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Bob Hope
Leslie Townes Hope
29 May 1903, Eltham, London, England
27 July 2003, Toluca Lake, California
Bob Hope once remarked the only place where he could walk unrecognized was in the People's Republic of China. But even then a Chinese man still recognized him from one of his movies from before the Chinese Revolution.
I have seen what a laugh can do. It can transform almost unbearable tears into something bearable, even hopeful.
Bob Hope
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS (born Leslie Townes Hope; May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003) was an American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel. Throughout his career, he was honored for his humanitarian work. In 1996, the U.S. Congress honored Bob Hope by declaring him the "first and only honorary veteran of the U.S. armed forces." Bob Hope appeared in or hosted 199 known USO shows.
Hope was born in Eltham, London, England, the fifth of seven sons. His father, William Henry Hope, was a stonemason from Weston-super-Mare, Somerset and his Welsh mother, Avis Townes, was a light opera singer who later worked as a cleaning woman. The family lived in Weston-super-Mare, then Whitehall and St George in Bristol, before moving to Cleveland, Ohio in 1908. The family emigrated to the United States aboard the SS Philadelphia, and passed inspection at Ellis Island on March 30, 1908. Hope became a U.S. citizen in 1920 at the age of seventeen. In a 1942 legal document, Hope's legal name is given as Lester Townes Hope. His name on the Social Security Index is also listed as Lester T. Hope. His name at birth as registered during the July–August–September quarter in the Lewisham district of Greater London was also Leslie Towns (sic) Hope.
From the age of 12, he worked at a variety of odd jobs at a local boardwalk. He would busk, doing dance and comedy patter to make extra money (oftentimes on the trolley to Luna Park). He entered many dancing and amateur talent contests (as Lester Hope), and won prizes for his impersonation of Charlie Chaplin. He also boxed briefly and unsuccessfully under the name Packy East, once making it to the semifinals of the Ohio novice championship.
In 1918 at the age of 15 he was admitted (as Lester Hope) to the Boys Industrial School in Lancaster, Ohio. Formerly known as the Ohio Reform School, this was one of the more innovative, progressive institutions for juvenile offenders. As an adult, Hope donated sizable sums of money to the institution.
Silent film comedian Fatty Arbuckle saw one of his performances with his first partner, Lloyd "Lefty" Durbin, and in 1925 got the pair steady work with Hurley's Jolly Follies. Within a year, Hope had formed an act called the Dancemedians with George Byrne and the Hilton Sisters, conjoined twins who had a tap dancing routine. Hope and his partner George Byrne had an act as a pair of Siamese twins as well, and both danced and sang while wearing blackface, before friends advised Hope that he was funnier as himself. In 1929, he changed his first name to "Bob". In one version of the story, he named himself after racecar driver Bob Burman. In another, he said he chose Bob because he wanted a name with a friendly "Hiya Fellas!" sound to it. After five years on the vaudeville circuit, by his own account, Hope was surprised and humbled when he and his partner (and future wife) Grace Louise Troxell failed a 1930 screen test for Pathé at Culver City, California.
Hope, like other stage performers, made his first films in New York. Educational Pictures employed him in 1934 for a short-subject comedy, Going Spanish. Hope sealed his fate with Educational when Walter Winchell asked him about the film. Hope cracked, "When they catch John Dillinger, they're going to make him sit through it twice." Educational fired him, but he was soon before the cameras at New York's Vitaphone studio starring in 20-minute comedies and musicals from 1934 through 1936, beginning with Paree, Paree (1934).
Paramount Pictures signed Hope for the 1938 film The Big Broadcast of 1938. During a duet with Shirley Ross as accompanied by Shep Fields and his orchestra, Hope introduced the song later to become his trademark, "Thanks for the Memory", which became a major hit and was praised by critics. The sentimental, fluid nature of the music allowed Hope's writers (whom he is said to have depended upon heavily throughout his career) to later invent endless variations of the song to fit specific circumstances, such as bidding farewell to troops while on tour.
Hope became one of Paramount's biggest stars, and would remain with the studio through the 1950s. Hope's regular appearances in Hollywood films and radio made him one of the best known entertainers in North America, and at the height of his career he was also making a large income from live concert performances.
