Speaker Well, probably bicycling in Sherman Oaks to the Lorina Theater and seeing Son of Paleface, which I, I probably saw about five times, I was that was funny.
Speaker I just I, I just love that movie. I haven’t seen it in years. But but as time went on, you know, I lived in Sherman Oaks, which is a community, and then there’s North Hollywood and then there’s still look like and Toluca Lake is where Bob Hope lived. And I had a couple of friends who lived near there, not not not nice big houses, but he had this house on the corner. And if you if you looked from the road through the Ivy on a chain link fence, he had his own golf hole, not a putting green. He had a golf hole. And the word among most kids I knew who knew who Bob Hope was, which was just about everybody, is that if you can get over there, that’s the place to trick or treat, because they give away nickels, they can give away candy, Bob and his wife to ask, wait, nickels. I never I never found out. I never bicycled that far till I was too old and ashamed to go to the door in a costume.
Speaker What was it about, Paleface? What struck you about him and his dad, about bombs?
Speaker I think the thing if I think back about it, I wasn’t aware of style. He just made me laugh. But he had a he had this he was one of us. And in many ways, most things he did. We wanted to see the experience, I think, through his eyes. So, you know, everybody knows he had this remarkable ability. You know, if a if a joke landed flat, he was aware it was flat and he’d share that with us. And that was funny. And and those rituals he had, I think, made him one of us. Maybe it’s because of his his his background. And he really was one of us. But I always felt his everyman quality and and that that sense that that we were in safe hands and we could go on his journey and see it through his eyes.
Speaker That’s great.
Speaker We were talking before the quotes in the L.A. Times article I was mentioning to you, one of them was you said he is the great comedian of the 20th century and he is one of the great citizens.
Speaker What would you have meant by that? What would you get?
Speaker I think we it’s obvious he’s one of the great comedians to me and I hope the younger generation feels that way, too. As for citizens, I don’t think we should recognize the responsibility of citizen ship often enough. And and Bob was a citizen.
Speaker Bob, I think you supported basically every president I can remember in my lifetime.
Speaker I think he he was there certainly when the country needed him and forever. I think man and woman who wore the uniform, I mean, he was a hero in that sense. He was a great citizen because I know most everybody who who wore a uniform feels that way.
Speaker For my era, the Vietnam era, things weren’t quite as simple and. I think the great lesson that came out of Vietnam history teaches us many we forget most of them, but the great lesson is we must never blame our troops for a mission that is unpopular, that has lasted, and I hope it stays for us in the Vietnam era. It wasn’t so much fun, but Bob Hope was just steadfast in his support of troops. That meant. So much to us in that time when we weren’t accepted, when traveling in uniform meant a certain amount of abuse, a certain amount of negative reaction, Bob Hope was like a beacon for us and and his support was unqualified. And and it just meant so much, meant so much to me. Anybody I know who served. But that was him. I mean, he was there all the time, recognized recognizing our obligation to citizenship. And I think that’s probably why I said that.
Speaker That’s right. You remember the first time you met?
Speaker I think I met Bob through the first time he I was asked to be on his special I mean, actually met him, I think I snuck on Lakeside Golf Course a couple times, which my dad later belong to.
Speaker And I could see Bob when I knew him. But and, you know, there would be Bob Hope, you know, on the first tee. But I think, you know, I got to ask to be on his special. And I you know, I was in the middle of early part of Magnum, the idea going to the mainland. It was a big honor, but it scared the hell out of me. And I said, is there any way I can get out of it? I love Bob Hope. But and so they said they want to talk to you. And I, I get the phone call and it’s Bob. Yeah. And and I tried to be honest with him. I just said, look, I don’t I don’t sing. I don’t dance, Bob. I don’t know what I do. And he says, oh, don’t worry about it. We’ll just do ten minutes to stand up. Well, that made it a lot better. I mean, ten minutes to stand up with Bob Hope. I guess I did it. It’s all been blocked from my memory because I was so scared. But he was a hard guy to say no to. I’m sure this was the way on the USO tours. He was not afraid to put the arm on you, however gently he was putting it on. Not some agent, not some representative. I don’t think. I guess I did quite a few things that Bob I don’t think I ever did anything that he didn’t ask me to do. It didn’t make me special. That’s who he was. Now, it also was enlightened self-interest, I think, because you didn’t say no to Bob Hope and I didn’t.
Speaker How was he to work with. Was he a generous performer? Good with you.
