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92-447: Leslie Townes " Bob " Hope (May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003) was a British-born American comedian , actor , entertainer and producer with a career that spanned nearly 80 years and achievements in vaudeville , network radio, television, and USO Tours. He appeared in more than 70 short and feature films , starring in 54. These included a series of seven Road to ... musical comedy films with Bing Crosby as his partner. Hope hosted

184-479: A celebrity comic book titled The Adventures of Bob Hope to National Periodical Publications, alias DC Comics . The comic, originally featuring publicity stills of Hope on the cover, was entirely made up of fictional stories, eventually including fictitious relatives, a high school taught by movie monsters, and a superhero called Super-Hip . It was published intermittently and continued publication through issue #109 in 1969. Illustrators included Bob Oksner and (for

276-404: A "masterful film". The film won Best Documentary awards at both the 2012 Hollywood Film Festival and the 2013 Louisiana International Film Festival. Brighton & Hove 316 (YX69 NWD), a 2019 Enviro400ER bus that currently operates in their home town, was named in their honour. In May 2018, it was announced that Brighton and Hove City Council and the current owner of the house in which

368-450: A 1930 screen test for the RKO - Pathé short-subject studio at Culver City, California . In the early days, Hope's career included appearances on stage in vaudeville shows and Broadway productions. He began performing on the radio in 1934 mostly with NBC radio, and switched to television when that medium became popular in the 1950s. He started hosting regular TV specials in 1954, and hosted

460-1268: A Hollywood supply of comedians to draw from, radio comedy did not begin in the United Kingdom until a generation later, with such popular 1950s shows as The Goon Show and Hancock's Half Hour . Later, radio became a proving-ground for many later United Kingdom comedians. Chris Morris began his career in 1986 at Radio Cambridgeshire , and Ricky Gervais began his comedy career in 1997 at London radio station XFM . The League of Gentlemen , Mitchell and Webb and The Mighty Boosh all transferred to television after broadcasting on BBC Radio 4 . On television there are comedy talk shows where comedians make fun of current news or popular topics. Such comedians include Jay Leno , Conan O'Brien , Graham Norton , Jim Jefferies , James Corden , John Oliver , Jonathan Ross , David Letterman , and Chelsea Handler . There are sketch comedies, such as Mr. Show with Bob and David and Monty Python who created their sketch comedy show Monty Python's Flying Circus (a BBC show that influenced Saturday Night Live ), and sitcoms, such as Roseanne , Only Fools and Horses , and Not Going Out , as well as popular panel shows like The Big Fat Quiz of

552-412: A butcher's assistant as well as a brief stint at Cleveland's Chandler Motor Car Company in his early 20s. Hope and his girlfriend later signed up for dancing lessons, encouraged after they performed in a three-day engagement at a club. Hope then formed a partnership with Lloyd Durbin, a friend from the dancing school. Silent film comedian Fatty Arbuckle saw them perform in 1925 and found them work with

644-414: A comic author, and playwright, wrote ancient comedic plays. He wrote 40 comedies, 11 of which survive and are still being performed. Aristophanes' comedy style took the form of satyr plays . The English poet and playwright William Shakespeare wrote many comedies. A Shakespearean comedy is one that has a happy ending, usually involving marriages between the unmarried characters, and a tone and style that

736-600: A comic's career advances significantly when they win a notable comedy award, such as the Edinburgh Comedy Award (formerly the Perrier comedy award). Comics sometimes foray into other areas of entertainment, such as film and television, where they become more widely known (e.g., Eddie Izzard , Lee Evans ). A comic's stand-up success does not always correlate to a film's critical or box-office success. Comedians can be dated back to 425 BC, when Aristophanes ,

828-636: A different girl on his arm every night. He was still having affairs into his 80s..." Comedian A popular saying often attributed to Ed Wynn states: "A comic says funny things; a comedian says things funny." This draws a distinction between how much of the comedy can be attributed to verbal content and how much to acting and persona. Since the 1980s, a new wave of comedy, called alternative comedy , has grown in popularity with its more offbeat and experimental style. This normally involves more experiential, or observational reporting (e.g., Alexei Sayle , Daniel Tosh , Malcolm Hardee ). As far as content

920-554: A duet with an often much younger female guest star such as Barbara Mandrell , Olivia Newton-John , Barbara Eden , and Brooke Shields , or with his wife Dolores, a former singer with whom he dueted on two specials. On April 26, 1970, CBS released the Raquel Welch television special Raquel! ; in it Hope appears as a guest. Hope's 1970 and 1971 Christmas specials for NBC—filmed in Vietnam in front of military audiences at

