Posted on 07/28/2003 6:09:46 AM PDT by leadpenny
Just Breaking.
My brother in law was an MP in the Marines in Okinawa about that time, and helped with security for the Bob Hope show. Might have been the same one you saw.
"My Greatest Honor",Bob Hope
Rest in Peace, Mr. Hope
Thanks for the Memories.
According to copyright law, the act of writing something establishes the copyright.
So stop reading these words.
What an eye-opener!
Pretty sad to see there are people like that though.
This is a great birthday tribute from the Telegraph. Funny quotes in bold:
Hope reaches 100 - and he's still on the roadBy Marcus Warren
(Filed: 29/05/2003)
America's best-loved comedian, one of the giants of 20th century entertainment, celebrates his 100th birthday today with the whole nation joining in the party across the country.
Bob Hope, frail, hard of hearing and with failing eyesight, is unlikely to put in an appearance but the rest of America will be saluting the star.
"Bob Hope Day" will be marked with the dedication of a "Bob Hope Square" on Sunset Boulevard and a Hollywood flypast of Second World War planes, along with a host of television tributes.
He still enjoys a good gag even if he no longer delivers one-liners with the same panache as in the past. All the same, his family quote the master as cracking one new birthday joke, typically at his own expense.
"I'm so old, they've cancelled my blood type," he is said to have quipped.
"Yes, there will be a birthday cake with 100 candles," his wife of 69 years, Dolores, has added, not to be outdone. "With a fireman standing by with a fire extinguisher."
Born in a terraced house in Eltham, Leslie Townes Hope left south London and then Britain behind as a young boy.
"I left England at the age of four when I found out I couldn't be king," he once joked.
He never forgot the land of his birth and stepped in to save Eltham's local theatre from closure 20 years ago. Hope is one of a handful of Americans to be awarded an honorary knighthood.
In his adopted homeland, he was granted the status of near royalty, a golfing partner to presidents and a patriotic hero thanks to his shows for American troops abroad.
The recent Gulf war was the first major conflict involving United States forces since the First World War to be fought without a morale-boosting front line appearance from the old master.
His efforts earned him the nickname "GI Bob". He specialised in middle-brow gags for Middle America. His sense of humour was gentle, rarely risque and was mocking of himself rather than others.
He avoided subjects beloved of today's comedians such as sex, race or politics although he did once tell American soldiers in Vietnam: "Technically, we're not at war. So, remember if you're shot - technically, it doesn't hurt."
He also spoke for "the silent majority" across America that supported Richard Nixon as president before the Watergate scandal led to his resignation when he joked: "Students are revolting all over the world.
"I don't know what they're revolting about. I just know they're revolting."
He must be the last artist alive who can claim to have mastered every major show business genre of the 20th century: vaudeville, radio, cinema and television.
His string of Road pictures with Bing Crosby were the first big earning series in film history.
He won numerous honorary Oscars for his talents and hosted the Academy Awards ceremony so many times that he turned it into his own stand-up show.
But he never won an Oscar for his acting. "I would have won the Academy Award if not for one thing - my pictures," he joked. "Oscar night at my house is called Passover."
Nevertheless, he had always an acute grasp of the business of mass entertainment and became one of the first stars to invest his money successfully outside the film industry and buying up huge swaths of Beverly Hills property.
It took the young talent some time to make it big. He once worked as a newspaper reporter, boxed under the name of Packy East, played third billing to Siamese twins and trained seals and worked as a warm-up for the comedian Fatty Arbuckle.
His greatest enthusiasm in later years was golf. Presidents, keen for the Bob Hope magic to rub off on them, queued up for the chance to play a round of the game with the star.
Among his partners over the years were Dwight D Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George Bush Snr and Bill Clinton.
Hope played a foursome with a trio of presidents past and present as recently as 1995.
"Clinton had the best score, Ford the most errors and Bush the most hits," he said afterwards. "Me, I cheated better than ever."
Mr Hope gave his name to a pro-am tournament held in Palm Springs and he and his wife, who turned 100 herself on Tuesday, live in a golf estate in Toluca Lake, also in California.
Birthday cakes were served yesterday to members of the local community where the couple have lived since 1937.
Yeah, I guess I have to concede that. Besides, Admin Mod removed the linky-poo.
I would suspect that about now, Mom and Bob are arm in arm doing a little softshoe number down some heavenly golden street.
Thanks, Bob, for the memories...
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