As a movie star, he was best known for My Favorite Brunette and the highly successful "Road" movies in which he starred with Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour. Hope had seen Lamour as a nightclub singer in New York, and invited her to work on his USO tours. Lamour is said to have arrived for filming prepared with her lines, only to be baffled by completely re-written scripts from Hope's writers without studio permission. Hope and Lamour were lifelong friends, and she is the actress most associated with his film career. Other female co-stars included Paulette Goddard, Lucille Ball, Jane Russell, and Hedy Lamarr.
Hope was host of the Academy Awards ceremony 18 times between 1939 and 1977. His feigned lust for an Academy Award became part of his act. In one scene from Road to Morocco he erupted in a frenzy, shouting about his imminent death from exposure. Bing Crosby reminds him that rescue is just minutes away, and a disappointed Hope complains that Crosby has spoiled his best scene, and thus his chance for an Academy Award. Also, in The Road to Bali, when Crosby finds Humphrey Bogart's Oscar for The African Queen, Hope grabs it, saying "Give me that. You've got one." Although Hope was never nominated for an Oscar for his performances (Bing Crosby won the Best Actor for Going My Way in 1944), the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honored him with four honorary awards, and in 1960, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. While introducing the 1968 telecast, he quipped, "Welcome to the Academy Awards, or, as it's known at my house, Passover."
Hope first appeared on television in 1932 during a test transmission from an experimental CBS studio in New York. In January 1947, Hope was master of ceremonies for the first telecast by California's first television station, KTLA. His career in broadcasting spanned 64 years and included a long association with NBC. Hope made his network radio debut in 1937 on NBC. His first regular series for NBC Radio was the Woodbury Soap Hour. A year later, The Pepsodent Show Starring Bob Hope began, continuing as The New Swan Show in 1948 (for the same sponsor, Lever Brothers). After 1950, the series was known simply as The Bob Hope Show, with Liggett & Myers (1950–52), General Foods (1953) and American Dairy Association (1953–55) as his sponsors, until it finally went off the air in April 1955. Regulars on his radio series included zany Jerry Colonna and Barbara Jo Allen as spinster Vera Vague.
Hope did many specials for the NBC television network in the following decades, beginning in April 1950. These were often sponsored by General Motors (1955–61), Chrysler (1963–73) and Texaco (1975–85), and Hope served as a spokesman for both companies for many years. and would sometimes introduce himself as "Bob, from Texaco, Hope." Hope's Christmas specials were popular favorites and often featured a performance of "Silver Bells" (from his 1951 film The Lemon Drop Kid) done as a duet with an often much younger female guest star (such as Olivia Newton-John, Barbara Eden, and Brooke Shields).
In October 1956, Hope appeared on an episode of the most-viewed program in America at the time, I Love Lucy. He said, upon receiving the script: "What? A script? I don't need one of these", and ad-libbed the entire episode. Desi Arnaz said of Hope after his appearance: "Bob is a very nice man, he can crack you up, no matter how much you try for him to not." Lucy and Desi returned the favor by appearing on one of his Chevy Show specials (with Vivian Vance and William Frawley) later that season.
Hope's 1970 and 1971 Christmas specials for NBC—filmed in Vietnam in front of military audiences at the height of the war—are on the list of the Top 30 U.S. Network Primetime Telecasts of All Time. Both were seen by more than 60% of the U.S. households watching television.
In 1992, Bob Hope made a guest appearance as himself on The Simpsons, in the episode "Lisa the Beauty Queen" (season 4, episode 4). The episode attracted 11.1 million viewers when it premiered on October 15. His final television special, Laughing with the Presidents, was broadcast in 1996, with Tony Danza helping Hope present a personal retrospective of presidents of the United States known to the comedian.
Hope performed his first United Service Organizations (USO) show on May 6, 1941, at March Field, California. He continued to travel and entertain troops for the rest of World War II and later during the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the 1990–1991 Persian Gulf War. When overseas he almost always performed in Army fatigues as a show of support for his audience. Hope's USO career lasted half a century, during which he headlined approximately 60 tours. For his service to his country through the USO, he was awarded the Sylvanus Thayer Award by the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1968.