1012-478: A few staged charity bouts later in life. In December 1920, 17-year-old Hope and his brothers became US citizens when their British parents became naturalised Americans . In 1921, while working as a lineman for a power company, Hope was assisting his brother Jim in clearing trees when a tree crashed to the ground, crushing his face; the accident required reconstructive surgery, which contributed to his later distinctive appearance. In his teens, he had also worked as

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1104-1101: A five-decade span in radio, television, and entertaining armed-service troops through the USO . Other noted stand-up comedians include Lenny Bruce , Billy Connolly , George Carlin , Richard Pryor , Victoria Wood , Joan Rivers , Whoopi Goldberg and Jo Brand . Some of the earliest commercial sound recordings were made by standup comedians such as Cal Stewart , who recorded collections of his humorous monologues on Edison Records as early as 1898, and other labels until his death in 1919. Bandleader Spike Jones recorded 15 musical comedy albums satirizing popular and classical music from 1950 to his death in 1965. Tom Lehrer wrote and recorded five albums of songs satirizing political and social issues from 1953 to 1965. Musician Peter Schickele , inspired by Jones, parodied classical music with 17 albums of his music which he presented as written by " P.D.Q. Bach " (fictional son of Johann Sebastian Bach ) from 1965 through 2007. In 1968, radio surreal comedy group The Firesign Theatre revolutionized

1196-844: A former balloon salesman. The couple took over management of the twins. Held mostly captive, the girls were beaten if they did not do as the Meyers wished. They kept the twins from public view for a while and trained them in jazz music. Violet was a skilled saxophonist and Daisy a violinist. They lived in a mansion in San Antonio , Texas. In 1931, the sisters sued their managers and were legally emancipated, gaining freedom from their contract and awarded US$ 100,000 in damages (equivalent to $ 1,600,000 in 2023). They went into vaudeville as "The Hilton Sisters' Revue". Daisy dyed her hair blonde and they began to wear different outfits so as to be distinguishable from each other. After vaudeville lost popularity,

1288-421: A frequent White House visitor over the years. The special, though different from his usual specials, received high praise from Variety , as well as other reviews. Following a brief appearance at the 50th Primetime Emmy Awards in 1997, Hope made his last TV appearance in a 1997 commercial about the introduction of Big Kmart , directed by Penny Marshall . Hope helped establish modern American stand-up comedy . He

1380-581: A golf club on stage during the week of USO performances he taped for his TV show The Colbert Report during the 2009 season. Dear Bob... Bob Hope's Wartime Correspondence with the G.I.s of WW2, written by Martha Bolton (first woman staff writer for Bob Hope) and Linda Hope (eldest daughter of Bob Hope), reveals the heart of the entertainer who became a best friend to the troops. Hope's first Broadway appearances, in 1927's The Sidewalks of New York and 1928's Ups-a-Daisy , were minor walk-on parts. He returned to Broadway in 1933 to star as Huckleberry Haines in

1472-594: A job in a nearby grocery store, offering to work for one salary. The owner hired them at two full salaries and designed a discreet two-person cashier station so that customers could not tell the sisters were conjoined. The Hiltons rented a small two bedroom home courtesy of the shop owner's church, Purcell United Methodist , and settled into a quiet life, involving work and church. During the holidays they remembered fellow employees and favorite customers with Christmas gifts. On January 4, 1969, after they did not report to work and attempts to reach them by telephone failed,

1564-728: A light opera singer from Barry, Vale of Glamorgan , who later worked as a cleaner. William and Avis married in April 1891 and lived at 12 Greenwood Street in Barry before moving to Whitehall, Bristol , and then to St George, Bristol . The family emigrated to the United States aboard the SS Philadelphia , passing through Ellis Island , New York on March 30, 1908, before moving on to Cleveland, Ohio . From age 12, Hope earned pocket money by singing, dancing, and performing comedy on

1656-561: A major impact on comedy in films today. Laurel met Oliver Hardy in the US and teamed up as Laurel and Hardy . Keaton also started making silent comedies. Fields appeared in Broadway musical comedies , three silent films in 1915 and 1925, and in sound films starting in 1926. The Marx brothers also made the transition to film in 1929, by way of two Broadway musicals. Many other comedians made sound films, such as Bob Hope (both alone, and in

1748-499: A misleading setup (known as a 'pull back and reveal' in the UK and a 'leadaway' in the US). Ed Byrne is an example of a comedian who has used this technique. Some jokes are based on ad absurdum extrapolations, for example much of Richard Herring and Ross Noble 's standup. In ironic humour there is an intentional mismatch between a message and the form in which it is conveyed (for example

1840-619: A pace that would kill most people. Along with his best friend Bing Crosby, Hope was offered a commission in the United States Navy as lieutenant commander during World War II, but FDR intervened, believing it would be better for troop morale if they kept doing what they were doing by playing for all branches of military service. For his service to his nation through the USO, he was awarded the Sylvanus Thayer Award by

