did make a few cameo film appearances into the 1980s.

During 1939-1977, Hope was host of the Academy Awards ceremony 19 times between 1939 and 1977. He was reportedly begging for an Oscar, but it became part of his act. "Welcome to the Academy Awards, or, as it is known at my house, Passover" is a word that has been introduced to the 1968 telecast. Despite being never nominated for an Oscar, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded him with four honorary awards, and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, which is given each year as part of the Oscar ceremony.

Hope's career in radio began in 1934. The Woodbury Soap Hour was his first regular series on NBC Radio in 1937 on a 26-week basis. Hope worked with Shep Fields, the major band leader, during this period of transition from vaindeville to radio, as the master of ceremonies for these Rippling Rhythm Revue radio broadcasts. Bob Hope, the show's sponsor, has been a member for ten years, and Hope has been with the show's sponsor, Lever Brothers, for a year. He recruited eight writers and paid them out of his $2,500 a week. Mel Shavelson, Norman Panama, Jack Rose, Sherwood Schwartz, and Schwartz's brother Al. The writing staff had increased to fifteen by then. The show became the country's most popular radio show. Jerry Colonna and Barbara Jo Allen as spinster Vera Vague were among the regulars on the series. Hope continued his lucrative radio career into the 1950s, when radio's heyday was overshadowed by the upstart television medium.

Throughout the years, Hope appeared on NBC television networks in the following decades, beginning in April 1950. He was one of the first people to use cue cards. Frigidaire (early 1950s), General Motors (1955–61), Chrysler (1963–73), and Texaco (1975–85) all sponsored the shows. Hope's Christmas specials were always popular, with a duet starring Barbara Mandrell, Olivia Newton-John, Barbara Eden, and Brooke Shields, as a duet with a much younger female guest star such as Barbara Mandrell, Olivia Newton-John, Barbara Eden, and Brooke Shields.

In it, CBS released Raquel!, a Raquel Welch television special, on April 26, 1970. In it, Hope appears as a guest.

On the list of the top 46 prime-time telecasts in the United States, Hope's 1970 and 1971 Christmas specials for NBC, filmed in Vietnam in front of military audiences at the height of the conflict, are among the Top 46 U.S. network prime telecasts. More than 60% of households in the United States watched television by more than half.

Hope licensed the rights to publish The Adventures of Bob Hope to National Periodical Publications, alias DC Comics, beginning in early 1950. The comic, which had at first included publicity stills of Hope on the front page, was purely made up of fictional tales, including fictitious relatives, a high school taught by movie monsters, and a superhero named Super-Hip. It was published intermittently and continued to be published until issue #109 in 1969. Bob Oksner and (for the last four issues) Neal Adams were among illustrators.

Hope, who was aboard the RMS Queen Mary when World War II began in September 1939, volunteered to perform a special show for the passengers, during which he sang "Thanks for the Memory" with rewritten lyrics. On May 6, 1941, he held his first USO exhibition at March Field in California, and later during the remainder of World War II, the Vietnam War, the third phase of the Iran Civil War, and the 1990–91 Persian Gulf war. His USO career spanned a half-century, during which he headlined 57 times.

He had a deep admiration for the men and women who served in the armed forces, and this was reflected in his willingness to go to wherever to entertain them. However, hope had trouble persuading some artists to join him on tour, but Ann-Margret was accompanied on at least one USO tour. Anti-war sentiments were high, and his pro-troop stance made him a point of criticism from several quarters. Any shows were drowned out by boos, while others were listened to in silence.

The tours were sponsored by the US Department of Defense, Hope's television sponsors, and NBC, the network that broadcast the television specials from footage shot on location. However, the video and show were produced by Hope's own production firm, which resulted in very lucrative ventures for him, as outlined by writer Richard Zoglin in his 2014 memoir Hope: Entertainer of the Century.

Hope has employed some of his relatives for USO travel. During the Desert Storm tour, his wife, Dolores, sang from atop an armored car, and granddaughter Miranda appeared alongside him on an aircraft carrier in the Indian Ocean. In World War II, Hope's USO shows in World War II, novelist John Steinbeck, who then was serving as a war reporter, wrote in 1943: "In 1943, John Steinbeck, a war correspondent who then was reporting as a war correspondent."

Hope was offered a lieutenant commander in the United States Navy during World War II, alongside his closest friend Bing Crosby, but FDR refused, arguing that doing so would be better for troop morale and troop morale.

He was given the Sylvanus Thayer Award by the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1968, becoming the first entertainer to receive the honor for his contributions to his country through the USO. President Bill Clinton branded Hope as a "Honorary Veteran" in a 1997 act of Congress. "I've been given many awards throughout my lifetime, but to be ranked among the men and women I admire the most is the highest accolade I have ever received." During the week of USO appearances during the 2009 season, comedian/TV host Stephen Colbert performed a golf club on stage.

Dear Bob Hope's Wartime Correspondence with the G.I.s of WW2, written by Martha Bolton (first female staff writer for Bob Hope) and Linda Hope (eldest daughter of Bob Hope) reveals the inner of the entertainer who became America's top friend.

In 1927's The Sidewalks of New York and 1928's Ups-a-Daisy were only minor walk-ons in Hope's first Broadway appearances. In the Jerome Kern / Dorothy Fields musical Roberta, he returned to Broadway in 1933 to star as Huckleberry Haines. Say when, the 1936 Ziegfeld Follies with Fanny Brice, and Ethel Merman and Jimmy Durante followed, with Red, Hot and Blue. In a 1958 production of Roberta at The Muny Theatre in Forest Park, Missouri, Hope revived his role as Huck Haines.

In addition, Hope saved the Eltham Little Theatre in England from closure by giving the funds to buy the theatre. When in London, he maintained his fascination and support, and he returned to the facility on a daily basis. In 1982, the theater was renamed in his honor.

Hope became a member of the Riverside International Raceway in Moreno, California, with Los Angeles Rams co-owner Fred Levy Jr. and oil tycoon Ed Pauley for $800,000 (adjusted to $6,951,567.57 in 2020). Les Richter was named president of the raceway.

In which Rose is convinced Bob Hope is her father, Hope made a guest appearance on The Golden Girls, episode 17 (aired February 25, 1989): "You Gotta Have Hope." In 1992, Hope made a guest appearance on the animated Fox series "The Simpsons" as himself in the episode "Lisa the Beauty Queen" (season 4, episode 4). Bob Hope: The First 90 Years (1993) was his 90th birthday television special, which received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety, Music Or Comedy Special. Since his vision impairments he suffered early in his career, he was unable to read his cue cards. He announced in October 1996 that he was terminating his 60-year contract with NBC, boasting that he had "decided to become a free agent." Laughing with the Presidents was broadcast in November 1996, with host Tony Danza assisting him in delivering a personal retrospective of presidents of the United States, according to Hope, a frequent White House visitor over the years. Variety, as well as other publications, lauded the special, which was quite different from his normal specials. Hope made his last TV appearance in a 1997 commercial about the introduction of Big Kmart, directed by Penny Marshall, after a brief appearance at the 50th Primetime Emmy Awards in 1997.

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