Friends Recall Hope’s Life of Laughter
LOS ANGELES – His name said it all.
Over the course of a full century ó through economic hardship, four wars and civil unrest ó Bob Hope kept people looking on the bright side.
“Isn’t it strange that he gave everybody ‘hope’ all the time?” Mickey Rooney reflected Monday. “That meant he was giving himself.”
Rooney, who appeared with Hope in the 1953 boxing comedy “Off Limits,” said his slope-nosed co-star was always “on,” always ready with a story, a quip or a smart remark. “Whenever we’d go before the camera or come off there’d be a joke or a laugh or something. Life was a laugh and a memory for Bob Hope,” Rooney said
He made presidents laugh. He made servicemen laugh. He tickled the funny bones of little kids and grandparents, and teased with the risque without ever going dirty. He grew from a smart-alecky young man to a smart-alecky old man.
Bill Cosby compared Hope’s life to a high-stakes poker game: “He played the heck out of his hand, and I tip my hat to him.”
Phyllis Diller, a favorite comic foil for Hope, focused on life with him instead of life without him. After all, Hope was never good with drama.
“He had his long moment in the sun, a long moment,” she said. “He lived such a healthful life, no wonder he lived to be 100. He didn’t smoke or drink, and he had all that outdoor exercise.
“Plus,” she added with a cackle, “you know, when you’re that rich you don’t have so much worry.”
She was only half-joking. Hope amassed a fortune by investing his show-business earnings in real estate in California’s San Fernando Valley, Palm Springs and Malibu. Forbes magazine in 1983 estimated his wealth at more than $200 million, although he denied it.
So why did he keep working into his 90s?
Steve Martin may have hit on the answer: “Bob Hope not only entertained millions for decades, but we could also see that he was entertaining himself.”
Hope’s influence stretched far beyond Hollywood.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan offered his thoughts about the comedian Monday: “I never met him, but he was a great man and he made lots of people happy.”
Former President Ford lauded Hope for his “untiring devotion” to American servicemen. From World War II to Korea, Vietnam and Desert Storm, Hope swaggered fearlessly through battle zones as if strolling the back nine of a golf course.
“Nobody did what he did. He went to every front line, trench, and foxhole in every major war. In the history of entertainment, no one gave back so much,” comedian Sid Caesar said. “There wasn’t anything Bob Hope wouldn’t do for someone wearing an armed forces uniform.”
Diller often accompanied him on his wartime tours to be the butt of his jokes as he compared her aging, skinny frame to the curvaceous beauties brought along for eye candy.
“He believed in our country and the principles of our country and democracy. That’s why he had such a desire to pay back or alleviate the problems of the GIs. He had such an empathy with the fighting guys,” Diller said.
He wouldn’t have been any good carrying a gun or jumping into a foxhole.
“I don’t think he would have been a good shot,” Diller joked. “However, he was pretty good with that golf club.”
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