Bob Hope Is Radio’s Newest Comedy Star

The Milwaukee Journal – Jun 5, 1938

Bob Hope is scheduled to be radio’s next topline comedian. Following successes on “Your Hollywood Parade,” Bob is set to take the place of the “Mickey Mouse” show next fall. He will get one of NBC’s top Sunday night periods.

The Milwaukee Journal – Jun 5, 1938

Bob Hope Is Radio’s Newest Comedy Star

BOB HOPE, comedian heard last on Dick Powell’s “Your Hollywood Parade,” will be back in the fall—with a program of his own, according to west coast reports. Arrangements now are being made for Bob to replace the “Mickey Mouse” program on NBC next October. So—radio gets another new topline comedian.

Actually, Bob Hope is no beginner. He is just about the last of the top row vaudeville and musical comedy stars to come over to radio. He has played in shows with Bea Lillie, Jimmie Durante, Ethel Merman, George Murphy, Fannie Brice, Bing Crosby and Eddie Cantor, all of whom preceded him to Hollywood and most of whom have something to do with his choice collection of memories.

There’s the time Durante left Bob holding the sack in Hackensack (pun intended), when they were clowning together in “Red, Hot and Blue” on Broadway. Durante, who has all kinds of friends in large numbers everywhere, was invited to make a personal appearance at a banquet in Hackensack, N. J. He asked Hope to go along. Hope says:

“Durante told one joke and sang one song. Then he introduced me. I thought all I had to do was take a bow. But while I was bowing, Durante took a runout powder. There I stood looking foolish and there sat the boys looking expectant. So I went into one of my short routines, thinking Durante would be back by the time I finished. He wasn’t. So I started to tell jokes, all the time keeping an eye on the door and wondering what had happened to Durante. He didn’t come back and I had to tell every story I knew before I could get out of the place.

“So help me, I was the only entertainment on the bill, and I hadn’t even known I was supposed to appear. When I finally got to our car, Durante was sitting there laughing his head off.”

Hope got even later. When the show hit Chicago the cast was invited to a stiff shirt party at the Lake Shore Country club. Hope told the entertainment committee that Durante had worked up a special stunt for the occasion. Durante was so surprised when he was called upon that he said several choice and picturesque words, thereby shocking the eyeballs out of a group of our Best People. Hope, being helpful, said: “Remember Hackensack, you louse.”

SPEAKING of memories, Hope tells a story of his flop as an entertainer. (Most actors preserve such a memory; they say it keeps them from getting swelled heads to look back on tough days. Also it helps them to realize how good they are now, but of course they don’t think about that.) Anyway, this is Hope’s story:

“When I was starting in vaudeville I did a single in blackface. Not very good, but I was getting by, and my brother, who worked at a big machinery company, was proud of having a professional in the family. He bragged about it, and when the annual employes’ party came along he got the committee to ask me to go on the bill.

“The thing got under way about 2 o’clock in the afternoon, when the first barrels of beer were opening. My turn didn’t come until evening. But then everybody was full of suds. Some of the employes had their families there, and the kids were tired and wanted to go home. It was a great audience.

“And do you know about machinery factories? They’re built to deaden sound as much possible. Fine places to put on a vaudeville act, unless all the patrons are lip readers. Well, I have all. I did a monolog. I danced. I sang. And I got not one flicker of response. The place was as full of dead pans as the mummy crypt of pyramid. Over in a corner my brother died slowly from embarrassment.

“I’ve struggled with tough audiences since then, but never one quite that bad; at least, I never had such a tough time again.”

COINCIDENTALLY, Hope’s career got its original start in a factory. He worked as a clerk for the Chandler Motor Co.—which wasn’t the only reason it went out of production—and there met three kindred spirits who hoped they could sing.

It was the beginning of one of the world’s worst quartets, but they had a lot of fun. They stayed at the plant after hours and crooned “Sweet Adeline” into the boss’ Dictaphone. Hope recorded a line of patter and some Scotch jokes, then played then back and listened to himself, filled with the bliss of creation. But maybe it wasn’t as good as he thought; he thinks he was fired when the boss found one of the records which Hope had left by mistake.

Hope had acted as master of ceremonies at salesmen’s meetings, so he decided to go in for comedy professionally. He and another youth teamed up in a dancing act, made their stage debut in Cleveland. They lasted two weeks.

Hope had had four lessons in tap dancing in his life, but he wasn’t going to let a minor consideration like that hold him back. Lack of experience or training has never bothered him much. He gives an impression of having been born self-confident. He probably never was shy.