Speaker Comedy is not your first well as a performer to work with him like that. I mean, he’s just so grounded. You know, there’s an audience out there that’s kind of threatening. And I didn’t do any of the stuff. I made faces in front of the camera. So the audience kinda is, oh, my God. But if you but you look at Bob and he makes you listen to him just by his sheer command and and he’s a lifesaver because he would he would ground you he would kind of bring you back from wherever you wanted to run away to. And I didn’t have that many experiences doing standup. I think I did I did a sketch with him. I did a lot of stuff, mostly just being there for him because, I mean, I, you know, hit people on the show, could sing and dance and and be funny.
Speaker I just kind of showed up.
Speaker Let’s talk about my character. He played a lot.
Speaker And he’s a lovable coward.
Speaker Yes. And you talk about him every day. But why but why do audiences respond to a character like that?
Speaker I don’t know. Why is it ghost chasers? Is that the proper title Son of Paleface Ghost Chasers? He he did he was he he would be frightened just like we would be. So again, he was he was kind of walking in our shoes. And I know Woody Allen’s talked about what an influence he was. I’m I can’t be Bob Hope and but I don’t know, an actor probably wasn’t influenced by that, went in the right kind of comedy. And it just was this endearing quality. Had the same thing as when he when a joke would land, he would he would share that with you. And in that sense, that lovable coward and ghost chasers or whatever was the guy you would have been.
Speaker I think Bela Lugosi was in that movie. That’s pretty scary. So I think he was. Anyway, I, I remember this thing. I thought about his work. I think I actually saw all the road movies. A misspent youth allowed me to do that a lot in college when I should have been studying.
Speaker But I always remember this one thing. And I think the. I think the. Name of the three brothers, they were actually brothers were the weird brothers, now he’s in this situation where he he he needs some American validation.
Speaker He’s in a foreign country. And these three brothers don’t speak a word of English. So he teaches them each phrase, this is murder. You’re telling me and you’re in the groove. Jackson and and then whenever he needed help with the guy who was the danger to him, he would point to one of them and they’d say, we’re in you’re in the group, Jackson, or this is murder. Now, I’m very proud to say that that a family dinner at bluebloods. I have shared this story. And now if anyone says one of those lines, you’re in the groove. Jackson it is quickly followed by somebody at the table saying this is murder. You’re telling me. And I don’t just laugh hysterically at that. It wasn’t that funny. It’s Babas who made everything funny, you know, because he was I think it was probably a life and death situation. And these he was clinging to this these guys being able to prove they could speak English.
Speaker You’re telling me now you’re in the group.
Speaker Yes, this is murder. Yes.
Speaker How does it make you feel to know that there’s a whole generation out here now that doesn’t even know the name, much less know the word feel? And I think it’s important that they know those people.
Speaker Well, this this man that was so much a part of the 20th century, so much a part of our lives. I wish they could share that. I wish that young people knew who he was. They can find out.
Speaker A lot of people know who are film buffs. People didn’t need to see more old movies. I don’t care where the explosions aren’t very big. There was just something about them. And there was a lot about Bob Hope’s movies that you can find out about.
Speaker Maybe you can look up old shows, but what you can’t get is the the part of him that was a part of us. And and that’s our our secret. And it may be something we we we can’t share, which is.
Speaker I think a sad part, because that was, I think, his biggest legacy, I mean, I think they do a great job and the Academy Awards, but it’s not the same as Bob Hope. It’s not the same as Bob Hope hosting.
Speaker Every year and this ritual and this ritual comedic routine that usually died, that he made funny and just as Johnny Carson would, we can’t I don’t know how we share that. And it’s just a treasure for all of us who who lived while he was around. And I you know, that’s a loss for younger people. That’s going to be a hard thing for them to catch.
Speaker Let’s go back to sort of what you were touching on with some of the stories. When I watch some of his other news footage or some of his specials where he did go to entertain the troops, the look on where he did go, where where he went to entertain the troops. Yeah, I look at the faces of the guys and there’s something wonderful, something about what there was from. Do you have any thoughts about what it is he brought to them? You spoke about part of that.
Speaker What I think he did I can I could speak for my dad, who he’d never miss a special I mean, my dad didn’t go overseas, but I didn’t see my dad till he was to this World War Two. You went away for the duration. You went away some guys for five years. There was no rotation. There was no way anything. And it’s pretty lonely out there. I’ve been away. I’ve been away in the service. Not like that. It just meant the world that he was bringing part of the world.
Speaker They knew a better part of the world, I think, to them and and having fun doing it. And they were having fun doing it. It sure looked like it. I’m sure it was a lot of work. That was a very busy time of the year for us on on Magnum. And I was working a lot. I never got to go on one. It’s a great regret, actually. Again, I wouldn’t have known what I could do, you know, go out in a goofy Hawaiian shirt and a Detroit tiger hat.
