Speaker Of course, you know, this is all second hand, I wasn’t there, but dad was born in a small town just outside of London, Eltham, and he remained always faithful to Elton. He loved that he was born in England.
Speaker And more than that, he loved that he came over here and had his life here. But it was about six. My dad came over with his mother and he had at that time, I think it was five brothers and. It was I can’t imagine what his mother must have gone through, they came on steerage, my grandfather had come over before he sent for them to see if he could get work because work was very slow. He was a stonemason and things were starting to change for that particular job description. And so he had some brothers who had come over here to the states earlier on. And it was one of those families that I guess they had a lot of during that period of time where one brother would be a carpenter, one brother would be do plumbing, another brother would do the electric. Be that as it may at that time and so on. So my grandfather came over to Cleveland where one of his brothers had settled and was able to get some work. And so he sent for the family. And Avis, my grandmother came with her sons and dad was I think the second youngest one is when they came over and he must have been a handful. And the rest of them, the older boys, you know, had to look after the younger ones and. I can’t imagine down there with the cattle and with the just other families, with trying kids and sick kids and so on, it must have been a nightmare. But she survived it and they got to Cleveland and that’s really where he grew up and. He was a handful, I think, from everything I’ve heard, and but I think he was a little bit of a favorite son and.
Speaker He he loved to show off and he loved to sing, and my grandmother evidently had a lovely voice and sang sort of operetta type stuff when she was a young woman.
Speaker And it was it was it was a very tough life. They never had enough money. They were always scrimping and saving.
Speaker In fact, my grandmother took in boarders and they had a big house. And so they took in some boarders. Dad was always scrounging around to get a few coins here and there. And I think that started his display for the local fire department. Charlie Chaplin was a big star at that point, and dad used to go to the movies with my grandmother, who would take him, single him out from the other boys because she always felt he had kind of a talent. And so she would take him to the movies and they would then sort of rehash the movies and dad would play the different parts and that sort of thing. And he started going in front of the fire department doing the Charlie Chaplin thing with the, you know, the cane. And so I think that was his first taste of show business in a way. And the firemen always encouraged him. And and so he had a kind of a love for that showing off at least.
Speaker And then as he got older, he had a number of different jobs. Paper boy, he was a paper boy, actually, I didn’t really realize this, but Cleveland in those days was really a very fancy place to live.
Speaker And they had a lot of very wealthy individuals that lived there. The Rockefeller were there.
Speaker I think the Carnegie’s I’m not sure the whole list of people, but they used to dad used to sell papers on a street corner. And it seems that J.D. Rockefeller was one of dad’s clients and he would stop by and buy a paper from him every day. And Dad used to have the change and all that. One day he didn’t have the change in Rockefeller had given him like a dime or a quarter or something. And so he was waiting for his change. And dad had to run across the street someplace to get the change.
Speaker And he came back and he told dad, he said, remember, boy, always have change. So he you know, that was his first bit of financial advice, I think. I don’t know that he really appreciated it. But anyway, dancing. And so he did. He started dancing probably, you know, right around the time he was what would have been like a senior in high school. His school years were kind of spotty.
Speaker And, you know, I think he spent a lot of time out of school when he should have been in. And he was.
Speaker Always looking for an angle, I mean, yeah, here we go.
Speaker You’re doing great. It’s the garbage truck. Yeah, no, that’s fine.
Speaker We’re getting the dog here, the garbage truck. We’re out there with a dog.
Speaker Yeah, good, that’s good.
Speaker We heard the garbage truck. There’s no doubt that that’s a bad sign. We ask that question, he says.
Speaker Was there a dog like we used to have trouble with the planes here from Locky? What used to be the Bob Hope Airport, which is now in Burbank? Yeah.
Speaker OK, let’s let’s pick it up with the dancing.
Speaker So anyway, he started dancing.
Speaker You had all kinds of jobs delivering for his brothers who had different shops, a meat shop, and he then had a friend that had a dance studio and the dance person that he took dancing lessons, first of all, to learn. And then he taught dancing a little bit. And then he decided that he would like to try and get an act together. So he had this woman. Mildred Rose Quest, I think is the name I believe.
Speaker Now you’re OK. We can stop there. OK, we’ll get to Milbrett in the. You stay here, you from the.
Speaker The dogs are probably barking at the garbage trucks.
Speaker Great.
Speaker So how good a dancer was, he was a great dancer. He loved to dance. And he he, as I say, started out with Mildred Rose Quest and he said when he got the act together and he thought he was polished and ready to go to to vaudeville, he went to Mildred’s mother and said, can we you know, we have this act and I’d like to take Mildred on the road. Well, the woman, I think, nearly had a heart attack. And she said, oh, well, not my daughter. And so he got a male dance partner and they did, you know, small shows and this on a circuit and, you know, starved most of the time. He said he used to live off the fruits and vegetables people threw at him. And but he he learned a lot. And it really was the thing that gave him the start. He one night he was late. He used to do blackface and rub cork on his face. And he was late and didn’t have time to do that. And he went out and he had some new jokes that he had worked on. And apparently the audience loved it. And so when he came back in after his routine, the manager said, forget the cork. He said, your face is funny enough. And so that was, you know, kind of how he got into it and got into. The away from just the dancing and into doing some comedy and some jokes, and do you have any memories as a child of him dancing all the time?
Speaker All the time.
Speaker Growing up was such fun because he really was like another kid. You know, at that point it was my brother Tony and myself, because we’re about eight years older than the younger brother and sister. And so we used to sit in we had a little breakfast room with the plate glass windows and a sliding glass door. And we’d have breakfast in there with dad early because we were getting ready to go to school and he was getting ready to go to Paramount. And we would sit in there. We have our food and at the end, dad would always leave before we did, and he’d get up and go out the door. And then on the the stone, he would do a tap dance for us and then kind of shuffle off to to his car and to Paramount. So we used to look forward to that all the time and sing around the house. Oh, he said he loved to sing. He’d sing all the time. I remember him standing down in the hallway and he’d yell up the stairs for my mother, who was always late. He’d he’d sing Delores and, you know, kind of then sing on some little song or something that he made up. And he loved to sing and dance. So that never, never really left him.
Speaker That’s great that they’re going to try again. This will just give us one. That’s a great story. I like that.
Speaker OK, OK, guys, let’s take a step here. I love, love, love. I think she was great. OK. Yeah, yeah. Who knew?
Speaker This is not the ideal place to shoot, I have to tell you, Jim, you know that.
Speaker Yeah, and it’s probably right. What do you care? We have to go, right? Yeah, OK, let’s go. OK, if we can’t, let’s try the story again about the singing in the hallway. Oh yeah. I like to sing around the house.
Speaker Yeah. Dad loved to sing and dance and I remember him standing here in the hallway and he would yell up to my mother who was always late, and he’d say to her, he’d call up Delores and then he’d go on and sing a little song after that and whistle too. He whistled some, but mainly he he’d love to sing.
Speaker That’s great. So what was his birth name, how, when and why did he change it?
Speaker Dad was born Leslie Townes Hope and Townes was his mother’s maiden name. And I don’t know how weird Leslie came from particularly, but he changed it to Bob when he got into vaudeville and all of that because he thought Bob sounded Charlier.
Speaker That’s a charming name. You know, Bob. And I guess it was on the marquee, it would fit nicely, Bob Hope, instead of a long Schwarzenegger or something, wouldn’t have worked too well. So he was he was Bob Hope.
Speaker What did you make of the second bomb or what his friends call him, Bob?
Speaker Everybody everybody called him Bob. And in fact, it’s interesting, everybody called him Bob, never Mr. Hope or that kind of thing.
Speaker They just called him Bob and.
Speaker It’s funny, dad had an amazing capacity to see people for a minute, you know, at the airport, I mean, I flew many, many, many, many times with him going someplace or another, and he would interact with people just passing in the airport. And by the time they finished, you know, 60 seconds or so with him, he’d be on a first name basis. And they usually had some kind of connection. Either they saw him in a state fair someplace or some places a service man overseas, and he would find some kind of a connection, which was interesting. And for that minute or minute and a half, he was all theirs. And I always thought that was a pretty interesting kind of way of connecting. Sometimes when you were alone with him for a long period of time, it was kind of quiet and he wasn’t, you know, full of jokes and full of chatter and talk and all of that. But he he he managed to be able to make a connection with people and he was able to do that, interestingly, with large audiences and people. When you read letters that were sent to dad from guys from the days in the South Pacific or in England or wherever they were during World War Two and also Vietnam and just letters that people would write after having met him, it was amazing how he actually connected with them. And I think that’s something very interesting that people don’t know I. Today, you know, celebrities are kept at a distance by the bodyguards and all the dead never had a bodyguard in his whole career that I ever knew of. And even in his later years, he would go out on walks with whoever was visiting with him. And they usually he’d be at downtown hotels because that’s where he did his you know, he’d be performing for some group or another that I’d asked him to come and be the the entertainment for the evening. And he traveled a lot over the years and he would go stay in the hotel and do his thing.
Speaker And after he finished his show, he would get somebody to walk with him or he’d even walk alone and just go out there. He’d run into people. He told the story one time of the drunk. He was out and someplace. And this guy was kind of lying in the gutter or over in the side, you know, off the sidewalk. And he looked up and he said, Bob Hope. And I think he thought, you know, he wasn’t sure whether he was really seeing Bob. Oprah was some kind of fantasy or whatever. And yeah, he said, yeah, and.
Speaker You know, it’s just he would see people and he was kind of a people person. And I thought that was always interesting.
Speaker That’s great. So what is it with Bob Hope?
Speaker I think that, first of all, it was one of the things that brought me and my mother together. My mother used to say that on their first date, they went to a restaurant, a little restaurant, because Dad was on Broadway at that time doing Roberta. And he took her to this little restaurant and they sat down and they started talking, trying to get to know each other. And they discovered that they both like golf and that they both played these public courses. And so she said at the end of the meal she wished she had the tablecloth because they had written in pen or the different golf holes and how their approaches were and where the ball landed and that tree over there. And so that was one of the things that really brought them together. And throughout their life, they loved golf. And in fact, I remember as a kid, we used to have to spend our Sundays playing golf, which was not to nine and 10 year old kids.
Speaker The favorite thing we would rather listen to the radio when they had some great shows on Sunday afternoon, but not us.
Speaker We were dressed in our little golf outfits and we had our golf bags and we went around and it was endless because dad, you know, would sneak out and play golf as much as he could. When he was shooting a film, he’d try to con the director some way to get something to do with the lighting and get the lighting guy to take more time to do the set up and all of that. But he loved he loved it. And he I can’t tell you how many dinners were filled with conversations about golf between he and my mother, or he would have played with Ben Hogan one day or with Arnold Palmer. And they would tell him that if he’d turn the club just slightly this way or that way, that he’d have better success. And so he tried it neat and then he would go on about how it was so great. And then somehow or another a week later, he he lost that and he was on to something else. But it was something that he loved and hated at the same time. And, you know, he has some great jokes about golf, and I hate. How so? Well, because it’s a kind of game. One minute you’re Tiger Woods and you’re hitting great shots and all of that. And another moment you’re the other side of Tiger Woods. And I guess the one great service Tiger Woods has done for golf is to let people that are everyday average golfers know that there are ups and downs. And in days when you have pain and days when you’re elated. And I think that’s what a golfer is. I have met very few golfers that are always satisfied with the way they play.
Speaker It’s always a challenge to play with presidents to.
Speaker Oh, he did. He played with practically all of them. I mean, he would have probably to play with all of them.
Speaker I think Dad played with most of all the presidents and certainly not Roosevelt, but the you know, Eisenhower was a great friend and a golfing partner. And down in Palm Springs after Eisenhower retired, they played a lot together. And Gerald Ford was another great golfing buddy and a great foil for a lot of the jokes that he did at that time. But playing with with President Ford.
