The Hindu : Bob Hope, master of one-liners, dead

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Tuesday, Jul 29, 2003

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Bob Hope, master of one-liners, dead

A 1997 file picture of Bob Hope and his wife, Dolores. Hope died on Sunday, less than two months after he turned 100. — AP

LOS ANGELES JULY 28. Bob Hope, master of the one-liner and favourite comedian of U.S. servicemen and Presidents alike, has died less than two months after turning 100.

Hope died late on Sunday of pneumonia at his home in Toluca Lake, California, with his family at his bedside, longtime publicist Ward Grant said today.

The U.S.' most-honoured comedian, a millionaire many times over, was a star in every category open to him — vaudeville, radio, television and film, most notably a string of ``Road'' movies with long-time friend Bing Crosby.

For decades, he took his show on the road to bases around the world, boosting the morale of servicemen from World War II to the Gulf War.

Hope excelled at a typically American brand of brash, timely humour. The wit was never very profound or subtle, but it was, at its best, irreverently poignant, carrying him through several immensely successful careers in the theatre, radio, films and television.

The comedian, whose original name was Leslie Townes Hope, was born on May 29, 1903, in Eltham, England, the fifth of seven sons of William Henry ``Harry'' Hope, a stonemason with a weakness for drink. In reference to his famous profile, dominated by his ski-jump nose, Hope once commented that after his birth, ``My mother thought the doctor had left the stork and taken the baby.''

By 1930, he had reached vaudeville's pinnacle — The Palace — and in the '30s he played leading parts in such Broadway musicals as ``Roberta,'' ``Ziegfeld Follies'' and ``Red, Hot and Blue,'' with Ethel Merman and Jimmy Durante. During ``Roberta,'' he met nightclub singer Dolores Reade and invited her to the show. They married in 1934.

After a few guest radio spots, Hope began working regularly on a Bromo Seltzer radio programme. In 1938, he was hired by Pepsodent to create his own show, and that led him to Hollywood.

Paramount signed him for ``The Big Broadcast of 1938,'' in which he introduced the song that became his trademark: ``Thanks for the Memory.''

Soon he was teaming with Crosby in the seven ``Road'' pictures — ``Road to Bali,'' ``Road to Morocco,'' ``Road to Zanzibar'' and so on — playing best friends who lie, cheat and make fun of each other in comedic competition for glory and Dorothy Lamour.

Hope earned a fortune, gave lavishly to charity and was showered with awards, so many that he had to rent a warehouse to store them.

Hope, who made an art and a vast fortune out of the delivery of the one-line gag, thrived on applause. It was the secret of his youthfulness.

It was also an important source of the energy that allowed him to travel millions of miles to entertain American servicemen, far exceeding the effort of any other entertainer. From 1941 to 1948 he performed nearly all his 400 radio programmes at military bases. And at an age when most performers curtail their activities,

Hope continued to make his annual tours during the war in Vietnam, playing to the sons of the servicemen he entertained during World War II and the Korean War.

Servicemen, as well as several generations of civilians, delighted in Hope's style of humour, epitomised by his breezy monologues, which were tightly woven gags that mixed the topical with the fantastic.

He arrived in Saigon on the day that Vietcong agents blew up an American officers' billet. ``I was on the way to my hotel,'' he told an audience several hours later, ``and I passed a hotel going in the opposite direction.''

AP, New York Times

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