Hope: Entertainer of the Century (81 page)

“She was charming and lovely”
: Lachman papers, Writers Guild archives.

“The last thing those guys needed”
: Sally and Ivor Davis, “Always Another Show to Play,”
Chicago Tribune
, April 2, 1978.

In Bangkok, Hope and his troupe
: Accounts of the 1966 tour in Hope,
Last Christmas Show
, 209–27; and Lachman’s papers, Writers Guild archives.

“We saw the show site”
: Lachman papers, Writers Guild archives.

“This is what has to win it”
: Hope,
Last Christmas Show
, 223.

“Bob and Westy would sit up talking”
: Lukas, “This Is Bob (Politician-Patriot-Publicist) Hope,”
New York Times Magazine
, October 4, 1970.

“Everybody I talked to there”
: Hal Humphrey,
Los Angeles Times
, January 18, 1967.

“I’d rather be a hawk”
: UPI,
New York Times
, December 31, 1966.

“When you get guys like Eisenhower”
: Bob Hope interview,
Playboy
, December 1973.

“He was very supportive”
: Coelho, interview with author.

“If Kennedy had lived”
: John Johns, interview with Hope,
California
magazine, March 1977.

“It was difficult for him”
: Linda Hope, interview with author.

Her father gave the blessing
: Account of the wedding from Judith Richards Hope, interview with author.

“When you come onstage”
: Raquel Welch, interview with author.

“He never got ruffled”; “I was over there to entertain”
: Ibid.

“the land of rising commitment”
: Hope,
Last Christmas Show
, 243.

“embarrassing”; “ungracious”
: Gould, “Will Emmy Do Better Than Oscar and Tony?,”
New York Times
, April 28, 1968.

“It was difficult to be funny”
: “Forty Is a Dangerous Age,”
Time
, April 19, 1968.

“I went with Bob because”
: Faith,
Life in Comedy
, 318.!

“What a boon he is”
:
Variety
, January 17, 1969.

“I wanted to get married under a tree”
: Nathaniel Lande, interview with author.

“Texas wouldn’t rent us the Astrodome”; “Linda, Linda”
: Army Archerd,
Daily Variety
, January 13, 1969.

“You’ll make a Republican”
: Lande, interview with author.

CHAPTER 12: PARTISAN

“See what one dinner”
: Lukas, “This Is Bob,”
New York Times Magazine
.

“The humorous ‘one-liners’ ”
: Letter from Agnew, December 31, 1968, Hope archives.

“We hated writing for a repressive”
: Lukas, “This Is Bob.”

“He took natural advantage”
: Dwight Chapin, interview with author.

“Where There’s Death”
: A letter to Hope from a University of Michigan student apologizing for the leaflets, Hope archives.

“Hell, I’m for peace”
: Faith,
Life in Comedy
, 332.

“It’s those small minorities”
: Ibid., 329.

“rigged clips”
:
Daily Variety
, November 13, 1969.

“I have no doubt that Hope”
:
Daily Variety
, November 14, 1969.

One of the Golddiggers . . . unfurled
: Connie Stevens, interview with author—though Faith, describing what was apparently the same incident in
Life in Comedy
(333), attributed the disruption to one of the Golddiggers trying to get Nixon’s autograph.

Hope . . . was so late getting there
: Faith,
Life in Comedy
, 334.

President Nixon . . . threatened to fire
: H. R. Haldeman,
The Haldeman Diaries: Inside the Nixon White House
(Putnam, 1994), 111.

described it as only a “smattering”
: Faith’s account of the incident is in
Life in Comedy
, 335.

“After about fifteen minutes”
: Timothy White,
Rolling Stone
, March 20, 1980.

“I happened to be walking”
: Connie Stevens, interview with author.

“They were severely wounded”
: Ibid.

“A few kids, about five”
: Barthel, “Bob Hope: The Road Gets Rougher,”
Life
.

“the coldest, most unresponsive”; “It had been a wipeout day”
: Hope,
Last Christmas Show
, 290.

“Our response . . . came out of fear and loneliness”
: White,
Rolling Stone
, March 20, 1980.

showed a loss of $274,000
: J. L. Kubin, secretary for Hope Enterprises, relates these figures in a memo to NBC’s Tom Sarnoff, Hope archives.

For the 1969–70 season, his average rating soared
:
Variety
, April 29, 1970.

“one of those curiously lackadaisical”
: William Tusher,
Hollywood Reporter
, March 20, 1970.!

“everyone has hurriedly gotten together”
: John Mahoney,
Hollywood Reporter
, April 13, 1970.

“They are so prejudiced”
: Letter from Jimmy Saphier, April 15, 1970, Hope archives.

“This kind of bitchy, ill-tempered”
: Letter from Charles Lee, Hope archives.

“This is one day we’re not trying”
: Carol H. Falk, “Comic Bob Hope Calls His Rally Nonpartisan, but Some Are Dubious,”
Wall Street Journal
, July 3, 1970.

“designed to show a phony national consensus”
: “Rennie Davis Scores Honor America Day,”
New York Times
, June 25, 1970.

Demonstrators . . . started early
: John Herbers, “Thousands Voice Faith in America at Capital Rally,”
New York
Times, July 5, 1970.

Hope was driven
: Faith,
Life in Comedy
, 345.

When it was over, demonstrators broke through
: Faith,
Life in Comedy
, 346.

JOHN WAYNE IS A RACIST
: Wiley and Bona,
Inside Oscar
, 437.

Shirley MacLaine yelled
: “Mocking the Mockery,”
Time
, April 20, 1970.

old-timers such as Bob Hope were “unacceptable”
:
Variety
, September 2, 1970.