Speaker But he I think he played with Jack Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. I’ve seen pictures of him at the White House, the putting green. And so they all President Bush, senior Bush. And in fact, we have pictures of dad with one of his. Golf tournaments with the presidency and President Ford.
Speaker Clinton and.
Speaker Jim Bush, yeah, and dad, that was the foursome.
Speaker And is it relaxing for him, was it an escape for him? Oh, yeah, no, it was a challenge of playing against someone else.
Speaker No, it was a relaxation for him. And but it was also he loved the challenge of it, too. And, you know, wherever he could and whenever he could, he got to weigh in. And if nothing more than just hitting golf balls at a driving range. He loved that.
Speaker So let’s move ahead just a little bit to talk about his days on Broadway and what that meant to him, not too much.
Speaker He was pretty much of a man that was in the present. I mean, he always had so much stuff going on and so many things. I mean, sometimes I remember he would be doing a film, doing a radio show, doing a television show. You know, they there were times when all of that stuff happened, seemingly at the same time. I mean, it wasn’t realistically exactly at the same time, but there was perhaps on one hand doing another. And then he would sneak in a few dates here and there where he would travel and, you know, entertain at a college or it’s a, you know, a. Tractor convention was it’s funny looking at his joke files, there’s every there are all categorized and every topic you could possibly think of, there are jokes for.
Speaker Somebody working that hard today, they would call them a workaholic. How would you characterize his approach to life in that regard?
Speaker I think dad was probably a workaholic. I think that he loved his work, he, you know, kept strange hours, you know, for a.
Speaker An entertainer, not strange, probably, but, you know, he was not an early riser except when he was fishing, that was his other thing that he loved to do was fish, oddly enough. And he used to, as we were growing up, would rent a boat and we’d all go on these fishing slash golf trips up in Canada where there were plentiful fish. And also he would be able to work in nine holes of golf. And those were our vacation times. But he was not an early riser and, you know, usually up around noon and, you know, busy from then he would get in his golf. And he was not he didn’t really do exercise as such, but he did keep in shape by walks. He loved to walk. And he you know, every night he walked, he believed firmly in massage and he had a massage every day as much as he could. I mean, sometimes that didn’t happen, but usually he had a massage set up. And, you know, I think that kept his circulation good even right till the end.
Speaker He had the massages and.
Speaker But he knew how to relax, he had a great facility, you would sit on the plane with him and he’d be out in a minute and he’d sleep for 20 minutes in a half hour or something like that. And then he’d wake up and he was refreshed and he’d go in. He usually carried a like a little attaché case with his jokes and his material that he was working on or whatever projects sometimes a book in there. But usually it was his material and the stuff the writers had sent him, and then he would edit and pick out the stuff he thought was going to work.
Speaker Let’s talk about let’s go back to that vacation a little bit more vacations, an opportunity for you to see a different side of Bob Hope. And what kind of a guy would you be on vacation with?
Speaker Well, Dad, on vacation was something else. I mean, he he enjoyed his time away from all of the stuff that he had at home going on. But he managed to always it it always seemed that he didn’t go into a dining room at a hotel or any of the places that we would go that he wouldn’t cause a stir. People recognized him and he was always on for those people. And then he’d come back and he’d tell stories and to the family. And he was. You know, he he enjoyed his time, I always loved him without his jokes, so to speak, without the the prepared jokes, because I loved some of his observations of people and things. I mean, after he would be up talking and whatever to a little group that might have come by the table or something, he would then, you know, make some comments. But nothing mean or whatever, but something like I bet they’re really enjoying their vacation in some kind of sort of insightful thing and sometimes kind of humorous. And I just it’s hard to really say, you know, how he was, but he was involved. And then he brought us that involvement in a way and made us feel part of it, not like we had to, you know, stop while he was doing his thing and then come back. It all seemed to flow seamlessly. And it was interesting time with him.
Speaker He was not on that. He was just yeah.
Speaker He was just dad. I mean, and I love those times with him. And, you know, especially growing up around the meal time and the table, I was telling you about breakfast, but at dinner, too, when we were younger, he used to have a routine where he would knock, we’d hear a knock and it would be him under the table. We later found out, but and he’d say, I wonder who that is. And he’d get up and go to the window, which had curtains that hung to the floor. And he would part the curtains. Not too much, just a little bit. And then he would do a falsetto voice and say, Hello, Mr. Hope.
Speaker How are you tonight? This is Bessie, I’ve come to see you and I’d like to see Linda and Tony.
Speaker And then my dad would say, Well, Bessie, this is very late. You know, it’s seven thirty. It’s eight o’clock. It’s dark out. You should be home. Aren’t your parents worried about you?
Speaker Oh, no, Mr. Hope. They’re happy that I came to see Bob Hope and he would do this whole thing.
Speaker And then, of course, we were clamoring to get up and my mother would give us a look like sit down and say because she was the one that did all the table manners and all of that. And so he would leave and we’d say, Dad, Dad, we want to see Bessie. We want to meet her. She can come and play. No, no. He said she had to go home. It was too late. You know, she had schoolwork to do. And, you know, he would make up a whole scenario. But this went on for a year or more. And finally we caught on to what what was what was going on. And we Tony and I made a pact. We’d never let dad know that we knew what he was doing because we loved it so much. It was such fun.
Speaker That’s true. You started to talk a bit about how your mom and dad met, but tell us the story. How did they meet? And what was she doing at the time, what was.
Speaker When mother and dad met, Dad was in Roberta and, you know, had gotten some very nice reviews and the show was doing very well. And George Murphy, one of the co-stars are stars of Roberta, said to Dad, you know, would you like to go out and hear Pretty Girl sing? And that was great for my dad. He was certainly up for that. And so after the show, they went to this little club, a little nightclub, the very sort of elegant little place and. My dad walked in and my mother was singing It’s only a paper moon, and as he said, it was love at first song. And he he, I think, was kind of smitten and so they talked a little bit and then she sang some more and and. Anyway, he invited her to come to see his show, and my mother said she thought he was a chorus boy and so she and her mother went to a matinee and. She was she said she couldn’t believe that he was, you know, the juvenile lead and afterward she went back to see him and she was so embarrassed and she said, you know, why didn’t you tell me? And he said, well, you saw.
Speaker And and so she came around a couple of times after her show was over and he would wait for something and they had a few dates.
Speaker I told you about one of them and the first date. And then dad had also gotten a little Scotty. And it was a small puppy and he had gotten it, I think is sort of date bait for the girls, that the chorus girls would always look and want to know where the little puppy was. But the puppy wasn’t very interested in the girls. The puppy would hide under Daddy’s little couch that he had in his dressing room. And the little little Scotty didn’t want to have anything to do with the girl’s mother. Came back stage one night and apparently the little Scotty came out and, you know, fell in love with her and she fell in love with the little Scotty. And so their love of dogs and I can’t remember a minute that we didn’t have at least a couple of dogs around. And so they that was another thing that they shared. And so after the dates, you know, I think he was very smitten with her and she had a thing to an engagement in Florida or something and. She apparently gave him a little ring that her father had given her on her 13th birthday and that little ring he kept and they sort of agreed that they were going to get married when when he came, she came back. And so that’s pretty much what happened.
Speaker And they’re like a great proposal story.
Speaker Not really. I don’t think there was a big proposal story. I think it was just something that he you know, we fell in love and he was determined he was going to marry this girl. And he spoke to my grandmother. And my grandmother was a little bit hesitant saying, you know what these show business types are like. And but she wasn’t having it. And so that was that was pretty much it.
Speaker And I understand this a little. No one’s quite sure exactly when they got married.
Speaker Yeah. I’m not sure exactly when it was. I mean, I suppose one could check records or something, but she they got married and I think Pennsylvania someplace. Erie, Pennsylvania, I think. And but because he was traveling, you know, after Roberta finished, then he went back to vaudeville and she became his girl singer. And so they traveled and they were on the road a lot and.
Speaker You know.
Speaker Until we came along, I think she was very happy singing and being with her, her husband, and let’s talk about when you all came, a long established course that they chose to adopt. Yeah. You were adopted from where? Yeah.
Speaker They realized after a while that they weren’t able to have children and.
Speaker You know, I think, though, all the fertility stuff that they have now, it certainly wasn’t back in nineteen thirty nine when I was born was not something that happened at that time. And they were talking to George Burns and Gracie Allen, who were good friends of theirs, and they had adopted some children from this place in Evanston, Illinois, called The Cradle. And so.
Speaker They decided to go back there and they took the train back and went there and.
Speaker It came I think they came back here and they checked them out and all of that, and then not too much longer from that time when they made the first trip, they I wasn’t there, of course, but they got a call from this woman that ran the cradle of Mrs. Walrath, who’s since deceased, but.
Speaker And that was news that I was available, so they came back and they went back to Evanston and got me and came back here on the train and shortly thereafter they got a.
Speaker I don’t know a real estate person or something that showed them this house in the valley, not a house, but this property, which was a Walnut Grove at the time.
Speaker And so they loved it and they bought the property and built a house on it. But not before Dad had actually come out earlier to do the big broadcast of 38.
Speaker And my mother tells a story that she.
Speaker Was that a beauty parlor and, you know, with every intention that they were going back to New York because he had a good career going in the theater and would be able to continue working, and she had friends and all of that. This was not a permanent move out here. They came to do this one picture and then.
Speaker She was at the beauty parlor and the lady said, oh, congratulations. She said, I hear you joined Lakeside. What? She said that dad had joined Lakeside Golf Club. And so she went back and said to him, What’s that? I heard that you joined Lakeside. And he said, Oh, yeah, I thought that be good. And Paramount offered me, you know, I don’t know how many five picture deal or something. So he said, we’re going to be out here for a while. So that was and then they found the property and built this house.
Speaker So obviously a lovely experience with you and three more children, three more a brother, Tony, came along the next year.
Speaker He was almost exactly a year younger than I was.
Speaker And then about eight years later, Nora and Kelly came along. So they had a little different upbringing than we did, Tony, you know.
Speaker So let’s talk a little bit from a child’s point of view. What what are the dynamics you saw between your mother and your father? How did that relationship.
Speaker Well, it was interesting. Golf, of course, was a constant topic. Every meal we would have a few minutes devoted to golf, either one of their golf games or something they heard relative to golf or some golf related something. Then we also had weight was also an issue. Dad was always, you know, he was traveling a lot and eating kind of hotel food and banquet food and that sort of thing.
Speaker And so we hear nutrition tales and stories. And my mother always tried to have a balanced meal with meat in the vegetable, in a salad and, you know, a dessert and all of that, but.
Speaker It was, you know, they.
Speaker You could tell that they had a lot of common interests, you could also tell when they were, you know, not happy with each other and a lot of that had to do with my mother spending money on furniture, furnishings for the house and things like that that he didn’t think he could afford at the time. And, you know, there was a lot of that sort of stuff that I’m sure goes on in most households and. It was we also spent a good portion of of almost every meal that he was home he would do, he would try his jokes out on us.
Speaker And so we were kind of the first I’m sure it was mainly my mother, but I guess whenever there was a small group together, dad was always on and ready to perform. So he would do the jokes and, you know, we’d laugh. Some of them we would probably wouldn’t understand. And others, you know, at certain points, it got to be, you know, tedious to have to listen to jokes. Looking back, I think I sort of wish I was there again in those days and, you know, could remember a little bit more of it, but.
Speaker It was.
Speaker It was an interesting growing up, and then when he would travel, he would tell us about some of his trips and.
Speaker You know, the World War two stuff, we were still pretty young, and one time he brought he.
Speaker The soldiers, as he would travel, would give him sometimes a firearm and sometimes, you know, spent shells and shells that people had painted on and all kinds of souvenirs, and he would have them, you know, out on a table so he could see them and ask about stuff. And he would tell us sometimes a story connected with it or how somebody gave it to him and and.
Speaker So it was very, very interesting, but in terms of them together, they.