1932-636: A professional boxer in his youth. In 1946, he bought a small stake in the Cleveland Indians professional baseball team and held it for most of the rest of his life. He appeared on the June 3, 1963, cover of Sports Illustrated magazine wearing an Indians uniform, and sang a special version of "Thanks for the Memory" after the Indians' last game at Cleveland Stadium on October 3, 1993. He also bought

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2024-777: A secretary from Chicago, Illinois, who was the daughter of Edward and Mary (McGinnes) Troxell. They were married on January 25, 1933, in Erie, Pennsylvania. They divorced in November 1934. The couple had shared headliner status with Joe Howard at the Palace Theatre in April 1931, performing "Keep Smiling" and the "Antics of 1931". They worked together at the RKO Albee, performing the "Antics of 1933" along with Ann Gillens and Johnny Peters in June of that year. The following month, singer Dolores Reade joined Hope's vaudeville troupe and

2116-416: A series of " Road to ... " comedies with partner Bing Crosby ), ventriloquist Edgar Bergen , and Jerry Lewis (both with and without partner Dean Martin ). Some comedians who entered film expanded their acting skills to become dramatic actors, or started as actors specializing in comic roles, such as Dick Van Dyke , Paul Lynde , Michael Keaton , Bill Murray and Denis Leary . Radio comedy began in

2208-519: A share with Bing Crosby of the Los Angeles Rams football team in 1947, but sold it in 1962. He frequently used his television specials to promote the annual AP College Football All-America Team . The players would come onstage one by one and introduce themselves, then Hope, often dressed in a football uniform, would give a one-liner about the player or his school. Hope was briefly married to vaudeville partner Grace Louise Troxell (1912–1992),

2300-620: A substantially rewritten version of the musical was mounted at the Kennedy Center and moved to Broadway, where it opened at the St. James Theater on November 17, 2014, starring Erin Davie as Violet and Emily Padgett as Daisy. Although well-reviewed, the revival closed on 4 January 2015. In 2012, Leslie Zemeckis filmed a documentary, Bound by Flesh , about the sisters' lives. The Hollywood Reporter called it "scrupulously researched" and

2392-572: A tour through Germany, then to Australia, then in 1916 to the US. In true sideshow manner, their performance was accompanied by an imaginative "history". Their controllers kept all the money the sisters earned. In 1926, Bob Hope formed an act called the Dancemedians with the sisters, who had a tap-dancing routine. When Mary died in Birmingham, Alabama , the girls were bequeathed to Mary's daughter Edith Meyers, and Edith's husband Meyer Meyers,

2484-530: A touring troupe called Hurley's Jolly Follies. Within a year, Hope had formed an act called the "Dancemedians" with George Byrne and the Hilton Sisters , conjoined twins who performed a tap-dancing routine on the vaudeville circuit. Hope and Byrne also had an act as Siamese twins ; they sang and danced while wearing blackface until friends advised Hope that he was funnier by himself. In 1929, Hope informally changed his first name to "Bob". In one version of

2576-440: A week. The original staff included Mel Shavelson , Norman Panama , Jack Rose , Sherwood Schwartz , and Schwartz's brother Al . The writing staff eventually grew to fifteen. The show became the top radio program in the country. Regulars on the series included Jerry Colonna and Barbara Jo Allen as spinster Vera Vague. Hope continued his lucrative career in radio into the 1950s, when radio's popularity began being overshadowed by

2668-753: Is concerned, comedians such as Tommy Tiernan , Des Bishop , Kevin Hart , and Dawn French draw on their background to poke fun at themselves, while others such as Jon Stewart , Ben Elton and Sarah Silverman have very strong political and cultural undertones. Many comics achieve a cult following while touring famous comedy hubs such as the Just for Laughs festival in Montreal , the Edinburgh Fringe , and Melbourne Comedy Festival in Australia . Often

2760-554: Is more light-hearted than Shakespeare's other plays. American performance comedy has its roots in the 1840s from the three-act , variety show format of minstrel shows (via blackface performances of the Jim Crow character ); Frederick Douglass criticized these shows for profiting from and perpetuating racism . Minstrelsy monologists performed second-act, stump-speech monologues from within minstrel shows until 1896. American standup also emerged in vaudeville theatre from

2852-426: Is necessarily pathological. Forbes publishes an annual list of the most financially successful comedians in the world, similarly to their Celebrity 100 list . Their data sources include Nielsen Media Research , Pollstar , Box Office Mojo and IMDb . The list was topped by Jerry Seinfeld from 2006 until 2015, who lost the title to Kevin Hart in 2016. In that year, the eight highest paid comedians were from

