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Speaker 1: Welcome to steph you missed in history Class from how

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Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot Com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.

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Speaker 1: I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy V. Wilson, and we

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Speaker 1: were recently lucky enough to be the guests of the

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Speaker 1: National World War Two Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana, and

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Speaker 1: the museum asked us if we would do a show

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Speaker 1: there about the USO and Bob Hopes work with the

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Speaker 1: organization to run parallel to an exhibit that they are

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Speaker 1: currently running about Bob Hope called so Ready for the

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Speaker 1: Laughter The Legacy of Bob Hope, and that exhibit is

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Speaker 1: going to run until February. The museum also has its

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Speaker 1: own podcast about film and World War Two history called

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Speaker 1: Service on Cellu Lloyd. We'll talk a little bit more

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Speaker 1: about that at the end of the show. Yeah, I

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Speaker 1: think Tracy and I would both say that it can't

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Speaker 1: be overstated how much we absolutely loved our time in

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Speaker 1: New Orleans. Absolutely, And I spent the day that we

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Speaker 1: did our show, I spent basically all of the time

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Speaker 1: I had available at the museum and it was a

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Speaker 1: great experience. Yeah, that facility is amazing, It is huge,

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Speaker 1: it is growing, Uh. They put so much incredible care

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Speaker 1: and love into every exhibit. Uh. And they have just

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Speaker 1: some amazing pieces that you will not find anywhere else. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And the city, of course, is in utter delight. I

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Speaker 1: grew up on the Florida Panhandle, so I had spent

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Speaker 1: a lot of time there. It was Tracy's first time there.

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Speaker 1: It was very fun for you to really see the

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Speaker 1: city for the first time. Uh. And similarly, my husband

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Speaker 1: has been through there with me before, but not really

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Speaker 1: for an extended period of time, so it was great

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Speaker 1: to to watch him and my other friends really explore

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Speaker 1: it for the first time. I said during one of

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Speaker 1: the breaks during our show that we don't normally put

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Speaker 1: on the podcast, that I have not felt so relaxed

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Speaker 1: and happy in probably five years. The city is just beautiful,

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Speaker 1: and it has this great culture and amazing food and

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Speaker 1: a wonderful art scene, and there's just something really magical

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Speaker 1: about New Orleans. So if you've not been there, highly

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Speaker 1: encourage it. Yeah, hopefully you too will feel happy and

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Speaker 1: relaxed in all new ways. But what we're going to

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Speaker 1: do now is jump into the live show that we

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Speaker 1: did there at the World War Two Museum, and we

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Speaker 1: Hope you enjoy. Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm

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Speaker 1: Holly Fry and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. And the USO

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Speaker 1: has of course been a huge part of keeping the

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Speaker 1: military going since its inception, and legendary performer Bob Hope

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Speaker 1: is closely tied to us O history, so they very

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Speaker 1: kindly the World War Two Museum asked us come and

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Speaker 1: talk about these things, which we jumped at the chance

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Speaker 1: to do because one, I we both are into history too.

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Speaker 1: I love old Hollywood. Uh Three, It's just kind of

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Speaker 1: an important story that doesn't always get talked about, although

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Speaker 1: it is now thanks to again museums just like this.

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Speaker 1: So tonight we're going to talk about both of those things.

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Speaker 1: This is a really fun topic for US podcasters too,

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Speaker 1: because Bob hopes Are career was all in radio and

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Speaker 1: so in many ways he was working in an audio

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Speaker 1: medium and then it became something very different as entertainment evolved,

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Speaker 1: and he ended up with this whole other career. Uh So,

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Speaker 1: first we're gonna talk with just about a brief overview

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Speaker 1: of USO history, focused primarily on its founding in its

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Speaker 1: early years, and then we're going to talk about Bob

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Speaker 1: Hope's involvement with the organization first and primarily the mediat

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Speaker 1: part of his stuff that we'll talk about is World

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Speaker 1: War two related, but we will also include his involvement

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Speaker 1: in wars that happened after that and and beyond, and

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Speaker 1: also working back home. And just as a matter of

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Speaker 1: expectations management, Uh, this is not a comprehensive history of

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Speaker 1: either of those topics, because you would be here for

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Speaker 1: two weeks, uh, and probably you're gonna want to go

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Speaker 1: home and see your loved ones and eat and do

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Speaker 1: things like that. So, um, we don't want to go

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Speaker 1: on for days. But hopefully this will provide sort of

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Speaker 1: a fun supplement one to the fantastic exhibit here at

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Speaker 1: the museum, and just a fun way to talk about

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Speaker 1: Bob Hope's dedication to public service, which continues to have

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Speaker 1: long lasting packed today. Also, we're going to try very

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Speaker 1: hard not to cry. I make no promises. Um. You know,

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Speaker 1: Tracy and I both have fathers who have served. I

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Speaker 1: definitely want you once again thank those of you in

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Speaker 1: the audience who are veterans for your service. Is one

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Speaker 1: of those topics that often chokes us up. So race

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Speaker 1: we're going to try to be grown up and think

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Speaker 1: about the things that make us not cry. But I

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Speaker 1: could happen, and I apologize in advance because it will

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Speaker 1: get ugly. When we're in the studio, we can stop

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Speaker 1: for a moment, but when we're in front of a

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Speaker 1: crowd of people, we we kind of gotta keep on.

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Speaker 1: Usually I'm okay in front of the crowd, but this

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Speaker 1: one might be the one. I will see you guys

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Speaker 1: might get the first live breakdown, of which maybe you'll

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Speaker 1: be into. I don't know you were there when it happened.

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Speaker 1: Uh So, while the mention of the USO today conjures

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Speaker 1: images of overseas groups of soldiers being entertained by a

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Speaker 1: list stars, which is totally appropriate, Initially the organization was

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Speaker 1: formed to keep the troops state side more occupied. So

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Speaker 1: in the fall of nineteen forty, the US military draft

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Speaker 1: was approved by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the United States,

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Speaker 1: as you all know, had not entered World War Two

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Speaker 1: at this point, but it was becoming increasingly likely in

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Speaker 1: most people's minds that this was going to happen, and

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Speaker 1: so over the next several months, more than one million

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Speaker 1: people enlisted, and that meant that there were suddenly these

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Speaker 1: huge numbers of soldiers filling military bases, and aside from

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Speaker 1: their training, they kind of had to sit there on

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Speaker 1: tenter hooks and wait for this war to happen. General

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Speaker 1: George C. Marshall had served as a staff officer during

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Speaker 1: World War One with the first Infantry Division under General Pershing,

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Speaker 1: and as he saw these bases becoming more and more

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Speaker 1: populated in nineteen forty and early ninety one, he and

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Speaker 1: other members of the military leadership recalled some problems they

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Speaker 1: had seen with servicemen filling up their leisure time. During

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Speaker 1: World War One, it had been common for people to

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Speaker 1: basically drink heavily in their downtime. There was a lot

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Speaker 1: of sexually transmitted disease infection that then had to be

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Speaker 1: treated by military doctors. Led to a lot you'll see

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Speaker 1: still propaganda poster reproductions about all of that, and so

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Speaker 1: General Marshall really felt like a structured system of entertainment

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Speaker 1: and social services that were designed to fill the troops