Speaker I think my mother almost had a better sense of humor than he did, they were perfectly I mean, the repartee between the two of them was I used to enjoy it a lot because they he would give it to her and she turn around and give it right back to him and, you know, it would sort of escalate. And it was very funny in relationship evolve change over the years.
Speaker I think probably it did, yeah, I think that.
Speaker You know, he they both started to love Palm Springs, they had friends that went down there, and then eventually they bought in the early 40s, probably a house down there, small little house. And we would go down there on weekends and they would enjoy playing golf with friends. And they always had quite a few friends and they they enjoyed. You know, going out to dinner with friends, you go over to people’s homes and that sort of thing, but.
Speaker I think, you know, I think at a certain point they they started not really drifting apart, but.
Speaker I don’t know if he got busier, he seemed to be busier and busier and more on the road and all of that, and she was involved in a lot of charitable things and church things.
Speaker And so the little bit, I would say.
Speaker You know, seem to be more going their separate ways and doing their own lives in a way, but in a way I shouldn’t say that because I wasn’t really home during a large part of it.
Speaker I went away to college and then after that I went and I lived in Europe for a number of years.
Speaker And so it was, you know, I, I don’t that part of their lives was not something that was really current for me and.
Speaker I mean, I’d get letters from them and Dad was a great postcard writer. He loved write postcards. And so I, I wish I had kept them now in hindsight, but he would write from wherever and he used to call me Blondie. So dear Blondie, I did just a couple of lines and but I’m thinking of you or you’d love this or something like that. And so he did keep in touch and he did while I was living in Europe. I would get calls from him all the time.
Speaker And he wasn’t much of a real letter writer. But, you know, in my mother I’d hear from more frequently.
Speaker But you quoted often talking about you wish you would have been home more when you were growing up. How do you feel about that?
Speaker I feel that that was probably true because he was such fun when he was home. I mean, it was like having, you know, I don’t know, another good friend and, you know, somebody that you could play with and have fun with. And, you know, I think I miss that part of it. And.
Speaker But he was I mean, I would say that he was a real presence in my life and something that.
Speaker I felt someone I felt very close to and then later on when I produced the shows and actually worked for him, I got to see another side of him, which was interesting because it were actually worked out fine.
Speaker But I wasn’t. I had gone to school in Paris to this. Edek, it was called the amnesty to DTT Cinematographic that that took me almost a year to learn to say, but anyway, I was interested more in documentaries and that sort of thing. And so I went around the world doing a film about mothers and daughters or mothers and children. And I think that was probably trying to find answers of myself about that, because, you know, in many ways I got on better with my dad than with my mother, I. He was more relatable to me and, you know, I go to him and talk to him sometimes about things that were bothering me or whatever, and he always he always listened and, you know, had advice and and.
Speaker So I was.
Speaker I felt when I was working for him, you know, I had to put myself in. Not the dad things, so that I wouldn’t feel if he yelled or something, he yelled at me, but he yelled at other people too. And, you know, he had an expectation that I would do things in a way that he would like them done and all of that.
Speaker But, you know, toward the end of his.
Speaker Best memories of visiting him on a movie set.
Speaker As a kid, oh, I’ll never forget we went to see him, he was doing a picture called Princess and the Pirate and he had a huge big beard, big black.
Speaker He was a pirate and a big black beard in a costume and all of that and. I remember, you know, sitting on his knee and feeling this beard because when he’d come home at night, he didn’t have it and it was it was strange. And I kept saying, Dad, what worse? And then when he come home and he wouldn’t have the beard, I couldn’t quite figure that out. And then, you know, we were four, maybe five, something like that.
Speaker And.
Speaker I think we went on location with him. On that particular picture, and it was fun going, you know, it was some lake nearby that they shot the some of the exteriors and it was. I know it was just magic, it was really it was fun and, you know, we always used to try to go at least once or twice while he was shooting a picture.
Speaker My mother would take us and we’d go and spend time.
Speaker And that’s when I realized what a boring job.
Speaker And it’s it’s that moment where you kind of figured out your dad was somebody.
Speaker Yeah, actually, it wasn’t on a movie set, but it was we were after Dad did his radio shows on a Tuesday night, we would go to the Brown Derby a lot of times to have dinner. And, you know, we’d talk about the show and what was going on at school. And all of a sudden one evening we were. Stopped in and somebody had come to the table and were talking, telling us this man had a little kid in his arm.
Speaker And.
Speaker I thought, why are they interrupting us? We’re having dinner when we’re home, we don’t have interruptions except for Bessey, but. This is this is kind of strange in that he’s brought this kid and then the little boy had a holster of, you know, a little toy gun in a holster western kind of thing. And the father said, Bob, can we have your autograph? And they took the holster off the undid the belt with the holster and gave the holster to dad to to sign with the pen. And I thought, isn’t this weird? Why would this little boy have to take his nice new holster off to get this man’s writing on it? And when the little boy got it back, he looked at it and he said, get it off.
Speaker And I thought it was such a strange thing.
Speaker And why would dad be writing on this boy’s holster, writing his name on, you know, didn’t make any sense to me. And afterward I said, Dad, why did you write that? Or Daddy, why did you write that on that boy’s holster? And he said, well, he wanted to have my autograph. And I said, what’s an autograph? And he said, We write your name for people and kind of explain that, you know, he was in movies and all of that, which I understood. And he said the people like to have that for a souvenir. And then he explained about a souvenir. And so that’s that’s my memory of when I realized, you know, that he was something. Something big.
Speaker Um, what are your memories of the very first TV show that he did?
Speaker Well, we had in our living room a TV set that looked kind of like a fishbowl, and I think it was an old Dumont’s set and the screen wasn’t much bigger than about like that. And we all used to sit down and watch the the programs, the other programs that were on.
Speaker And.
Speaker I remember we didn’t go to the set to what I mean to the television studio. We watched it from home and I don’t remember whether it was that he was there watching it with us or whether it was just televised directly. I probably that’s what it was. And he wasn’t even there. And I just thought it was amazing that there he was and doing what he did.
Speaker Do you have any memories of being nervous to do this for the first time because it’s such a different medium for him?
Speaker Oh, no, I wasn’t I didn’t feel that. I mean, I felt he was he talked a little bit about feeling he didn’t really think television was too great, although we would have certain nights where we’d watch boxing on television that he liked and Sid Caesar he loved and we’d all get together and watch Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca, but. You know, he consumed television, I mean, he once he got into it, he really liked it. But I don’t remember necessarily hearing him say he was nervous about TV and basically he did the same show that he did in vaudeville. I mean, his television specials had were kind of a formula type thing that had worked for him. He did his monologue and then he did, you know, a couple of sketches. And then he had a girl singer, voice singer, and, you know, then he wrapped it up and did his thanks for the memory. And it was kind of a formula that he had done and we’d heard hundreds of times and radio shows. And so this wasn’t that much different from it.
Speaker There was a story I read that he used his top hat.
Speaker Uh, hi, Roberta. Good luck on that broadcast. What do you remember?
Speaker Well, I remember that he said that when.
Speaker Fred MacMurray, I guess it was, was coming out to Hollywood, he told us that.
Speaker Fred didn’t have a top hat, and everybody, I guess, needed to have a top hat when they auditioned or I don’t know, some, but for some reason, Dad gave Fred his top hat. And when Dad finally came out because he had a couple of times where he did screen tests and stuff in New York, and I think he made some shorts there, but he never was a big star. Fred MacMurray, who was also in Roberta, came out and he became pretty much a leading man and a big star quite quickly. And so when Dad finally arrived at Paramount and Fred Murray was there doing a film, he went over to Fred’s dressing room and knocked on the door. And he said, well, here I am. You know, do you have my top hat? But. That that was what I remember about that.
Speaker That’s great. Um. Many things have been written about Bob’s friendship with Ben. What do you remember about that friendship?
Speaker Well, I remember that I met Bing in his first wife, Dixie, and they were in those boys we were friendly with and grew up with and I remember, you know, talking to them and they didn’t have it easy. He was pretty stern, father, and had great expectations for them. And I know he used to take them to a ranch in Elko, Nevada, where they worked and did a lot of heavy, hard work and all of that. And but I think Bing felt that would be a good balance from the Hollywood life and all of that. Also, unfortunately, in his first wife, Dixie had some problems with alcohol and and was alcoholic and, you know, being bad a lot of the time and not really a present mother for them and.
Speaker You know, she died.
Speaker And I remember that my mother was, you know, very sad and dad was too, but, you know, I never remember relating, particularly being is, you know, he would come to the house or we’d go over there to their house. And their house was very formal in a way and not. Warm this house was, you know, a lot of fun and a lot of lively. Still a lot of life going on, and, you know, particularly the writers would be here all the time, and I love those writers, some of those early guys, I just they were like fathers to me in a way. I mean, they’d spend a lot of time and talk. And Mortlock and I just adored and Larry Gelbart and, you know, some of them were just really terrific men and they weren’t sure they would work sometimes in my dad’s office. And sometimes they just sit outside on the patio when they talk with dad and talk about what was going on in the news. I think they would have loved all this Trump business. But anyway, it would have given them certainly fodder. And they just my mother, when we were very young, didn’t want us to I don’t know what she was thinking about, but she because the house was pretty big and it was. You know, there wasn’t a confined kind of yard, so she built like this huge, I don’t know, play area for us with a little picket fence around it. And it was big. And, you know, we could ride our bicycles in there and all of that and the riders would come, I remember and watch us while we were, you know, playing and or they’d come up and they’d start talking. And so I always had a great fondness for them.
Speaker It’s going to be fun writing sessions where they all having a good time.
Speaker Yeah, I think, you know, it was business, but it was fun and they were always trying to top each other. He really believed in competition. And so they often, you know, they they tried to top each other. They’d come in and they were always really excited when some of their jokes would be the ones the dad would, you know, pick is the final jokes. And so he knew how to work them really well. I think, you know, he started out with just one or two. And then finally, it got to be as many when he was doing so much with the radio and the films, the need to have the writers come in, I think much to the writers of films, horror come in and punch up his part. And it was.
Speaker It was something but.
Speaker And back to being for a moment, do you have any memories of being on the set of one of the road pictures and what were the dynamics between the two of those guys on the set?
Speaker Well, the dad would talk about it and tell stories about how he and being and I think it was probably him, dad most of all that initiated these things, but they would try to get the particularly the lighting guys lined up and say, you know, we want to we’ve got to tee off time at Lakeside at one o’clock. So once you guys get back from lunch, you know, we’re not going to be there.
Speaker So just, you know, fool around with the lighting and and all of that till we get there. And they would do a fast nine holes of golf and get back or not even nine holes, whatever it was.
Speaker But they both loved golf. And I think that was a big thing that, you know, you didn’t have to talk all the time. And in those days you walk, there weren’t carts and all of that and you had a caddy. And so I know that that was something that they both loved and they were highly competitive. And when I know when Bing bought a baseball team, he bought a part of the Pittsburgh Pirates, I believe. And Dad felt compelled then. And he went back to Cleveland, which was his hometown, and bought a part of the Cleveland Indians in the south at a thing going with that. And so, you know, there was there was a good competition between the two of them, but they were very, very different types. I mean, Bing was at least how I perceived him. He was kind of on the quiet side, not very interested in relating, particularly to young people. It I know one summer dad was making a picture in England, it was a road picture, one of the last road pictures, and so they decided that they would get a big house in the country. In this house belonged to a Lord Duveen who was a art collector and all of that. So the house was very fancy. And and the Crosby’s had like one floor and we had another floor. And I was away at school. But I we came and spent the summer there and being had remarried to Catherine Crosby and.
Speaker She was expecting I’m not sure I think it was the second child. But I’m not sure why it might have been the third, but anyway.
