THE LAST DAYS OF BOB HOPE

It is hard to believe but Bob Hope has been gone for 15 years now. Bob Hope was, without much argument, the most popular and beloved comedian of the 20th century. His career as a comedian is entirely unparalleled and unrivaled.

Hope was a hit in every possible entertainment medium. He was a star in Vaudeville, a hit on the Broadway stage, and had long-running #1 radio shows. Hope starred in almost 70 movies and shorts, including the classic and beloved seven "road pictures" he made with Bing Crosby over a 22-year span from 1940 to 1962.

His television specials began in 1950 and ran for over 40 years on NBC. In their heyday, these shows garnered some of the highest ratings in television history.

Hope hosted the Academy Awards a record 18 times and is still generally acknowledged as the best-ever Oscar host by all who remember his hilarious hosing chores.

But perhaps most important and significant was Hope's ever-present willingness to entertain the American troops in four different wars.

Hope was a self-confessed ham, always needing and craving the applause and the spotlight. But after an incredibly successful career, unlike other comedy notables, including Lucille Ball and Johnny Carson, Hope just didn't know when to "get off the stage.” His health had been deteriorating and by the early 1990's, his once hilarious, sharp monologues had become ordeals, lessened by Bob's slower reflexes and delivery, and his slightly slurred speech. Nonetheless, he kept booking gigs and making appearances.

By the time of his 90th birthday, on May 29, 1993, NBC was presented with a challenge. A big celebration was clearly called for, but Bob's eyesight and hearing were so bad he could no longer carry the show on his own. The network put on a lavish three-hour ceremony in which Hope was largely a bystander.

To help him follow what was going on, Hope was given a small microphone to wear in his ear, so that his daughter Linda, who was sitting in the control room, could brief him on who was there and what was happening.

The special came off well, and did well in the ratings- it would have been a perfect "farewell" event, but Hope refused to retire. He refused to leave NBC, who obviously couldn't "fire" a national institution. He continued to do his specials on the network.

His specials -now mostly shunted to low-viewership on Saturday nights- were getting the worst ratings of his career. His family tried to coax Hope into retirement. In 1995, he planned a trip to Europe to celebrate and entertain in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of V-E day. His wife Dolores threw up her hands, “We're doing this one,” she stated firmly, "but this has got to be the last.”

Hope's last NBC special “Laughing with the Presidents,” aired on November 23, 1996. The special came off without embarrassment and Bob Hope began his "golden" years of very well-deserved (if not desired) retirement.

Besides his fading hearing and eyesight, signs of dementia were now showing. In his few public appearances, at various dinners and ceremonial events, Hope seemed disoriented and confused. His short term memory was spotty and he had trouble recognizing people.

At home, Bob settled into a comfortable routine. He still slept late, as always, waking up between 10 and 11 AM. His caretaker, J. Dennis Paulin, would read to him from the morning L.A. Times. Large-print editions were made of business documents that he needed to see.

Hope loved to watch Jeopardy! on TV (with headphones, so he could hear).

He had always loved taking late night walks, and still did, but now they were indoors, up and down the aisles of the local Von's supermarket in Toluca Lake. Paulin would let him take the wheel of his golf cart and play and drive the five blocks to lakeside to play a few holes of his beloved golf. Afterwards, he would go to the clubhouse for a fake brandy alexander.

In 1996, after a lifetime of dilatory churchgoing, Hope acceded to his devout wife's wishes and was baptized into the Catholic Church.

Reports of his failing health occasionally made the tabloids, along with unsympathetic photos of his stooped frame and red-rimmed eyes, accompanied by the usual headlines of Bob Hope's "tragic last days.”

He made a few trips to Washington for events honoring him- including a visit to the White House, where President Clinton signed a congressional resolution making Hope the first honorary veteran of the US Armed Forces. In 2000, he he was proudly present for the opening of the Bob Hope Gallery of Entertainment at the Library of Congress.

Bob lingered on for three more years- bedridden most of the time- but brought out by Dolores in a wheelchair for family get-togethers, He was, by now, almost completely blind.

On May 29, 2003, he celebrated his one hundredth birthday (he received over 2,000 birthday cards from everyone from President George W. Bush to Queen Elizabeth). Thirty-five states proclaimed his birthday "Bob Hope Day.”

Bob Hope died a few weeks later, on July 27, 2003, at the ripe old age of 100.

His last words were, fittingly, quite humorous. Towards the end, when his wife Dolores asked him where he wanted to be buried, the amazing Bob Hope quipped, “Surprise me.”

SOURCE

THE PASSING SCENE OF 2011

Two of the sure things in life are taxes and death, and sadly with each passing year we seem to lose talented and gifted entertainers. These great people in front of and behind the scenes have all left lasting imprints in our lives and should not be forgotten. Here are some (not all) of the great people in entertainment that we lost in 2011...

