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Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient Bob Hope
Bob Hope aka Leslie Townes Hope
He was born Leslie Towne Hope in England in 1903, but he became the quintessential American icon. Hope may have been the most influential comedian of the 20th century; he is certainly among the select few. His career spanned seven decades, from vaudeville to film and he piled up credits and awards too numerous to mention here. But he will forever be etched in the American consciousness for his "road movies" and for his tireless support of American troops fighting a long, long way from home.
Presidential Medal of Freedom
On his last morning in office, President Lyndon B. Johnson awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom to twenty individuals, including Bob Hope. Bob Hope's citation noted that, "With his gifts of joy to all the American people, he has written his name large in the history of our times."
BOB HOPE
Awarded by
President Lyndon B. Johnson
January 20, 1969
Over the span of a generation, Bob Hope has lightened America's heart. He has brought laughter into the lives of millions. He has given unstintingly of himself, his time, and his talents in support of a host of worthy causes on behalf of his country. He has brought happiness and pleasure to American fighting men on the battlefronts of three wars. With his gifts of joy to all the American people, he has written his name large in the history of our times.
Presidential Medal of Freedom and United States of America
Congressional Gold Medal Recipient Bob Hope
Bob Hope dead at 100
Legendary entertainer Bob Hope, who cheered
and delighted G.I.s and presidents alike with his famous one-liners
and comedy skits, died Sunday night of pneumonia, less than two
months after turning 100. He died with his family at his bedside in
Toluca Lake, Calif., longtime publicist Ward Grant said. He leaves
behind laughs and countless memories.
President Bush joined the
nation in mourning Hope. "Today the nation lost a great
citizen," the president said.
"Bob Hope served our
nation when he went to battlefields to entertain thousands of troops
from different generations," Bush said. "We extend our
prayers to his family."
The scrapbook of Hope's
life is nearly a one-man history of show business: On the road with
Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour to such exotic movie locales as
Zanzibar and Bali, where men were boys, women wore sarongs and a ditty
and a quip equaled a good time.
On tour, lifting the
spirits of the troops during World War II, the Korean
War, Vietnam and Desert
Storm. For the 50th anniversary of World War II, he recalled the
experience of performing for the injured in hospital wards: "The
soldiers laughed and we yelled . to cover up the lumps constantly
gathering in our throats. "On those guilty-pleasure holiday TV
specials that you could always count on arriving each year like toys
under the Christmas tree. For more than 40 years, he appeared in silly
skits, surrounded by the demi-celeb likes of Brooke Shields, Loni
Anderson, Elke Sommer and sports stars. On the Academy Awards
ceremony, where the 18-time host or co-host was always ready with a
joke about never winning an Oscar for one of his own performances.
Like this zinger from 1968: "Welcome to the Academy Awards, or,
as it's known at my house, Passover."
Hope collected so many
zippy one-liners, he had two vaults in his office just to hold his 7
million gags. Who would want to risk losing this one: "Did you
hear about Zsa Zsa Gabor's new perfume? It's called Citation. You just
slap it on."
About 100,000 gags were
part of the personal effects he donated to the Library of Congress in
1998. But as his spokesman noted at the time, "There are some
duplicates, of course. He was recycling jokes before recycling was in
fashion."
Even the guy's face was a
joke. His ski slope nose and shovel chin were catnip to caricaturists.
In his later years, even
his longevity became a source of humor. On his 95th birthday, when
asked if he had to live his life over, would he do anything
differently, he replied: "If I had my life to live over, I
wouldn't have time."
And Hope was richly
rewarded for making generations of Americans smile. He became one of
the entertainment industry's savviest and wealthiest businessmen, with
a nest egg that has been estimated as high as $500 million but more
reasonably put at $200 million. He even made fun of that. In 1982,
Hope bragged to The Washington Post, "When I talk, E.F.
Hutton listens."
