Thursday, May 29, 2003
A hundred years of Hope - THE COMMENTARY
By Joseph Planta
VANCOUVER – Leslie Townes Hope turns one hundred years old today. He was born in Eltham, England, but soon left Blighty to become one of America's most beloved performers. Bob Hope, though he hasn't made a public appearance in years, remains more than a legend. He's a bonafide star, who not just because he was a comic, has become a compendium of ironies.
As a comedian, for which he'll be eternally remembered as, Bob Hope was not the best. He did not have the sort of bravado and bombastic nature that Milton Berle had, nor an ingrained or signature character as Jack Benny had. He was not a standup comic, so he wasn't like a Letterman or Bill Cosby. He wasn't known for slapstick, as Jerry Lewis or Red Skelton were. Though he wasn't a singer, he introduced songs with his pitch perfect voice, that have become standards. He received numerous honorary Academy Awards, but none for his acting. He also hosted more Oscar ceremonies than anyone else in the 75-year history of the awards. And besides becoming America's most recognised entertainer, even though he was born in Britain, no one in the field of show business did so much for America's fighting men and women, in wars from the Second World War to Operation Desert Storm.
Bob Hope will be remembered for bringing hope to Americans both overseas and at home, in those years when America was at war. His slightly egotistical, yet charming comedy, comforted Americans and endeared them to their hearts, that he is the only civilian who has been named an honorary veteran of the United States Armed Forces. It's remarkable to think of the time he's spent foursquare in the American consciousness. He wrote jokes for Franklin Roosevelt, and played golf with every president from Truman to Eisenhower to Kennedy to Johnson to Nixon to Ford to Carter to Reagan to Bush to Clinton. No one gave more to the United States in terms of moral support and service to her armed forces than that British-born, Leslie Townes Hope.
Over a month ago, the New York Times ran a nearly 2,000 word piece on Bob Hope. It reinforced the popular belief that Bob Hope was (and remains) the Comedy Establishment in the United States. Jerry Seinfeld may look up to standup gods like Carlin, Pryor or Cosby, but anyone who's made a living in comedy either on film or on television (on radio, before that), rightfully pays some measure of homage to Bob Hope. To think that Bob Hope bridged the generations of comics from Fanny Brice, Eddie Cantor and Jack Benny in vaudeville, through to the Ernie Kovacs' of the ‘50s and ‘60s, to the monologists supremes, Jack Paar and Johnny Carson, through to today's giants like Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, Robin Williams, Billy Crystal and Steve Martin, through to the comics of today like Seinfeld, Jay Leno, or Conan O'Brien. Bob Hope has touched so many lives professionally, that it was delightful to have seen Woody Allen on a recent television tribute, admit to ‘doing' Bob Hope in his films. Allen's style is, he admits, unabashedly ‘Bob Hope.'
Bob Hope had a contract with NBC that lasted an unprecedented 59 years. For NBC, he did specials that entertained Americans. From his parade of college football champs who'd captured the Heisman, through to the latest Olympic medalists, through to a parade of performers both young and old, he'd jam with at Christmas, Bob Hope was a fixture on American television for so many years. He never really had a regular series of his own, but all could always count on his unmistakable and warm presence on the small screen. On film, he did witty films that constantly broke the fourth wall in acting. He made those charming ‘Road' pictures with crooner Bing Crosby. From Morocco to Zanzibar to Bali to Hong Kong, Hope and Crosby are as identifiable as comedy duos like Lucy and Ethel, Mary and Rhoda, Matthau and Lemmon, Martin and Lewis, or Tracy and Hepburn. He never really ventured into dramatic acting (perhaps The Seven Little Foys was the closest he ever got), though he probably would have been decent in that.
Bob Hope made a joke out of his ever growing reliance on cue cards and writers as he got older. Even when he did feign fecklessness or pomposity, he exuded the charm of someone who was at the top of the show business food chain, yet as to why he made it as, as the Times put it, the Comedy Establishment, we're still puzzled. Bob Hope never did do drama, because he was probably afraid of exuding some level of vulnerability. For someone who plied their trade in getting laughs and providing comfort to the afflicted, gaining sympathy or propagating pathos was not something he wanted to associate himself with. One, were they to sum up the life and career of Bob Hope, could not properly pigeonhole him into the right genre. With Sinatra, whose acting skills were decent enough to warrant an Oscar, there was no denying that he was first and foremost a singer. With Hope, you have a little bit of everything. You have an actor that in his films showed other filmmakers how it was done. In radio, he was alongside some of the greats like Burns or Benny. In television, he was an institution, like the Super Bowl or the Oscar telecasts he dominated so well and so often. As a vaudevillian, he was a legend, like Jolson or Fanny Brice. But if we were to truly define Bob Hope through the narrow guise of a definition or a class – the British-born son of a stonemason who was known to drink a bit, is truly an American institution like the towering hero that John Wayne was in movies, or apple pie, or baseball; Or the Stars and Stripes itself – the American flag.
The anecdote that has remained with me all these years regarding Bob Hope, happened at an Oscar ceremony over a decade ago, during the Persian Gulf War. Security around the venue, where the telecast would take place, was surrounded by security. Celebrities both big and small, had to suffer the indignity of going through a metal detector, before going into the theatre. This of course bears no candle to the kind of heightened alert that everyone's on post-September 11th. Anyways, the authorities granted only one celeb official dispensation to not have to go through a metal detector. Bob Hope, they said, was like an American flag, how could one possibly make an institution like Hope go through a metal detector, thus doubting the veracity of his patriotism. For conservatives, and for those that fervently link their patriotism to supporting this Republican President, Bob Hope is a shining example that they'd wish today's Hollywood would emulate.
Bob Hope is a legend thanks to his longevity, but also for his unabashed love of the country he adopted at a very young age. No one else could have possibly stood by, and for, an America that was simpler and perhaps more noble. As he turns 100, Bob Hope's admirable service and remarkable achievements are remembered. And rightfully so. We also remember an entertainer who made Americans laugh, even at their most trying of times. Maybe the brunt and divisiveness of this past war and September 11th before that, could have been blunted or softened, with his timeless yet topical, funny yet at times sardonic humour.
Bob Hope is so old, that he reportedly quipped recently, they've cancelled his blood type. Not even God himself, could cancel out the heart and dignity Bob Hope brought to entertainment and the world in all of his one hundred years.
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An archive of Joseph Planta's previous columns can be found by clicking HERE .