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Speaker 1: leisure time could really cut down someone on some of

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Speaker 1: the problems they had seen in World War One. And

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Speaker 1: just as an aside, uh there had been entertainment offerings

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Speaker 1: for troops during World War One, a number of camps

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Speaker 1: had what were called liberty theaters, and these were built

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Speaker 1: by the Commission of Training Camp Activities. And those theaters

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Speaker 1: were built after General Pershing had allegedly said, give me

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Speaker 1: a thousand soldiers occasionally entertained to ten thousand without entertainment,

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Speaker 1: and so in preparation for this likely entry into World

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Speaker 1: War Two, General Marshall and others were thinking that this

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Speaker 1: was great to begin with, but there needed to be

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Speaker 1: a more comprehensive program that offered more than just the

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Speaker 1: scheduled entertainment though so then at the same time, the

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Speaker 1: head of the National Jewish Welfare Board had started meeting

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Speaker 1: in New York with the leadership of other welfare organizations

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Speaker 1: who had been all providing support for the troops steering

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Speaker 1: World War One. They were all brain starting ways that

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Speaker 1: they might be able to serve again if the United

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Speaker 1: States entered World War Two, and so eventually this led

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Speaker 1: to their meeting with President Franklin the Roosevelt, and as

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Speaker 1: a result of that meeting, the President asked the y

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Speaker 1: m c A, the y w c A, the Salvation Army,

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Speaker 1: the Jewish Welfare Board, the National Catholic Community Services and

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Speaker 1: the Travelers Aid Association of America to all combine their

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Speaker 1: resources to help the soldiers awaiting deployment pass the time,

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Speaker 1: have a little bit of fun, and get some much

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Speaker 1: needed social connection while they prepared for what was potentially

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Speaker 1: a very grim future. I had no idea until you

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Speaker 1: sent me that line for this that this had been

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Speaker 1: such a multi organizational effort. Like in my head, it

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Speaker 1: was something that the Army said we need this, and

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Speaker 1: then it happened at I had no sense that there

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Speaker 1: were so many different organizations involved. So on February fourth,

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Speaker 1: ninety one, the u s O was officially formed through

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Speaker 1: a congressional charter and the first iteration was called the

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Speaker 1: United Service Organizations for National Defense, Incorporated. It's not a

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Speaker 1: government agency, but a private nonprofit working in conjunction with

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Speaker 1: the US military, and the idea from the beginning was

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Speaker 1: that people, regular citizens would provide the financial support system

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Speaker 1: for this organization, and to that end, a wildly successful

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Speaker 1: fundraising effort started right away. These fundraising fundraising efforts were

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Speaker 1: incredibly successful. Donations rolled into total more than sixteen million

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Speaker 1: dollars in the u s o s first year, and

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Speaker 1: that is sixteen million dollars in nineteen forty one. That's

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Speaker 1: not adjusted to today's numbers. It would be a massive

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Speaker 1: number today. Uh. And the message of all of this

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Speaker 1: was completely clear. This new organization was providing a safe,

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Speaker 1: wholesome way to keep soldiers station in the states entertained

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Speaker 1: and occupied. It was better than going to bars or

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Speaker 1: just roaming around looking for something to do. And it

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Speaker 1: was also going to help soldiers build and maintain strong

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Speaker 1: ties to the communities around their bases, because often they

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Speaker 1: were not near their homes, and the idea was that

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Speaker 1: when they were shipped off, they were going to have

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Speaker 1: a deeper sense of connection to their home country. So

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Speaker 1: both public and private spaces near the military bases became

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Speaker 1: places that soldiers could go and socialize, or get refreshments

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Speaker 1: or pick out reading material. All of this under the

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Speaker 1: USO banner. There were even mobile USO centers that traveled

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Speaker 1: to the more remote locations and they would take books

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Speaker 1: and sporting goods and refreshments and film projection setups and

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Speaker 1: things like that to the people that were farther out. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: those are pretty amazing. If you ever see a picture

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Speaker 1: of one, it's like this magical box that just opens

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Speaker 1: up and entertaining things fly out. Um. They were really

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Speaker 1: really smartly designed, and things that USO centers were as promised,

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Speaker 1: kept kept very wholesome. Indeed, there was no alcohol, and

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Speaker 1: most of the social centers had these unofficial chaperones in

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Speaker 1: the form of older married women who managed the logistical

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Speaker 1: needs of the centers, but they also just kind of

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Speaker 1: kept an eye on things to make sure no one

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Speaker 1: was behaving poorly or unwholesomely. Uh. There were junior hostesses

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Speaker 1: present as well. A lot of times you will see

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Speaker 1: them listed as the true draw of these centers, but

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Speaker 1: they actually had to pass a screening to make sure

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Speaker 1: that they were moral, young ladies and not likely to

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Speaker 1: get any of these soldiers into trouble. Junior hostesses were

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Speaker 1: supposed to socialize with the men only at the us

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Speaker 1: O club and not outside of it. That rule was

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Speaker 1: bent from time to time. That was not a I mean,

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Speaker 1: any of you who have connections to a family who

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Speaker 1: maybe had a soldier that was in the military at

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Speaker 1: this time probably have a story about some romance with

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Speaker 1: the junior hostess. It was not all in the center,

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Speaker 1: but that is fine. So the first permanent USO building

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Speaker 1: was erected in November of nineteen forty one at Fort

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Speaker 1: Bragg in Fayetville, North Carolina, and that center is still

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Speaker 1: in to operation. And of course, the United States entered

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Speaker 1: the war on December seven after the bombing of Pearl Harbor,

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Speaker 1: and soon the young men who had benefited from the

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Speaker 1: u s o s hospitality while they were stationed in

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Speaker 1: the US were sent overseas to fight, and the USO

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Speaker 1: went with them. The group started to organize camp shows,

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Speaker 1: and these are the ones that featured a list celebrities

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Speaker 1: who were volunteering their time and talents to support the

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Speaker 1: troops and to try to boost morale. Soon the shows

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Speaker 1: became their own entity, USO Camp Shows, Inc. And that

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Speaker 1: was a nonprofit organization headed up by the chairman of

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Speaker 1: the William Morris Agency, Abe Last Vogel. The USO camp

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Speaker 1: shows were also a huge success in by ninety seven,

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Speaker 1: there were more than four hundred twenty five thousand shows

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Speaker 1: performed for troops through the organization. But the success of

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Speaker 1: the USO actually also caused some minor issues of their

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Speaker 1: own of its own. So when the short film Mr.

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Speaker 1: Gardinia Jones was produced as a cooperative effort among the

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Speaker 1: US Office War Information, the USO and Metro Goldwyinmyer Studios.

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Speaker 1: UH in two. It raised a few concerns with the army.

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Speaker 1: So this film is described as a documentary and it's

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Speaker 1: really a promotional piece for the USO. Starring Ronald Reagan.

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Speaker 1: It's the story of a young man who joins the

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Speaker 1: war effort and his mother's decision to form a u

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Speaker 1: s O center. This all sounds fine, it's only thirteen

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Speaker 1: minutes long, but because the troops in the film were

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Speaker 1: portrayed as being so excited to enjoy the benefits of

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Speaker 1: the USO, and these benefits included showers, something that they

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Speaker 1: had outside of the USO. They did not need to

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Speaker 1: wait for the USO to come around to have a shower. Uh.