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2944-585: Is the pun or double-entendre, where similar words are interchanged. The Two Ronnies often used puns and double-entendre. Stewart Francis and Tim Vine are examples of current comedians who deploy numerous puns. Jokes based on puns tend to be very quick and easy to digest, which sometimes leads to other joke forms being overlooked, for example in the Funniest Joke of the Fringe awards. Other jokes may rely on confounding an audience's expectations through

3036-591: The Academy Awards nineteen times from 1939 through 1977. Overlapping with this was his movie career, spanning 1934 to 1972, and his USO tours, which he conducted from 1941 to 1991. Hope signed a contract with Educational Pictures of New York for six short comedies. The first was a comedy, Going Spanish (1934). He was not happy with it, and told newspaper columnist Walter Winchell , "When they catch [bank robber] Dillinger , they're going to make him sit through it twice." Educational Pictures took umbrage at

3128-544: The Academy Awards show 19 times, more than any other host. He also appeared in many stage productions and television roles and wrote 14 books. The song " Thanks for the Memory " was his signature tune. He was praised for his comedic timing, specializing in one-liners and rapid-fire delivery of jokes that were often self-deprecating. Between 1941 and 1991, he made 57 tours for the United Service Organizations (USO), entertaining military personnel around

3220-753: The Jerome Kern / Dorothy Fields musical Roberta . Stints in the musicals Say When , the 1936 Ziegfeld Follies with Fanny Brice , and Red, Hot and Blue with Ethel Merman and Jimmy Durante followed. Hope reprised his role as Huck Haines in a 1958 production of Roberta at The Muny Theater in Forest Park in St. Louis, Missouri . Additionally, Hope rescued the Eltham Little Theatre in England from closure by providing funds to buy

3312-750: The Korean War , the Vietnam War, the third phase of the Lebanon Civil War , the latter years of the Iran–Iraq War , and the 1990–91 Persian Gulf War . His USO career lasted a half-century during which he headlined 57 times. He had a deep respect for the men and women who served in the armed forces, and this was reflected in his willingness to go anywhere to entertain them. However, during the highly controversial Vietnam War , Hope had trouble convincing some performers to join him on tour, but he

3404-524: The United States . The participants were asked to complete an online questionnaire designed to measure psychotic traits in healthy people. They found that comedians scored "significantly higher on four types of psychotic characteristics compared to a control group of people who had non-creative jobs." Gordon Claridge, a professor of experimental psychology at the University of Oxford and leader of

3496-506: The United States Military Academy at West Point in 1968, the first entertainer to receive the award. A 1997 act of Congress signed by President Bill Clinton named Hope an "Honorary Veteran". He remarked, "I've been given many awards in my lifetime, but to be numbered among the men and women I admire most is the greatest honor I have ever received." In an homage to Hope, comedian/TV host Stephen Colbert carried

3588-555: The " New Hollywood " era in the 1960s, he reacted negatively, such as when he hosted the 40th Academy Awards in 1968 and voiced his contempt by mocking the show's delay because of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and condescendingly greeted attending younger actors on stage—such as Dustin Hoffman , who was 30 at the time—as children. By the 1970s, his popularity was beginning to wane with military personnel and with

3680-480: The 1880s to the 1930s, with such comics as W. C. Fields , Buster Keaton and the Marx Brothers . British performance comedy has its roots in 1850 music hall theatres, where Charlie Chaplin , Stan Laurel , and Dan Leno first performed, mentored by comedian and theatre impresario Fred Karno , who developed a form of sketch comedy without dialogue in the 1890s and also pioneered slapstick comedy . In

3772-625: The 1920s and 1930s. They were best known for their film appearances in Freaks and the biographic Chained for Life (1951). The twins were born at 18 Riley Road, Brighton , England, on 5 February 1908. Their mother was Kate Skinner, an unmarried barmaid. The sisters were born joined by their hips and buttocks; they shared blood circulation and were fused at the pelvis but shared no major organs. They were variously in media called or referred to as The Siamese Twins , The Hilton Sisters and The Brighton Twins or The Brighton Conjoined Twins and in

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3864-714: The 1968 telecast, he quipped, "Welcome to the Academy Awards, or, as it's known at my house, Passover ." Although he was never nominated for an Oscar, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honored him with four honorary awards, and in 1960 presented him with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award , given each year as part of the Oscars ceremony. Hope's career in broadcasting began on radio in 1934. His first regular series for NBC Radio

3956-525: The 28-year-old Joan Collins in place of Lamour, whom Crosby thought was too old for the part. They had planned one more movie together in 1977, The Road to the Fountain of Youth , but filming was postponed when Crosby was injured in a fall, and the production was canceled when he suddenly died of heart failure that October. Hope starred in 54 theatrical features between 1938 and 1972, as well as cameos and short films. Most of his later movies failed to match