Speaker So it was something living in the house with him and he was very proper and kind of. I don’t know, I get it kind of elegant in a way, dad was more down to earth than you would see the fun and things and being was pretty straight. And then he would have his dinner and then he’d go off and I don’t know what he did. But anyway, it was stupid. I think in a way they were close because I remember when Bing died and Dad got word he was in New York and it was the one of the few times that he ever canceled his show and. You know, my mother told me that that thing had died, and at that point I was working for dad and doing development and I remember I said, I’ll go pick Dad up. And so we went to the Burbank Airport and there was a lot of press around and all of that. And I felt very protective. And I know that he was very sad. And at the same time, he said, you know, what a way to go because Bing died on the golf course. And it was so even, you know, and is his sorrow about losing his friend and all of that, he still saw the brighter side of it. But it’s a great story.
Speaker Yeah. Um, did you ever see your dad emotional?
Speaker Not no. That was one time.
Speaker No, I think you spent a lot of his life not allowing himself to be emotional because he realized that in order to do what he had to do with the troops and go into those hospital wards and see these poor fellows badly mangled and some of them close to death and deal with real life and death situations.
Speaker He realized very early on that they didn’t want pity these people, they they were suffering, but they wanted relief from that and they wanted a feeling of contact with home, which was much more difficult thing in those early days because of transportation and how things changed from then to today.
Speaker It’s amazing, but. I think that that.
Speaker He steeled himself and he knew how to do that, and he used to tell Frances Langford was telling us I.
Speaker In fact, in this very room, we shot this memories of World War Two and Frances Langford was telling stories in, one of the things she was saying was how Dad went to her and she was in a burn ward or something, and she was singing some song that was a favorite song of the day. And she said she just felt herself overwhelmed and, you know, brought to tears by the fact this young man was dying. And this was a song that he wanted to hear and all of that. And Dad called her out. Outside and said this is not what this is about, it’s not about you, Francis, it’s about this young man and he needs you for this moment to be his girlfriend or his wife or whatever. And it is a story that I’ve heard over and over for Phyllis Diller. You know, a lot of the women particularly that traveled with him would tell you that he spoke to them before and said, you’re going to see a lot of really tough stuff and you’ve got to get past it. This is a performance that you have to do. You can feel sad on your own time, but you you’ve got to suck it up and do it. And I think it was it.
Speaker It was part of who he was, in a way, he became that I mean, he came from a British family. The Brits are not overly demonstrative to begin with. And then I think that.
Speaker Knowledge of the mission that he was on and he felt very much that that was something that he was meant to do and. You know, I think that that allowed him to that distance in not allowing himself to really feel emotional.
Speaker Was was something like, you know, it was it colored his life in a lot of ways. And, you know, I know when I got married and he was we took the car from here to the church, which was nearby, and he said, you really want to do this? You know, I was just in the car with him and I said, Yeah, Dad, I think so. It’s it’s time and all of that. And he said, Well. You said, I remember, you know, I remember you was the little little person and I said, Yeah, and I said, we all grow up, don’t we? And you know, he said, well, I just want you to be happy. And he was very sweet and he was kind of emotional and. You know, several, several times like that, you know, later in life is he lost some good friends, he would allow himself to feel a little bit more, but.
Speaker That’s that’s interesting.
Speaker Yeah, so let’s go back in time just a little bit, um. Who was Jeremy Colonus?
Speaker What did he mean to your jury meant a lot to all of us, actually, but he meant the jury cloner meant a lot to to our whole family. We were very close with the colonial family and jury at his son, Robert John, and shortened to RJ. And we all kind of grew up together. But he was just a wonderful character and very warm and kind of a Fuzhou and funny. And he played the trombone, I believe. And, you know, he went on some of these harrowing trips with my dad. And I know my mother and Flo Cloner were very good friends and. It I think it was a big help to my mother to have to have flow there and somebody that was going through the same kind of experiences of being afraid and hearing, you know, weeks after the thing happened. No, Bob was in a plane that was, you know, shot down or they shot at the plane and they, you know, all of these horror stories which didn’t get there right away. You know, some of these things were weeks and getting back to my mother. So she was always very kind of tense or nervous during those times when he was away. And flow is a great, great help to her, and Jerry was just fun, we used to go to their house all the time. They lived not too far away from here. And he was just like, you see them in the in the films. And Dad Dad really loved him. And I remember when Jerry was dying and he got Jerry into the motion picture home and he used to go out there and I went out with him sometimes to visit Jerry.
Speaker And that was one of the times that was hard for him to see his friend go when I see them together film it strikes with their two little kids.
Speaker Yeah, having a ball is that it was really like that. They just and they tried to top each other and they were funny.
Speaker I don’t know much about who Jerry Colonna was, whether whether he was a star of any magnitude or whatever, but he was sure a great he and my dad worked really well together and they were fun and and they were like two kids.
Speaker Um.
Speaker I read a number of people talk about how generous people could be as a person. Mm hmm. Uh, oftentimes generous, but wouldn’t take credit or wouldn’t. Boast about it. What are your memories of him being generous family stories you can share with us?
Speaker Well, I think I’m going to stop for a second here.
Speaker OK, got it.
Speaker OK, OK, good. So any examples of them being generous with people like Private Label?
Speaker I mean, we know how much, you know, actually privately he was very generous and I remember all the time he would say to me things like, see that they get something, you know, let’s get it. Tell the accountant to write a check and send to so-and-so and not ever making a fuss or making anything at all about giving something to somebody and and always doing it in a way that he taught me a lot about giving in a way that not to make the person feel beholding to you, not to do it in any way that would embarrass. Somebody that you were giving something to do to help them and, you know, he had families and people like he had a caddy at Lakeside that had, I don’t know, five or six kids. And they all converted to to be Catholic. And my mother was the booty call godmother. I guess of all these kids, sadly, none of them turned out very well. But anyway, the.
Speaker And he used to support them and give, you know, when he’d be Grant would be his caddy, dad would give them extra money and, you know, knowing that he had the family to support and all of that. And kind of probably looking the other way that he had a drinking problem, too, but aside from that, you know, he do that a lot.
Speaker Both of my parents did that.
Speaker A lot of benefits to a lot of benefits for him. Well, it was it was a good thing for him and a lot of ways because people would ask him to do these benefits and he’d turn up and, you know, would.
Speaker He meet people and he make fans, he was creating his own fan base in a way a lot of these things were while he enjoyed doing them, and lots of times people would send plane for him or, you know, do something that that benefited him more than what the benefit actually did. I mean, he he would either meet somebody that was important to him later in his life or make a contact. And, you know, it was it was very interesting because he he was very clever about his business. And I think that he used one medium to sort of sell the other one, like when he was doing his his shows, radio shows, particularly during the war, he would move around from base to base and people would begin to know who he was. And it just it was. In a way, it helped him build his audience. It gave him an opportunity to do that, and then he would relate to the people that he was talking to, the guys. And when they came home, you know, he had an audience there. They remembered that he had come over there to see them. And and so when they came back, they went to see him at his movies and listened to his radio programs and that sort of thing.
Speaker And today they call that brand.
Speaker I think they do. But he did that and he had just an innate sense of all of that. Nobody told him there was no school that he went to where he learned that he just learned it and he had a good instinct.
Speaker Yeah, um, let’s talk about a time that was a bit difficult for you. Let’s talk about the Vietnam era. Uh huh. What are your memories of that and what were the challenges that he found there for the first time, probably in his career?
Speaker Yeah, people often ask about dad in Vietnam. And first of all, I wasn’t living here in the States at that time. I was living in Paris. So when you spoke about Vietnam to the French, they had been there for, I think like 20 years and they thought we were nuts for being over there to begin with. So when I would come home for the holidays or, you know, some time for vacation or whatever, you know, I realized that dad was in the midst because I was at the age where, you know, my friends were out protesting or they were kind of nat or something started again. You know, I was in an age where my friends were the guys that were either enlisting or running to Canada or trying any way they could to get out of going to serve. My brothers served was in the Air Force and my other brother was in the Navy.
Speaker And, you know, so I, you know, had a respect for those people that served. And I had an understanding of those people that felt that they couldn’t serve, that they didn’t believe in it. They didn’t.
Speaker They just felt that it wasn’t the right garbage again. Yeah.
Speaker You probably should have done this on Thursday or something would have been something else, you know.
Speaker John, just yeah, I think we should put some awful some it. I don’t think you’ll get them. I have them at home, too. I don’t know what they are.
Speaker OK, so pick up again with the Vietnam era.
Speaker You know, the Vietnam days were difficult and I wasn’t really living here, I was living in Paris and people there thought we were nuts because they had had 20 years of the Vietnamese and they realized that it was not a winnable situation.
Speaker And when I would come home, I found it strange because I you know, some of my friends, guys that I’d gone out with were in the service. Others of them had gone up to Canada. And, you know, and I found my friends were divided about how they felt about all of this. And I have to say, I was kind of conflicted as well.
Speaker And, you know, I saw the dad was having a hard time and that he would people would be protesting. And I tried to make some sense of it. Sorry, I tried to make some sense of it and tried to understand what was going on and to try to look at a bigger picture and. You know, I was sorry for what he was going through because he had always been at the top of his game, he was always, you know, cocky and he was always, you know, nothing seemed to faze him. And he had that kind of attitude that we all know with that sort of persona and underneath. I could see that, you know, it was getting to him in a kind of way and interestingly getting to him in a way that wasn’t necessarily what I expected it was because. You know, he he when he would go on those trips from everything that I’ve learned and from writers and all of that, he would spend some time with the guys.
Speaker But he would also spend a lot of time behind the scenes, the generals and the the top brass kind of guys always wanted to spend time with them and do relate to him.
Speaker And he.
Speaker Got to hear their side of it and to kind of sum it up a little bit.
Speaker He felt they should go in and bomb the hell out of them and get it over with because he saw these young men lying in the hospitals and he saw them hurting out in the fields. And, you know, there was a lot of drugs going on in those times. And he saw the change in what was happening inside these people. And he wanted this to be over. He wanted desperately for it to be over. And he spoke, you know, a lot of times and people would pick up on the sort of hawkish part of it.
Speaker And I don’t think it was really a hawkish thing that that he had to start.
Speaker I don’t think yeah.
Speaker I don’t think it was really a hawkish thing.
Speaker I think that it was more a thing that he wanted more than anything for this war to be over. And every year that he would go back, it just kept getting, I think, more. Unbearable in a way, for them that this many more people were being killed, this many more people were being hurt and their lives have been forever changed. And and I think that was the real big part of it for dad. He saw the human side of it and.
Speaker You might because you can’t see it from here, probably, but there’s a little fly that keeps going around. I want to take a minute and see if I don’t know that you can, but you could try.
Speaker We’re doing a number of historians have suggested that he had become the establishment, whereas he was irreverent in the old days, that he’d become the establishment and was getting out of touch with the guys.
Speaker How do you feel about that?
Speaker I think there was a little bit of truth to the fact that Dad got out of touch with what was going on with these young men and.
Speaker You know, I had a brother in law actually at the time who served and was, you know, I think like a second lieutenant or something from the ROTC that went over to Vietnam and he would come home and try to talk to my dad. And they did not see eye to eye at all. And you could see the dad was listening to these mainly generals and a higher up the brass kind of people and hearing their side more than he heard the side of the guys.
Speaker In the mess halls and the guys that he used to relate so closely to and. I don’t know exactly.
Speaker Why that happened, because I remember dad for years and years, I say to him, well, Dad, how are you going to vote this year?
Speaker And he really always voted for the man that he like the best is, is the president. He was not a Republican or a Democrat. And he would take great pride in being able to play both sides of the aisles. And when people became president, when men became presidents, they were happy to relate to Bob Hope.
Speaker And I remember Richard Nixon used to call the house and ask for jokes. And that’s not something you’d really think of.
Speaker And Jack Kennedy would call and, you know, there would be, you know, I’d hear either in the office or hear, you know, such and such president as is calling for you.
Speaker And it would be whoever was in at the time. And he enjoyed those people and enjoyed playing golf with them and all of that. But I think just as the people in the White House tend to lose contact with the people that voted them into to office, that very much happened to dad and.
