Jim Held wrote…
Fun to see you posting some of the early Bob Hope stuff. Too many people only know him from the wax dummy that was trundled out to reel off unfunny one liners in front of his TV specials.
Seeing him dancing with Cagney and doing comedy from that period and earlier reminds me of the strong virile and funny Bob Hope of the fifties and sixties and of the classic comedy movies. Great physical comedy and good comedy writing. Dick Cavett and others were always in awe of his comic timing. He seems to have survived later reports of his horn-doggery around women and his well-hidden dislike of Bing Crosby.
Carson reportedly said of the older Bob Hope: "If I ever get that old, shoot me." But Hope is his prime was pretty amazing — a Star. I for one am grateful. Thanks for the (Good) memories.
Hope would never have attained his stature and longevity without delivering the goods earlier in his career. I really am kind of baffled as to how much he should be respected because for the last few decades, he was kind of regarded as a major star in spite of his performances. He was hardly the only comedian of his generation whose later years somewhat canceled out his earlier years.
There are a lot of online articles that say Johnny hated Bob Hope. I don't think it was hate so much as a discomfort that he kept having to have him on to promote those specials…and to use Johnny's studio audience. Bob would "borrow" Johnny's studio audience to record his monologue and closing a day or so before the air date of a special, the rest of which had been recorded a week or three earlier, sans live audience.
I perhaps should not write this but I suspect that if Hope had been born a decade or so later and behaved as he did, he'd have been indicted by the "Me Too" movement and his career would have had a somewhat disgraceful ending. As it was, he sure left a lingering bad impression with some just for what he did in public.
I've recently had conversations with a couple of different friends about performers who keep performing well past their prime. On the one hand, it's sad that they leave such bad impressions behind. On the other, some of them really seem to need that reason to get up in the morning and to try to stay healthy and to get some love from audiences and/or still being famous. I have seen older comedians get way older because no one seemed to want them, no one seemed to remember them.
Mr. Carson, having witnessed the senior years of Hope, Berle, Groucho, Benny and others seems to have valued leaving his legacy relatively intact over hearing applause to his dying day. Carson's longtime producer Fred DeCordova told me that Johnny was very conflicted when a Berle or Benny (especially Benny) would call him personally and say "Hey, you haven't had me on your show for a while. How about next Tuesday?" He felt he wasn't doing them any favors by having them on as a favor. In a few cases, he had them on and regretted it.
I asked DeCordova, "Did he ever turn one of them down and regret it?" Fred said, "Yes, it was kind of a no-win situation." He declined to elaborate.