The current generation of
comics listened, too. Among those who are obvious grads of the Hope
school of comedy: Jay Leno with his topical monologues, Jerry Seinfeld
with his observational humor, Conan O'Brien when he punctuates his
bits with a lecherous growl and Woody Allen with his middle-age mix of
cowardice and vanity.
As Allen, whose line
delivery carries distinct Hope echoes, once said, "If I wanted a
weekend of pure pleasure, it would be to have a half-dozen Bob Hope
films and watch them, films like Monsieur Beaucaire and My
Favorite Brunette. It's not for nothing that he's such a greatly
accepted comedian."
The fifth of six sons of
a stonemason, Leslie Townes Hope was born in Eltham, England, in 1903
("My parents were English ... we were too poor to be
British.") At age 4, the family moved to Cleveland, and Hope has
said he decided upon a comedy career at age 8. He discovered the
delight in making people laugh when his voice cracked one day while
singing End of a Perfect Day at a family gathering.
In school, he won prizes
for Charlie Chaplin imitations and learned tap dancing.
Hope entered show
business . and changed his name . when he learned that several
acts were needed to fill out the bill of a Cleveland theater where
Fatty Arbuckle was to make a personal appearance. He and a partner
worked out a dance routine and then joined a road show musical in
which they performed in blackface.
From there it was on to
vaudeville and then Broadway. His first starring role was in 1933's Roberta.
One night in New York
after the show, Hope went to the Vogue Club and heard smoky-voiced
singer Dolores Reade. They fell in love and were married a few weeks
later. They later adopted four children, Linda, Anthony, William and
Honora.
But Hope's work on the
road kept him from being the most attentive father. Joked pal Milton
Berle, "Bob Hope has four children, two of whom he knows
personally."
During World War II, Hope
attempted to enlist but was told he could serve better as an
entertainer to build morale. With a touring show of performers, this
Ambassador of Goodwill, or G.I. Bob as the soldiers called him,
covered most of the overseas bases. He was declared an honorary
veteran by Congress in 1997, said to be one of the most cherished of
his 2,000 or so awards and citations, and received a distinguished
service medal from each branch of the military.
"Those kids were
laying their lives on the line for us," Hope told USA TODAY in
1993. "That was good enough for me."
How much did the USO
shows mean to the men and women who served?
"Lots of people have
done entertainment tours, but no one brought along a hotter lineup of
starlets, celebrities, singers, musicians and other comedians,"
says Los Angeles Times comedy critic Lawrence Christon.
"Beautiful women, the romance of the American pop song, jokes,
camaraderie . for a couple of hours in rickety makeshift theaters
from Sicily to Pavuvu, he brought everyone home. That's not easily
forgotten."
Hope also will be
remembered for his longtime association with NBC, which began in 1938,
the year his radio show premiered. It was also the same year of his
first big movie, The Big Broadcast of 1938, which also starred
W.C. Fields, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Edgar Bergen and Charlie
McCarthy. In the movie, he and Shirley Ross sang a little ditty called
Thanks for the Memory, which became Hope's signature tune.
NBC was, of course, the
forum for all those impossibly cornball NBC specials, where he would
squeeze in pretty girls, golf gags and political humor. Dolores always
got in a song and Bob would always perform Thanks for the Memory
at the end. The formula fell out of favor in the peace and love '60s,
when Hope's hawkish stance on Vietnam and his sexist gags were at odds
with the younger generation. But Hope, as always, sprung eternal, and
the specials persisted through the '90s.
His big-screen career
spanned half a century, including about 75 starring roles and such
films as The Seven Little Foys, The Cat and the Canary, The
Ghost Breakers, My Favorite Blonde and The Paleface.
His last lead movie role was 1972's Cancel My Reservation, and
he had a cameo in Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd's Spies Like Us in
1985.
His most successful
films, however, were the road pictures with Crosby. The pair became
friends through their mutual love of golf and first teamed up for Road
to Singapore with Lamour in 1940 and went on to visit Zanzibar,
Morocco, Utopia, Rio, Bali and Hong Kong. The pattern was popular if
predictable; Crosby was the romantic interest, the guy who got to sing
songs and win girls, while Hope was the wisecracker.
