Hope: Entertainer of the Century (79 page)

“His hand was soaking wet”
: Carl Reiner, interview with author.

“seemed subdued and uncertain”
: “The $1,500-a-Minute Program,”
Life
, April 24, 1950.

“petrified with fear”
: John Lester,
New York Journal-American
, quoted in Faith,
Life in Comedy
, 213.

“I couldn’t believe how nervous”
: Faith,
Life in Comedy
, 214.

“It was really caveman TV”
: Gelbart, interview with author.

“I used to work very fast”
: Hope,
Have Tux
, 238.

a deal that guaranteed Hope $3 million
:
Variety
, May 17 and September 27, 1950, January 10, 1951.

Hope struck a new deal with Paramount
:
Variety
, September 6, 1950.

MacArthur had requested . . . But Hope prevailed
:
Daily Variety
, October 11, 1950.

“He held us spellbound”; “Most of them are so young”
: Hope, It Says Here column, October 23, 1950.

“How long have you been here?”
: Hope with Shavelson,
Don’t Shoot
, 181.

“The only thing we’re going in for”
: “Bob Hope and Marilyn Maxwell in Wonsan Before Leathernecks,”
Los Angeles Times
, October 27, 1950.

“I always had the feeling”
: Hope with Shavelson,
Don’t Shoot
, 183.

sued . . . for making jokes
:
New York Herald Tribune
, June 29, 1950.

“Writers got $2,000 a week”
: John Crosby, “Radio’s Seven Deadly Sins,”
Life
, November 6, 1950.

Hope sought $2 million
:
Daily Variety
, November 17, 1950.

eventually dropped the suit
:
Variety
, May 26, 1951.

“He was the worst egomaniac”
: Quirk,
Road Well-Traveled
, 222.

“I have learned that there is absolutely no truth”
: Quoted in Faith,
Life in Comedy
, 223.

“Our mission in life”
: Liberman, unpublished memoir.

“The boss knew a number of people”
: Faith,
Life in Comedy
, 223–24.

“I think he’s a great man”
: Joan Barthel, “Bob Hope: The Road Gets Rougher,”
Life
, January 29, 1971.!

“If he’s had romances”
: Betty Beale, “And Here’s a Lady Who Loves Him,”
Washington Star
, May 24, 1978.

“It never bothered me”
: Lahr, “C.E.O. of Comedy.”

“I’m sure that my mother knew”
: Linda Hope, interview with author.

“She had grace under fire”
: Rory Burke, interview with author.

SLEEP IN A WIGWAM TONIGHT
: Liberman, unpublished memoir.

called Maxwell the second most serious
: Ibid.

ranked him as Britain’s No. 1 box-office star
:
Guardian
, December 28, 1951.

“had lapses into feebleness”
: Quoted in
Time
correspondent files, April 1951.

“If little that Hope gave us”
:
Guardian
, April 25, 1951.

Hope impulsively promised
: Faith,
Life in Comedy
, 224–25.

“Bob was really great to us kids”
: Thompson,
Portrait of a Superstar
, 94.

“Hope never looked like a serious contender”
:
Variety
, January 30 and 31, 1952.

“How hard can you hit”
: Ibid.

got his rescue man, Frank Tashlin
: Hope and Thomas,
Road to Hollywood
,
76–77.

“95 minutes of uninhibited mirth”
:
Variety
, July 16, 1952.

Prompted the Catholic Legion of Decency
:
Variety
, August 6, 1952.

Hope . . . said he was going to lay off television
:
Daily Variety
, December 7, 1951.

“I didn’t think it fair”
: Lamour,
My Side of the Road
, 190.

“I haven’t seen this much of Bob”
: Kathryn Crosby,
My Life with Bing
(Collage, 1983), 197.

“Realizing how important it was”
: Lamour,
My Side of the Road
, 198.

Starr had to threaten to sue
: Ben Starr, interview with author.

“He still holds Hollywood like King Kong”
: Carrie Rickey, interview with author.

“I think it’s Americanism” . . . Many in the audience booed
: Undated wire-service story,
Tim
e archives.

the FCC at the last minute withheld
:
Variety
, November 25, 1953.

Hope wanted the cards as big as possible
: Barney McNulty, video interview, ATAS archives.

“It’s not only a challenge, but it gives Bob”
:
Variety
, October 13, 1952.

“Hope at his old-time radio best”
:
Variety
, November 12, 1952.

“Seldom has the immediacy”
: Jack Gould,
New York Times
, March 23, 1953.

“socko almost all the way”
:
Variety
, March 25, 1953.

“Why didn’t you play this well yesterday?”
: Bob Hope, as told to Dwayne Netland,
Confessions of a Hooker: My Lifelong Love Affair with Golf
(Doubleday, 1987), 75.

didn’t attend a single meeting
:
Daily Variety
, June 11, 1953.

the first monthly installment . . . sold 5.2 million copies
: Army Archerd,
Daily Variety
, February 16, 1954.!

“That breezy Bob Hope”
: Hope,
Have Tux
, v–vi.

“He told me he starts with his feet”
: Arlene Dahl, interview with author.

“Bob was doing about twelve other things”
: Thompson,
Portrait of a Superstar
, 107.

“misses as often as it clicks”
:
Daily Variety
, March 1, 1954.

“Aside from a few scattered laughs”
:
Hollywood Reporter
, March 1, 1954.