Of Hope's USO shows in World War II, writer John Steinbeck, who was then working as a war correspondent, wrote in 1943:
“ When the time for recognition of service to the nation in wartime comes to be considered, Bob Hope should be high on the list. This man drives himself and is driven. It is impossible to see how he can do so much, can cover so much ground, can work so hard, and can be so effective. He works month after month at a pace that would kill most people.”
A 1997 act of Congress signed by President Clinton named Hope an "Honorary Veteran." He remarked, "I've been given many awards in my lifetime — but to be numbered among the men and women I admire most — is the greatest honor I have ever received."
Hope appeared in so many theaters of war over the decades that it was often cracked (in Bob Hope style) that "Where there's death, there's Hope".
In 2009, Stephen Colbert carried a golf club on stage each night during his own week-long USO performance and taping of The Colbert Report and explained in his last episode that it was an homage to Hope.
Hope's first Broadway appearances, in 1927's The Sidewalks of New York and 1928's Ups-a-Daisy, were minor walk-on parts. He returned to Broadway in 1933 to star as Huckleberry Haines in the Jerome Kern/Dorothy Fields musical Roberta. Stints in the musicals Say When, the 1936 Ziegfeld Follies (with Fanny Brice), and Red, Hot and Blue with Ethel Merman and Jimmy Durante followed. His performances were generally well-received and critics noted his keen sense of comedic timing. Hope reprised his role as Huck Haines in a 1958 production of Roberta at The Muny Theater in Forest Park, St. Louis, Missouri.
Hope rescued Eltham Little Theatre from closure by providing the funds to buy the property, he continued his interest and support and regularly visited when in London. The Theatre was renamed in his honor in 1982.
Hope was an avid golfer. He was introduced to the game in the 1930s, and eventually played to a four handicap. His love for the game, and the humor he could find in it, made him a much sought-after foursome member. He once remarked that President Dwight D. Eisenhower gave up golf for painting – "fewer strokes, you know." In 1978, he putted against a then two-year-old Tiger Woods in a television appearance on The Mike Douglas Show. By the 1980s, a golf club became an integral prop for Hope during the stand-up segments of his television specials and USO Shows.
The Bob Hope Classic was founded in 1960, and is currently the only FedEx Cup tournament that takes place over five rounds. The tournament made history in 1995, when Hope teed up for the opening round in a foursome that included Presidents Gerald R. Ford, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton – the only time ever that three presidents participated in a golf foursome.
Hope would frequently use his television specials to promote the annual College Football All-America Team. The team members would enter the stage one by one and introduce themselves, and Hope would then give a one-liner about the player or his school. Hope would often don a football uniform for these presentations.
Hope's first wife was his vaudeville partner Grace Louise Troxell, whom he married on January 25, 1933. When the marriage record was unearthed some years later, Hope denied that the marriage had any substance and said they had quickly divorced. There were rumors that he fathered a daughter with Troxell and that he continued to send generous cheques to her despite a widely documented reputation for frugality. In 1934 Bob Hope married Dolores Reade, and adopted four children at The Cradle in Evanston, Illinois: Linda, Anthony,Nora and Kelley. From them he had four grandchildren.
As Hope entered his ninth decade, he showed no signs of slowing down and continued appearing in numerous television specials. He was given an 80th birthday party in 1983 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. which was attended by President Ronald Reagan. In 1985, he was presented with the Life Achievement Award at the Kennedy Center Honors. He was presented with the Ronald Reagan Freedom Award in 1997 by Nancy Reagan. The following year, Hope was appointed an honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II. Upon accepting the appointment, Hope quipped, "I'm speechless. 70 years of ad lib material and I'm speechless".
At the age of 95, Hope made an appearance at the 50th anniversary of the Primetime Emmy Awards with Milton Berle and Sid Caesar. Two years later, Hope was present at the opening of the Bob Hope Gallery of American Entertainment at the Library of Congress. The Library of Congress has immortalized Bob Hope's life with two major exhibitions - 'Hope for America: Performers, Politics and Pop Culture' and 'Bob Hope and American Variety'.