Hope became the longtime
host of the Oscars, before Johnny Carson took over in the 1970s. And
while he received five honorary awards from the academy, Hope never
won an Academy Award for an actual performance. That bothered him.
"I've made more comedies than anybody," he once groused.
"Why do they have a category for everything except comedy?"
But he had plenty of
other testaments to his greatness. Along with portraits of his
children and dogs at his seven-acre estate in Toluca Lake, Calif., are
photographs of Hope with major leaders of the 20th Century, including
presidents Bush, Carter, Reagan, Nixon, Johnson, Kennedy, Eisenhower,
Truman and Roosevelt.
For all the potshots he
took at them over the years, there should have been bull's eyes on
their faces. He even put out a joke book in 1996 titled Dear Prez,
I Wanna Tell Ya!
A sampling:
FDR:"I was with
Roosevelt during one of his famous fireside chats. He turned to me and
said, 'Put another log on the fire, boy.' "
Gerald Ford: "It's
not hard to find Jerry Ford on a golf course . you just follow the
wounded."
Jimmy Carter: "The
inaugural ball had a Southern flavor. It was the first time Hail to
the Chief was played on a jug and washboard."
But Ronald Reagan, back
when he was the governor of California, got in a few return volleys at
Hope's expense during a 1975 Dean Martin roast. "Bob would do
well in politics. He has entertained over 10 million troops, been seen
by more than 100 million TV viewers. If you throw in the 27 people who
have seen his movies, you have a pretty sizable constituency."
In the later years, Hope
rarely looked like a man in his 80s and 90s on the TV screen. But at
home, the reality of old age started to become evident. He spent his
last years hindered with deafness and blindness, the latter of which
gradually declined after a 1955 injury that occurred during a show in
Iceland when a strong woman dropped him on his head. Staffers read him
stories from the The Los Angeles Times in the morning. In his
bedroom, cue cards with huge letters listed his plans for the day.
He and Dolores were Jeopardy!
fans, and they also spent time watching American Movie Classics
("to see my friends"), golf, news and football.
Hope didn't like being
considered an American institution. "I'm still rolling," he
said. "I don't want to be an institution. They don't get
laughs."
But they are remembered.
And America will be thankful for the memories for years to come. And,
workaholic that he was, Hope was happy to provide them.
"You call what I've
been doing all my life 'work'?" he once scoffed. "No way.
Mowing the lawn is work. And telling a joke and getting paid for it is
stealing."
Contributing: Steve Marshall By Jefferson Graham, USA TODAY
Film history of a Hollywood legend
Feature films with Bob Hope: •The Big Broadcast of 1938, 1938 •College Swing, 1938 •Give Me a Sailor, 1938 •Thanks for the Memory, 1938 •Never Say Die, 1939 •Some Like It Hot, 1939 •The Cat and the Canary, 1939 •Road to Singapore, 1940 •The Ghostbreakers, 1940 •Caught in the Draft, 1941 •Nothing but the Truth, 1941 •Road to Zanzibar, 1941 •Louisiana Purchase, 1941 •My Favorite Blonde, 1942 •Road to Morocco, 1942 •Star-Spangled Rhythm, 1942 •They Got Me Covered, 1943 •Let's Face It, 1943 •The Princess and the Pirate, 1944 •Road to Utopia, 1945 •Monsieur Beaucaire, 1946 •My Favorite Brunette, 1947 •Where There's Life, 1947 •Road to Rio, 1948 •The Paleface, 1948 •Sorrowful Jones, 1949 •The Great Lover, 1949 •Fancy Pants, 1950 •The Lemon Drop Kid, 1951 •My Favorite Spy, 1951 •Son of Paleface, 1952 •Road to Bali, 1953 •Off Limits, 1953 •Here Come the Girls, 1953 •Casanova's Big Night, 1954 •The Seven Little Foys, 1955 •That Certain Feeling, 1956 •The Iron Petticoat, 1956 •Beau James, 1957 •Paris Holiday, 1958 •Alias Jesse James, 1959 •The Facts of Life, 1960 •Bachelor in Paradise, 1961 •Road to Hong Kong, 1962 •Critic's Choice, 1963 •Call Me Bwana, 1963 •A Global Affair, 1964 •I'll Take Sweden, 1965 •Boy Did I Get a Wrong Number, 1966 •Eight on the Lam, 1967 •The Private Navy of Sergeant O'Farrell, 1968 •How To Commit Marriage, 1969 •Cancel My Reservation, 1972 •The Muppet Movie, 1979 •Spies Like Us, 1985