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Speaker 1: The Army thought this was spaint painting, kind of a

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Speaker 1: false picture of what military life was like. Yeah, they

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Speaker 1: thought like both to the troops and the folks back home,

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Speaker 1: they're like, how grim are they going to think it is?

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Speaker 1: Even when we're not engaged in any kind of combat.

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Speaker 1: If all of the men in this movie look like

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Speaker 1: the tex savery Auga every time, they're like, what a movie?

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Speaker 1: What I can have some soap that did cause a

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Speaker 1: little bit of trouble, but it eventually got worked out

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Speaker 1: and they were able to show it. By the time

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Speaker 1: the first round of the USO ended in the nineteen forties,

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Speaker 1: as Tracy said, there had been more than four hundred

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Speaker 1: twenty five thousand shows and civilian volunteers. UH totaled up

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Speaker 1: to more than one point five million people over the

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Speaker 1: course of that time. Its largest number at one point

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Speaker 1: was seven hundred thirty nine thousand. That was in mid

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Speaker 1: nineteen forty three, and in nineteen forty four the number

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Speaker 1: of USO recreational centers maxed out at three thousand, thirty five.

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Speaker 1: After World War Two, the USO was disbanded and then

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Speaker 1: formally dissolved in ninety It wasn't long, though, before the

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Speaker 1: Korean War began in nineteen fifty, and on March seven,

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Speaker 1: nineteen fifty one, the USO was reformed and reorganized at

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Speaker 1: the request once again of George C. Marshall, who at

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Speaker 1: that point was the Secretary of War, and since then

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Speaker 1: the USO has persisted provide entertainment, comfort, and social services

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Speaker 1: to soldiers around the globe. In nineteen nine, President Jimmy

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Speaker 1: Carter signed the u s o's Congressional Charter, which establishes

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Speaker 1: that the USO remains important in the lives of our

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Speaker 1: service members even during peacetime. And today, the USO has

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Speaker 1: its own bipartisan and bicameral Congressional Caucus, and there are

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Speaker 1: currently more than two hundred USO centers around the world,

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Speaker 1: all of which are staffed with volunteers. Of course, we

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Speaker 1: are also going to talk about Bob Hope. The museum

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Speaker 1: has a wonderful Bob Hope exhibit that is part of

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Speaker 1: why we're here today. And before we get into his

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Speaker 1: connection to the us O, this is where we take

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Speaker 1: a quick break. So many many celebrities have been involved

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Speaker 1: with the u S O famously over the years, but

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Speaker 1: none became so closely associated with it as Bob Hope. Initially,

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Speaker 1: a lot of Hopes work entertaining U S servicemen had

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Speaker 1: happened on the radio. At that point, he had become

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Speaker 1: a star as a radio personality, but he he only

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Speaker 1: started his film career in The main gig that he

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Speaker 1: had going on was the very popular The Pepsident Show

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Speaker 1: Starring Bob Hope, which had started running, and his first

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Speaker 1: performance for an all military audience happened when He took

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Speaker 1: that radio show, at the urging of his producer, to

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Speaker 1: March Air Force Base that is known as March Air

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Speaker 1: Reserve Base in Riverside County, California to record a live show,

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Speaker 1: and he opened with a joke that would probably not

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Speaker 1: play today, which was as soon as I got into camp,

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Speaker 1: I received a ten guns salute, they told me on

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Speaker 1: the operating table. Uh. There is footage of him delivering

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Speaker 1: that joke in the exhibit. Yes, it's no shade to

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Speaker 1: Holly's comedy time, not Bob Hope. I hate to break

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Speaker 1: it to you. I do different comedy. Yeah, it's one

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Speaker 1: of those things. I wonder if the same joke would

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Speaker 1: play as well today when the whole topic is a

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Speaker 1: little bit more fraud. It's different now. But yeah, you

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Speaker 1: can see him say it in that exhibit. Do it um.

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Speaker 1: This show took place in a gymnasium. The gymnasium still

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Speaker 1: exists today and is now called March Fields Sports and

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Speaker 1: Fitness Center, and that facility had a plaque added to

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Speaker 1: its exterior in commemorate the start of Hopes ongoing work

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Speaker 1: with the troops that happened there, and the plaque reads

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Speaker 1: on May sixty one, Bob Hope brought his NBC radio

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Speaker 1: show to the march Field Gym and broadcast his National

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Speaker 1: Network show from this site. It marked the first time Mr.

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00:16:41,800 --> 00:16:46,560
Speaker 1: Hope had ever performed for military personnel. This landmark broadcast

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Speaker 1: was the forerunner to the legendary USO shows that have

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Speaker 1: entertained American troops around the world since ninety three. And

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00:16:53,880 --> 00:16:56,800
Speaker 1: he also started appearing on a radio variety show called

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Speaker 1: Command Performance on July seven, ninety two that was produced

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Speaker 1: by Armed Forces Radio exclusively for broadcast to bases uh

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Speaker 1: and he was also the Pepsident show was also being

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Speaker 1: broadcast to the troops. But Bob Hope loved hosting Command

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Speaker 1: Performance because he could be a little more daring and

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Speaker 1: get away with a little bit more blue humor than

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Speaker 1: he could with NBC. So it was kind of a

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Speaker 1: freeing experience in some ways. Yeah, the military audie audience

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Speaker 1: and the network audience, and very that same summer, we

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Speaker 1: had a conversation with a friend and former colleague who

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Speaker 1: had become an Army sergeant about the troops, and the

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Speaker 1: sergeant suggested that Hope should visit soldiers who were stationed

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Speaker 1: in Alaska. He went with for this idea. He started

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Speaker 1: planning the trip almost immediately, and the plan was for

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Speaker 1: Bob and then uh fellow Pepsidant show radio personalities Frank's

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Speaker 1: Francis Langford and Jerry Kelowna and guitarist Tony Romano to

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Speaker 1: all make this trip together. And as this forsome September

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Speaker 1: departure from San Francisco approach, they actually got news that

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Speaker 1: inclement weather suggested it would really be better if they can't.

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Speaker 1: And their schedule was really super tight because Bob Hope,

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Speaker 1: of course, was already a popular entertainer, and he had

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Speaker 1: other bookings that he had to do, like for his

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Speaker 1: radio show to keep it going, and there was absolutely

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Speaker 1: no way that they could promise him that, yes, you

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Speaker 1: will be back in time and keep this thing on schedule.

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Speaker 1: But Hope did not care. He telegrammed the base saying

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Speaker 1: that they were all packed and ready, and he concluded

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Speaker 1: his missive with please let us make our trip and

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Speaker 1: we'll take our chances, and they were soon on right

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Speaker 1: en route to Fairbanks, Alaska. From there, Hoping, the team

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00:18:31,119 --> 00:18:35,560
Speaker 1: went to nome Unimac Island and Yukon Territory. Troops always

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Speaker 1: didn't always have advanced noticed that celebrities were coming, and

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Speaker 1: even if the tour schedule had been announced, there would

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Speaker 1: have been some surprises. The comedians and musician would sometimes

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Speaker 1: do impromptu shows for much smaller groups of soldiers when

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Speaker 1: they ran into them during their travels from one location

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Speaker 1: to another. This was definitely not glamorous, though it was freezing,

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Speaker 1: travel could be really dicey and in some cases dangerous,

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Speaker 1: and they did not have any kind of luxurious accommodations. No.