Hope celebrated his 100th birthday on May 29, 2003. He is among a small group of notable centenarians in the field of entertainment, which include: Irving Berlin, Hal Roach, Senor Wences, George Abbott, Adolph Zukor, Barbara Kent, Charles Lane, Gloria Stuart, and George Burns. To mark this event, the intersection of Hollywood and Vine in Los Angeles, California was named Bob Hope Square and his centennial was declared Bob Hope Day in 35 states. Hope spent the day privately in his Toluca Lake, Los Angeles home where he had lived since 1937. Even at 100, Hope was said to have maintained his self-deprecating sense of humor, quipping, "I'm so old, they've canceled my blood type." He converted to Roman Catholicism and was a devout Catholic.
Hope had premature obituaries on two separate occasions. In 1998 a prepared obituary by The Associated Press was inadvertently released on the Internet, prompting Hope's death to be announced in the US House of Representatives. In 2003 he was among several famous figures whose pre-written obituaries were published on CNN's website due to a lapse in password protection.
Beginning in 2000, Hope's health steadily declined and he was hospitalized several times before his death. In June 2000 he spent nearly a week in a California hospital after being hospitalized for gastrointestinal bleeding. In August 2001, he spent close to two weeks in the hospital recovering from pneumonia.
On July 27, 2003, Bob Hope died at his home in Toluca Lake at 9:28 p.m. According to one of Hope's daughters, when asked on his deathbed where he wanted to be buried, he told his wife, "Surprise me." He was interred in the Bob Hope Memorial Garden at San Fernando Mission Cemetery in Los Angeles, where his mother is also buried.
ABC-TV Network News Poll, A&E Biography Viewers Poll, as well as magazine and newspaper 'century roundups' have proclaimed Hope as the "Entertainer of the 20th Century."
1959: Emmy: Trustees' Award "for bringing the great gift of laughter to all peoples of all nations; for selflessly entertaining American troops throughout the world over many years; and for making TV finer by these deeds and by the consistently high quality of his TV programs through the years"
1985: Kennedy Center Honors Lifetime Achievement Award
1995: National Medal of Arts: presented by President Bill Clinton.
Has 4 adopted children: Eleanora Avis "Nora", Anthony, Linda Hope and Kelly Hope.
Has entertained the troops overseas in every war from WWII to the Gulf War
Awarded an honorary knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II. (1998)
Played his first big part in the Broadway version of "Roberta" in 1933.
In the 1950s, a part-owner of the Cleveland Indians baseball team. His guest appearance in "I Love Lucy" (1951) centered around his attending a Yankees-Indians game at Yankee Stadium.
Holds two entries in "The Guinness Book of World Records". One is for having the distinction of being the entertainer with "the longest running contract with a single network - spanning sixty-one years". The second is for being the "most honored entertainer", with over 1500 awards.
Served as United Service Organizations, Inc. (USO) Entertainment Coordinator from 1941 - 2001. Retired his post at age 98 in favor of Wayne Newton.
Received 58 honorary degrees.
Entertained U.S. troops starting 6th May 1941, and became the first 'honorary veteran' by Congress.
He entertained 11 different Presidents, beginning with Franklin Delano Roosevelt and ending with Bill Clinton.
His golf buddy was Prescott Bush, the father and grandfather of presidents George Bush and George W. Bush.
He was the only entertainer to have complete carte blanche to walk on whenever he felt like it on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" (1962).
He changed his name from Leslie to Bob, because in school they would call the roll as 'Hope, Leslie' and classmates shortened it to hopeless.
In a mostly ad-libbed skit for a TV show, Hope joked with Jimmy Durante about the size of his own nose. Durante quipped "When it comes to noses, you're a retailer. I'm a wholesaler!"
Appointed an honorary CBE in 1976.
Wife Dolores Hope was born 27th May 1909. She and Bob celebrated their birthdays on 28th May every year - splitting the difference between their respective real birthdays.
Spent his 99th birthday--29 May 2002--at home in Toluca Lake, CA. Wife Dolores Hope's 93rd birthday was just two days before. Los Angeles National Cemetery dedicated veterans' chapel in his name to salute his lifetime of service entertaining U.S. troops.
His grandfather lived to age of 99 years, 11 months, and 25 days
Was the first honoree of the "'Dean Martin' Celebrity Roasts" series on October 30, 1974. The Celebrity Roasts had begun in the last season (1973-74) of "The Dean Martin Comedy Hour" (1965) and were so popular that after that show went off the air, the "Celebrity Roasts" continued as specials.