4048-577: The Indian Ocean. Of Hope's USO shows in World War II, novelist John Steinbeck , who then was working as a war correspondent, wrote in 1943: When the time for recognition of service to the nation in wartime comes to be considered, Bob Hope should be high on the list. This man drives himself and is driven. It is impossible to see how he can do so much, can cover so much ground, can work so hard, and can be so effective. He works month after month at

4140-412: The Memory ", which later became his trademark, was introduced in the film as a duet with Shirley Ross , accompanied by Shep Fields and his orchestra. The sentimental, fluid nature of the music allowed Hope's writers—he depended heavily upon joke writers throughout his career—to later create variations of the song to fit specific circumstances, such as bidding farewell to troops while on tour or mentioning

4232-673: The Performing Arts . It began as an accurate portrayal of the twins' early life, but then included a wholly fictitious plot by their keepers to have them surgically separated as adults. Side Show , a Broadway musical loosely based on the sisters' lives, with lyrics by Bill Russell and music by Henry Krieger , opened at the Richard Rodgers Theater on October 16, 1997. It starred Emily Skinner as Daisy and Alice Ripley as Violet, and received four Tony nominations, but closed after 91 performances. In 2014,

4324-691: The Queen's Arms pub in Brighton where they were exhibited. They later moved to the Evening Star pub. According to the sisters' autobiography, Mary Hilton with her husband and daughter strictly controlled the twins by means of physical abuse; they had to call her "Auntie Lou" and her husband "Sir". They trained the girls in singing and dancing. The Hilton sisters toured first in Britain in 1911 (aged three) as "The United Twins". Mary Hilton took them on to

4416-640: The Sussex Medico-Chirurgical Society considered separation, but unanimously decided against it as it was believed that the operation would certainly lead to the death of one or both of the twins. He noted these twins were the first to be born in the UK conjoined and to survive for more than a few weeks. Their mother was unmarried. Kate Skinner's employer, Mary Hilton, who helped in childbirth, apparently saw commercial prospects in them, and effectively bought them from their mother and took them under her care. The girls first stayed above

4508-614: The United States as the San Antonio Twins . The sisters performed alongside Bob Hope and Charlie Chaplin . After years of being managed professionally by their legal guardians, in the early 1930s, on the advice of Harry Houdini , they were legally emancipated. A medical account of the birth and a description of the twins was provided for the British Medical Journal by physician James Augustus Rooth , who helped deliver them. He reported that subsequently

4600-485: The United States when Raymond Knight launched The Cuckoo Hour on NBC in 1930, along with the 1931 network debut of Stoopnagle and Budd on CBS . Most of the Hollywood comedians who did not become dramatic actors (e.g. Bergen, Fields, Groucho and Chico Marx , Red Skelton , Jack Benny , Fred Allen , Judy Canova , Hope, Martin and Lewis ), transitioned to United States radio in the 1930s and 1940s. Without

4692-475: The United States, including Amy Schumer , who became the first woman to be listed in the top ten. The top ten of 2016 are as follows: Hilton twins Daisy and Violet Hilton (5 February 1908 – early January 1969) were English-born entertainers who were conjoined twins . They were exhibited in Europe as children, and toured the United States sideshow , vaudeville and American burlesque circuits in

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4784-476: The Year , Have I Got News for You , and Celebrity Juice . The most acclaimed sitcoms include Seinfeld and The Big Bang Theory . Comedy is increasingly enjoyed online. Several comedians got their start through the internet such as Bo Burnham . Comedians streaming videos of their stand-up include Bridget Christie , Louis C.K. and Daniel Kitson . There are many established formats for jokes. One example

4876-402: The actress most associated with his film career although he made movies with dozens of leading ladies , including Katharine Hepburn , Paulette Goddard , Hedy Lamarr , Lucille Ball , Rosemary Clooney , Jane Russell , and Elke Sommer . Hope and Crosby teamed not only for the "Road" pictures, but for many stage, radio, and television appearances and many brief movie appearances together over

4968-463: The concept of the spoken comedy album by writing and recording elaborate radio plays employing sound effects and multitrack recording , which comedian Robin Williams called "the audio equivalent of a Hieronymous Bosch painting." Comedy duo Cheech and Chong recorded comedy albums in a similar format from 1971 through 1985. Karno took Chaplin and Laurel on two trips to the United States to tour

5060-444: The decades until Crosby died in 1977. Although the two invested together in oil leases and other business ventures, worked together frequently, and lived near each other, they rarely saw each other socially. After the release of Road to Singapore (1940), Hope's screen career took off, and he had a long and successful run. After an 11-year hiatus from the "Road" genre, he and Crosby reteamed for The Road to Hong Kong (1962), starring

5152-488: The end of his career, worsening vision problems rendered him unable to read his cue cards. In October 1996, he announced he was ending his 60-year contract with NBC, joking that he "decided to become a free agent". His final television special, Laughing with the Presidents , was broadcast in November 1996, with host Tony Danza helping him present a personal retrospective of presidents of the United States known to Hope,