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Speaker 1: This is one of those moments where I was doing

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Speaker 1: the research and and reading about this, and I just

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Speaker 1: like my respect kind of went off the charts for

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Speaker 1: all of them, because they really put up with stuff

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Speaker 1: that I think most celebrities today would scoff at, just

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Speaker 1: in terms of dealing with really gross, unpleasant moments. Um.

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Speaker 1: But there was also, as Tracy said, a lot of danger.

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Speaker 1: So on a flight from Cordova to Anchorage, their plane

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Speaker 1: lost first its radio and then one of its engines.

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Speaker 1: It was only lucky enough to make their landing very

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Speaker 1: hard because when Elmendorf Air Force Base crew found out

359
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Speaker 1: what was happening, that this plane had lost communication, they

360
00:19:38,320 --> 00:19:41,760
Speaker 1: broke protocol and they turned on their searchlights and they

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00:19:41,800 --> 00:19:43,480
Speaker 1: were not supposed to do that, but that gave the

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Speaker 1: pilots a visual to guide them in, and Bob was

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Speaker 1: very aware of how close they came to disaster. He

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Speaker 1: described later when he wrote about it, that he looked

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Speaker 1: at Francis and remembered that he had promised her husband

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Speaker 1: that she would be okay, and that he had begged

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Speaker 1: him to let her go, and he thought, I've just

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Speaker 1: walked her into her death. Um. But later on and

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Speaker 1: he gave inscribed watches to each of those pilots see

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Speaker 1: him getting choked up. Um that read thanks for my life,

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Speaker 1: which was something those pilots later reiterated that they went

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Speaker 1: on to long careers. That was still the scariest flight

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Speaker 1: of their lives. Man, you didn't tell me that part. Well,

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Speaker 1: I saved it for now. Despite all the odds and

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Speaker 1: a series of bad weather issues, Hope was able to

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00:20:22,119 --> 00:20:25,119
Speaker 1: get to Seattle and do his scheduled radio broadcast from

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00:20:25,160 --> 00:20:27,840
Speaker 1: there before turning right around and going back to the

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00:20:27,840 --> 00:20:31,760
Speaker 1: Alaskan tour. And once the trip concluded, despite of all

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00:20:31,800 --> 00:20:35,240
Speaker 1: the freights and the rough rides and the icy cold,

380
00:20:35,440 --> 00:20:37,720
Speaker 1: Bob Hope decided that he would be devoting a lot

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Speaker 1: more time to doing similar trips. He told reporters he

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Speaker 1: wouldn't be in Hollywood very much after that because he

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Speaker 1: had some other things to do. And though they had

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Speaker 1: faced discomforts and those dangerous trips in Alaska, Bob's Little

385
00:20:48,440 --> 00:20:51,880
Speaker 1: Troop immediately signed on in ninete to make a trip

386
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Speaker 1: to the European Theater and this was their first overseas

387
00:20:54,920 --> 00:20:58,359
Speaker 1: tour for the USO. Jerry Colonna was unable to make

388
00:20:58,400 --> 00:21:01,000
Speaker 1: the trip due to some scheduling on flicks, and so

389
00:21:01,119 --> 00:21:04,439
Speaker 1: Hope brought in a vaudevillian named Jack Pepper in his place,

390
00:21:05,160 --> 00:21:07,960
Speaker 1: and Francis Langford Tony Romano both remained with the troop

391
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Speaker 1: and they flew out of LaGuardia in the wee hours

392
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Speaker 1: of June, headed to newfound Newfoundland, which I always say wrong, uh.

393
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Speaker 1: And from there they departed for Great Britain, and they

394
00:21:19,359 --> 00:21:21,320
Speaker 1: actually were headed to Great Britain and then they had

395
00:21:21,320 --> 00:21:24,159
Speaker 1: to return to Canada due to bad winds. Uh. So

396
00:21:24,240 --> 00:21:27,800
Speaker 1: their first performance of the tour was actually completely unscheduled.

397
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Speaker 1: They were like, well, we're here, So they performed for

398
00:21:30,600 --> 00:21:33,719
Speaker 1: the Royal Canadian Air Force at their command station as

399
00:21:33,720 --> 00:21:35,760
Speaker 1: sort of their warm up show for the trip. And

400
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Speaker 1: then the next day they once again set out for Europe,

401
00:21:38,160 --> 00:21:40,480
Speaker 1: and this time they made their way to London. London

402
00:21:40,760 --> 00:21:43,160
Speaker 1: was in really bad shape from the war at this point,

403
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Speaker 1: and the performers were immediately struck by the toll that

404
00:21:46,320 --> 00:21:50,200
Speaker 1: the conflict had taken on the city. Even small necessities

405
00:21:50,240 --> 00:21:52,440
Speaker 1: like soap were not available, in spite of the joke

406
00:21:52,520 --> 00:21:56,680
Speaker 1: I made about soap earlier. The schedule was also really

407
00:21:56,880 --> 00:21:59,800
Speaker 1: grueling as they traveled all through England. They gave us

408
00:21:59,840 --> 00:22:03,520
Speaker 1: an as four shows a day. Anytime that there was

409
00:22:03,600 --> 00:22:06,920
Speaker 1: space they could turn into a stage. They really realized

410
00:22:06,960 --> 00:22:11,880
Speaker 1: how very desperately their levity was needed, and Hope later

411
00:22:11,920 --> 00:22:13,920
Speaker 1: wrote that you would have to be a terrible comedian

412
00:22:14,000 --> 00:22:16,680
Speaker 1: not to get a laugh from those audiences. But they

413
00:22:16,680 --> 00:22:19,760
Speaker 1: also found this work incredibly challenging, and all of them

414
00:22:19,800 --> 00:22:23,080
Speaker 1: tried to keep things very light and entertaining, even when,

415
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Speaker 1: for example, they were visiting wounded soldiers in the hospital,

416
00:22:26,240 --> 00:22:28,600
Speaker 1: and there were certainly moments when they wanted to break down.

417
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Speaker 1: Francis Langford tells a story about how she kind of

418
00:22:31,240 --> 00:22:33,040
Speaker 1: got let outside so she could cry because she was

419
00:22:33,040 --> 00:22:36,480
Speaker 1: not holding it together because Bob Hope was insistent that

420
00:22:36,600 --> 00:22:38,840
Speaker 1: they could not fall apart in front of these men.

421
00:22:39,080 --> 00:22:41,080
Speaker 1: They were there to bring light and to bring laughter,

422
00:22:41,440 --> 00:22:44,520
Speaker 1: and not to remind anyone just how dangerous their lives were.