Has three theaters named after him, located in London, California, and on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.
He was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1990.
Was incorrectly declared dead several times since retiring from the public eye. On the most infamous occasion in 1998, a wire service accidentally posted a pre-written obituary to a Web page. A member of the US House of Representatives saw this bogus news flash and announced Hope's death during a session at the Capitol. Hope learned he was dead when a reporter called his home asking for a statement. According to family members, Hope took this mistake in good humor.
First show business job was as a dancer in the 'Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle' vaudeville revue in Cleveland in 1924.
Graduated from Fairmount High School in Cleveland, Ohio.
Wrote several books about his experiences over the years, including "I Owe Russia $1200", about his Soviet tour in early 1962; "Confessions of a Hooker", about his lifelong passion for golf; and "Don't Shoot, It's Only Me!", about his many overseas trips to entertain U.S. troops over the years.
In 1999 he became the first to start the tradition of the official lighting of the Christmas Tree in Disneyland. Afterwards, he and wife Dolores Hope drove their own golf cart down Main Street, through Frontier Land to Club 33 for dinner.
His last TV appearance with Lucille Ball was March 28, 1989 on The 61st Annual Academy Awards (1989) (TV). They received a standing ovation upon walking out on stage. Hope and Ball introduced a musical number featuring "The Stars of Tomorrow", which included Johnny Depp, Christian Slater, and Ricki Lake. Lucille Ball passed away 28 days later on April 26, 1989.
Brother Jack Hope sometimes served as producer of Bob's shows; his memoir 'I Owe Russia $1200' is dedicated to Jack's memory.
Has a ship named after him: USNS Bob Hope.
In 1997, Congress named Hope an honorary U.S. veteran, citing his decades of entertaining troops around the world. He is the only person to receive that distinction.
In 1997, the U.S. Air Force honored Hope by naming a cargo plane "The Spirit of Bob Hope" after the legendary entertainer.
USO center is named after him
Biography in: "Who's Who in Comedy" by Ronald L. Smith, pg. 219-222. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387
Was a supporter of Valley Forge Military Academy & Junior College in Wayne, Pennsylvania. He has the "Bob Hope Five-Star Award for Distinguished Service to the United States of America" named in his honor.
Was a Master Mason.
At 69 years, his marriage to Dolores Hope held the record for the longest Hollywood marriage when he passed away in 2004. It has since been passed by the marriage of Art Linkletter to Lois Foerster. They were married November 25, 1935.
He is among the select few non-band members who have had the honor of dotting the "i" during The Ohio State University Marching Band's 'Script Ohio' routine. This is considered the greatest honor the band can bestow to any non-band person and is an extremely special (and rare) event.
Awarded a Congressional Gold Medal by President John F. Kennedy at the White House. (September 11th 1963).
Awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Lyndon Johnson on his last day in office. (January 20th 1969)
He was one of the richest movie stars.... he ranked in the top ten highest salaried stars continuously from 1941-1953 [except for 1948]
Hosted the Academy Awards in 1939, 1940, 1943, 1945 (alongside John Cromwell), 1946 (alongside James Stewart), 1953 (alongside Conrad Nagel), 1955 (alongside Thelma Ritter), 1958 (alongside James Stewart, David Niven, Jack Lemmon, Rosalind Russell and "Donald Duck"), 1959 (alongside Jerry Lewis, David Niven, Laurence Olivier, Mort Sahl and Tony Randall), 1960, 1961, 1962, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1975 (alongside Sammy Davis Jr., Shirley MacLaine and Frank Sinatra) and finally in 1978.
According to Hope's biographer Arthur Marx, son of comedian Groucho Marx, Hope married his vaudeville partner of five years, Grace Louise Troxell, on 25 January 1933, although they divorced soon afterwards. Hope denied that they had actually married.
As a young comedian, he won a Charles Chaplin look-alike contest in Cleveland.
Was briefly a professional boxer. He fought under the name Packy East.