5244-552: The footage and shows were owned by Hope's own production company, which made them very lucrative ventures for him, as outlined by writer Richard Zoglin in his 2014 biography Hope: Entertainer of the Century . Hope sometimes recruited his own family members for USO travel. His wife, Dolores, sang from atop an armored vehicle during the Desert Storm tour, and granddaughter Miranda appeared alongside him on an aircraft carrier in

5336-459: The game in the 1930s while performing in Winnipeg , Canada, he eventually played to a four handicap . His love for the game—and the humor he could find in it—made him a sought-after foursome member. He once remarked that President Dwight D. Eisenhower gave up golf for painting: "Fewer strokes, you know." He also was quoted as saying, "It's wonderful how you can start out with three strangers in

5428-476: The height of the war—are on the list of the Top 46 U.S. network prime-time telecasts . Both were seen by more than 60 percent of the U.S. households watching television. Likely the most unusual of his television specials was Joys! , a parody of murder mystery narratives, where the audience discovers at the end of the broadcast that Johnny Carson was the villain. Beginning in early 1950, Hope licensed rights to publish

5520-532: The last four issues) Neal Adams . While aboard RMS  Queen Mary when World War II began in September 1939, Hope volunteered to perform a special show for the passengers, during which he sang "Thanks for the Memory" with rewritten lyrics. He performed his first USO show on May 6, 1941, at March Field in California, and continued to travel and entertain troops for the rest of World War II, later during

5612-404: The late 1940s; however, as his ratings began to slip in the 1950s, he switched to television and became an early pioneer of that medium. He published several books, notably dictating to ghostwriters about his wartime experiences. Although Hope made an effort to keep his material up to date, he never adapted his comic persona or his routines to any great degree. As Hollywood began to transition to

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5704-671: The legal guardians of Tracey, the youngest daughter of famous New York City bar owner Bernard "Toots" Shor and his wife, Marion "Baby" Shor. In 1935, the couple lived in Manhattan. In 1937, they moved to 10346 Moorpark Street in the Toluca Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles, where they would reside until their respective deaths. Hope had a reputation as a womanizer and continued to see other women throughout his marriage. Zoglin wrote, "Bob Hope had affairs with chorus girls, beauty queens, singers and showbiz wannabes through his 70s; he had

5796-405: The mid-1940s, with his radio program getting good ratings as well, he was one of the most popular entertainers in the United States. When Paramount threatened to stop production of the "Road" pictures in 1945, they received 75,000 letters of protest. Hope had no faith in his skills as a dramatic actor, and his performances of that type were not as well received. He had been well known in radio until

5888-432: The modern era, as technology produced forms of mass communications media , these were adapted to entertainment and comedians adapted to the new media, sometimes switching to new forms as they were introduced. Stand-up comedy is a comic monologue performed standing on a stage. Bob Hope became the most popular stand-up comedian of the 20th century in a nearly 80-year career that included numerous comedy film roles over

5980-445: The morning, play 18 holes, and by the time the day is over you have three solid enemies." A golf club became an integral prop for Hope during the standup segments of his television specials and USO shows. In 1978 he putted against the then-two-year-old Tiger Woods in a television appearance with the actor Jimmy Stewart on The Mike Douglas Show . The Bob Hope Classic , founded in 1960, made history in 1995 when Hope teed up for

6072-473: The movie-going public in general. However, he continued doing USO tours into the 1980s and continued to appear on television into the 1990s. Former First Lady Nancy Reagan , a close friend and frequent host to him at the White House, called Hope "America's most honored citizen and our favorite clown". Hope was well known as an avid golfer, playing in as many as 150 charity tournaments a year. Introduced to

6164-500: The names of towns in which he was performing. As a film star, Hope was best known for such comedies as My Favorite Brunette and the highly successful " Road " movies in which he starred with Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour . The series consists of seven films made between 1940 and 1962: Road to Singapore (1940), Road to Zanzibar (1941), Road to Morocco (1942), Road to Utopia (1946), Road to Rio (1947), Road to Bali (1952), and The Road to Hong Kong (1962). At

6256-533: The opening round in a foursome that included Presidents Gerald Ford , George H. W. Bush , and Bill Clinton , the only time three U.S. presidents played in the same golf foursome. The event, now known as the CareerBuilder Challenge, was one of the few PGA Tour tournaments that took place over five rounds, until the 2012 tournament when it was cut back to the conventional four. Hope had a heavy interest in sports beyond golf and his brief fling as