Speaker It’s strange because he did a lot of college shows, you know, granted the kids were not the ones that decided who was going to come and do a college show of benefit or whatever, but he, you know, seemed to relate at that level. But the war was the war was something different. And I know that it bothered him. And I know that he got annoyed when people would say that he was a hawk and they would say things. And it was just because of the information, I guess, that he had at the time that he felt that they should, you know, get out of there and they should go in and be aggressive and all of that and was not thinking of the the little people that might be harmed as collateral damage, they call it now. And all of that, I think.
Speaker You know, it’s hard to know, but I know that it didn’t trouble him, that he didn’t have the.
Speaker The time he wasn’t in touch was with the people that he was entertaining as much, I mean, he brought jokes and the guys laughed and you can see the shows and some of them were some of the highest rated television specials. A lot of that was parents that were hoping to catch sight of their son or but it wasn’t kind of the same thing. And I know when he went for Operation Desert Storm, which is a show that I produced, which was his last USO kind of show. You know, the whole thing was so kind of surreal, he said, you know, he called me at the office and he said this was Operation Desert Storm and, you know, Kuwait had been invaded. And and the senior Bush was sending the troops there. And dad said, call the president, let’s work on getting a plane so we can get over there. And I said, Dad, you know, you’re eighty seven. I think it was at the time. And I said, I think you’ve done your bit. There’s no reason to have to go over there. And he said, yeah, I’ve got to go. I’ve got to go. And, you know, I had memories of the fact that he was not. That well received among the troops, and they they didn’t really know who he was. He didn’t have movies that were playing. And they just and, you know, I guess some of them had seen his television specials and all of that, but he was not at the top of his game at that point. But it was just something that was part of him. He said, if our guys are there, I’m going to be there. And so we got a plane and it had a lot of difficulties that were unique to the Middle Eastern situation and being respectful to their mores and to the the way, you know, we had to select talent that, you know, the all the women had to have their husbands. The only reason I got there was because my father was there protecting me and. You know, though, I produced the show and, you know, I had to deal with a lot of. Problems that that dad was not really necessarily involved with, but when he it was something really quite amazing to see and I had seen this before, when he would work, he’d come home from a trip and he had scheduled himself to do his monologue, say, at five o’clock, usually taped around five or six o’clock, something like that. And he would come in, he would be tired. I’d say, Dad, don’t you think maybe you should go home and we’ll we’ll move the taping till 7:00 or 8:00 or something? Hell, no. He said let’s go. And he would get out there. He’d run the cards with this Barney McNulty, this wonderful cue card guy, and he’d make some little changes and all of that. And he would go out and I watched him work the audience. He did his own kind of warm up and then went into the the monologues and. He just kept getting strength and you could see it actually coming into his body and he then he got on a roll and he was going and he was going. And, you know, it was in the laughter, I think was the kind of adrenaline to him and something that he needed. He really needed it. And I think that that’s one of the reasons why he was the workaholic that he was. He didn’t have to do all of these dates that he did around the country. He didn’t have to you know, oftentimes I’d be in a home working, trying to get his show together. And he’d call me from the road and he’d say, how’s it going and who do we have? And blah, blah, blah. And I said, Dad, I think you need to come home and work with the writers a little bit now. Now, he said, I’ve got him on the phone. He said, I’ll talk to them and we’ll have it all together. You talk to them in. You know, so he just loved the live audience, part of it, and you know that these guys were part of a lot of big live audience, meant a lot to him and that same.
Speaker Uh.
Speaker Energized feeling that he got when he was doing his television programs here at home is something that he got in spades in a way, when he was in front of a big military audience. One time I remember we were in Saudi Arabia and it was very surreal. We’d go out, we do do the show and come back and CNN would be covering what was going on and we’d be in these hotel rooms with gold watch stands and opulent all of this stuff and then go out in the desert. And one time and it was right near the holiday time and my mother would sing my Christmas and they would be up on the back of a truck in the middle of seemingly nowhere. And all of a sudden these guys would come up over a sand dune and you’d have four or five hundred people sitting there in the sand. And so they would do the show. And Dad was amazing and mother would come out and she’d sing White Christmas. And then afterwards she talked to the the fellows and she’d say, Boys, where you from? And they all yelled out Twentynine Palms, which was the Marine base just very close to their house in Palm Springs.
Speaker And so she said to them, now, boys, she said, when you come home.
Speaker You call us and we’re going to have a great yellow ribbon party for you, which was the thing at that time and.
Speaker So that was that we finished and all of a sudden, about a month and a half later, I get a call from this commanding officer of Twentynine Palms and he said, I’m hearing stuff from my guys that said that Bob Hope wanted them to come or Dolores Hope wanted them to come and they wanted to see them. And so I said, let me get back to you. So I called and I spoke to my mother. I said, I know you invited these fellows, but do you really want do you want to see them or should we send them something or do something for them? And she said, no. She said, we want them to come to the house. You ask them to come and bring their wives and children and we’re going to have them for Easter. They did an Easter brunch for, I don’t know, about five hundred guys and their wives. And it was wonderful and they loved it.
Speaker But it was that kind of personal contact the dad seemed to always keep with the troops that he entertained in that they didn’t love him and enjoy him as much as they did in the earlier days, or even I think even by Operation Desert Storm. You know, he was somebody that had come a long distance to entertain them.
Speaker And he was he brought excuse me, he brought Johnny Bench and the Pointer Sisters, I think. And who else, Jim?
Speaker Yeah, and Gillian, Christine Hodge and, you know, they were younger people that they related to and it was somebody making the trip and all of that. So I think that he, you know, had a better feeling than during the Vietnam time.
Speaker That’s interesting. Know a number of people I believe I read you said something like this, but perhaps he stayed around to. How do you feel about that so quickly, so think about that. Yeah.
Speaker OK. To please, we didn’t get. So let’s. Do you think he stayed around too long, you’ve just retired golf.
Speaker I would have hoped that would have been what he did, but he would. Yeah. People often said the dad stayed around too long, that maybe he outlived his his time. And I have to say, is somebody that worked with him up till the very end. I I knew that it was time for him to go, I had spoken with Rick Ludwin at NBC and we both knew that the days were numbered and we had tried to do different types of shows that didn’t require a lot from him. We had a series of shows with young comedians and we did a show laughing with the presidents where there would be other people. He would be in it, but he wouldn’t have to carry the whole thing. And I have to tell you, and I have never said this to anybody before, but.
Speaker I was part of watching the end of somebody with the. An enormous talent and an enormous gift and an enormous passion to share that with people and to see him not being able to do what he knew he could do in the past. His hearing was a real problem for many, many years. He wouldn’t have heard a hearing aid.
Speaker When I’d say, Dad, you’ve got to wear a hearing aid, he’d say, can they hear me? And I said, sure, they can hear you. But that’s not their problem. He said, that is their problem. They can’t hear me. And so he he didn’t you know, he probably could have had a hearing aid. His his hearing, Dr. Audio might get what they call them. But anyway, the guy that did his hearing aids did Ronald Reagan’s hearing aids. And a lot of, you know, VIP people, when I take dad sometimes to the doctor and and to check his hearing and Howard House was his name and he had this House Institute very big in that area. And he would shake his head when dad would come in. And he had a thing to show patients how far hearing aids and things had had expanded. And he had a thing where it was like a hollow thing that he could put up to his ear and it had a tube and the person spoke into it.
Speaker And that’s how he would communicate with dad. And he said, you know, Bob, we’ve come a long way since these days. Speaking into the tube, Dad said, I can hear you great, Howard. And that was it. I mean, he had the fanciest of hearing aids and all of that.
Speaker But at the end of the day, we ended up with an IFB, you know, that fit in the ear. And he could and I would end up giving him the lines. He was a very fast study, even to the very end. He remembered his lines, you know, went over a couple of times.
Speaker We’re all hearing that you’re hearing a little better, a little bit, but I’ve got hearing aids.
Speaker Now it’s going. But his hearing was a major problem and he would have these.
Speaker Yes, ma’am. I don’t know what that is.
Speaker There’s a stop sign right here that doesn’t help either.
Speaker Yes, right, but it’s something that has a beep, beep, beep going to it.
Speaker Everything went backwards and only got a few more.
Speaker OK. So I think we got enough that here. OK, thank you.
Speaker That’s good.
Speaker I’ve looked at just to, uh, yeah, I think we had never met, um. What are your memories of the Kennedy Center Honors in 1985 when I was there?
Speaker This is still going on.
Speaker I was at the Kennedy Center Honors and it was a big deal, Dad was thrilled to be getting that honor and I liked it because it was a pretty award with all the colored ribbons and all of that.
Speaker And but it was, I think, very touching for him and a nostalgic time and a time that brought back wonderful memories.
Speaker And that award meant a lot to him.
Speaker That’s great. Thank you. Um. Why do one quick follow up on the Vietnam era, did it bother him that he got criticism? From the press, from young people.
Speaker Can you hear that little?
Speaker I think the criticism that he got surprised him a lot because he was used to having pretty good reviews most of the time and that people started looking at him in a different kind of light. You know, I think he thought his writers were as good as they’ve ever been. And, you know, so. I think that he got a sense that it was a little more personal and people were not necessarily out to get him, but that they didn’t.
Speaker Did you hear all that noise? That’s OK. OK, I’m more interested in what you’re saying.
Speaker OK, people, I think he felt a little bit like they were, you know, looking at him in a different kind of light in, you know, I don’t think he quite ever understood what it was all about.
Speaker Yeah. Well, I’ve got two more questions. OK. I was shooting some stuff for you.
Speaker Yeah, there’s just one area, it’s it’s both, yeah.
Speaker Yes, OK, but three questions.
Speaker Still there, he is still there. He made a U-turn. Uh.
Speaker At least we don’t have a gardener with one of those blowers, right?
Speaker He’s working around the corner.
Speaker Well, again, thank you. Um, Chevy Chase told me that he was just thrilled that Bob had asked for him to be at the Kennedy Center Honors. Do you know how that happened? No, I don’t. That’s right. So two more questions. Um, we talked about this a little earlier. Um, how does it make you feel when you hear all these stories about the womanizing?
Speaker The stories about the womanizing is something that I’ve been aware of ever since, you know, I was probably in high school, I remember my mother trying to be very protective because confidential magazine had some exposed a story about some woman that he had been involved with. And she told my brother and I, you know, not to listen to those. They’re just stories people make up to sell magazines and all of that.
Speaker So I was kind of aware that something was going on and, you know, it was. I don’t know how I felt in a way, I felt, you know, he’s I guess that’s what guys do and, you know, it just happens.
Speaker He’s a celebrity and it just happens that he’s my dad. And do I wish it hadn’t happened? Yeah, I do. But I think that my mother clearly knew what was going on and she had made her choice to stay with him. She loved him. And I think that he loved her till the very end and that he had a great respect for her and for everything that she did in her life. And being Mrs. Bob Hope had a lot of strings attached and that.
Speaker You know, I saw them together and I saw how they were and I knew that there was a special place in his heart for her, he may have had the other girls.
Speaker And, you know, I know that he did, but it was not. It was not as though he didn’t care for her and that he wasn’t respectful of her and. In fact, if anything, he probably made him even a little more attentive when he did get home and he was with her and they had something special. That that was bigger than whatever these dalliances were, and some of them I know had gone on for a number of years and some of them were shorter lived, some of them were more public. And, you know, what can I say? He had an eye for the women.
Speaker And, you know, I as I got older and was more involved with his life and his business and all of that, I had to deal with some of those situations, which was true.
Speaker It was strange. But, you know, you do what you have to do. And, you know, it didn’t really change my feeling about him. I felt that I had a relationship with him that was special and that was my relationship. And, you know, what he did with other people were that was his deal.
Speaker OK, thank you. That’s good. Yeah. We talked about this first time we met.