Celebrate the life of Bob Hope in Pictures
Highlights in life of comedian Bob Hope May 29, 1903 -- Leslie Townes Hope born in Eltham, England. 1907 -- Family emigrates to the United States, settling in Cleveland. 1920s -- Becomes rising vaudeville star, at first as part of a dancing act. 1927 -- New York stage debut in Sidewalks of New York. 1932 -- Makes radio debut on Capitol Family Hour. 1932-36 -- Appears in several important Broadway productions, including Roberta, the 1935 Ziegfeld Follies and Red, Hot and Blue. 1934 -- Marries singer Dolores Reade. They adopted four children: Linda, Anthony, William Kelly and Honora. 1934 -- First radio show premieres, beginning a record 62-year affiliation with NBC. 1938 -- Feature film debut in The Big Broadcast of 1938, in which he and Shirley Ross sing Thanks for the Memory. Feb. 23, 1939 -- First Oscar appearance, presenting the awards for best short films. Feb. 29, 1940 -- First appearance as Academy Awards master of ceremonies. In all, he served as an emcee or co-host 20 times between 1940 and 1978. 1940 -- Co-stars with Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour in first of the Road pictures, The Road to Singapore. May 6, 1941 -- Plays first camp show for servicemen at March Field in California. 1948 -- First Christmas tour for servicemen taking part in Berlin airlift. 1950 -- Makes first television specials, including first Christmas special. March 19, 1953 -- Serves as co-host for first televised Oscar ceremony. September 11, 1962 --- President John F. Kennedy presents Congressional Gold Medal. January 20, 1969 -- Receives Medal of Freedom from President Lyndon B. Johnson. March 29, 1978 -- Host of Oscar ceremony for the last time. December 1990 -- Goes to Persian Gulf to entertain troops on the eve of the Gulf War; his last Christmas show for troops overseas. He joked: "If anybody tells you I was in the Civil War, I'm denying it." May 1993 -- 90th birthday celebrated with a TV special featuring President Clinton and former presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan and Bush. November 1996 -- NBC airs his last special, Laughing with the Presidents. March 1997 -- U.S. Navy christens the USNS Bob Hope, a 950-foot, 33,000-ton support ship. May 2000 -- Library of Congress opens the Bob Hope Gallery of American Entertainment. May 23, 2003 -- Turns 100 as family, fans celebrate. July 27, 2003 -- Hope dies of pneumonia.
Bob Hope with his wife Dolores at the premiere for The Seven Little Foys - 1955
Related Sites
External sites will appear in a new browser window and are not endorsed by Medal of Freedom
Official Bob Hope Site
USO Shows: Bob Hope and American Variety from the Library of Congress
U.S. Congress Joint Resolution - Bob Hope Honorary Veteran Status (June 1997)
VFW Magazine: Bob Hope - Honorary Veteran (December 1999)
The USO Web site
TVparty.com: Bob Hope on TV
Bob Hope Chrysler Classic (golf tournament)
About.com: A Tribute to Bob Hope
Internet Movie Database: Bob Hope
History of the Academy Awards
The Bob Hope Theatre (London)
Boeing: Spirit of Bob Hope (military plane)
U.S. Navy List of Ships: Bob Hope
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Medal History
