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Bob Hope, subversive! (Nastiest hit-piece I have seen)
MSNBC and Slate.com ^ | 05/30/03 | Neal Pollack

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 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.”

(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: birthday; bobhope; satire
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I wonder when they will chronicle Hillary like this? This is a NASTY hit piece. Please read it all!!!!
1 posted on 05/30/2003 12:17:30 PM PDT by AbsoluteJustice
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To: AbsoluteJustice
What's next? An Oliver Stone movie depicting Hope as an abusive womanizing alcoholic?
2 posted on 05/30/2003 12:18:47 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
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To: AbsoluteJustice
I was wondering; when Bob Hope started his USO shows, did he only do them for the North, or did he do them for the CSA forces as well?
3 posted on 05/30/2003 12:20:33 PM PDT by RonF
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To: AbsoluteJustice
Dude, check your gear--this is satire. What makes you think it is at Bob's expense?
4 posted on 05/30/2003 12:20:37 PM PDT by Petronski (I"m not always cranky.)
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To: AbsoluteJustice
This is satire.
5 posted on 05/30/2003 12:21:10 PM PDT by Constitution Day (**FOX NEWS ALERT** Scott Peterson had a diet Coke at lunch. **THIS HAS BEEN A FOX NEWS ALERT**)
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To: AbsoluteJustice
I don't think any one has a bad word to say about him. Bob Hope is the best comedian ever to grace America. Every one just laughed at his jokes since his genius resided in making it look easy.
6 posted on 05/30/2003 12:21:52 PM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives On In My Heart Forever)
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To: Constitution Day
Is it truely? Coming from msnbc I highly doubt it.
7 posted on 05/30/2003 12:22:23 PM PDT by AbsoluteJustice (Kiss me I'm an INFIDEL!!!!)
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To: AbsoluteJustice
Some pretty dumb satire, and not even close to funny.
8 posted on 05/30/2003 12:23:02 PM PDT by r9etb
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To: AbsoluteJustice
This appears to be infantile satire.
9 posted on 05/30/2003 12:24:11 PM PDT by Argh
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To: AbsoluteJustice
It's kind of lame actually, but I think they intended it as such.
When you go to the MSNBC link it says...

SATIRE
By Neal Pollack

...above the story.

10 posted on 05/30/2003 12:25:31 PM PDT by Constitution Day (**FOX NEWS ALERT** Scott Peterson had a diet Coke at lunch. **THIS HAS BEEN A FOX NEWS ALERT**)
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To: AbsoluteJustice
Err, um ... If you look at the byline it says "SATIRE by Neal Pollack"
11 posted on 05/30/2003 12:25:53 PM PDT by JennysCool
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To: Argh
This appears to be infantile satire.

The writer of this article would never get hired by The Onion.

12 posted on 05/30/2003 12:26:41 PM PDT by journey7873
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To: journey7873
I agree 100%.
13 posted on 05/30/2003 12:27:51 PM PDT by Argh
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To: AbsoluteJustice
Did the bit about Jane Fonda calling Bob too radical raise any flags?
14 posted on 05/30/2003 12:28:06 PM PDT by Blue Screen of Death
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To: AbsoluteJustice
I guess this guy was trying to be funny (hence the catagory 'satire') while writing this "tribute." It didn't work.

Bob Hope has more class in his pinkie than this PMSNBC/Slate creep has in his entire body. And it obviously shows.

-Regards, T.
15 posted on 05/30/2003 12:28:34 PM PDT by T Lady (.Freed From the Dimocratic Shackles since 1992)
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To: Constitution Day; AbsoluteJustice

Never mind!

16 posted on 05/30/2003 12:28:45 PM PDT by JennysCool
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To: JennysCool
When you have to announce in capital letters that it's SATIRE, and it's not the least bit humorous, one has to wonder exactly how well written it is!
17 posted on 05/30/2003 12:30:05 PM PDT by mountaineer
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To: AbsoluteJustice
I googled the author....reveals his agenda.
18 posted on 05/30/2003 12:31:27 PM PDT by MEG33
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To: Constitution Day
If this is what passes for satire these days, then I've lost my sense of humor!

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!

19 posted on 05/30/2003 12:31:36 PM PDT by HardStarboard
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To: JennysCool
< grins >
20 posted on 05/30/2003 12:31:46 PM PDT by Constitution Day (**FOX NEWS ALERT** Scott Peterson had a diet Coke at lunch. **THIS HAS BEEN A FOX NEWS ALERT**)
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