Speaker But maybe it could just give some away or something, but which you watch the TV shows with your dad.
Speaker Would I what? Would you watch the TV? I watched probably his I was literally there. Which went to Sirius.
Speaker Oh, sure. Go ahead.
Speaker I hate the commute after seven years, I can’t believe we’re in our seventh year, but doing great.
Speaker So I was telling the guys we were talking about this other thing with me, but talking about the character you played on Rockford.
Speaker That’s right. Yeah, that was fun. I just wrote that. I think we did. Can always was a lovely man. A good friend.
Speaker Yeah. Yeah. OK, so I was just asking if you watched the whole TV show with your father.
Speaker I think I watched all those early TV shows and Bob Hope specials with my dad and my mom. And I know they held him in a special place, not in a corny way. They Tenez movies.
Speaker More importantly, you know, my mom worked at Fisher Body during the war. I think they were making tanks during the war. My dad was in the Army Air Corps.
Speaker And we just you just didn’t miss it, it was it was one of the highlights, and I guess that’s where you get your sense of partly what’s important. He meant a lot, not just to people in uniform, but to the country as a whole, because it’s this overall sense of who he was and and certainly what he became from as long as I can remember. He was the guy he was. And he was. The citizen, what he did, where he showed Grace, I’m not sure he supported every candidate who ended up getting elected president, but he was there for those people. That’s a kind of citizenship I think we could use a little bit more of.
Speaker He just said he set a great example and he gave Nichols away on Halloween.
Speaker So, yeah, um, you know, yeah, it’s kind of creeping up there. So I think it’s going to be OK. I think it’s going to I think that’s the one thing that strikes me is in many ways, he’s the the great American success story immigrated here.
Speaker Sheer hard work and balance and love and similar becomes you want to do that?
Speaker Well, I think it is and will continue to be the great American success story.
Speaker What is here that isn’t here is is and I think you probably understood this is a country where you have the right to fail.
Speaker And that’s a big thing because that’s kind of the other part of freedom.
Speaker He had a lot of failures. We all do in the entertainment business, and it builds that kind of perseverance.
Speaker You need to to use that as a lesson to eventually succeed. I think his life is very much like that. I you know, it wasn’t just the steady climb up the ladder.
Speaker And that is very American to me in spirit.
Speaker And it’s something to point to as long as people know. Yes, he was talented. Yes.
Speaker But, you know, you have to take risks to get there.
Speaker And he certainly understood that he took some very big ones and graduated mediums. You know, I think from vaudeville and then to radio and into movies and TV, whatever was out there for him, I guarantee you there’s a risk. But he he just went right at it.
Speaker What does it say about him that he could achieve the pinnacle in all of those different platforms? He wrote books. He wrote newspaper, and he did everything.
Speaker He did do everything. I think I think he did everything. And he succeeded mostly because he was willing to try.
Speaker And his life serves a very good lesson for everybody from immigrants who come to this country.
Speaker I don’t think they realize that a somebody like Bob Moon, if you if you’re of a certain age and remember him and then you come here, I don’t think you realize he did the same thing.
Speaker Maybe he was younger when he came here. But it’s a life worth celebrating. It’s a life that was certainly worth living and it’s a life that that we are all I think should value.
Speaker That’s great.
Speaker Can I ask my question?
Speaker You know, in addition to a USO work, I was known as I work for every charity.
Speaker Yeah.
Speaker And would you say I mean, I would say that kind of set a role model for all of Hollywood in terms of public service in general, not just working for the troops, but just the whole idea that you’re a Hollywood star, you have to give back in some way.
Speaker Do you think that’s true? To to.
Speaker I do think so.
Speaker I think that that that he did so much giving back. I think he got must have gotten. I mean, Bob and I never sat down and I said, thank you for doing the charity work you did. And why did you do it? I mean, I don’t think I would want to talk about that much, but I think that that work he did, that obligation, he felt was an excellent example for people in our business.
Speaker A lot of people get it. A few never do. A lot of people get it eventually.
Speaker And Bob Hope’s time where he stood, he made it very easy to understand that.
Speaker And he made it very small, very conscious that that was there as part of this gift you’ve been given of success.
Speaker Sometimes that’s a little harder to recognize nowadays, I think.
Speaker I don’t know who we have like Bob. Maybe we’ll never have someone else like Bob Hope, who is so much a part of us in this industry. I don’t think that’s that highfalutin that he was certainly a major force to all of us, even when we didn’t realize.
