Hope Interview Reveals Actor’s Hometown and Preferred Epitaph

Brown eyes, dark brown hair, grey temples, long nose, heavy beard, protruding chin, broad shoulders, and long legs all go to make up the comedian we know as Bob Hope. On Tuesday night, clad in light brown pants, tan shirt, brown and cream dotted tie, red and gray plaid socks, and brown spectator shoes, he greeted us with a smile and a warm hand clasp.

First of all, Mr. Hope said that if we didn’t mind, he would go ahead and eat his supper and he could answer questions in between bites.
He was born in London, England, and apparently came to this country rather early in life. He says that if he has to die, he hopes it is on a golf course.

It’s an old story about how he started out as a comedian. Once, when he was giving a serious recitation about which he cared a great deal, everyone laughed. And as he put it, “they’ve been laughing ever since.”

He’s been married about nine years and has two children – he seems to be quite fond of his family. (He wears his wedding band on the little finger of his left hand.)

Like everyone else, he too has a hobby it’s golf. Concerning the match he recently played in Alabama, he doesn’t like to talk. The match he does like to talk about is the one he played with Bing Crosby in Louisiana, where according to him, he mopped up.

“The food,” Mr. Hope said, “is marvelous.”

He says he likes the South very much, particularly Atlanta.

Before he came here, he had spoken to another predominately feminine audience in the person of the WAACS at Des Moines.

To the question, “are Georgia peaches all they are supposed to be,” Mr. Hope replied, “fuzzy as ever.”

Mr. Hope never faltered in his answers to our probing questions. He was quite anxious to answer any questions we might ask. There wasn’t the indifference in his voice you usually find in most celebrities. He says he thoroughly enjoys his work as a comedian. With a complete lack of conceit in his tone, Mr. Hope said that he felt he was doing his part to help the morale of service men and woman in various camps, and that it gave him quite a great deal of satisfaction to know he could help the war effort. You know, he has been traveling around in this capacity for two years. About the middle of June, he will go to England and then to Africa.

He says that he has chosen his epitaph: “Here lies Bob Hope, resting at Last.”

-This article originally appeared in the May 22 1943 issue of The Colonnade. Breezy Winn was a staff writer for The Colonnade.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Apr 10 2003. Filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry