Posted on 12/28/2017 11:35:33 AM PST by jazusamo
“Bob Hope was a great entertainer and comedian.
God bless him for the many years he entertained U.S. troops.”
Hope, Crosby and Lamour...still love the Road movues!
Bob Hope, Chu Lai, Christmas 1968.
Bob Hope was a great American and a great patriot. So were all of the other old-time stars who entertained the troops over many wars - up through the entertainers of the present day.
But Bob Hope wasn’t the first to do so. The man who actually was the first chosen by the War Department in early 1942 to entertain the troops, after he personally went to Washington DC to lobby his cause, wasn’t “The World’s Greatest Comedian” (as Hope was then known).
More can be found on Jolson’s very good Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Jolson
It was the man known as “The WOrld’s Greatest Entertainer” - AL JOLSON.
Jolson was the first star sent overseas to the Aleutians, and then the Caribbean to entertain the troops in early 1942. In between he played hundreds of Army camps all over the US.
He followed the troops to England, North Africa, and Sicily in 1943, at which time the malaria than he had caught while doing so caught up with him, and he had to be medevaced back to the States. In 1945 a relapse cost him part of one lung that had to be removed to stem the infection.
After the war (and the Columbia Pictures movies “The Jolson Story” and “Jolson Sings Again”), he enjoyed the biggest comeback in entertainment history, becoming once again the most popular singer in America - after age 60 (!).
In 1950 when Korea kicked off, Jolson - although visibly aged beyond his 64 years, and suffering from an undiagnosed arterial blockage near his heart - contacted the White House (President Truman had entertained him and Mrs Jolson in 1949 and even played piano a bit as Jolson sang at the White Hosue) and offered to pay his own way to Korea to entertain the troops. (The USO had been disbanded after WW2 and it took awhile to get it going again).
Paying thousands out of his own pocket for the privilege, Jolson flew to Japan, then Korea, in September 1950.
Although suffering from a severe bronchial infection caught during an overnight stay on monsoon-swept Wake Island due to engine trouble on his USAF flight, Jolson performed 24 shows for troops in just 16 days.
Exhausted, he died of a heart attack a short month after returning from Korea. President Truman posthumously awarded him The Presidential Medal of Merit (he was the last individual ever awarded this WW2-era honor), and called him “a casualty of the war in Korea”.
He too, deserves to be remembered for his own patriotism and sacrifice for “the boys” - in addition to his pioneering efforts in recording, radio, stage, screen - and civil rights (for he was an opponent of discrimination in all its forms and championed the cause of, and supported, African American artists over his entire career).
Bump!
Those were the days.
“Current entertainers are a pale shadow of Bob Hope.”
He was old school from when America was still America and provided an invaluable service to war efforts and morale...without wearing the uniform. A national treasure. Hollywood today couldn’t carry his shoes.
Yep, I remember the road movies growing up, funny and good entertainment.
Wasn’t Bob Hope a real horn dog?
Make sure to read “Hope - Entertainer of the Century,” by Richard Zoglin.
My two biggest takeaways from this book, which I read in 2015:
1.) Hope and his troupe encountered a number of close calls flying to the various war zones. He endured real risks and hardships to entertain the troops.
2.) He was a real ladies’ man (read: philanderer). But he always kept whatever he had on the side far, far from home. Dolores, Zoglin reports, seems to have known all about it, but was also quite aware that being Mrs. Bob Hope had certain benefits.
Caught the ‘67 Long Binh show with Hope and Raquel Welch. Redcatchers provided some perimeter security since their brigade HQ was Camp Frenzel Jones just outside the Long Binh perimeter. Was right at the corner of the stage at ground level, what a show.
Wasn’t Bob Hope a real horn dog?
bump
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