He and best friend Bing Crosby were planning to make one last "road" picture in early 1977, but Bing died before filming. Bob was so broken up about Bing's death that he couldn't sleep for days on end. He stated that it was one of the worst times of his life and that his wife was his rock who got him through the tough time.
On his wartime USO tours he had one ironclad rule that he insisted his fellow performers follow: under no circumstances were they allowed to cry when visiting wounded soldiers in military hospitals. This was often difficult given the amount of suffering they saw, but he told his performers that it was their duty to always smile and provide laughs and good cheer for the troops. According to Hope, he broke his own rule only once. While visiting an army hospital in Italy in 1943, he stopped at the bedside of a wounded soldier who had been in a coma for two months. The soldier suddenly opened his eyes and said, "Hey, Bob Hope! When did you get here?" He had to leave the hospital room to keep the troops from seeing his tears, but he returned a few hours later to present the soldier with his Purple Heart medal.
Inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1983.
Attended the funeral of his friend of more than forty years, former President Richard Nixon. (27 April 1994).
He was a staunch supporter of the Republican Party.
In November of 1948, when President Harry S. Truman scored his upset presidential re-election victory, Hope sent him a one-word telegram: "Unpack". Truman was so amused by it he kept it in his desk in the Oval Office.
There is a major street in Rancho Mirage, CA, named after him. Bob Hope Drive crosses Frank Sinatra, Gerald Ford, Ginger Rogers and Dinah Shore Drives.
He bought several acres of prime real estate in Rancho Mirage, CA, to build a racetrack. He later decided a medical center was needed in the area instead, so he donated the land to build Eisenhower Medical Center, which is now rated as among the top 100 hospitals in America today. A medical building on the campus is named for him and contains statues of he and wife Dolores Hope in the lobby. Another medical building next door is called "Hope Square".
Hospitalized with gastro-intestinal bleeding in June 2000. Although he received a blood transfusion after the bleeding in his colon was stopped, no surgery was performed.
Hospitalized with pneumonia and respiratory problems in August 2001. A week after he left hospital on 4 September, Hope and his wife released a joint statement expressing their horror at the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center.
At the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, Hope released a statement saying he wished he could go to the country to entertain the troops, but that his doctors would not allow him.
Despite a well documented reputation for frugality, Hope is believed to have donated an estimated $1 billion to charity.
Retired from show business at the age of 93 after filming Bob Hope's Bag Full of Christmas Memories (1993) (TV).
Once remarked the only place where he could walk unrecognized was in the People's Republic of China. But even then a Chinese man still recognized him from one of his movies from before the Chinese Revolution.
In 1969, he was worth in excess of $150 million, largely as a result of shrewd business and real estate investments.
Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume 7, 2003-2005, pages 256-258. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2007.
His mother's name was Agnes Townes (she was a concert singer). He had many brothers, including Jack Hope (1898 - 1962) who was his personal manager. James Hope was Director of Hope Enterprises. Ivor Hope (? - 1969) was President of Hope Metal Products. George Hope (? - 1969) was a production company coordinator. Two more brothers were Sidney Hope (? - 1946) and Frederick Hope.
He was awarded 4 Stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Motion Pictures at 6541 Hollywood Boulevard; for Radio at 6141 Hollywood Boulevard; for Live Theatre at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard; and for Television at 6758 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.
Pictured on a 44¢ USA commemorative postage stamp issued 29 May 2009, Hope's 106th birthday. The two official first-day-of-issue postmarks for the stamp feature caricatures by cartoonist Al Hirschfeld.
Introduced two Oscar-winning songs: "Thanks for the Memory" from The Big Broadcast of 1938 (1938) (Music: Ralph Rainger . Lyrics: Leo Robin) and "Buttons and Bows" from The Paleface (1948) (Music: Jay Livingston. Lyrics: Ray Evans).
After his death in 2003, an airport in Burbank, California, was named "Bob Hope Airport" in his memory.
[on being told he was being awarded an honorary knighthood] What an honor and what a surprise for a boy born in England, raised in Cleveland and schooled in vaudeville.
Golf is my real profession - show business pays my greens fees.
You know you're getting old when the candles cost more than the cake.
[On his 100th birthday] I'm so old, they've canceled my blood type.
[at the height of the Cold War] We had a very successful trip to Russia. We made it back.
