Bob Hope

The first "Road to -- " movie, "Road to Singapore," was originally written for George Burns and Gracie Allen. When they turned the parts down, it was suggested Bob Hope and Bing Crosby be paired ...

The Bob Hope Classic gets underway Wednesday January 19th as the PGA Tour embarks on another long season.

In the midst of planning a 1978 special on the World Series, Bob Hope got a call from longtime baseball fan Steve Martin who offered his services as a guest. Moreover, he offered to provide his own material.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Barbara Eden was a Bob Hope favorite and guested with us many times. Here are some of the highlights.

One afternoon, my writing partner Gig Henry and I, along with Hope's longtime makeup man, Don Marando, slipped away from our guide and discovered a small antique shop obviously not intended for foreigners.

Casting Bob Hope Specials a challenge since, often, the guest we wanted wasn't available. Once, though, a major star landed right in our laps. Would you believe that Richard Burton just stopped by for lunch?

During my two decades on the road with Bob Hope I learned the major secret of his phenomenal success: HE KNEW HOW TO SELL BOB HOPE. Now you can learn those very same selling techniques to promote your product!

On a 1981 special honoring the N.F.L., we wrote a sketch starring three legendary coaches, Hank Stramm, Weeb Eubank and George Allen incarcerated for "mental breakdowns." Betty White played their nurse.

If we had thought network censorship in the U.S. was too powerful, it was child's play compared to what we encountered in 1979 China.

Beginning with F.D.R., Bob Hope tossed jibes at Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush I and Clinton. Here are a few of them.

Though Bob Hope didn't spend his childhood there, he was always proud to call Great Britain the country of his birth,

From Bob Hope's very beginnings in radio, product association played an indispensable part in his career and he fostered it.

In the fall of 1977 Perry Como guested on a Bob Hope Christmas special playing "Luke Sleepwalker" in a sketch parody of "Star Wars." The affable singer/TV host was a pure delight to work with.

From her first appearance as a 14-year old guest on the Bob Hope Show, Bob Hope taught her how to act convincingly on television. Later, she would conveniently overlook his mentoring.

A former trial lawyer, Howard Cosell carved himself a unique niche in the world of television sports. He grew into the image he believed the public had of him and was a frequent guest on Bob Hope's specials.

Bob Hope's 1979 "Bob Hope on Campus" was such a success, Hope would re-enroll four years later for "Bob Hope Goes to College," visiting the University of Texas, Clemson University, Notre Dame, U.C.L.A. and Utah State.

During the Vietnam years, Hope's support of the war made college campuses un-hospitable, but by 1979, a new generation of students had arrived so he taped the first of two college tours he'd complete in the 1980s.

Bob Hope entertained our military forces for over fifty years. The United States Congress named Bob Hope "Honorary U.S. Veteran" - no one before or after has ever received this Honor. He left us at age 100 but what memories he left behind!

Comedian Bob Hope, who entertained before millions of American servicemen and servicewomen, is being honored with a 44 cent U.S. postage stamp of his own on his birthday, Friday, May 29th.

If you are old enough to remember Bob Hope then you remember one of the greatest comedians, actor of all times; he was a classic!

n 1979, the movie "Superman" had been leaping tall box-office grosses in a single bound-so, faster than a speeding bullet, we decided to parody it in a special entitled "Hope, Women & Song."

Though Cedric Adams died 50 years ago the following tribute to him was never published until now. It was written by his friend and ghostwriter, "Our Gal Magill." It is with Bernadine's permission that I post this homage to "Mr. Northwest."

On a Bob Hope football special in 1980, George Gobel played an interpreter for place kicker Garo Yeupremian who pretended not to know English. Hope, Gobel and Garo then sang "You Don't Have to Know the Language."

In the 1970s and 1980s, Bob Hope, Hope called upon one of his favorite TV glamor queens often. Loni Anderson's total Hope guest appearances was rivaled only by those of Brooke Shields.

Don Knotts was one of Bob Hope's favorite guests and one of the most endearing and talented character actors ever to work in film and television. Here is a TV routine tailor-made to demonstrate Don's genius.

Bob Hope was partial to booking singers on his specials because his theory was that singers are story-tellers and have an inborn talent for acting. One of his favorites was Glen Campbell, as solid a sketch actor as ever was.

In 1981, Bob Hope hired Jane Upton Bell, daughter of Bert Bell, the founder of the Philadelphia Eagles, to produce a 2-hour TV special honoring the 60th anniversary of the National Football League.

In a 1978 special entitled "Bob Hope's Tribute to the Palace Theater," we cast Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme in a sketch playing Sir Lancelot and Lady Guinevere opposite Hope's King Arthur in a parody we called "Squares at the Round Table."

In the early 1980s, Bob Hope taped TV specials at all three U.S. military academies. West Point was the second, produced in 1981.

In the early 1980s, Bob Hope would tape specials at all three U.S. military academies -- peacetime military junkets during the lull between Vietnam and the war in the Gulf War.

In 1979, Bob Hope became the first American entertainer to perform for the Chinese people since Nixon and Mao had signed the trade agreement in 1974. For his monologue, Hope needed a translator, the only one he would use during his long career.

A part of Americana as well as his own legend.