Speaker Um, uh, the younger generation doesn’t know who he is. Yeah. How does that make you feel and what is it you would like them to know?
Speaker You know, I am I am very cognizant of the fact that the younger generation doesn’t really know who Bob Hope is, because that’s what I spend a lot of my life doing, is trying to let people know who Bob Hope was, what the best of Bob Hope was.
Speaker And there must have been a reason that he was number one in films and television, radio and personal appearances. And he was a groundbreaker in many different ways. And you can talk to people that are more expert in this field than I am about ways that he changed comedy. And, you know, Richard Zoglin wrote a book just recently about Bob Hope and why he should be recognized more than he is or why he should be recognized. And I think that Richard, you know, really sums up what dad’s country.
Speaker We were so close.
Speaker OK, I think Richard summed up why Dad became the world figure and the huge star that he was, and I I hope that young people have a chance to experience him.
Speaker And what we’re doing to perpetuate his legacy is this foundation that he and my mother started. We’re using those funds to do what they wanted to have done, which is to create a living legacy for them. They weren’t interested in having their names on buildings and that sort of thing. That didn’t matter to dad. Dad cared about people. And so what we’re trying to do, we’re heavily involved in the USO in a reading program that we particularly love because it allows people that are going overseas, being deployed to get a book, read it for their children. We send the videos on to the the kids and they have that for the parent. That’s a way. And it kind of really encapsulated what I think dad meant to all of those people more during the Second World War, but certainly during Korea and Vietnam. I’m sure there were a lot of people that were touched by dad’s visits. And I want people to realize that. But I want them to benefit. And, you know, we just had a thing here about the house and a lot of people were saying, including our councilman, save Bob Hope’s home, and dad didn’t want the home save dad wanted the home sold and mother, too, so that the proceeds would go to their foundation and in turn could continue the work that they wanted to do, which is to help people returning from war and help people that are homeless and people that needed a hot meal. And that’s what they wanted their legacy to be so that somebody might remember them that way. And hopefully they will.
Speaker OK, thank you.
Speaker Oh, yeah. Can we do that? One thing I need to read.
Speaker And John, are you ready? Yes, sir. Thank you.
Speaker Hello, I’m Linda Hope. My dad, Bob Hope, spent his career trying to get through this.
Speaker OK.
Speaker Hello, I’m Linda Hope. My dad, Bob Hope, spent his career entertaining and supporting our military stationed around the world. My parents taught me about the importance of service, especially to our troops, veterans, our military families. That’s why the Bob and Dolores Hope Foundation is proud to partner with Operation Homefront to help our military families remain strong, stable and secure throughout their service. And as they transition into civilian life together, we’re proudly serving America’s military families. Learn more in Operation Homefront Dog.
Speaker How long do you think that took?
Speaker Long time. And next time. OK, I’ll do it one more time. And then they’re on their own.
Speaker Have to fit a particular format because it’s on our website. Oh, ok. Oh, OK.
Speaker Hello, I’m Linda Hope.
Speaker My dad. Oh, incoming.
Speaker How much of this do you want on camera or do you think it’s all it’s all about on camera? Yeah, maybe you should take a paragraph at a time. Just read it, OK? And then look at the camera and then maybe try to repeat it. All right.
Speaker And maybe do it a little bit on the paper. Yeah. So really drop it down slightly. There you go. You get.
Speaker Hello, I’m Linda Hope. My dad, Bob Hope, spent his career entertaining and supporting our military stationed around the world. My parents taught me about the importance of service, especially to our troops, veterans and our military families. That’s why the Bob and Laura’s Hope Foundation is proud to partner with Operation Homefront, to help our military families remain strong, stable and secure throughout their service. And as they transition into civilian life together, we’re proudly serving America’s military families. Learn more at Operation Homefront Dog. I’ll just do that last piece. Learn more at Operation Homefront Dog.
Speaker OK, that’s it for that was shorter one, this isn’t too much longer to be.
Speaker Hello, I’m Linda Hope. My dad, Bob Hope, spent his career entertaining and supporting our military around the world. My parents taught me about the importance of service, especially to our troops, veterans and our military families, because in every military family, everyone serves even down to the youngest child. That’s why the Bob and Dolores Hope Foundation is proud to partner with Operation Homefront to help our military families remain strong, stable and secure throughout their service and as they transition into civilian life. Operation Homefront is a highly rated and trusted national nonprofit because 92 percent of their spending goes directly towards programming.
Speaker I’m sorry.
Speaker I agree this Operation Home Front is a highly rated and trusted national nonprofit because 92 percent of their spending goes directly towards programming that helps military families. Over the past five years, Operation Homefront has provided more than 20 million in critical financial assistance for military families who need help with mortgage or rent payments, utilities, groceries, medical bills, home repairs and more. Together, we’re proudly serving America’s military families. Please join us.
Speaker You think that’s good enough, Jim?
Speaker Forty dollars million dollars. Oh, and the paragraph right before that to just give them another.
Speaker OK, Operation Homefront is Operation Homefront is highly rated and trusted national profit. Oh, excuse me. Operation Homefront is a highly rated and trusted national nonprofit because 92 percent of their spending goes directly towards programming that helps military families. Over the past five years, Operation Homefront has provided more than 20 million dollars in critical financial assistance for military families who need help with mortgage or rent payments, utilities, groceries, medical bills, home repairs and much more. Together, we’re proudly serving America’s military families. Please join us.
Speaker Good. That’s it, like a little smile at the end was nice. Oh, OK. I would just like to see a picture. Oh.
Speaker Bob Hope, this is Linda, June 19.
Speaker So can we start with the line about your dad being in five shows in five years? And set up right to me. Yeah.
Speaker Dad was in five shows during the fight. What was it, nineteen forty or what was it like, say, five different Broadway shows?
Speaker Oh, that would be great.
Speaker Dad was in five different Broadway shows in five years, and it was a great time for him, he was starting, I think, with his radio shows pretty soon after he started on Broadway and. We were lucky enough to find some footage that somebody had smuggled in of his performance in red hot and blue, which was, you know, a huge show for him, and but probably the show that meant the most to him on a personal level had to be Roberta. And that was when he met my mother and George Burns. George Burns me. That had to be a special time for him. Those were the days because his friend George Murphy, who was in Roberta with him, said to him on one night, you know, would you like to go in here, pretty girl sing? And Dad was always up to seeing and hearing pretty girls. And so he went to this little nightclub sort of in French, they call them Ofwat, but a small little nightclub. And mother was singing It’s only a paper moon. And he said afterward, he said it was love at first song. And they she saw him and they had a nice kind of visit and promised to dad asked my mother to come and see the show and bring her mother along. And so my mother said, you know, she thought he was a chorus boy. She had no idea that he was one of the he was the juvenile lead in the in the show. And so they went and saw the show. And afterward he asked her to come back afterward. And so my mother and grandmother went back and my mother said she was so embarrassed she couldn’t believe that he was, you know, this kind of a big star.
Speaker And so they had another date. And I wish I had the tablecloth because apparently because both of them love golf, they sat at the table and drew out golf holes in public courses that they both knew in and around New York.
Speaker And that was their big date.
Speaker But that’s perfect. Could you say his last production? Was red hot and blue. OK, tell us who the co-stars were, and I love if you can say somebody smuggled in a camera, found that footage.
Speaker Yeah. His.
Speaker His last show was red hot and blue, and it was a big thing for him because he was starring with Ethel Merman, who was a huge star, and Jimmy Durante, and it was fun to eventually find that footage many years later, because it turns out that a young fellow was given a camera for his 16th birthday and tickets to the show, and he smuggled the camera in and took the footage that we have here today.
Speaker Perfect. That’s great. Now.
Speaker You told a story last time. I just thought was great. Uh, you sort of went off to other things, OK, if we could.
Speaker And it’s a story that Frances Langford. OK, so if you could. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker Dad told Frances Langford, who got to be a pretty good friend of our families because she made several trips with Dad. But she remembered so well that she was going to sing to some of the wounded soldiers and they were in a small army field hospital, and she came upon this fellow that was badly burned and wounded and clearly wasn’t going to make it. And she was getting ready to sing. And she got all choked up and she couldn’t. And Dad said, Francis, you know, come come here. And he took her away away from everybody. And he said, This is not about you, Francis. Get get a hold of yourself and go. Because for that young man, you’re his girlfriend, his mother, all the people that he loved back home. And she said with great difficulty she did that. But she said she noticed that he was that way. I mean, he felt that he had an obligation, that it wasn’t about him going into these wards with the wounded in them. It was about the people that he was trying for a minute or two to bring some laughter and some kind of hope, really, and.
Speaker Perfect. That’s great. That works great.
Speaker Now, you you started off with a line that I loved, and then again, you sort digressing, but it’s tied to this story and the line is so if you could start with that line is the one that you spent a lot of his life not allowing himself to be emotional.
Speaker OK, kind of go where you want to go. But if we could. All right.
Speaker He spent a lot of his life, I think, not being emotional, not allowing his feelings, first of all, he was British, so he had the stiff upper lip thing, I think going. But he also just innately, I think, had to, over the years, guard his feelings and not allow himself to feel the depths that I think he really did feel.
Speaker And it was I think it was kind of hard for him.
Speaker And then I think later on, after he had many years experience doing this, it got to be kind of a veneer. He went into an entertainer mode and he didn’t he had a job to do.
Speaker And the job description was that he go and make people laugh and he did his thing and.
Speaker So not being able to not have to tap into his emotions, I think it kind of became sort of his M.O. in a way.
Speaker And in some respects it was it was hard on a personal level, I think, for those people around him, because I think he didn’t always give in to emotional feelings and things of that sort. He you know, he had a persona that eventually became part of who he was. And it was hard to get through that.
Speaker Do you find as kids to that he was that way with you?
Speaker Not really, actually, as kids growing up. He was like one of the other kids. And so we missed him terribly at the holiday time. And all the times that kids have fun, Easter egg hunts and that sort of thing, but. It was it was a different thing, it was almost like he had permission to kind of be free and to be who he was and to have fun and all of that. And so I didn’t feel that. I felt a little bit more when I produced the shows for a number of years. Bob Hope, the employer and the star, it was a little bit of that emotionless thing. And yet sometimes I would have conversations with them and it would get past that.
Speaker Would you ever I mean, like we do with our parents sometimes, would you say so how are you feeling about that, Dad?
Speaker Would you ask that and would he just give you a joke or, you know, sometimes I would ask Dad how he felt about certain things and sometimes he was very specific and he told me exactly what he was feeling. And, you know, this is something that, you know, I haven’t really talked about before. But as he was getting to be an old man, he was having an awful time reading the cue cards, which by that time were getting to be huge. And the lettering was, you know, I don’t know, two or three inches tall and they couldn’t do anything more. And I remember this wonderful guy, Barney McNulty, who did the cue cards with him and for him for so many years and became a friend, wanted so much to be able to, you know, get a few words on a huge cue card. And so we were out in the backyard at his house, dad’s house in Moorpark. And we were trying different colors of of board to see if a green with black letters or a dark with, you know, silver letters or what something that would make it work for him. And I could see that dad was getting more and more dejected, that he wasn’t able to really see what was going on. And it was a big.
Speaker Point in, you know, he didn’t show it, he didn’t say it, but I could tell because I knew him that it was hurting him, that he wasn’t going to be able to do what he had done for so long. And so that was.
Speaker Why do you think he kept at it so long? What was the reason he kept at it?
Speaker I think the laughter, I think he was addicted to laughter and his ability to cause it to happen, to make people laugh, and I you know, I think it’s why he.
Speaker You know, the Library of Congress did a thing at one point about Bob Hope in the American vaudeville tradition, and their hypothesis was and I think it’s absolutely correct that he never left vaudeville. That was what informed his entire career. If you look at all of his shows and all of the work that he did, it was all about a vaudeville act. And, you know, it had the sort of components, the monologue and then some sketches and a girl singer would come out and, you know, so that was pretty much how he perceived himself.