423
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Speaker 1: After five weeks in Britain, Hope and the team moved

424
00:22:48,040 --> 00:22:51,800
Speaker 1: on to North Africa, which was blisteringly hot but even

425
00:22:52,040 --> 00:22:55,000
Speaker 1: they but even more frightening than the heat were the

426
00:22:55,080 --> 00:22:58,720
Speaker 1: air raids the German. The Germans bombed the areas that

427
00:22:58,760 --> 00:23:02,280
Speaker 1: they were in on several occasions, and at one point

428
00:23:02,320 --> 00:23:04,520
Speaker 1: Bob sprained his ankle when they had to run for

429
00:23:04,640 --> 00:23:07,200
Speaker 1: cover and he and Francis Langford had to dive into

430
00:23:07,240 --> 00:23:10,080
Speaker 1: a ditch. And they next moved to Palermo, where they

431
00:23:10,080 --> 00:23:13,679
Speaker 1: performed for massive crowds of sixteen thousand to nineteen thousand

432
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Speaker 1: men at a time, often with P thirty eight fighters

433
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Speaker 1: in the sky above them in case of a raid,

434
00:23:19,320 --> 00:23:22,640
Speaker 1: and just as in North Africa, there were bombings. At

435
00:23:22,640 --> 00:23:24,800
Speaker 1: one point they were all trapped in their hotel rooms.

436
00:23:24,840 --> 00:23:27,400
Speaker 1: They could not get to a safe place and they

437
00:23:27,400 --> 00:23:29,440
Speaker 1: had to just ride this raid out, sitting there in

438
00:23:29,480 --> 00:23:33,560
Speaker 1: their hotel, terrified, and later Hope famously wrote about this experience,

439
00:23:33,960 --> 00:23:35,880
Speaker 1: after you have listened to a raid for a little while,

440
00:23:35,920 --> 00:23:38,040
Speaker 1: you begin to be afraid that just the noise will

441
00:23:38,119 --> 00:23:40,600
Speaker 1: kill you. Then after you've listened to it a little

442
00:23:40,600 --> 00:23:44,760
Speaker 1: while longer, you begin to be afraid it won't. After

443
00:23:44,800 --> 00:23:47,560
Speaker 1: traveling in Italy, the Hope crew went back to North

444
00:23:47,600 --> 00:23:50,800
Speaker 1: Africa before returning to the United States after eleven weeks

445
00:23:50,800 --> 00:23:53,439
Speaker 1: of touring, and when the tour ended, Hope had so

446
00:23:53,520 --> 00:23:55,880
Speaker 1: much to do. He had been asked by a lot

447
00:23:55,920 --> 00:23:57,679
Speaker 1: of the troops that he met to reach out to

448
00:23:57,680 --> 00:24:00,480
Speaker 1: their families or to their girlfriends back home, and he

449
00:24:00,560 --> 00:24:03,560
Speaker 1: followed through on all those requests. He also wrote a

450
00:24:03,680 --> 00:24:07,320
Speaker 1: book with ghostwriter Carol Carroll about the tour called I

451
00:24:07,400 --> 00:24:10,920
Speaker 1: Never Left Home. Hope donated the money from the book

452
00:24:10,960 --> 00:24:14,640
Speaker 1: and that was published in paperback in Juno. He donated

453
00:24:14,760 --> 00:24:30,040
Speaker 1: donated that money to the National War Fund. So in

454
00:24:30,119 --> 00:24:34,280
Speaker 1: nineteen four Hope put together a trip troupe to tour

455
00:24:34,400 --> 00:24:38,880
Speaker 1: the Pacific Theater that included Lankford, Romano, and Kelowna, as

456
00:24:38,880 --> 00:24:42,320
Speaker 1: well as new players Patty Thomas and Barney Dean. And

457
00:24:42,320 --> 00:24:45,480
Speaker 1: Patty Thomas was a very attractive young woman. One of

458
00:24:45,480 --> 00:24:47,120
Speaker 1: the things that Bob Hope would do it's a little

459
00:24:47,119 --> 00:24:49,280
Speaker 1: outmoded now, is he would you know, trot a beautiful

460
00:24:49,280 --> 00:24:50,919
Speaker 1: woman out on stage and say to the soldiers, this

461
00:24:50,960 --> 00:24:52,879
Speaker 1: is what you're fighting for. Uh. And so she was

462
00:24:52,960 --> 00:24:56,240
Speaker 1: kind of that person. But because of that, things would

463
00:24:56,240 --> 00:24:59,760
Speaker 1: sometimes get uncomfortable on the road with men making unwanted

464
00:24:59,760 --> 00:25:02,119
Speaker 1: adv pances, and so often Bob would just step in

465
00:25:02,440 --> 00:25:04,760
Speaker 1: and tell the would be suitor that Patty was his girlfriend,

466
00:25:04,840 --> 00:25:06,879
Speaker 1: even though that was not the case, just so that

467
00:25:06,920 --> 00:25:10,719
Speaker 1: they would leave her alone. The specific tour went on

468
00:25:10,760 --> 00:25:14,600
Speaker 1: for six weeks starting on June twenty nineteen, and then

469
00:25:14,600 --> 00:25:18,880
Speaker 1: the group head into Australia. While flying into Sydney from Brisbane,

470
00:25:18,960 --> 00:25:22,119
Speaker 1: their plane almost went down or one of the engines failed,

471
00:25:22,160 --> 00:25:25,040
Speaker 1: and things got so dire that the pilot ordered the

472
00:25:25,119 --> 00:25:29,639
Speaker 1: passengers to jettison everything they could. They made an emergency

473
00:25:29,720 --> 00:25:32,840
Speaker 1: landing on water, scuffing across the surface and coming to

474
00:25:32,880 --> 00:25:36,879
Speaker 1: rest on a sandbar. Bob and his team, rattled, but

475
00:25:37,000 --> 00:25:40,800
Speaker 1: dedicated performed their scheduled show that night. Yeah, I don't

476
00:25:40,920 --> 00:25:43,959
Speaker 1: think I could have kept it together. Hope also started

477
00:25:43,960 --> 00:25:47,200
Speaker 1: writing columns about their travels in war zones that were

478
00:25:47,200 --> 00:25:50,120
Speaker 1: then published in the papers. Back home and the Pepsident

479
00:25:50,200 --> 00:25:52,119
Speaker 1: Show had hoped that they could do a live show

480
00:25:52,200 --> 00:25:54,439
Speaker 1: from one of these uh, one of these locations, But

481
00:25:54,520 --> 00:25:57,480
Speaker 1: initially the War Department stopped that idea cold because he

482
00:25:57,480 --> 00:25:59,879
Speaker 1: didn't want to give away locations to the enemy. But

483
00:26:00,160 --> 00:26:02,840
Speaker 1: Hope did eventually get to broadcast from a naval hospital.

484
00:26:02,880 --> 00:26:05,439
Speaker 1: They did more after that, UH, and the conclusion of

485
00:26:05,480 --> 00:26:09,440
Speaker 1: the broadcast took a rather serious turn as he turned

486
00:26:09,440 --> 00:26:11,480
Speaker 1: off his jokester mode for a little bit and made

487
00:26:11,600 --> 00:26:13,600
Speaker 1: very clear to the people back home that the young

488
00:26:13,640 --> 00:26:16,120
Speaker 1: men that he was meeting every single day, we're making

489
00:26:16,240 --> 00:26:20,080
Speaker 1: very deep sacrifices and really needed support. It became really

490
00:26:20,119 --> 00:26:22,879
Speaker 1: common practice for Bob Hope to reach out to troops

491
00:26:22,880 --> 00:26:25,240
Speaker 1: who couldn't make it to his scheduled shows. A lot

492
00:26:25,320 --> 00:26:27,919
Speaker 1: of times he would load the Federal his fellow performers

493
00:26:27,960 --> 00:26:31,160
Speaker 1: into jeeps and then go find these troops wherever they

494
00:26:31,160 --> 00:26:32,679
Speaker 1: were out in the field and try to give them

495
00:26:32,680 --> 00:26:36,720
Speaker 1: a bit of entertainment. There weren't agents, there weren't assistants.