Elizabeth Taylor

Actress Elizabeth Taylor died of heart failure at the age of 79. In the 1940s, she became one of MGM's leading child stars. By the 1950s she graduated into more mature roles and eventually became a leading sex symbol. Her personal life was often more exciting that her movies.

Actress Susannah York died at the age of 72. She was a gifted actress that appeared in such films as Tom Jones and Superman. She died after a long battle with bone marrow cancer.

Singer Georgia Carroll died at the age of 91. She was the widow of bandleader Kay Kyser, whom she met when she was a vocalist with the band. She also was a model and socialite.

Actor David Nelson died of colon cancer at the age of 74. He was the son of Ozzie and Harriet Nelson who appeared on the Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, which was a television fixture in the 1950s and 1960s.

Singer Margaret Whiting died at the age of 86. She was one of the most successful girl singers of the 1940s. The daughter of songwriter Richard Whiting, she had numerous record hits such as "A Tree In The Meadow" and "Moonlight In Vermont".

Actress Anne Francis died at the age of 80. She was a huge television actress, who starred in the series Honey West. She also made her mark on such television shows as The Twilight Zone and movies like The Forbidden Planet.

Actress Jane Russell died at the age of 89. Discovered by Howard Hughes, she was one of the leading sex symbols of the 1940s and 1950s. She appeared in such great films as The Outlaw, The Paleface, and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. She died of resipatory illnesses.

Betty Garrett

Actress Betty Garrett died at the age of 91 from an aneurysm. She started out in MGM musicals of the 1940s like Words And Music with Mickey Rooney and On The Town with Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra. Married to black listed actor Larry Parks, she emerged as a television star in the 1970s on All In The Family and Laverne & Shirley.

Actor Farley Granger died at the age of 84. He was a well respected actor in such films as Strangers On The Train and The Rope. Granger came out as a homosexual after the studio system of Hollywood ended.

Songwriter Hugh Martin died at the age of 96. Probably he most beloved song was Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas which he wrote for Judy Garland in the MGM musical Meet Me In St. Louis (1944).

Screenwriter Madelyn Pugh died at the age of 90. She was the writer for all three of Lucille Ball's television series - I Love Lucy, The Lucy Show, and Here's Lucy. She was was the producer on the series Alice.

Bandleader Orrin Tucker died at the age of 100. He was one of the last surviving big band leaders of the big band era (1936-1945). His famous hit was Oh Johnny, which he recorded with vocalist Wee Bonnie Baker in 1939.

Jackie Cooper

Actor Jackie Cooper died at the age of 88. He was a child star who appeared in classic movies such as The Champ (1931) and the Our Gang series of shorts. He also acted into adulthood, appearing as the newspaper editor in the Superman movie series with Christopher Reeves.

Actress Edith Fellows died at the age of 88. She started out as a child star appearing with Bing Crosby in Pennies From Heaven (1936). She was one of the first child stars to fight for independent rights against her mother.

Actor Peter Falk died at the age of 83, after a long battle with dementia. He was most known for his television role in the Columbo series. However, he was a gifted actor who appeared in such films as A Pocketful Of Miracles, Robin And The Seven Hoods, and The Princess Bride.

Actor James Arness died at the age of 88. He was the brother of actor Peter Graves, who passed away in 2010. Arness was best known from the television series Gunsmoke, which he starred in for twenty years.

Singer Ross Barbour died at the age of 82 of lung cancer. He was one of the founding members of the Four Freshmen. He was also the last original surviving member.

Actor Francesco Quinn died of a heart attack at the age of 48. He was an Italian born American actor in films such as Platoon. Francesco was also the son of actor Anthony Quinn.

Actor Jack Garner died at the age of 84. He was the older brother of James Garner. While Jack did not receive the fame his brother did, he appeared with his brother on television in The Rockford Files, and on the screen in My Fellow Americans (1995).

Cliff Robertson

Actor Cliff Robertson died at the age of 88. He won wide acclaim for playing President John F. Kennedy in the film PT 109 (1963), and in later years he played the uncle in the Spiderman movie series.

Actress Mary Fickett died at the age of 83 of dementia. She had a long career on the soap opera All My Children. In films she played Bing Crosby's ex-wife in the tense drama Man On Fire (1957).

Silent screen actress Barbara Kent died at the age of 103. She was one of the last adult actresses in silent films. She left movies in 1935 and refused to give interviews later in life.

Actress and author Judy Lewis died at the age of 76. She acted on television on the soap opera General Hospital. Judy also was the secret love child of Loretta Young and Clark Gable. Young kept the secret of who her father was for years. Judy later wrote a book about her life which exposed the truth.

Musician Tony Martin Jr died at the age of 60. He was the only child of dancer Cyd Charisse and singer Tony Martin. Tony Jr had been in increasing poor health due to a car accident. His mother Cyd Charisse died in 2008.

Actor Harry Morgan died at the age of 96. He was a legendary television actor whose career spanned decades. Morgan was best known for his television roles on Dragnet and Mash, but he also appeared on radio during its golden age and movies as well.

