Posted on 05/30/2003 12:17:30 PM PDT by AbsoluteJustice
May 29 When Bob Hope was born 100 years ago today, the world was a substantially different place. Coal had not yet been discovered. Some people still walked on their hands. Most important, there was a void in the world that didnt allow human laughter. Before Bob Hope, the world was a pit of human sorrow. Now, laughter is everywhere.
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JOHN STEINBECK once wrote of Bob, There is a man. There really is a man. Sadly, though, little else has been written about him, and even less has been understood. In this piece I intend to reveal the truth about the real Bob, which has been covered up by media titans throughout the decades. Theyve had good reason. Bob Hope is perhaps our countrys leading subversive, its most strident political radical. As the following timeline will indicate, if Bob had gotten his way over the years, America would have been a different place. Actually, if hed really gotten his way, it would have been turned over to the Cherokee. Happy Birthday, Bob!
1907 His livelihood crushed by a union lockout at United Stone and Steel, a British mason named William Henry Hope moves his family to Cleveland, Ohio, to seek a better life. The fifth of his seven children is Leslie Townes Hope, who becomes the Bob we adore. Bob later jokes, I left England at the age of 4 after my fathers dreams were crushed by the cruel machinery of capitalist enterprise.
1920 Bob begins amateur boxing as The Battling Suffragette. He quits after dropping a bout to Emma Goldman.
A Hope-ful century The early years Slapstick and the great divide
A Hope-ful century
The early years
Slapstick and the great divide
1923 With vaudeville partner George Byrne, Bob debuts on Broadway in the revue Arise, Ye Children of Oppression. The show closes when Ruby Keeler breaks an ankle during the Potemkin dance. I used to struggle to make ends meet, Bob later said. I wouldnt have had anything to eat if it wasnt for the stuff the audience threw at me. That just shows you how a political system based on class stratification degrades the working man.
1933 Bobs first major career break comes when hes cast as the wisecracking union organizer Huckleberry Haines in the Broadway musical Roberta. That same year, at a Eugene Debs fund-raiser at the Vogue Club on 57th Street, he meets a young singer named Dolores, whose passionate anti-fascist speeches cause him to swoon with love.
1938 Bob Hope with his wife Dolores, in 1939 Fresh off his successful movie debut in The Big Broadcast of 1938, where he first sings his signature hit, Thanks for the Memories, O Red Brigade Martyrs of Spain, Bob gets asked by Pepsodent to do his own radio show on NBC. He refuses the offer until the company agrees to stop selling toothpaste to the Nazis.
1942 After a vicious battle with the studio, a duet between Bob and Dorothy Lamour that decries the injustice of purdah is cut from The Road to Morocco. Hope tells Daily Variety, Crosby is a dangerous reactionary.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.com ...
SATIRE
By Neal Pollack
...above the story.
The writer of this article would never get hired by The Onion.
Never mind!
My Father knew Hope - not well but they met several times. My Dad always admired him as a wonderful man who made millions happy with his humor and millions of others happy with his philanthropy. Bob Hope, my Dad suggested, was probably the most generous giver to charities in the United States.
Anyone casting aspersions on this great American ought to have his nose bloodied!
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