Bob Hope, subversive! (Nastiest hit-piece I have seen)

MSNBC and Slate.com ^ | 05/30/03 | Neal Pollack

[AbsoluteJustice]

May 29 — When Bob Hope was born 100 years ago today, the world was a substantially different place. Coal had not yet been discovered. Some people still walked on their hands. Most important, there was a void in the world that didn’t allow human laughter. Before Bob Hope, the world was a pit of human sorrow. Now, laughter is everywhere.

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JOHN STEINBECK once wrote of Bob, “There is a man. There really is a man.” Sadly, though, little else has been written about him, and even less has been understood. In this piece I intend to reveal the truth about the real Bob, which has been covered up by media titans throughout the decades. They’ve had good reason. Bob Hope is perhaps our country’s leading subversive, its most strident political radical. As the following timeline will indicate, if Bob had gotten his way over the years, America would have been a different place. Actually, if he’d really gotten his way, it would have been turned over to the Cherokee. Happy Birthday, Bob!

1907 His livelihood crushed by a union lockout at United Stone and Steel, a British mason named William Henry Hope moves his family to Cleveland, Ohio, to seek a better life. The fifth of his seven children is Leslie Townes Hope, who becomes the Bob we adore. Bob later jokes, “I left England at the age of 4 after my father’s dreams were crushed by the cruel machinery of capitalist enterprise.”

1920 Bob begins amateur boxing as “The Battling Suffragette.” He quits after dropping a bout to Emma Goldman.

• A Hope-ful century • The early years • Slapstick and the great divide

• A Hope-ful century

• The early years

• Slapstick and the great divide

1923 With vaudeville partner George Byrne, Bob debuts on Broadway in the revue Arise, Ye Children of Oppression. The show closes when Ruby Keeler breaks an ankle during the Potemkin dance. “I used to struggle to make ends meet,” Bob later said. “I wouldn’t have had anything to eat if it wasn’t for the stuff the audience threw at me. That just shows you how a political system based on class stratification degrades the working man.”

1933 Bob’s first major career break comes when he’s cast as the wisecracking union organizer Huckleberry Haines in the Broadway musical Roberta. That same year, at a Eugene Debs fund-raiser at the Vogue Club on 57th Street, he meets a young singer named Dolores, whose passionate anti-fascist speeches cause him to swoon with love.

1938 Bob Hope with his wife Dolores, in 1939 Fresh off his successful movie debut in The Big Broadcast of 1938, where he first sings his signature hit, “Thanks for the Memories, O Red Brigade Martyrs of Spain,” Bob gets asked by Pepsodent to do his own radio show on NBC. He refuses the offer until the company agrees to stop selling toothpaste to the Nazis.

1942 After a vicious battle with the studio, a duet between Bob and Dorothy Lamour that decries the injustice of purdah is cut from The Road to Morocco. Hope tells Daily Variety, “Crosby is a dangerous reactionary.”

[AbsoluteJustice]

I wonder when they will chronicle Hillary like this? This is a NASTY hit piece. Please read it all!!!!

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

What's next? An Oliver Stone movie depicting Hope as an abusive womanizing alcoholic?

[RonF]

I was wondering; when Bob Hope started his USO shows, did he only do them for the North, or did he do them for the CSA forces as well?

[Petronski]

Dude, check your gear--this is satire. What makes you think it is at Bob's expense?

[Constitution Day]

This is satire.

[goldstategop]

I don't think any one has a bad word to say about him. Bob Hope is the best comedian ever to grace America. Every one just laughed at his jokes since his genius resided in making it look easy.

[AbsoluteJustice]

Is it truely? Coming from msnbc I highly doubt it.

[r9etb]

Some pretty dumb satire, and not even close to funny.

[Argh]

This appears to be infantile satire.

[Constitution Day]

It's kind of lame actually, but I think they intended it as such.
When you go to the MSNBC link it says...

SATIRE
By Neal Pollack

...above the story.

[JennysCool]

Err, um ... If you look at the byline it says "SATIRE by Neal Pollack"

[journey7873]

This appears to be infantile satire.

The writer of this article would never get hired by The Onion.

[Argh]

I agree 100%.

[Blue Screen of Death]

Did the bit about Jane Fonda calling Bob too radical raise any flags?

[T Lady]

I guess this guy was trying to be funny (hence the catagory 'satire') while writing this "tribute." It didn't work.

Bob Hope has more class in his pinkie than this PMSNBC/Slate creep has in his entire body. And it obviously shows.

-Regards, T.

[JennysCool]

Never mind!

[mountaineer]

When you have to announce in capital letters that it's SATIRE, and it's not the least bit humorous, one has to wonder exactly how well written it is!

[MEG33]

I googled the author....reveals his agenda.

[HardStarboard]

If this is what passes for satire these days, then I've lost my sense of humor!