496
00:26:36,760 --> 00:26:39,600
Speaker 1: It was just a handful of comedians and singers making

497
00:26:39,600 --> 00:26:42,359
Speaker 1: sure that the men on the front lines felt appreciated

498
00:26:42,400 --> 00:26:45,320
Speaker 1: and seen and loved. Yet there are so many stories

499
00:26:45,359 --> 00:26:47,159
Speaker 1: of him going, oh, that group tried to get to

500
00:26:47,240 --> 00:26:48,680
Speaker 1: us so they couldn't make it. Do you know where

501
00:26:48,680 --> 00:26:50,640
Speaker 1: they are right now? And they would literally just run

502
00:26:50,680 --> 00:26:53,000
Speaker 1: and go and spend an hour with them, telling them

503
00:26:53,080 --> 00:26:56,880
Speaker 1: jokes and trying to lighten their emotional burden. Um, which

504
00:26:56,880 --> 00:26:59,280
Speaker 1: is pretty amazing. They're literally you cannot count them. I

505
00:26:59,320 --> 00:27:01,159
Speaker 1: don't think we will ever get an accurate account of

506
00:27:01,160 --> 00:27:04,240
Speaker 1: how many times Bob Hope performed in the USO because

507
00:27:04,280 --> 00:27:06,120
Speaker 1: there are so many of those little moments that were

508
00:27:06,160 --> 00:27:09,880
Speaker 1: never recorded or documented. And Hope and company went back

509
00:27:09,880 --> 00:27:14,280
Speaker 1: to Europe in though the troops part due to exhaustion

510
00:27:14,440 --> 00:27:17,120
Speaker 1: and also the knowledge that the war was finally coming

511
00:27:17,119 --> 00:27:19,760
Speaker 1: to a close. We're a little bit less responsive than

512
00:27:19,800 --> 00:27:22,760
Speaker 1: they had encountered earlier in the war. Uh, and that

513
00:27:22,840 --> 00:27:25,280
Speaker 1: was a little bit of a downer for them. But

514
00:27:25,440 --> 00:27:27,960
Speaker 1: also Francis Langford was not there with them. She had

515
00:27:27,960 --> 00:27:30,720
Speaker 1: moved on to her own show. There was some Hollywood

516
00:27:30,800 --> 00:27:34,160
Speaker 1: drama around that about her moving into another another position.

517
00:27:34,560 --> 00:27:37,560
Speaker 1: So instead Bob Hope brought Gail Robbins into the troop

518
00:27:37,800 --> 00:27:40,600
Speaker 1: and then halfway through the tour, while the performers were

519
00:27:40,600 --> 00:27:44,359
Speaker 1: in Germany, the Japanese surrender was announced on August and

520
00:27:44,400 --> 00:27:46,600
Speaker 1: so Hope canceled the remaining dates on the tour and

521
00:27:46,640 --> 00:27:48,639
Speaker 1: went home. That actually surprised some people. They thought he

522
00:27:48,680 --> 00:27:50,600
Speaker 1: was going to go ahead and finish, because it wasn't

523
00:27:50,600 --> 00:27:52,439
Speaker 1: like they went we're done and everyone went home the

524
00:27:52,480 --> 00:27:55,200
Speaker 1: next day. But I think it was just they had

525
00:27:55,200 --> 00:27:57,280
Speaker 1: reached an exhaustion point where it was just time to

526
00:27:57,320 --> 00:27:59,159
Speaker 1: be like, all right, let's just pack this up. Well,

527
00:27:59,160 --> 00:28:02,120
Speaker 1: and at that point, because things are headed toward closure,

528
00:28:02,520 --> 00:28:05,160
Speaker 1: like the need of can we please just laugh at

529
00:28:05,160 --> 00:28:09,399
Speaker 1: something is not quite as high. No, it's probably d

530
00:28:09,560 --> 00:28:12,160
Speaker 1: prioritized over how fast can we pack and get out

531
00:28:12,160 --> 00:28:14,600
Speaker 1: of here? How how fast can we wrap up every

532
00:28:14,600 --> 00:28:18,080
Speaker 1: loose end? And he's wrapping. Bob Hope's work with the

533
00:28:18,160 --> 00:28:21,320
Speaker 1: USO during World War Two really cemented his place as

534
00:28:21,359 --> 00:28:24,040
Speaker 1: an entertainment icon. He had earned the love of the

535
00:28:24,040 --> 00:28:26,320
Speaker 1: troops and the folks back home in the United States,

536
00:28:26,400 --> 00:28:28,680
Speaker 1: and the ratings for his show were really never better.

537
00:28:29,080 --> 00:28:31,359
Speaker 1: Even after the war was over, he still felt a

538
00:28:31,440 --> 00:28:35,639
Speaker 1: deep connection to his work with the military. Hope was

539
00:28:35,680 --> 00:28:38,800
Speaker 1: asked by Secretary of the Air Force Stewart Symington if

540
00:28:38,840 --> 00:28:41,520
Speaker 1: he would go entertained troops in Berlin who were carrying

541
00:28:41,520 --> 00:28:43,160
Speaker 1: out the missions that came to be known as the

542
00:28:43,200 --> 00:28:46,720
Speaker 1: Berlin Airlift that is also known as Operation Victuals, which

543
00:28:46,760 --> 00:28:49,760
Speaker 1: was running supplies to West Berlin via air after the

544
00:28:49,760 --> 00:28:53,520
Speaker 1: Soviets had blockaded road access, and Hope agreed and he

545
00:28:53,560 --> 00:28:56,120
Speaker 1: put together a cast from his newly reworked radio show

546
00:28:56,200 --> 00:28:58,400
Speaker 1: which was called The Bob Hope Show, and he flew

547
00:28:58,400 --> 00:29:00,720
Speaker 1: to Berlin to give a performance which launched a long

548
00:29:00,840 --> 00:29:03,920
Speaker 1: running tradition, which was a special Christmas show for the troops.

549
00:29:04,280 --> 00:29:07,760
Speaker 1: When the Korean War started in nineteen fifty, Hope immediately

550
00:29:07,840 --> 00:29:09,960
Speaker 1: wanted to get involved, and this time he wanted to

551
00:29:09,960 --> 00:29:13,040
Speaker 1: take a much larger show, a troop of fifty people.