6348-760: The outset, Paramount executives were amazed at how relaxed and compatible Hope and Crosby were as a team. What the executives didn't know was that Hope and Crosby had already worked together (on the vaudeville stage in 1932), and that working so easily in the "Road" pictures was just an extension of their old stage act. Hope had seen Lamour performing as a nightclub singer in New York, and invited her to work on his United Service Organizations (USO) tours of military facilities. Lamour sometimes arrived for filming prepared with her lines, only to be baffled by completely rewritten scripts or ad-libbed dialogue between Hope and Crosby. Hope and Lamour were lifelong friends, and she remains

6440-664: The police were called to investigate. The twins were found dead in their home, victims of the Hong Kong flu . According to the autopsy, Daisy died first; Violet died between two and four days later. Violet had not called for any help. They are buried in Forest Lawn West Cemetery in Charlotte. They share a grave with a Vietnam veteran Troy Thompson whose father was an acquaintance, since they didn't have enough of an estate to pay for their own plot. Visitors to

6532-622: The property. He continued his interest and support, and regularly visited the facility when in London. The theater was renamed in his honor in 1982. During a short stint in 1960, Hope became a part owner of the Riverside International Raceway in Moreno Valley, California , along with Los Angeles Rams co-owner Fred Levy Jr. and oil tycoon Ed Pauley for $ 800,000 (adjusted to $ 7.0 million in 2020). Les Richter

6624-521: The remark and canceled Hope's contract after only the one film. He soon signed with the Vitaphone short-subject studio in Brooklyn , New York, making musical and comedy shorts during the day and performing in Broadway shows in the evenings. Hope moved to Hollywood when Paramount Pictures signed him for the 1938 film The Big Broadcast of 1938 , also starring W. C. Fields . The song " Thanks for

6716-622: The sisters performed at burlesque venues. Shortly after gaining independence from the Meyers, the Hiltons sailed to the UK on the Berengaria in December, 1932. They spent most of 1933 in the UK and returned to the US in October, 1933. Violet began a relationship with musician Maurice Lambert, and they applied in 21 states for a marriage license , but it was always refused. In 1932,

6808-599: The site often leave two pennies, as that was the price of admission to see the twins in the side show when they were children. In 1989, a musical based on the Hilton twins, Twenty Fingers Twenty Toes , with book by Michael Dansicker and Bob Nigro and music and lyrics by Michael Dansicker, premiered at the WPA Theatre and ran for 35 performances. The script can be found in the New York Public Library for

6900-405: The story, he named himself after racecar driver Bob Burman . In another, he said that he chose the name because he wanted a name with a "friendly 'Hiya, fellas!' sound" to it. In a 1942 legal document, his legal name appears as Lester Townes Hope; it is unknown if this reflects a legal name change from Leslie. After five years on the vaudeville circuit, Hope was "surprised and humbled" when he failed

6992-531: The street. He entered numerous dancing and amateur talent contests as Lester Hope, and won a prize in 1915 for his impersonation of Charlie Chaplin . For a time, he attended the Boys' Industrial School in Lancaster, Ohio , and as an adult donated sizable sums of money to the institution. He had a brief career as a boxer in 1919, fighting under the name Packy East. He had three wins and one loss, and he participated in

7084-402: The study claimed, "the creative elements needed to produce humor are strikingly similar to those characterizing the cognitive style of people with psychosis—both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder." However, labeling comedians' personality traits as "psychotic" does not mean that individual is a psychopath, since psychopathy is distinct from psychosis , and neither does it mean their behavior

7176-528: The success of his 1940s efforts. He was disappointed with his appearance in Cancel My Reservation (1972), his last starring film; critics and filmgoers panned the movie. Though his career as a film star effectively ended in 1972, he did make a few cameo film appearances into the 1980s. Hope was host of the Academy Awards ceremony 19 times between 1939 and 1977. His supposedly-feigned desire for an Oscar became part of his act. While introducing

7268-570: The twins appeared in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film Freaks . Afterwards, their popularity faded, and they struggled to make a living in show business. In 1936, Violet married actor James Moore as a publicity stunt. The marriage lasted ten years on paper, but it was eventually annulled. At the time of the wedding, Daisy was visibly pregnant. Her child was given up for adoption. In 1941, Daisy married Harold Estep, better known as dancer Buddy Sawyer. The marriage lasted ten days. In 1952,

7360-484: The twins starred in a second film, Chained for Life , an exploitation film loosely based on their lives. Afterwards, they undertook personal appearances at double-bill screenings of their two films. The Hiltons' last public appearance was in 1961, at a drive-in theater in Charlotte, North Carolina . Without warning, their tour manager abandoned them there with no means of transportation or income. They applied for

7452-525: The upstart television medium. Hope did many specials for the NBC television network in the following decades, beginning in April 1950. He was one of the first people to use cue cards . The shows often were sponsored by Frigidaire (early 1950s), General Motors (1955–61), Chrysler (1963–73), and Texaco (1975–85). Hope's Christmas specials were popular favorites and often featured a performance of " Silver Bells "—from his 1951 film The Lemon Drop Kid —done as

