HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOB HOPE

Hope has topped the bills of five major showbiz mediums -- vaudeville, stage, movies, radio, TV. He's done all that. And so much more.

It's a big day in the large, comfortable house in Toluca Lake, Calif., that he and wife Dolores, who turned 94 just two days ago, have called home for 66 years. They've been married 69.

This morning, the famous corner of Hollywood and Vine becomes Bob Hope Square. This afternoon, Hope's office staff is throwing him a party. Tonight's the family celebration and birthday cake. "One hundred candles, and a fireman standing by," says Dolores.

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What can I say about Bob Hope? He's the first comedian that held my interest as a child--I think the movie Paleface, or one of his TV specials in the early 1970s is the first time I saw him. Hope made me want to be funny, too. Years later, I developed a taste for the more sophisticated (but still silly) comedy of Monty Python, Saturday Night Live, George Carlin, Richard Pryor and others, but I never stopped loving Bob Hope. What has made him so funny for so long? How could he be both the buffoon and the straight man, sometimes in rapid succession? I suppose I could pull out some of my old acting school vocabulary and provide a comedic analysis, but analyzing humor always takes some of the funny away. Instead, here is a little photo gallery I've assembled that might get the idea across visually (but make no mistake, Hope is also a master of the one-liner; in fact, here's an audio download of a Bob Hope radio show from the 1930s to listen to while you look at the pics):

Bob, Nixon, and Ah-nald.

Hope sips champagne from a glass held by Argonne's master-slave manipulators, on display at the 1957 Paris Fair.

Looking silly in Vietnam.

Hope for President!

Silly with babes at an airforce base.

Bob with a pith helmet at a US airbase in the south Pacific during WWII.

Bob with the Suntones.

Bob giving the eye to evil General Westmoreland in Vietnam.

Bob with a ghost.

Bob in a baseball uniform harassing Superman.

Bob Hope with the Wright Brothers Band.

Bob Hope at Mardi Gras, early 1970s.

Bob ogles a babe in Vietnam at a USO show.

Silly face on radio.

Darth Bob.

Bob Hope golf cart.

Simpsons Bob (not Sideshow).

Girly Bob.

And finally, my favorite Bob Hope picture.

I know that this has been said by probably everybody saying something about Bob Hope's birthday, but after looking at all these pictures, I've gotta say it, too: Bob Hope has made himself not only fit into every era of the last eighty years or so, he has made himself an important part every time. Bob Hope is a huge part of twentieth century America; if you don't like him, you're evil.

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