My Father knew Hope - not well but they met several times. My Dad always admired him as a wonderful man who made millions happy with his humor and millions of others happy with his philanthropy. Bob Hope, my Dad suggested, was probably the most generous giver to charities in the United States.

Anyone casting aspersions on this great American ought to have his nose bloodied!

[Constitution Day]

< grins >

[Cicero]

It's just dumb. If you want to make jokes about Bob Hope, you should at least be funny.

[stanz]

That's what I thought....

[Drango]

You didn't read the whole article did you? If I were you I'd beg the moderator to pull this thread. Hit the abuse button now and save yourself...

[HardStarboard]

I went to his websight.....its revealing. He's a wacko lefty that thinks his cleverness with the written word gives him veracity.

He's a punk jerk!

[moyden2000]

What a bunch of morons.

H-U-M-O-R.

[Sir Gawain]

Crappy satire. He needs a remedial class.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

This wouldn't just be a little ruse by you and your buds to create hits for the in-trouble doggerel rag called slate would it?

[BADROTOFINGER]

Funny that this would be written by a lefty. It seems that the conflict is that someone who is loved by millions upon millions of America could NEVER be a leftist, and that is why the author portrays him as such. I really cant see any other meaning in this peace, as I am not a mentally confused lefty...JFK

[arjay]

It is clearly labeled "Satire" at the top of the piece.

[LiteKeeper]

read later

[Nachum]

Actually, this piece is indeed instructive. It is what passes for liberal humor. Non sequiturs, abrasive insults, and the all out liberal fun of trashing a revered icon.

It sort of speaks to that liberal soul that believes in nothing, trusts nothing, and loves nothing.

[AbsoluteJustice]

And I saw this but it is MSNBC!!! They HATE perople who support the military so I highly DOUBT it was satire.

[No Dems 2004]

What was Hope's political ideology? Anybody know?

[LanPB01]

They claim it's satire, so I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. It's not very funny, regardless.

[AbsoluteJustice]

For the last time THIS IS NOT SATIRE !!!! This is why I posted this piece.

[Mr. Bird]

I read the whole thing, thinking that maybe a final paragraph would wrap up the otherwise incoherent "satire". I was wrong. Satire shouldn't be obvious, but this is just plain cryptic. I don't get it at all.

[AbsoluteJustice]

This is what I picked up on too. This is not in the least bit satire. I think it is called satire to cover up his personal dislike for Bob Hope and what he stood for.

[LanPB01]

I'm guessing this writer's idea of satire is taking every patriotic, pro-capitalism, pro-military ideal a man has and turning it against him. What hilarity!

[VRWCmember]

It has a "satire" label on it at the MSNBC site. I missed it at first too, but it at least pretends to be satire. As such, it is woefully unamusing.

[Nonstatist]

this is satire

In what way is this piece ironic or witty? What vice , folly or stupidity is it exposing?

Are we to take from this "piece" that Hope was an establishment lackey? That he was an apologist for the status quo? Does it it hit its mark?

Heres what I think this piece is: sophomoric, snide, unfunny, unironic, callow. But not satire.

[AbsoluteJustice]

BINGO!!! Someone has elaborated on this more clearly than what I was able to. Does it not look like with each date he does nothing but bash him? I see NOWHERE in the article where he brings it back around to produce satire. I always thought satire typically showed in the end of an article when they bring it all back around to the reader for a chuckle but this article ends as a hit piece. Am I missing anything here?

[Nonstatist]

Irony requires you to make a contrast between apparent and intended meaning; to highlight an incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurred.

Where does this article do that? Every item on his chronology is totally made up, with no link to his actual life. He wasn't the opposite of this, his life was totally unrelated to this make - believe world. He was an entertainer who slept around, honored the troops, made a lot of money, and played golf; its kind of a nuanced picture. This article is just one long cheap shot, as far as I can tell.

IMO, Neal Pollock doesnt like the fact that Hope did a lot of USO shows. No doubt he hates the military. But then, Im just guessing because this tripe doesent afford me a clue as to what hes thinking.

[South40]

[presidio9]

Is it true that the Viet Cong blew up a hotel because they thought he was staying in it?

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

What was Hope's political ideology? Anybody know?

Kind of what Jay Leno is now - six-pack conservative, good-natured ribbing of politicians, strong supporter of America and the military.

I heard somewhere that he truly despised the Klintons and refused to speak to Der Sinkmeister.

[Pukin Dog]

Come on, it is just unfunny satire.

Lighten up.

[Little Bill]

I don't know about the hotel but they tried to take down his C-130, when he left Cu Chi after the Christmas show in 1967.

[Frapster]

i agree - it's an poorly written piece of satire. As I was reading it I knew very well that none of it was true and I felt like I understood what the author was trying to do - but the language of the jokes requies they be delivered live in front of a crowd armed with tomatoes.

[Chuckster]

Actually, he was born in England so his first few times entertaining the troops were for the Redcoats.