Speaker And I think that was that was dead and that was what drove him.
Speaker I love that. If we could try one more time to sort of say, I think he did this with your words, but he did this as long as he did because he was addicted. OK, just more declarative. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker I think Dad did what he did for long for as I think Dad did what he did for as long as he did because he was addicted to laughter. I think that was his drug of choice and that was what compelled him to persist, even pass the time when I think most people would kind of hang it up. And, you know, doing standup and doing a monologue and doing that kind of a routine is a challenge.
Speaker I think when you get to be in your late 80s, early 90s.
Speaker And and so he did it as long as he possibly could.
Speaker Thank you. That’s great.
Speaker Why was. Um, real estate, his investment of choice, what did real estate signify to him?
Speaker I think real estate was something that was important to dad because growing up he had no money. His family never owned a home until he was finally able to buy a home for his parents in in Cleveland.
Speaker But I think his ability to.
Speaker Go out, see a piece of land that he liked and he felt had promise and he had a very good keen eye for that, and people that knew used to say, you know, amazing that he picked this area or that area. And when there was nothing out there and he would buy a huge number of acres. And, you know, at one time he was one of the single largest landowners that were not incorporated in. My brother, who was a lawyer, used to say to him, Dad, why do you think that is? And Dad would say, I don’t know. And Tony, who would say it’s because you should be incorporated?
Speaker And he said, hell no. He said, that’s my land and I don’t need anybody or want anybody else.
Speaker And I think that was sort of a telling thing. He liked the fact that he was that the single largest landowner and.
Speaker The legalities of it didn’t seem to cross is behind this, you go out with him to look at it in memory of that, I do.
Speaker I remember he bought a ranch subsequently that was out in the Malibu Canyon. And it’s right next to the Fox ranch that they had where they do a lot of their blue screen and westerns and stuff out there. And it was a huge piece of property.
Speaker And he brought us all out there and we were excited to see it because we could have horses out there and goats. And in fact, I remember bringing a baby goat home to the house. I was, you know, like 14 or 12 or something. And I was so thrilled because we got to have animals there at the house and and we had horses and and his brother Jim, lived on the property and took care of it.
Speaker That’s great. Love that.
Speaker I’m an have a bowl.
Speaker Let’s talk a little bit about what you observed over the years about his relationship with fans. How would you characterize how he felt about it?
Speaker Dad loved his fans and he loved to have people. I remember in the days before he got his private plane that we would go in the airport and walk along the long hallways and he would have people come up to him and stop a minute.
Speaker Hey, Bob, I saw you in the South Pacific or. Hey, Bob, you know, I saw you at the Iowa Fair or whatever it was that he was, they remembered seeing him and it was usually Hi, Bob, curiously. And it sort of signified their relation.
Speaker They felt a personal kind of connection with him. And it was important to him. And I remember when I was very young, we were at the Brown Derby having dinner after one of his radio shows and a fan came up to him with holding a little boy with a cowboy gun and a holster thing.
Speaker And it was obviously brand new. And the father offered this holster to my dad and said, you know, could you sign this for my little boy, Jimmy? And he’s so anxious to have your signature, your autograph.
Speaker And the little kid after dad wrote to Jimmy Best Bob Hope and handed it back to the man and the little kid looked at it and he said, get that off of there.
Speaker But it reminded me and Dad reminded me because I said to him, Dad, why do you have all these people coming up to you? We’re trying to have dinner here and, you know, enjoy the evening and what have you. And he said, never say anything about those people. Those are the people that are paying for the dinner. So he was always very grateful for the fans and the people that loved him and followed him and bought products that he was selling and so on.
Speaker But he responded to a lot of letters.
Speaker Oh, dad loved to hear from his fans. And he had an amazing secretary, Mr. Hughes, who kept so many of those letters and also kept dad’s responses to those letters and everything from people that servicemen that wrote or parents of service people. And all of the those letters are actually, for the most part at the Library of Congress right now, because dad gave all of his papers and all of that to the library so that people could potentially enjoy those things and.
Speaker His fans meant a lot to him, and one of his habits was that he took a late night walk no matter where he would be, and he took a late night walk no matter where he’d be.
Speaker And usually it was in downtown someplace and he would go with his golf club and very often by himself. But if people were traveling with him, sometimes he’d get one of those to be up for a walk at 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning and.
Speaker One time he said he was I don’t know whether it was Detroit or Chicago or something, but he was downtown and he was walking late at night and he heard this voice. Can it be. No, no, it’s not. Are you Bob Hope? And he looked down and there was a guy that was that drunk or something. And he and dad spent time and visited with him. And he loved to tell the story about that. That guy who purportedly was a fan, he said, you never know when you get your fans, maybe just a little bit.
Speaker We call the homeless instead of the drunk.
Speaker Yeah, I think so. Yeah, so.
Speaker Anyway, Dad was downtown and finished a show someplace, and he went for his late night walk as he was want to do and with his golf club and he heard this voice.
Speaker I can’t believe my eyes is that Bob Hope?
Speaker And dad looked down at this homeless guy that was there and he said, yeah, it is it’s it’s Bob Hope and I guess he had a little conversation with the guy and, you know, he came back and was recounting the tale and he said, you never know where you’re going to find your friends.
Speaker That’s great. Oh, so I’d like a bite as emotional as you feel comfortable to how you really felt about something. But you said last time and you even sort of touched on it today about he was gone a lot as a dad. Mm hmm. And I would love to have you talk about how that made you feel growing up and maybe related to Christmas or whatever. OK.
Speaker There’s no question that dad had probably more frequent flyer miles than anybody, you know, and. He was he was away from home a lot growing up, and I think my mother tried to do as much as she could to sort of normalize things and have us not miss him so much. And he had a great habit. I got I wish sometimes that I had kept these, but he would send postcards from wherever he was a lot so that if he was gone for a week or 10 days, you’d have two or three postcards with, you know, sometimes not much of a message, a beautiful place. You’ve got to come here sometime, whatever it is, show going well, what whatever the thing was, but. My mother used to refer to him as Gulliver, and in fact, on their anniversary, he would always send her, you know, a couple of dozen roses and sign it, love Gulliver.
Speaker And because obviously he was he was gone and he traveled. But I think that.
Speaker It was sort of a normal part of our lives, and while we missed his presence and when he was home, he was very present and his work was very present because we have times at our dining room table where he would read his material, his jokes, and really, I think more from my mother’s benefit than ours. But, you know, we got to hear what was going on. And I remember as I got older and my reading got better, that I used to be able to keep him on his lines, especially when he was doing his films.
Speaker And he was an amazingly quick study. He would read it once or twice and he had it. And that same thing kind of held through until really kind of the end of his career, he was able, even though he couldn’t read the words, and at a certain point I had to give him the lines in an IFB, a little listening device in the ear, and I would start the joke off and he would pick it up and tell it because he had gone over the material enough to kind of memorize. The timing wasn’t there, but it was a way of him still being able to, you know, fulfill his contract with NBC.
Speaker That’s great. Thank you. That’s great.
Speaker Um, if we could talk about the Oscars, um, um, I’d love it if you could set up that he did his first Oscar broadcast in nineteen forty one was on the radio. Yeah. And, um. And if that was the Gone With the Wind won all the awards, right? So this is one where we’re trying to replace right by.
Speaker Dad loved doing the Oscars. It was kind of a high point of his year, and I know he did the first Oscars back in 1940. That was the year that Gone With the Wind swept everything. And he ended up doing, I think about 17 of them all together is the host over the years. And it was.
Speaker A great sort of moment, and it was a thrill for me, I was too young for the 1940 radio broadcast, but later on in the 50s excuse me, Mr..
Speaker Later on in the 50s, when he was doing the television specials or television shows off of the Oscars, I remember particularly one year I got to go and it was a big thrill to get dressed up and go. And my mother didn’t go. Sometimes she didn’t enjoy going. I must say, she had her life filled with dinners and banquets and all of that.
Speaker But I think sometimes she would, you know, let me go with him. And it was a big thrill.
Speaker And I remember, though, one evening my mother was there. I had gotten myself and my dad, of course, was hosting that year. I’m not sure which one it was, but we came home and had been pouring rain.
Speaker It was just a very wet time. And we had a problem with the leaky roof and. When we came in, the whole dining room was flooded in, so I remember Dad turned up his pants leg and my mother pulled her dress up and and, you know, attached it. So she had room to wait around in this big room and they cleaned up because it was late. There was no help, nobody there.
Speaker And they had mops and pails and sponges and we all cleaned up and her Oscar finery, this rain damage. So I’ll never forget that Oscar experience.
Speaker We just had one sentence, too, when the Oscars went to television for the first time in nineteen fifty three. Dad was the natural choice. Yeah, that.
Speaker The first year the Oscars were televised in 1953, they approached dad and asked him if he would host that.
Speaker And of course, even though he was a little reluctant about television and its future, he gave a speedy yes. And that was the beginning of many more televised Oscars for him.
Speaker That’s great. Thanks. Um.
Speaker He made a lot of jokes about never winning an Oscar. How do you really feel about it? Is it really a thing in life that he just never accomplished that great at him, or was it always a joke?
Speaker Even though dad told so many jokes around his not having an Oscar, I think at some level it was.
Speaker He felt a little cheated because I think that he felt he had done some sort of Oscar winning kind of performances and there were a few of them that he was particularly. Proud of and the fact that at that point, comedies were not pictures that really got Oscars, the Oscars were for big pictures, Gone With the Wind and some of those Wizard of Oz and things that were not necessarily comedies. And so, you know, I know one of the pictures he was very proud of is the Seven Little Foys. And I think he thought maybe there would be some recognition there, but it didn’t happen. And he worked hard at that picture.
Speaker And he had the famous dancing with the Eddie Foy and or Jimmy Cagney playing Eddie Foy. And I know Jimmy Cagney used to come to the house and they then they’d rehearse afterward. And it was I I remember saying to Jimmy Cagney, I said, boy, you’re amazing. You got Dad to rehearse because he didn’t dad like to go in and kind of wing it. And but they did a lot of very serious rehearsing. And Jimmy Cagney was a perfectionist.
Speaker And I think it shows.
Speaker It’s great love that, um.
Speaker Talk a bit about what you observed or the why of why he spent so much time doing public service. Whether it was to benefit or those sorts of things, what did that mean so much to.
Speaker I think benefits and doing public service and doing things that gave back meant a lot to Dad. He spent a lot of his time doing that.
Speaker I don’t remember the exact statistics, but countless days of a year were spent doing benefits. On the one hand, it was very good politically for him to do that because he got to know people that were heads of corporations or charities that had important people that were in charge of those charities or that for whom those charities were important and that sort of thing. And so I think in a way, he was a very savvy business guy. And I think that he was able to sense the fact that there was a sort of quid pro quo and that if he was there for the head of, I don’t know, Lever Brothers or John Deere tractor, that at some point down the line, if there was something that would work for dad, it was a good trade off.
Speaker And he again, he enjoyed the sound of laughter and whether it was with a group or small group of business people or corporate picnic or whatever it was, it was something that he loved to do.
Speaker And and again, it’s the laughter that’s great.
Speaker Is it is it fair to say that, um, his favorite charity was the USO?
Speaker I think it’s fair to say that dad’s favorite charity was probably the USO because they were the organization that supported him going on all these trips to at the very beginning to very remote places and difficult to get to places. And they kind of paved the way, in a sense, even though dad sent advance teams and all of that and they got to be better at it, you know, as they progressed from World War two. But the USO was always there and he was very fond of them. And, you know, it’s probably one of the reasons today that in his name, we support a lot of the USO and the work that the USO is doing. So it’s we feel our foundation or his foundation feels that that’s what we can do to honor dad, is to reach out to the veterans and to those young men and women that are serving today and try to bring a little of home to those organizations.
Speaker Am I looking OK?