“only asking for good stories”
: Hedda Hopper,
Los Angeles Times
, October 6, 1954.

“Let them sue me”
: Faith,
Life in Comedy
, 253.

“In television in America”
:
Time
correspondent files, November 1954.

“As an evening’s entertainment”
:
Daily Variety
, December 8, 1954.

“Entertainment will continue to be”
:
Daily Variety
, November 24, 1954.

saying he wanted to take a break
:
Daily Variety
, February 1, 1955.

“It didn’t really affect me for three days”
: Faith,
Life in Comedy
, 255.

“The gang at Lakeside will tell you”
: Jack Hellman,
Daily Variety
, February 14, 1955.

Hope agreed to a new five-year contract
:
Daily Variety
, June 9, 1955.

Mel Shavelson and Jack Rose . . . came to see him
: Shavelson describes the scene in
How to Succeed in Hollywood
, 60.

Cagney took no salary
: Ibid., 61.

“I think the way things are going”
: Louella Parsons,
Los Angeles Examiner
, Pictorial Living, June 26, 1955.

“A commanding abandonment of the buffoon”
:
Daily Variety
, May 26, 1955.

“Hope can now hold up his head”
:
New York Daily News
, quoted in Faith,
Life in Comedy
, 253.

“The family changed in the 1950s”
: Malatesta, interview with author.

“She looked at the report cards”
: Kelly Hope, interview with author.

“This trashy magazine”
: Linda Hope, interview with author.

CHAPTER 9: AMBASSADOR

Bob Hope applied for a visa
:
Daily Variety
, November 15, 1955.

“greatest I’ve ever seen”
:
Daily Variety
, May 7, 1956.

“I’ve seen many a curtain go up”
:
Daily Variety
, November 15, 1955.

didn’t even return his phone calls
: Hedda Hopper,
Los Angeles Times
, December 24, 1954.

drew a protest from the cameramen’s union
:
Daily Variety
, January 7, 1955.

“In an era when even the best”
: “Bob Hope and the 7 Year Itch,”
Variety
, March 6, 1957.

drew protests from both Canadian and British fans
: “Canadians Irked by Bob Hope’s Royalty Jokes,”
Los Angeles Times
, November 17, 1955.!

When Hope looked at the books
: Memo from Jimmy Saphier, March 14, 1957, Hope archives.

“I’m a hit but going broke”
: “Bob Hope Going for Broke on TV,”
Daily Variety
, December 27, 1956.

Under the new deal, NBC would pay
:
Daily Variety
, February 6, 1957.

“The land purchase was done directly”
: Tom Sarnoff, interview with author.

“Bob was known to hang on to his real estate”
: Art Linkletter, interview with author.

“He was very patient”; “Thank God I had grown up”
: Eva Marie Saint, interview with author.

“Leave it to Bob Hope”
:
Variety
, June 20, 1956.

“too much the type of entertainment”
: “Has Video Staled Screen Quipping?,”
Variety
, August 1, 1956.

Hope merely suggested a few “hokey thoughts”
: Hope and Thomas,
Road to Hollywood
, 85–86.

“I had been sold a false bill of goods”; “the biggest egomaniac”
: A. Scott Berg,
Kate Remembered
(Berkley, 2004), 232.

“After only two days I realized”
: Michael Freedland,
Katharine Hepburn
(W. H. Allen, 1984), 141.

Hepburn was “a gem”
: Hope and Thomas,
Road to Hollywood
, 86.

“This is to notify you”; “I am most understanding”
: “Ex-Partners,”
Time
, October 15, 1956.

“The notion of these two characters”
: Bosley Crowther,
New York Times
, February 2, 1957.

Filming was scheduled to begin
: Hope gives a long account of the
Paris Holiday
troubles in
I Owe Russia $1200
(Doubleday, 1963), 81–107.

“Each time I pack my bags”
: Hopper,
Los Angeles Times
, December 25, 1957.

He had renewed his application
: Hope,
I Owe Russia
, 11–17; and Faith,
Life in Comedy
, 257–58.

“What does your Mr. Hope want to do”
: Hope,
I Owe Russia
, 13.

“This was to prevent us”
: Ibid., 216.

“I still don’t know who went through”
: Ibid., 235.

“Can you believe it
?”;
“Congratulations”
: Lachman, interview with author.

“What we are trying to do is to state”
: Hope,
I Owe Russia
, 252.

“I wish there’d been a lot more Russia”
: Cecil Smith,
Los Angeles Times
, April 8, 1958.

“Who would have thought”
: Gould,
New York Times
, April 7, 1958.

Sitting next to Mrs. Khrushchev
: Hope describes the encounter in
Don’t Shoot,
231–34.

“Guys ask me all the time”
:
Weekend
7, no. 42 (1957), Hope archives.

Timex . . . dropped him after just one month
:
Daily Variety
, October 21, 1957.!

“It’s getting out there in person”; “I sit in my office”
: Pete Martin, “I Call on Bob Hope,”
Saturday Evening Post
, April 26, 1958.

Hope told Millar (without irony)
: Faith,
Life in Comedy
, 272.

“The walls of the room . . . started closing in”
: Hope,
I Owe Russia
, 166.

“Stop lying to me”
: Ibid., 186.

“Bob Hope to Fly East”
:
Beverly Hills Citizen
, March 2, 1959.