no whistling . . . or hats: Liberman, unpublished memoir.
“If it were Danny Thomas”: Time correspondent files, September 1963.
“Bob who?”: Art Schneider, video interview, ATAS archives.
“From now on, don’t argue”: Hal Kanter, interview with author.
“Are you telling these interviewers”: Liberman, unpublished memoir.
“There’s always some guy”: Time correspondent files, September 1963.
“I never put in another expense account”: Sid Smith, interview with author.
When Alberti arrived . . . Hope asked why: Bob Alberti, Up the Ladder and Over the Top (Bob Alberti, 2003), 136.
Even a family member . . . was startled to get a bill: Nathaniel Lande, interview with author.
“We were paying it off”: Dorothy Reilly, interview with author.
“Why did he care?”: Bob Mills, interview with author.
“Thanks a lot, kid”: Janis Paige, interview with author.
“Well, if they settle for anything less”: Time correspondent files, September 1963.
“Emotionally he’s still the vaudevillian”: Ibid.!
“Dad was always of the mind”: Linda Hope, interview with author.
“Even within the family”: Justine Carr, interview with author.
“He was an impersonal guy”: Malatesta, interview with author.
“We sat down for dinner”: John Guare, interview with author.
“You could imagine Theresa”: Ibid.
“It was not a house full of undercurrents”: Ibid.
“They obviously had a lot of money . . . The Hopes were very supportive . . . He was very kind to me”: Tony Coelho, interview with author.
“Your hospital needs a new wing?”: Dwight Whitney, “Bob Hope,” TV Guide, January 16, 1965.
“It was something that obviously called out”: Linda Hope, interview with author.
“Bob admitted to me that the great love”: Liberman, unpublished memoir.
Frankland died of a drug overdose: “Britain’s First Miss World Killed by Drug Overdose,” London Telegraph, December 18, 2000.
“Bob Hope lives in his own world”: Dana M. Reemes, Directed by Jack Arnold (McFarland, 2012), 152.
Hope proposed a gala premiere: Memos from Arthur Jacobs, January 1959, AMPAS archives.
“I explained to Bob that the magazines”: Ibid.
“The film industry needs a positive approach”: Variety, May 9, 1962.
“It’ll be Southern California’s answer”: Peter Bart, “Bob Hope to Build Own Disneyland,” New York Times, July 31, 1965.
The Bob Hope Desert Classic had its origins: The tournament’s history is recounted by Larry Bohannan in 50 Years of Hope (Pediment Publishing).
The mammoth field included: Bill Shirley, “Pros to Tee Off at Desert Today,” Los Angeles Times, January 22, 1965.
“He never came to a board meeting”: Ernie Dunlevie, interview with author.
“without doubt one of the best”: Eddie Gannon, interview with author.
“He could hit the ball farther”: Lachman, interview with author.
“He would do a benefit”: Linda Hope, interview with author.
“He was a fair golfer”: Arnold Palmer, interview with author.
“Palmer got the blue-collar guys”: Dunlevie, interview with author.
once on a course that filled the inside: Hope, Confessions of a Hooker, 8.
CHAPTER 11: PATRIOT
the Air Force limited Hope’s troupe: Variety, December 20, 1961.
“Hope did a valid service”: Dorothy Reilly, interview with author.
a marine who claimed he had “hitchhiked”: Faith, Life in Comedy, 284.
“Christmas without Bob Hope”: Variety, December 11, 1963.!
“one of the roughest we’ve ever had”: “Dick, Please Be Good, So I Can Bow,” TV Guide, April 11, 1964.
“Bob Hope is so established”: Jack Gould, New York Times, January 18, 1964.
“greater than that normally used”: UPI dispatch, New York Times, December 25, 1964.
for every five thousand men: Faith, Life in Comedy, 298.
they found a chaotic scene: The Brinks bombing was widely reported at the time. More complete accounts of it are in Bob Hope, Five Women I Love: Bob Hope’s Vietnam Story (Avon, 1966), 111–21; and Faith, Life in Comedy, 299–300.
“We had no electricity”: Mort Lachman papers, Writers Guild of America archives.
“tiny room, with one Coke bottle”: Janis Paige, interview with author.
“We supposedly had thirty thousand men”; “I started complaining”; “He was definitely not a hawk”: Jill St. John, interview with author.
“Shortly after the explosion”: AP, March 17, 1967.
The cue-card stand had collapsed: McNulty gives his version of the widely repeated story in a video interview, ATAS archives.
an “altogether asinine”: Howard Thompson, New York Times, August 12, 1965.
“Hello, Yankee dogs!”: Bob Thomas, AP, July 21, 1965.
It was a rough trip from the start: The 1965 Vietnam tour is recounted at length in Hope, Five Women; as well as in Faith, Life in Comedy, 306–8; and Lachman’s papers, Writers Guild archives.
“In case of an attack”: Jack Jones, interview with author.
“Tension became almost unbearable”: Hope, Five Women, 169.
“It was one of the most emotional”: Jones, interview with author.
“He was a happy, positive force”: Ibid.
Bing Crosby sent him a letter: AP, Los Angeles Times, December 31, 1965.
Jack Shea . . . reluctantly told Hope: Jack Shea, video interview, ATAS archives.
“On January first I would take a thirty-day leave”: Art Schneider, video interview, ATAS archives.
“Because of his continued and patriotic”: Congressional Record, January 27, 1966.
“frequent visitor to Vietnam”; “Camp Runamuck”; “It’s on the paper”: Variety, April 6, 1966.
He taped a half-hour TV program: Variety, February 16, 1966.
“Can you imagine returning”: Bob Hope, “An Open Letter About Our GI’s,” Family Weekly, June 12, 1966.
“One group is fighting”: Faith, Life in Comedy, 311.
“People seem to forget”: Peter Bart, “Cold War Alters a Hollywood Law,” New York Times, August 5, 1965.!
“They call you a comedian”: Jack Warner, letter to Hope, December 26, 1963, Hope archives.
More than 62 percent said yes: Faith, Life in Comedy, 312–13.
“a couple of the Washington boys”: Ibid., 312.
only 60 percent of the seats . . . at the Yale Bowl: Variety, July 27, 1966.
some stars turned him down: Tom Buckley, “Hope Says Some Performers Refused Vietnam Trip,” New York Times, December 22, 1966.
The new Miss World . . . nearly backed out: AP, “India’s Miss World Reconsiders Plan for Trip to South Vietnam,” New York Times, November 28, 1966.
“He played the straight man”: Phyllis Diller, interview with author.
Hope just missed . . . Lynda Bird Johnson: Bob Hope, as told to Pete Martin, The Last Christmas Show (Doubleday, 1974), 209.
give him small parts . . . and sent regular “royalty” checks: Robert Colonna, Greetings, Gate!, 217; and interview with author.
“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, 197
0.
“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 th
e 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.
At a Weight Watchers rally . . . he was booed: Variety, July 18, 1973.
“I wish they’d flush the whole thing”: Variety, June 20, 1973.
“I think dragging this thing”: Interview in Playboy, December 1973.
Hope: Entertainer of the Century Page 59