552
00:29:13,560 --> 00:29:17,200
Speaker 1: While General MacArthur initially wanted no entertainment groups larger than

553
00:29:17,280 --> 00:29:20,840
Speaker 1: six people and no women entertainers entering the combat zone,

554
00:29:21,160 --> 00:29:24,440
Speaker 1: Hope eventually got his way after using his contacts with

555
00:29:24,480 --> 00:29:27,600
Speaker 1: the military to help his case. And this time, I

556
00:29:27,600 --> 00:29:29,880
Speaker 1: mean it really was huge. We mentioned fifty people, but

557
00:29:29,920 --> 00:29:32,640
Speaker 1: there were bands, there were singing groups, there were comedians

558
00:29:32,640 --> 00:29:34,840
Speaker 1: of course, there were writers that went on the road

559
00:29:34,880 --> 00:29:37,600
Speaker 1: with them to work jokes along the way, and Bob's

560
00:29:37,600 --> 00:29:40,440
Speaker 1: brother Jack went along and kind of helped keep everything

561
00:29:40,520 --> 00:29:44,320
Speaker 1: running smoothly. Actress and singer Gloria to Haven was the

562
00:29:44,360 --> 00:29:46,160
Speaker 1: female lead of the show for the first half of

563
00:29:46,200 --> 00:29:49,200
Speaker 1: the tour, and Maryland Maxwell was planned to move into

564
00:29:49,240 --> 00:29:51,520
Speaker 1: that role for the second half. And they went first

565
00:29:51,520 --> 00:29:54,280
Speaker 1: to Hawaii and then the Quaduline a toll which I

566
00:29:54,360 --> 00:29:58,720
Speaker 1: probably pronounced incorrectly, uh guam Okinawa, Tokyo and beyond, and

567
00:29:58,840 --> 00:30:02,800
Speaker 1: over four weeks, the singers, dancers, musicians, and comedians gave

568
00:30:02,840 --> 00:30:05,960
Speaker 1: a staggering fifty four performances. It's just about two a day.

569
00:30:06,320 --> 00:30:08,640
Speaker 1: We mentioned earlier that they were sometimes doing five a day,

570
00:30:08,680 --> 00:30:12,720
Speaker 1: but when you think about, uh, how much larger this

571
00:30:12,760 --> 00:30:15,800
Speaker 1: show was, and just the logistical nightmare of fifty people

572
00:30:15,920 --> 00:30:19,640
Speaker 1: versus five, this was really still pretty impressive. They just

573
00:30:19,800 --> 00:30:21,880
Speaker 1: couldn't quite manage five a day because they did not

574
00:30:21,920 --> 00:30:25,000
Speaker 1: have that tiny, nimble troupe that they started with. Incidentally,

575
00:30:25,160 --> 00:30:28,240
Speaker 1: one of the writers on hope specific tour, Larry Gilbert,

576
00:30:28,280 --> 00:30:31,200
Speaker 1: went on to create and produce the series Mash, which

577
00:30:31,280 --> 00:30:33,520
Speaker 1: was informed by what he had seen while on tour

578
00:30:33,640 --> 00:30:36,920
Speaker 1: through the bases in the Korean War. Hope's involvement with

579
00:30:36,960 --> 00:30:39,720
Speaker 1: the USO continued, of course, after the Korean War ended.

580
00:30:39,920 --> 00:30:43,400
Speaker 1: He visited basses. He always did his Christmas tours while

581
00:30:43,440 --> 00:30:46,680
Speaker 1: continuing his radio, film and television career. That is what

582
00:30:46,720 --> 00:30:49,400
Speaker 1: always astounds me. He had he could have just done

583
00:30:49,400 --> 00:30:51,800
Speaker 1: the USO stuff, and that's a pretty big full time career.

584
00:30:51,880 --> 00:30:54,960
Speaker 1: Yet he also was maintaining his regular at home, non

585
00:30:55,000 --> 00:30:58,520
Speaker 1: military involved career. Um. But it did take a bit

586
00:30:58,560 --> 00:31:00,680
Speaker 1: of a downward turn for him in a public eye,

587
00:31:00,760 --> 00:31:03,800
Speaker 1: at least during the Vietnam War. Yeah, in nineteen sixty four,

588
00:31:03,920 --> 00:31:06,360
Speaker 1: Hope in his troop headed to Vietnam for the first

589
00:31:06,400 --> 00:31:08,960
Speaker 1: time at the request of the Defense Department, and the

590
00:31:09,040 --> 00:31:11,640
Speaker 1: location for this show was a secret. Even Hope and

591
00:31:11,720 --> 00:31:14,160
Speaker 1: his colleagues did not know the base locations they were

592
00:31:14,160 --> 00:31:17,040
Speaker 1: going to be going to. They first reached Saigon and

593
00:31:17,040 --> 00:31:19,640
Speaker 1: when they got to their hotel, there was a crowd outside,

594
00:31:19,640 --> 00:31:21,520
Speaker 1: and Hope thought it was a group of people who

595
00:31:21,520 --> 00:31:23,520
Speaker 1: were coming to meet him and the rest of the troop.

596
00:31:24,120 --> 00:31:26,840
Speaker 1: They had actually stumbled onto a bomb scene because the

597
00:31:26,880 --> 00:31:29,560
Speaker 1: hotel across the street had just been hit, and some

598
00:31:29,640 --> 00:31:32,880
Speaker 1: reports suggested that Hope might have actually been the target. Yeah,

599
00:31:32,920 --> 00:31:35,680
Speaker 1: there was a belief that he was a target because

600
00:31:35,800 --> 00:31:39,520
Speaker 1: nobody wanted American troops to have the morale boost that

601
00:31:39,680 --> 00:31:42,320
Speaker 1: something like that would provide. And just the year prior,

602
00:31:42,560 --> 00:31:46,280
Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty three, President Kennedy had presented the Congressional

603
00:31:46,280 --> 00:31:49,040
Speaker 1: Gold Medal in recognition to Hope for his immense service

604
00:31:49,320 --> 00:31:51,640
Speaker 1: to the military. But of course, at that point there

605
00:31:51,680 --> 00:31:55,400
Speaker 1: was controversy on the horizon because the Vietnam War was

606
00:31:55,440 --> 00:31:58,680
Speaker 1: not supported by everyone in the US. Hopes ongoing work

607
00:31:58,760 --> 00:32:01,960
Speaker 1: during the war and his friendship with President Nixon meant

608
00:32:02,040 --> 00:32:04,800
Speaker 1: that he was not the universally beloved figure that he

609
00:32:04,840 --> 00:32:07,600
Speaker 1: had been earlier in his career, and this really represented

610
00:32:07,640 --> 00:32:10,080
Speaker 1: a turning point in a shift that had been gradually

611
00:32:10,360 --> 00:32:13,840
Speaker 1: gradually happening over a number of years. Hope had been

612
00:32:13,880 --> 00:32:16,920
Speaker 1: a young upstart earlier on in his career, and over

613
00:32:17,000 --> 00:32:20,320
Speaker 1: time he had become really established. He wasn't a cheeky

614
00:32:20,400 --> 00:32:25,560
Speaker 1: young rebel anymore. He was a wealthy, established success. His

615
00:32:25,720 --> 00:32:28,880
Speaker 1: jokes in his early career had been really edgy, and

616
00:32:28,920 --> 00:32:31,400
Speaker 1: at this point they had become a little more passe

617
00:32:31,680 --> 00:32:35,480
Speaker 1: as other up and coming comedians had pushed the envelope

618
00:32:35,480 --> 00:32:39,120
Speaker 1: in their own way. His jokes about women I, womanizing

619
00:32:39,200 --> 00:32:42,160
Speaker 1: and other topics had become a little dated and trends

620
00:32:42,200 --> 00:32:44,880
Speaker 1: of comedy had just moved on to other things. Yeah,

621
00:32:44,920 --> 00:32:47,520
Speaker 1: he was always really cagy about how wealthy he had become.