“I have seen Bob Hope”
: Colonel Edward M. Kirby,
Variety
, September 9, 1970.

“He just doesn’t understand”
: Lukas, “This Is Bob
.”

He talked to his attorney
: Faith,
Life in Comedy
, 350.

“I just hated to get involved”
: Leroy F. Aarons, “Bob Hope: A Gadfly to Hawk,”
Washington Post
, August 18, 1970.

“It’s not American students”
: Timeri Murari, “The Great White Hope,”
Guardian
, November 21, 1970.

Hope . . . learned of the show in advance
: Faith has a long account of Hope’s
This Is Your Life
segment in
Life in Comedy
, 351–68.

he was interrupted by a handful of women’s liberation activists
: Accounts of the incident by Nicholas de Jongh, “Beauty O’ershadowed by the Women’s Lib,”
Guardian
, November 21, 1970; and Faith,
Life in Comedy
, 366–67.

“the worst theatrical experience”
: Christopher Walker, “Miss World Was Not Amused,”
Observer
, November 22, 1970.

“You’ll notice about the women”
: Faith,
Life in Comedy
, 367.

“I didn’t talk to the military brass”
: Bob Thomas, AP, January 14, 1971.

“Hope is not only an entertainer”
: Jack Gould,
New York Times
, January 31, 1971.

“I thought your closing remarks”
: Letter from Richard Nixon, January 20, 1971, Hope archives.

“The growing unpopularity of the war”
:
Variety
, January 20, 1971.

“out of touch with today’s soldier”
:
Variety
, February 17, 1971.

not
invited to . . . the Ohio State Fair
:
Variety
, July 7, 1971.

“uncritical endorsement of the . . . Indochina war”
: Grace Lichtenstein, “Church Council Bars Award to Bob Hope,”
New York Times
, March 18, 1971.!

“I couldn’t say anything against”
: AP, March 19, 1971.

called the Vietnam War “a beautiful thing”
: Barthel, “The Road Gets Rougher.”

claimed he had been misquoted
: Kenneth J. Fanucchi, “Bob Hope Denies He Called War in Vietnam ‘Beautiful,’ ”
Los Angeles Times
, March 17, 1971.

Her tape recorder had actually run out
: Joan Barthel, interview with author.

“Do you have a lunch date tomorrow?”
: Barthel, “The Road Gets Rougher.”

“I learned it was better not to engage”
: Lande, interview with author.

“That was the only time”
: McCullagh, interview with author.

“If the people of Vietnam want”
: Transcript of appearance at Southern Methodist University, January 29, 1971, Hope archives.

Shavelson told Hope they should drop
: Davis,
Chicago Tribune
, April 2, 1978.

“Money insulates you”
: Ibid.

“His attitude was we could finish it”
: Ibid.

“Anyone . . . who dares to take a stand”
: Faith,
Life in Comedy
, 371.

“He knew we were going to win”
:
Daily Variety
, September 29, 1971.

“I thank you . . . for bringing a little happiness”
: Letter from Linda Faulkner, January 1, 1970, Hope archives.

“The servicemen over there believe”
: Hope form reply, Hope archives.

“These men must be completely desperate”
: Letter from Mrs. James Stockdale, February 17, 1969, Hope archives.

The next day an Air Force plane
: Accounts of the POW meeting in Hope,
Last Christmas Show
, 326–29; and Faith,
Life in Comedy
, 374–77.

“I’d known all along”
: Hope,
Last Christmas Show
, 331–32.

“I know one thing”
: Hope letter to Jimmy Saphier, March 3, 1972.

“It was . . . an awkward phone call”
: Memo from Dwight Chapin to H. R. Haldeman, September 30, 1971, Richard Nixon Presidential Library.

“Sit down”
: White House tapes, conversation 714–22, April 20, 1972, Nixon Library.

“You’re the war hero”
: Ibid.

“Your friendship and support”
: Letter from Nixon to Hope, October 26, 1972, Nixon Library.

By mid-1972 the USO had only three
:
Variety
, April 26, 1972.

At least fifteen aircraft . . . were lost
: Hope,
Last Christmas Show
, 344.

an uncharacteristic diplomatic lapse
: Jack Foise, “Hope Forced to Explain His Jokes to Ruffled Thais,”
Los Angeles Times
, December 25, 1972.

“Back in the States, a negative press”
: Ray Siller, e-mail to author.

Siller had to gin up a monologue
: Ray Siller, interview with author.

Hope called . . . to wish Nixon a happy sixtieth birthday
: White House tapes, conversation 35-108, January 9, 1973.

“You must be beaming all over!”
White House tapes, conversation 43-109, February 15, 1973.

“What you did is something else”
: White House tapes, conversation 872-19, March 8, 1973.

CHAPTER 13: RESTORATION

another film with Gleason
:
Daily Variety
, June 17, 1969.

a comedy by writer-director David Swift
:
Variety
, January 20, 1971.

Marx and Fisher protested
: Marx,
Secret Life of Bob Hope
, 416–18.

The two were at odds; “We argued about everything”
: Paul Bogart, interview with author.

“You are fucking impossible!”
: Ibid.

just six hundred . . . seats were filled
:
Variety
, October 18, 1972.

“you and Bing would simply overpower”
: Letter from Neil Simon, January 24, 1973, Hope archives.

Art Linkletter . . . was impressed
: Linkletter, interview with author.

First, Hope was late
: The account of Hope’s troubles at the inauguration comes from Maxine Cheshire, “Backstage, Offstage, Onstage,”
Washington Post
, January 22, 1973; and a member of Hope’s entourage.