I think my problem is that the only scenes I've seen him he was already hugely famous and it didn't seem like he was giv
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ecapital46 — 14 years ago(September 24, 2011 07:12 AM)
Robert Hope is King. No need to take the public's word for it. He was the most respected of Hollywood stars among his peers. That's the highest benchmark. Hope, unlike any other star you can name, mastered comedy, acting, singing, dancing, masters of ceremonies duties, and service to our military troops. He was a major success in vaudeville, on broadway, on radio, in movies, in live performances in clubs and theatres, on television, and on our military bases around the world. He conquered them all, which is why he had the respect of everyone in and out of Hollywood. His professional resume is unparalleled. This is why all the old stars and Presidents WANTED to be seen with him. You may remember the scene at the Baseball All Star game in Boston a few years back when all the past and future All Star Hall of Famers crowded around Hall of Famer Ted Williams. Even though most of them were already Hall of Famers themselves or future Hall of Famers, they wanted to be around the consensus best hitter to ever play the game. If a similar group of Hall of Fame entertainers was assembled when Bob Hope was alive, you would have seen them gathering around him in a similar fashion. He was the best of the best.
Don't get hung up on why every joke you hear from Hope isn't funny. Over 70 years of comedy, many of them inevitably will not be gems. No one ever will be funny 100% of the time over 70 years. Much of his humor over the years was topical - that is, related to current events of the day in politics and the world. If the comedy is about events before you were born that you are not familiar with, it could be the bit was actually funny, but you just have no idea to what he is referring. In addition to watching the comedy, recommend you watch footage of Hope dancing in the 1940's and 50's (various clips are on YouTube. See him in "The Seven Little Foys" with another hoofer, James Cagney); listen to him premiere standards in "College Swing" and "Big Broadcast of 1938"; Check out some of his clips from MCing the Academy Awards over the years, etc. His movies probably could have been more funnier, but Hope had so many facets to his game, it was a minor shortcoming to his overall star. -
metalman091 — 14 years ago(November 09, 2011 12:49 AM)
Robert Hope is King. No need to take the public's word for it. He was the most respected of Hollywood stars among his peers. That's the highest benchmark. Hope, unlike any other star you can name, mastered comedy, acting, singing, dancing, masters of ceremonies duties, and service to our military troops. He was a major success in vaudeville, on broadway, on radio, in movies, in live performances in clubs and theatres, on television, and on our military bases around the world. He conquered them all, which is why he had the respect of everyone in and out of Hollywood. His professional resume is unparalleled. This is why all the old stars and Presidents WANTED to be seen with him. You may remember the scene at the Baseball All Star game in Boston a few years back when all the past and future All Star Hall of Famers crowded around Hall of Famer Ted Williams. Even though most of them were already Hall of Famers themselves or future Hall of Famers, they wanted to be around the consensus best hitter to ever play the game. If a similar group of Hall of Fame entertainers was assembled when Bob Hope was alive, you would have seen them gathering around him in a similar fashion. He was the best of the best.
Don't get hung up on why every joke you hear from Hope isn't funny. Over 70 years of comedy, many of them inevitably will not be gems. No one ever will be funny 100% of the time over 70 years. Much of his humor over the years was topical - that is, related to current events of the day in politics and the world. If the comedy is about events before you were born that you are not familiar with, it could be the bit was actually funny, but you just have no idea to what he is referring. In addition to watching the comedy, recommend you watch footage of Hope dancing in the 1940's and 50's (various clips are on YouTube. See him in "The Seven Little Foys" with another hoofer, James Cagney); listen to him premiere standards in "College Swing" and "Big Broadcast of 1938"; Check out some of his clips from MCing the Academy Awards over the years, etc. His movies probably could have been more funnier, but Hope had so many facets to his game, it was a minor shortcoming to his overall star.
I don't think I have heard this explained better on this message board. -
vinidici — 14 years ago(November 28, 2011 07:23 AM)
Bob Hope will be remembered and revered for decades more to come and maybe even into the next century (airports, hospitals, streets, military complexes and vehicles, etc., named after him) and beyond, as long as film and recordings of his TV and radio work are preserved.
Whatever you do, DO NOT read this sigACKKK!!!
TOO LATE!!! -
phillipsdan83 — 12 years ago(December 28, 2013 08:39 AM)
Hope was funny in his younger days. But it shouldn't be glossed over that after the early Sixties, he put less effort into his movies, and as he aged and lost his timing, his final few NBC specials were painful to watch.
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ConDeuce — 11 years ago(July 23, 2014 08:02 AM)
Count me among the many who used to think Hope wasnt funny at all. He was a comedian from my parents generation (born in the 1920s, came of age during WWII). Theyd often watch him and his movies but since I was from a very different generation (born in the 60s) I was too above it all to even give the guy a chance. What I did see of Hope was his stiff TV specials in the 70s and 80s and I could not understand why the guy was a star.
Then I happened to be flipping around the channels one day and I came upon My Favorite Brunette and it was a revelation. Hopes line delivery is priceless. I an someone who loves great funny lines from movies. I collect them like others collect stamps and My Favorite Brunette has a ton of them. I recall Woody Allen admitting that he mimicked (or stole) Hopes line delivery and this is apparent from watching My Favorite Brunette. Hope delivers deadpan lines in the face of deadly serious characters just like Allen did in Bananas.
No one could have achieved the superstardom that Hope did without being really talented and entertaining at some point in their lives. I think Hope reached a peak in the 40s but (as others have already pointed out) by the 60s, 70s and 80s, he was essentially performing more on his reputation than on original material. People like my parents fondly remembered the truly funny Bob Hope and simply watched is TV specials more as a kind of remembrance than for its entertainment value. -
bfitzgerald1968 — 11 years ago(August 17, 2014 07:48 PM)
Bushrod, you are not alone. Why this "legend" was foisted upon us decade after decade, can only be explained by the conservative mentality of the entertainment establishment, who routinely served us pure vanilla whether it was funny or not. There was something smug about the man. The photo of Hope wearing top hat and tails as sat in his vaulted basement with his collection of jokes that he did not write, struck me as extremely odd. He was the All American Star and the anonymous folks who wrote his lame material were employees. It was a facade perpetuated by a television era where we only had 3 or 4 channels and one of them was showing Lawrence Welk. Let us hope that, in the after life Leslie Townes Hope is an accountant.
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metalman091 — 11 years ago(August 17, 2014 10:24 PM)
Bushrod, you are not alone. Why this "legend" was foisted upon us decade after a decade, can only be explained by the conservative mentality of the entertainment establishment, who routinely served us pure vanilla whether it was funny or not.
Because Hope was a legend. He was extremely popular on radio, movies and television. He was one of the top ten box office stars of the 1940s and early 50s.
I wonder how you would describe George Burns and Gracie Allen, Jack Benny, Jimmy Durante, Red Skelton, Milton Berle, Danny Kaye or Eddie Cantor. Were they all vanilla?
And while Hope could be a slave driver, he did acknowledge the efforts of his writers. ALL of them fondly recalled his kindness and loyalty and they all remained loyal to him. Hope, like the others mentioned, had writers, but he was able to come up with his own material as well. -
bfitzgerald1968 — 10 years ago(July 06, 2015 03:06 PM)
All of the folks you mentioned were a lot 238funnier and entertaining than Texaco Bob Hope. Even Bing Crosby was better than this "great man." Popularity is no sign of extraordinary talent. The Garth Brooks era is a case in point.