Bob Hope, subversive! (Nastiest hit-piece I have seen)

MSNBC and Slate.com ^ | 05/30/03 | Neal Pollack

[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 didn’t 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. They’ve had good reason. Bob Hope is perhaps our country’s 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 he’d 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 father’s 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 wouldn’t have had anything to eat if it wasn’t 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 Bob’s first major career break comes when he’s 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.”

[Cicero]

It's just dumb. If you want to make jokes about Bob Hope, you should at least be funny.

[stanz]

That's what I thought....

[Drango]

You didn't read the whole article did you? If I were you I'd beg the moderator to pull this thread. Hit the abuse button now and save yourself...

[HardStarboard]

I went to his websight.....its revealing. He's a wacko lefty that thinks his cleverness with the written word gives him veracity.

He's a punk jerk!

[moyden2000]

What a bunch of morons.

H-U-M-O-R.

[Sir Gawain]

Crappy satire. He needs a remedial class.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

This wouldn't just be a little ruse by you and your buds to create hits for the in-trouble doggerel rag called slate would it?

[BADROTOFINGER]

Funny that this would be written by a lefty. It seems that the conflict is that someone who is loved by millions upon millions of America could NEVER be a leftist, and that is why the author portrays him as such. I really cant see any other meaning in this peace, as I am not a mentally confused lefty...JFK

[arjay]

It is clearly labeled "Satire" at the top of the piece.

[LiteKeeper]

read later

[Nachum]

Actually, this piece is indeed instructive. It is what passes for liberal humor. Non sequiturs, abrasive insults, and the all out liberal fun of trashing a revered icon.

It sort of speaks to that liberal soul that believes in nothing, trusts nothing, and loves nothing.

[AbsoluteJustice]

And I saw this but it is MSNBC!!! They HATE perople who support the military so I highly DOUBT it was satire.

[No Dems 2004]

What was Hope's political ideology? Anybody know?

[LanPB01]

They claim it's satire, so I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. It's not very funny, regardless.

[AbsoluteJustice]

For the last time THIS IS NOT SATIRE !!!! This is why I posted this piece.

[Mr. Bird]

I read the whole thing, thinking that maybe a final paragraph would wrap up the otherwise incoherent "satire". I was wrong. Satire shouldn't be obvious, but this is just plain cryptic. I don't get it at all.

[AbsoluteJustice]

This is what I picked up on too. This is not in the least bit satire. I think it is called satire to cover up his personal dislike for Bob Hope and what he stood for.

[LanPB01]

I'm guessing this writer's idea of satire is taking every patriotic, pro-capitalism, pro-military ideal a man has and turning it against him. What hilarity!

[VRWCmember]

It has a "satire" label on it at the MSNBC site. I missed it at first too, but it at least pretends to be satire. As such, it is woefully unamusing.