Speaker Sure. Please. We’re doing well here.
Speaker I’m getting older, getting older, just.
Speaker Oh, I like.
Speaker Martin won the series to.
Speaker Five years older than when she started. That’s it. Just go back to the Oscars on radio for a moment. He was just asking, could we get you to say?
Speaker And at that time, the Oscars were broadcast live on the radio. OK.
Speaker And at that time, the Oscars were broadcast live on the radio version of, I guess, following up on the Oscar question, you know, being one for going my way, did that kind of get in your dad’s craw a little bit that he was he in any way competitive with Bing being got an Oscar now?
Speaker Like Mr. Bing and Dad were always competitive. In fact, Bing bought a baseball team and Dad bought the end of the Cleveland Indians and they were very competitive on the golf course. They’d sneak off whenever they could, get away from the set and go to the golf course and, you know, play around before lunch or after lunch or whenever they could, you know, sneak it in. So there was a real kind of competition there with them. And, you know, you see that in the road pictures and that sort of thing. But I think when Bing got his Oscar. I think that, you know, stuck in dad’s craw a little bit, you know, and I’m not sure whether it was directly before or after, but there were a couple of pictures in there that dad made that had a little bit more heart to them, a little warmth. Some of the Damon Runyon pictures, lemon drop kid. You know, he had a very touching scene with a little girl. And, you know, there was a certain amount of competition, certainly. And I think, you know, on the other hand, he was the first to congratulate Bing and, you know, was happy that his power got recognition.
Speaker But I think somewhere deep down, there was a little bit of a gee, I sure wouldn’t mind that for me.
Speaker That’s good. Just go back. I think the picture with the little girl was terrible.
Speaker Oh, it was. You’re right. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker I think Dad, you know, did a couple of pictures that had a little more heart to them, a little more emotional content, possibly with the thought that maybe the academy would notice that. And, you know, one of my favorites was Sorrowful Jones, and it was a Damon Runyon story about a sort of ne’er do well guy and this little girl. And he had a lovely moment there with the little girl and.
Speaker That’s great. Thank you. So let’s, uh, talk about Nixon landing in the backyard. OK.
Speaker Dad was very loyal and his friendship with President Nixon dated back to the days when Nixon was in California and he knew him then. And I remember that we used to get calls at the house saying president’s on the phone and it would be Nixon calling to get some jokes. He was going to some dinner or something and wanted to get the benefit of dad’s input and some jokes. And I remember it was just shortly after my son was born and we all were alerted to the fact that President Nixon was going to be playing golf with my dad. And so they happened to land in our backyard and the helicopter came in. And, you know, I think it was a lot of noise for the neighborhood. But he you know, it was something pretty exciting to have the president land in your backyard and.
Speaker That kind of thing in the golfing and the camaraderie, I think, you know, was important to dad and he was very loyal and, you know. Despite the fact that Mr. Nixon had, you know, a lot of problems toward the end, Dad never said a bad word about Nixon after that. And, you know, was it was his friend that had made mistakes and had fallen on hard times. And, you know, he still was very friendly with and loyal to the Nixon Eisenhower families and, you know, always respected the good things that Nixon did and the important things that he did for the country.
Speaker And this is because, I don’t know, I couldn’t find anything in the background about this, did he ever work with any African-American performers? I know he had Diana Ross, the Supremes running the show and stuff, but but when he was in vaudeville or any other places, did he ever work with or learn from or inspired by, like in dancing or anything like that?
Speaker Oh, yeah. I mean, Dad.
Speaker Admired and was a good friend with the Nicholas brothers and took them on some of the shows that he did, and he loved the guys that could tap dance like no man. And for the most part, at that particular time, it was a lot of African-Americans and they were an important part of dad’s thing.
Speaker And he used to love to compete with them because he started out as a hoofer. And that never left either. I remember him as a kid growing up.
Speaker He’d always be downstairs waiting for my mother to get ready to go someplace and he would be humming and tapping. And he that was always part of his life. And when we were little and we’d be having breakfast with him, he’d be on his way to the studio when we were on our way to school and when we had these big glass windows, the sliding glass doors, I guess, and he would be out on the patio and he would shuffle off, wave and shuffle off to Paramount.
Speaker And that was his she learn to dance.
Speaker You know, it’s a good story there.
Speaker He learned to dance. Actually, he actually there are cards of dads that read Bob Hope dance comedian, and he learned to dance.
Speaker It was like a cousin or something that had some kind of a dance studio, not necessarily tap or anything like that. But, you know, I guess they did all kinds of dance things from ballroom dancing to whatever. And he got a job working there. And he started out as a dancer and he had dance partners and. There are pictures of him with several of these dance partners, and that’s how he started really, and then one night the emcee couldn’t get there and he filled it and he had a couple of real corny jokes about it. I think if I remember, it was about a farmer, a Scottish farmer that was so cheap that he had his wedding in his backyard so he could the chickens could have the rice or some variation of that awful joke and, you know, several others.
Speaker And that’s really how he started transitioning from the dancing. Also, one of his partners, unfortunately, died of ptomaine poisoning that he got while eating a piece of, I don’t know, some kind of pie that had cream that had been on there too long or something.
Speaker And they were always trying to scrounge around for food and the partner eat this food and ended up with ptomaine poisoning. In those days like today, that wouldn’t happen. But in those days, that was the end of that dance partner and he had another one. And then I think he realized he could do the messy thing himself. And he kept adding jokes and reading joke books. And that’s kind of how he got started.
Speaker That’s great.
Speaker Had sort of legacy question now, um, how should he be remembered?
Speaker Or how would you like to be remembered, better question.
Speaker Actually, I think dad would love to be remembered as someone who made people laugh and.
Speaker Particularly as somebody who embraced a country that was not the country of his birth and who loved it. Enormously and wanted to give back to those people that were willing to put their lives on the line for their country, and I think he was continually. Touched by that thought and wanted to be able to give back to those people, and he used to always say to us, you know, you don’t have to be a comedian, you don’t have to be anybody special. You can always give back. And I think those were words that resonated with him, certainly, and and do today to me.
Speaker That’s great. Anything else you just want to get? They won his Oscar for going my way. Just the title.
Speaker Oh, uh, so you could say when Bing got his Oscar for going my way, OK, I think Dad. Yeah, that’s all we need.
Speaker When Benghazi’s Oscar for going my way, I think dad was a little bit jealous, maybe.
Speaker OK, yeah, I got a couple things. Churgin.
Speaker It was Lester as a. Oh, OK. OK.
Speaker So.
Speaker So, Dad, these cars, yeah, dad had these cards printed up that said Lester Holt, dance comedian, and it sort of showed his transition from the dancer to what was to become Bob Hope, the comedian.
Speaker Can you tell about John Bubbles? We were on that circuit.
Speaker Oh, OK. What about him, Jim?
Speaker I mean, other than that, he was one of the dancers that was they took him out and he took them out of Vietnam.
Speaker So I guess, John Bubbles, a lot of problems in the same way that he brought it back to the stage. So. Uh huh. Yeah, a hard time. Give them an opportunity.
Speaker Yeah, but also the the two in particular because he was a song and dance man.
Speaker Yeah, yeah.
Speaker Another one of the great dancers the dad admired was a guy named John Bubbles, and he was also African-American and danced up a storm. And I think he kind of fell a little bit on hard times. And Dad was always very sensitive to that and to trying to reach out to give somebody a little bit of a lift or a spot on a show and so on. And I think John Bubbles ended up going on a couple of the trips to Vietnam with him as the the dancer and was well received, I think, by all the people that had the chance to experience it because he was magic.
Speaker You wanted to say that he did know. Often more than one hundred benefits a year.
Speaker Yeah, what’s the number? Well, I mean, one hundred. One hundred and fifty. OK, it was not uncommon. Yeah. One hundred one hundred fifty benefits a year. Yeah.
Speaker And then you could tell a little bit more again about why he why it was important to him. That maybe doesn’t sound quite so self-serving.
Speaker It turns out the dad did somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 to 150 benefits during the year, and that’s a lot of frequent flyer miles.
Speaker And he loved to do it because it gave him a chance to meet new people and to. Actually, give back a little bit for people that, you know, had usually these benefits were for different companies and they were honoring people who had done certain things.
Speaker And so it was a good opportunity for him to honor that kind of giving back.
Speaker I think that’s good compared with what you said before about I remember that he said to us, you don’t have to be a comedian. You. Yeah. So that’s good. Anything. Um.
Speaker Oh, African-American Justice John. But during Vietnam, when he was getting a lot of criticism, especially toward the end, um, what did you feel how did that make you feel?
Speaker Did you think it was fair or what was your feeling about that? Well, I was.
Speaker Toward the end of the war in Vietnam, there started to be a lot of kind of negative press about dad and his connection with the establishment and that he didn’t really, you know, he was ready to bomb everything. And, you know, there was a lot of stuff. And while I felt badly for dad about that, because I think. At the bottom of the bottom line was that he loved these guys and he was respectful of the sacrifice that they made and that’s what mattered to him. He wanted them to get the hell out of there. And whatever it took to get them out was what mattered to him.
Speaker Good.
Speaker I wouldn’t think so.
Speaker So just last question. You mission.
Speaker I miss dad a lot. I miss his spirit and the fun of him.
Speaker And. You know, I feel very grateful that I had him in my life and he made an awful lot possible for me and he did an enormous amount of good, I think, for people, especially for the military.
Speaker And it makes me proud to be able to carry on in some small way the things that meant something to him.
Speaker That’s great. Thank you. Excellent. Just 30 seconds. OK. I know that as a producer.
Speaker I ask one more question. I just found a note here, so sorry, I’m just going to go one more.
Speaker We’ve talked a lot about the generational division in the 60s, mostly relating to the war, um, you were a young person in the. What, um, did you extend to other things? How did he feel, for example, about civil rights? How did he feel about the woman’s movement, things like that? And what are your recollections of.
Speaker It’s not as bad as Moorpark, though. That’s right.
Speaker We had planes where every 20 minutes.
Speaker Yeah. Thank you. OK.
Speaker Actually, I wasn’t living home during the 60s, for the most part, I was living in Paris and so I didn’t, you know, when I would come home in the summer for a little bit or whatever, I I had a chance to see dad and dad and his, you know, when he was doing his shows and things of that sort.
Speaker And I wouldn’t say that. He was a great.
Speaker Person in terms of knowing what was in the public mind, I mean, I think he had to know a certain amount for his jokes and things, but I think it’s some deeper level. He was more I guess old fashioned would be a way to determine. And he believed. I think people had a role to play. And, you know, that’s the sort of thing. And in terms of the woman’s movement, you know, I think he looked at it through the eyes of a lot of young guys and wanting to see beautiful girls.
Speaker And that was, I think, the woman’s. And for him, I don’t know that he was particularly caught up with that notion of feminism and all of that, I think, you know.
Speaker Multiple times when you talk about benefits, it sounded like it was only like corporate benefits. There must have been clauses like, oh yeah, a lot of charity benefits as well. Can we can you talk about how that meant to because it sounded a little all corporate. OK. Yeah.
Speaker So why don’t we start with that, you know, there were some years where he did one hundred to one hundred fifty benefits a and this. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker Many years he did from 100 to 150 benefits a year, which is a lot of frequent flyer miles, and they were benefits for all kinds of things, there would be charities, corporate, you know, pretty much anybody that would ask him and pay his way.
Speaker He’d be happy to do that because I think that he he loved that laughter. And whether it was kind of a smallish group in a ballroom or a big picnic outside or a benefit for some football team or whatever, he was there and he loved doing those things.
Speaker In fact, my mother, who was very Catholic, used to line him up for a number of charitable benefits for the Catholic Church. And he used to love to tell the story. He was at some benefit. That was for a Catholic charity. And this monsignor something got up and was going to introduce dad. But before he did, he did about five minutes of jokes. And so dad got up and said, dearly beloved.