[When asked by his wife where he wanted to be buried] Surprise me.
I have seen what a laugh can do. It can transform almost unbearable tears into something bearable, even hopeful.
Bing Crosby and I weren't the types to go around kissing each other. We always had a light jab for each other. One of our stock lines used to be "There's nothing I wouldn't do for Bing, and there's nothing he wouldn't do for me. And that's the way we go through life - doing nothing for each other!"
Welcome to the Academy Awards -- or as it's known at my house, Passover.
[referring to the Academy Awards ceremonies] Tonight we set aside petty differences, forget old feuds and start new ones.
I've never wanted an Oscar, although they are reassuring to an actor who doesn't know how really great he is.
[At the Academy Awards] We're all here to celebrate Oscar -- or as he's known at my house, The Fugitive!
[referring to the Academy Awards ceremonies] Welcome to "You Bet Your Career."
[at the 50th Anniversary Academy Awards, referring to Oscar Winners Tribute Sequence] They've all got their Oscars. But are they happy?
[1991] Remember me? The Macaulay Culkin of 1927.
[At the Academy Awards] To all you losers, remember there's a bright side to all of this: you can still run for Governor.
[In reference to Macaulay Culkin] I remember when they handed out the Oscars in 1927; I was Home Alone, too!
Personally, I never drink on Oscar nights, as it interferes with my suffering.
I love Oscar, that little bald head. I didn't know Sinéad O'Connor had children!
[In reference to the Academy Awards] It's wonderful to be here in person. I couldn't be here in spirit, so I'm here in person.
[1991] Remember, you kids, always pay to get into the movies; the Japanese need the money.
[referring to Macaulay Culkin] That kid's getting $5 million for his next picture. For this we need child labor laws?
They said I was worth $500 million. If I was worth that much, I wouldn't have visited Vietnam, I'd have sent for it.
People who throw kisses are hopelessly lazy.
[on Vincent Price] He always loved a good joke. Moreover, he was kind enough to laugh at jokes that weren't so good.
If you haven't any charity in your heart, you have the worst kind of heart trouble.
[referring to both the film release of "Mommie Dearest" (Mommie Dearest (1981)), the biography of Joan Crawford written by her daughter Christina Crawford, and the equally scathing book about Bette Davis, written by her daughter] Now I know why tigers eat their young.
I was lucky, you know, I always had a beautiful girl and the money was good. Although I would have done the whole thing over for, oh, perhaps half.
I do benefits for ALL religions. I'd hate to blow the hereafter on a technicality.
[on Jane Russell] Don't let her fool you. Tangle with her and she'll shingle your attic.
[on Katharine Hepburn] This dame is terrific -- and expert in her craft and so electrifying on set that if you don't watch out, you're likely to wind up as part of the scenery.
[on Bing Crosby] A lot of people think that Bing was a loner, but Bing was a very loyal friend.
[on Dorothy Lamour] Dottie was fearless. She stands there before the camera and ad libs with Bing Crosby and me, fully knowing the way the script's written, she'll come up second or third best.
[when asked why he didn't run for President of the United States] I thought about it. But my wife said she wouldn't want to move into a smaller house.
[on Jack Benny] He didn't just stand on the stage. He owned it.
[on MGM chief Louis B. Mayer] Louis B. Mayer came out west with $28.00, a box camera and an old lion. He built a monument to himself -- the Bank of America.
[on Samuel Goldwyn, while Hope and co-star Bing Crosby were shooting Road to Morocco (1942)] Dave [director David Butler] ordered the assistant director to station the phone for "The Road to Morocco" a block and a half away from the set where we were working [to discourage Hope and Crosby from spending so much time on the phone and holding up production]. Not only that, the telephone was installed under a pile of lumber so that anyone answering it would have to slide horizontally to pick up the receiver. That worked well until the day that Sam Goldwyn called. David Butler trudged across the soundstage and into the next one and slid under the lumber pile. "Hello, Sam, what is it?" Dave said. Goldwyn was working on the script that Dave was to direct next . . . For fifteen minutes Goldwyn expounded on the intricacies of the story while "The Road to Morocco" company waited. Finally Goldwyn said, "Thanks very much for calling me" and hung up.
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