Singer Russ Carlyle died at the age of 96. He never became a famous vocalist like other band singers of the day, but he was a dependable vocalist who sang with the Blue Barron Orchestra from 1936 to 1941.

Dolores Hope (with Bob Hope)

Singer Dolores Hope died at the age of 102. She was the widow of Bob Hope. They met while she was a young vocalist and were married from 1934 until Bob's death in 2003. Dolores resumed her singing career in the 1980s and 1990s.

Child star Sybil Jason died at the age of 84. She was a child actress in the early days of the talkies and appeared alongside some of the greats like: Kay Francis in I Found Stella Parish (1935), Al Jolson in The Singing Kid (1936), and Pat O'Brien and Humphrey Bogart in The Great O'Malley (1937).

Author Arthur Marx died at the age of 89. He was the son of Groucho Marx, and Arthur was very controversial and open in his books he wrote on the actors he knew, including his father as well as Bob Hope and Mickey Rooney.

Singer Lucy Ann Polk died at the 84. She was a big band singer that was famous for replacing Doris Day in the Les Brown Orchestra. Polk stayed with Les Brown through the mid 1950s. Polk had a great jazz style but only made three solo records before retiring from the music industry.

These entertainers, personalities, and icons in their respective fields are gone now, but hopefully they will never be forgotten...

RIP: DOLORES HOPE

Dolores Hope, the radiant wife of comedian Bob Hope, died peacefully Monday morning at her home in Toluca Lake, Calif., a family friend confirms to the news bureaus. She was 102 and had been in relativity good health until the past few months.

The former Dolores DeFina, born in the Bronx, was singing in a Manhattan nightclub under the professional name Dolores Reade when newcomer Bob Hope, after a performance in a Broadway show, walked into the club with the dancer George Murphy. Hearing Reade sing "It's Only a Paper Moon," Hope said to Murphy, "I'm going to marry her." He did, Feb. 19, 1934.

Lucille Ball once said, "The smartest thing Bob Hope ever did was marry Dolores."

Bob and Dolores honeymooned in Europe and sailed home on the Queen Mary – its final voyage before she was converted into a troop carrier for service during World War II. Hope, by then a famous radio comedian, began entertaining American servicemen overseas for the USO – and his wife often made the trips with him, sleeping on their coats and never complaining about the discomforts.

Giving up her career to raise their children – they had four: Tony, Linda, Kelly and Nora – Dolores was also active in charities, an inveterate golfer (like her husband), an animal fancier and an avid follower of current events. Then again, she and Bob had met every President and First Lady from Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt to Bill and Hillary Clinton. She considered herself a political independent.

While Bob traveled continuously, she kept adding on to their homes in Palm Springs and Toluca Lake (in the San Fernando Valley), which prompted her husband to quip when he got back from one trip, "Hey, I need a map."

Despite having put her singing career on hold for fifty years, Dolores reactivated it when she was in her late 80s, releasing CDs of old standards and singing at the Rainbow and Stars nightclub in New York's Rockefeller Center with her dear friend Rosemary Clooney. Both the CDs and the singing engagement were critical hits.

As she admitted, she paid to produce the CDs herself, "but it's better than buying another piece of jewelry," she said with a laugh.

A devout Catholic who liked to have a martini after Mass – Bob's den in the Toluca Lake house served as her private chapel – Dolores once asked Bob where he wanted to be buried. "Oh, just surprise me," he told her.

Bob Hope died in 2003, age 100, and is buried in the San Fernando Mission Cemetery. Dolores will have the plot beside him, and private services for family are planned for Friday.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW: DOLORES HOPE

Dolores Hope, as many of you know, is the widow of comedian Bob Hope. They were married for many years from 1934 until Bob's death in 2003. She was born as Dolores DeFina in New York City of Italian and Irish descent in 1909 and was raised in the Bronx. After the death of her father, her mother, Theresa, raised her.

During the 1930s, she began her professional singing career under the name Dolores Reade on the advice of her agent. In 1933, after appearing at the Vogue Club, a Manhattan nightclub, Reade was introduced to Bob Hope. The couple were married on February 19, 1934 in Erie, Pennsylvania. They later adopted four children from The Cradle in Evanston, Illinois.

On May 29, 2003, Dolores was at her husband's side as he celebrated his 100th birthday; he died two months later on July 27, 2003. The following year their son, Anthony J. Hope, died at the age of 63 on June 28, 2004.

On May 27, 2009, Dolores Hope became a centenarian herself, and her birthday was featured on The Today Show. On May 29, 2010, Mrs. Hope was quoted as saying to local press, of her 101st birthday, "I’m still recovering from my 100th birthday bash, so I’m going to keep this year’s celebration much quieter.”

UPDATE: SADLY, DOLORES HOPE PASSED AWAY ON SEPTEMBER 19, 2011. YOU CAN READ HER OBITUARY HERE