Bob Hope-Film

 

 

Hope made his first films in New York. Educational Pictures employed him in 1934 for a short-subject comedy, “Going Spanish”. Hope sealed his fate with Educational when Walter Winchell asked him about the film. Hope cracked, "When they catch John Dillinger, they're going to make him sit through it twice." Educational fired him. Hope was soon before the cameras at New York's Vitaphone studio starring in 20-minute comedies and musicals from 1934 through 1936.

 

Paramount Pictures signed Hope for the 1938 film “The Big Broadcast of 1938”, with W. C. Fields. During a duet with Shirley Ross as accompanied by Shep Fields and his orchestra, Hope introduced the song later to become his trademark, "Thanks for the Memory". The song became a major hit and was praised by critics. The sentimental, fluid nature of the music allowed Hope's writers (whom he is said to have depended upon heavily throughout his career) to later invent endless variations of the song to fit specific circumstances, such as bidding farewell to troops while on tour.

 

Handprints of Hope at The Great Movie Ride in Disney World's Hollywood Studios theme park.

Hope became one of Paramount's biggest stars, and would remain with the studio through the 1950s.

 

Hope's regular appearances in Hollywood films and radio made him one of the best known entertainers in North America.  At the height of Hope’s career he was also making a large income from live concert performances. He was both a world-class singer and dancer.  Hope introduced many major songs during the course of his career, including the Oscar-winning "Buttons and Bows" in “The Paleface”,  and he matched James Cagney's bravura dancing during the tabletop showdown sequence in “The Seven Little Foys”.

 

As a movie star, Hope was best known for comedies like “My Favorite Brunette” and the highly successful "Road" movies in which he starred with Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour. Hope had seen Lamour as a nightclub singer in New York, and invited her to work on his USO tours. Lamour is said to have arrived for filming prepared with her lines, only to be baffled by completely re-written scripts from Hope's writers without studio permission. Hope and Lamour were lifelong friends, and she remains the actress most associated with his film career. The “Road” series consists of “Road to Singapore”, “Road to Zanzibar”, “Road to Morocco”, “Road to Utopia”, “Road to Rio”, “Road to Bali”, and “The Road to Hong Kong”.

 

Bob Hope & Bing Crosby sing and dance during "Chicago Style" in “Road to Bali “.

Hope's informal teaming with Bing Crosby for the seven "Road" pictures from 1940 to 1962 and countless stage, radio, and television appearances together over the decades were critically important to Hope's career. At the beginning of the "Road" series, Hope was relatively little known nationally compared to Crosby. Hope was actually billed under Dorothy Lamour in the first film.

 

After the release of “Road to Singapore”, Hope's screen career immediately became white hot and stayed that way for over two decades. Hope actually continued until “Cancel My Reservation”.  It was last theatrical starring role.

 

Bing Crosby and Bob Hope became linked in public perception to the extent that it became difficult to think of one without the other even though they actually conducted predominately separate careers. They had planned one more movie together, “The Road to the Fountain of Youth”, until Crosby's demise abruptly intervened.

 

Dorothy Lamour, Bing Crosby, and Bob Hope made up to look older at the end of “Road to Utopia”.

 

Hope starred in fifty-two theatrical features altogether between 1938 and 1972, not to mention cameos and short films, and frequently stated that his movies were the most important part of his career.

 

Hope was host of the Academy Awards ceremony 18 times between 1939 and 1977. His feigned lust for an Academy Award became part of his act. In one scene from “Road to Morocco” he erupted in a frenzy, shouting about his imminent death from exposure. Bing Crosby reminds Hope that rescue is just minutes away. A disappointed Hope complains that Crosby has spoiled his best scene, and thus his chance for an Academy Award.

 

In “Road to Bali”, when Crosby finds Humphrey Bogart's Oscar for “The African Queen”, Hope grabs it, saying "Give me that. You've got one." Hope was never nominated for an Oscar for his performances. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honored him with four honorary awards. In 1960, Hope received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. While introducing the 1968 telecast, he quipped, "Welcome to the Academy Awards, or, as it's known at my house, Passover."