Mark Steyn: Comedy, Inc - Bob Hope at 100 (Happy Birthday, Mr. Hope!)

Daily Telegraph via SteynOnline ^ | May 4th 2003 | Mark Steyn

[annyokie]

Happy Birthday, Mr. Hope!


"Thanks for the memories....."

[prairiebreeze]

Bob Hope was a class act in those many, many shows he did for the troops. It's quite telling about the "celebrities" of today compared to this tireless giant of the industry who was so committed to our military. Today's entertainers really can't even shine Hope's shoes.

Prairie

[annyokie]

ping!

[Billthedrill]

As Bob hit 90 and began slowing down...

How would you like to have that line written about you? Happy Birthday, Mr. Hope...

[DeuceTraveler]

It's amazing to watch men who love life so much that they defy death for so long. He certainly doesn't look his age.

[wbill]

....Today's entertainers really can't even shine Hope's shoes.

Agreed. One of my grandfather's fondest memories of WWII was seeing hope in a bombed-out hangar in Germany. He said that it brought a little bit of home over there.

[cloud8]

"Vietnam placed huge strains on that notion of a universal popular culture. For the first time in his career, Hope had to choose sides and it wasn’t so much that he chose wrong but the way he chose. "Students are revolting all over the world," he said. ... Unimaginably, the guy who’d always been one step ahead of the times was behind the times. ... Hope’s a sharper example of how taking sides can change public perception: ...By the time the war ended, he’d lost that generation forever."

I have to disagree with Steyn here. Bob, you chose right. When my generation was revolting, you there for our guys. Thanks.

[annyokie]

I agree. I was one of the few in my Junior High and High School who supported our efforts in Viet Nam. Of course, I had lost my cousin in '69 (landmine) and had a closer grasp than did most of my classmates

Bob Hope chose wisely in his support of his adopted country (he is a Brit by birth) and her troops.

[MeekOneGOP]

.

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

Happy belated Birthday to a true original - The Lemon Drop Kid will always be one of my fave flicks.

[Sgt Hulka 123]

"That Ann Margaret, boy..."
"But I wanna tell ya...."
"Brooke Shields, Ladies and Gentlemen...."
"Gggggooowwwl"

[annyokie]

LOL!

[skeeter]

Mr Hope NEVER put a foot wrong.

[Forgiven_Sinner]

I was a rabid pro-war hawk in 1968, when I first got interested in politics. I was disgusted we hadn't won the war yet, so I decided to run for President. I planned to become a lawyer, then a politician, then President. I was 12.

I gave up on the plan when I became a Christian at 15. I couldn't see how one could be an ethical lawyer, and I also realized our nation's problems could only be solved by God, not politics.

Happy birthday Bob, from one Clevelander to another.

[Publius]

There is a funny story about Bob Hope and his money.

Bill Richmond, one of Hope's writers, was over at Hope's house in Toluca Lake in the Eighties, and they got to talking about finance. Hope groused about a stock deal in 1932 that he had turned down and that had produced millions for those who had invested in it.

Richmond looked around at the palacial surroundings of Hope's house and said, "Yeah, Bob, you could have been on Easy Street."

[BibChr]

Depressing!

Dan
)c8

[Gritty]

He only put his foot wrong once... But Vietnam placed huge strains on that notion of a universal popular culture. For the first time in his career, Hope had to choose sides and it wasn’t so much that he chose wrong but the way he chose...

I beg to disagree. He chose the "right" side.

...Unimaginably, the guy who’d always been one step ahead of the times was behind the times... In a late Sixties poll of American high schools’ favourite entertainers, he came second to the Beatles. By the time the war ended, he’d lost that generation forever.

No. He didn't lose "that generation". He only lost the dope-smokin', anti-war crowd, which is no great loss at all. They were "lost" to begin with.

Those of us he entertained in Vietnam, he won forever! Which crowd would you rather have? Which crowd would you rather stand with?

Happy Birthday, Mr. Hope! You still have your millions of fans out here. Even though you are very old and very grey, those of us who now are becoming old and grey salute you for a job well done!

[beckett]

I was thinking of posting this myself yesterday when I followed a link to it, because it's such a sage and balanced appraisal of Hope, neither fawningly starry-eyed nor a hatchet job.

Steyn is the kind of guy who really makes one proud to be a conservative. His relentless fairness and brutal honesty, mixed with encyclopedic knowledge of cultural and world affairs and brilliant writing talent, stand out among present day pundits and columnists. He is simply the best.

[MeekOneGOP]

I gotta kick outta this part:

On the one occasion I met Hope he paid no attention to anything I said, his eyes looking over my shoulder as if we were doing a sketch and he was trying to find the boy with the cards. It turned out there was a well-stacked blonde 60 years his junior padding back and forth behind me. “Ain’t that something?” he mumbled appreciatively as she wiggled past us. He’s a great connoisseur of women. He still calls Doris Day “JB” for “Jut Butt”, because she had “an ass you could play cards on”, though I don’t believe he ever did.