7544-585: The vaudeville circuit. On the second one, they were recruited by the fledgling silent film industry. Chaplin became the most popular screen comedian of the first half of the 20th century. Chaplin and Stan Laurel were protégés of Fred Karno , the English theatre impresario of British music hall , and in his biography Laurel stated, "Fred Karno didn't teach Charlie [Chaplin] and me all we know about comedy. He just taught us most of it". Chaplin wrote films such as Modern Times and The Kid . His films still have

7636-518: The work of Danielle Ward ). Other joke forms include observation ( Michael McIntyre ), whimsy ( David O'Doherty ), self-deprecation ( Robin Williams ) and parody ( Diane Morgan ). In a January 2014 study, conducted in the British Journal of Psychiatry , scientists found that comedians tend to have high levels of psychotic personality traits. In the study, researchers analyzed 404 male and 119 female comedians from Australia , Britain , and

7728-694: The world. In 1997, Congress passed a bill that made him an honorary veteran of the Armed Forces. Hope was born in the Eltham district of southeast London . He arrived in the United States with his family at the age of four, and grew up near Cleveland, Ohio . He became a boxer in the 1910s but moved into show business in the early 1920s, initially as a comedian and dancer on the vaudeville circuit before acting on Broadway . He began appearing on radio and in films starting in 1934. Hope retired from public life in 1999 and died in 2003, at 100. Leslie Townes Hope

7820-454: Was accompanied on at least one USO tour by Ann-Margret . Anti-war sentiment was high, and his pro-troop stance made him a target of criticism from some quarters. Some shows were drowned out by boos; others were listened to in silence. The tours were funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, Hope's television sponsors, and by NBC , the network that broadcast the television specials created after each tour from footage shot on location. However,

7912-528: Was born on May 29, 1903, in Eltham , County of London (now part of the Royal Borough of Greenwich ), in a terraced house at 44 Craigton Road in Well Hall , where there is now a British Film Institute 'Centenary of British Cinema' commemorative plaque in his memory. He was the fifth of seven sons of William Henry Hope, a stonemason from Weston-super-Mare , Somerset, and Welsh mother Avis (née Townes),

8004-645: Was made president of the raceway. Hope made a guest appearance on The Golden Girls , season 4, episode 17 (aired February 25, 1989) called "You Gotta Have Hope" in which Rose is convinced Bob Hope is her father. In 1992, Hope made a guest appearance as himself on the animated Fox series The Simpsons in the episode " Lisa the Beauty Queen " (season 4, episode 4). His 90th birthday television celebration in May 1993, Bob Hope: The First 90 Years , won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety, Music Or Comedy Special. Toward

8096-512: Was miles away in New York, on Broadway. More intriguing, there is no record anywhere of his marriage to Dolores, if it happened. And there are no wedding photos, either. But he never forgot Louise and quietly sent her money in her later years. Dolores had been one of Hope's co-stars on Broadway in Roberta . The couple adopted four children: Linda (in 1939), Anthony "Tony" (1940–2004), Kelly (1946), and Eleanora "Nora" (1946). Bob and Dolores were also

8188-560: Was performing with him at Loew's Metropolitan Theater. She was described as a "former Ziegfeld beauty and one of society's favorite nightclub entertainers, having appeared at many private social functions at New York, Palm Beach, and Southampton". His marriage to Reade was fraught with ambiguities. As Richard Zoglin wrote in his 2014 biography Hope: Entertainer of the Century , Bob and Dolores always claimed that they married in February 1934 in Erie, Pennsylvania. But at that time, he

8280-468: Was secretly married to his vaudeville partner Louise Troxell, after three years together on and off. I found divorce papers for Bob and Louise dated November 1934, so either Bob Hope was a bigamist, or he lied about marrying Dolores in February that year. He had actually married Louise in January 1933 in Erie when they were traveling on the vaudeville circuit. When he claimed he had married Dolores in Erie he

8372-538: Was the Woodbury Soap Hour in 1937, on a 26-week contract. Serving as the master of ceremonies for these Rippling Rhythm Revue radio broadcasts, Hope collaborated with the big band leader Shep Fields during this period of transition from vaudeville to radio. A year later, The Pepsodent Show Starring Bob Hope began, and Hope signed a ten-year contract with the show's sponsor, Lever Brothers . He hired eight writers and paid them out of his salary of $ 2,500

8464-471: Was widely praised for his comedic timing and his specialization in the use of one-liners and rapid-fire delivery of jokes. He was known for his style of self-deprecating jokes, first building himself up and then tearing himself down. He performed hundreds of times per year. Such early films as The Cat and the Canary (1939) and The Paleface (1948) were financially successful and praised by critics, and by

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