622
00:32:47,600 --> 00:32:49,320
Speaker 1: He was really smart. He invested in a lot of

623
00:32:49,320 --> 00:32:52,000
Speaker 1: things in addition to just making money and entertainment. And

624
00:32:52,040 --> 00:32:54,040
Speaker 1: there are so many clips of him on like talk

625
00:32:54,080 --> 00:32:56,000
Speaker 1: shows going I'm not as rich as people say. Like,

626
00:32:56,040 --> 00:32:58,520
Speaker 1: he really was trying to downplay his wealth, even though

627
00:32:58,960 --> 00:33:01,800
Speaker 1: I encourage you all to go home and google his house.

628
00:33:02,840 --> 00:33:06,640
Speaker 1: It was built to look like a volcano. Um it

629
00:33:06,720 --> 00:33:09,080
Speaker 1: doesn't literally look like a volcano. It's like a shape

630
00:33:09,120 --> 00:33:11,959
Speaker 1: style that like a very kind of you know, that

631
00:33:11,960 --> 00:33:15,240
Speaker 1: that mid century modern thing. But he wanted to downplay

632
00:33:15,280 --> 00:33:17,080
Speaker 1: how wealthy he was, even while living in the most

633
00:33:17,120 --> 00:33:20,320
Speaker 1: spectacular home you could imagine. But those jokes that we

634
00:33:20,320 --> 00:33:23,120
Speaker 1: talked about that had become passe would often still play

635
00:33:23,160 --> 00:33:26,080
Speaker 1: to a military audience who were just eager and thankful

636
00:33:26,160 --> 00:33:29,920
Speaker 1: for a lighthearted reminder of home. But even within the military,

637
00:33:30,000 --> 00:33:32,640
Speaker 1: there were conflicting views of Vietnam, and that meant that

638
00:33:32,720 --> 00:33:37,040
Speaker 1: Hope experienced on occasion some critical reception from military personnel

639
00:33:37,080 --> 00:33:39,480
Speaker 1: that he had never dealt with before. And at one

640
00:33:39,480 --> 00:33:42,280
Speaker 1: point during a Christmas Eve, show, he mentioned that President

641
00:33:42,400 --> 00:33:45,000
Speaker 1: Nixon was doing everything he could to bring the troops home,

642
00:33:45,360 --> 00:33:47,800
Speaker 1: and that comment did not go over well. There were

643
00:33:47,800 --> 00:33:49,680
Speaker 1: a lot of soldiers in the audience who thought he

644
00:33:49,720 --> 00:33:53,240
Speaker 1: was outright lying. Some of them started booing uh, and

645
00:33:53,280 --> 00:33:56,160
Speaker 1: to get the crowd back, Hope eventually brought out Connie Stevens,

646
00:33:56,160 --> 00:33:59,000
Speaker 1: who was touring with him, to sing She's saying Silent Night,

647
00:33:59,040 --> 00:34:00,600
Speaker 1: and the whole crowd kind of going along and it

648
00:34:00,720 --> 00:34:03,880
Speaker 1: it fixed the moment, but it was very, very scary

649
00:34:03,920 --> 00:34:05,680
Speaker 1: time for him in terms of just like I thought,

650
00:34:05,720 --> 00:34:07,560
Speaker 1: I knew what I was doing, and I don't anymore.

651
00:34:08,080 --> 00:34:10,520
Speaker 1: And the even in the face of these kinds of moments, though,

652
00:34:11,160 --> 00:34:15,200
Speaker 1: Hopes support of the troops never wavered at all. He

653
00:34:15,320 --> 00:34:18,359
Speaker 1: knew that the war was really unpopular with a lot

654
00:34:18,400 --> 00:34:20,440
Speaker 1: of people, but he also felt like he wouldn't be

655
00:34:20,480 --> 00:34:22,719
Speaker 1: able to look at himself in the mirror if he

656
00:34:22,760 --> 00:34:25,719
Speaker 1: didn't make an effort to support the deployed personnel from

657
00:34:25,760 --> 00:34:29,440
Speaker 1: the U. S. Military. He saw and understood how badly

658
00:34:29,480 --> 00:34:32,799
Speaker 1: they needed somebody to just unconditionally care about them, and

659
00:34:32,840 --> 00:34:35,880
Speaker 1: in return, he was constantly receiving thousands of letters from

660
00:34:35,880 --> 00:34:39,080
Speaker 1: the soldiers who he had entertained sharing personal stories and

661
00:34:39,120 --> 00:34:41,279
Speaker 1: saying thanks or asking him to reach out to their

662
00:34:41,280 --> 00:34:43,840
Speaker 1: families back home. He really got in the habit of

663
00:34:43,880 --> 00:34:46,560
Speaker 1: reviewing his military letters a couple of times a week

664
00:34:46,600 --> 00:34:49,600
Speaker 1: with his secretary, and he would dictate personal responses to

665
00:34:49,680 --> 00:34:51,520
Speaker 1: as many of them as he could. Yeah, if you

666
00:34:51,520 --> 00:34:53,239
Speaker 1: have not been upstairs to the exhibit, there are a

667
00:34:53,280 --> 00:34:58,160
Speaker 1: few pieces of mail included there that are wrenching, um

668
00:34:58,200 --> 00:35:01,520
Speaker 1: and beautiful. But he his career just the same took

669
00:35:01,560 --> 00:35:03,799
Speaker 1: a hit because of his vocal backing of the U.

670
00:35:03,880 --> 00:35:07,080
Speaker 1: S involvement in Vietnam. So he faced criticism both at

671
00:35:07,120 --> 00:35:09,920
Speaker 1: home and on the road for his conservative stance and

672
00:35:09,960 --> 00:35:12,840
Speaker 1: the jokes that he made belittling war protests. But he

673
00:35:12,920 --> 00:35:17,120
Speaker 1: still remained so determined and dedicated and energetic about his

674
00:35:17,160 --> 00:35:19,760
Speaker 1: involvement with the U. S O. And in some ways

675
00:35:20,120 --> 00:35:22,920
Speaker 1: that has really paved the way for other entertainers to

676
00:35:23,040 --> 00:35:26,840
Speaker 1: support the military serving in unpopular actions through USO tours.

677
00:35:26,880 --> 00:35:28,760
Speaker 1: Some of them have even outright said, I don't support

678
00:35:28,800 --> 00:35:30,520
Speaker 1: this war, but I support the troops and I support

679
00:35:30,560 --> 00:35:33,200
Speaker 1: the people I'm going to entertain. When Hope was honored

680
00:35:33,239 --> 00:35:36,719
Speaker 1: at the Kennedy Center in one segment of the show

681
00:35:36,800 --> 00:35:40,839
Speaker 1: featured military personnel he had entertained throughout the years, from

682
00:35:40,880 --> 00:35:43,640
Speaker 1: World War to You, Korea and Vietnam, all of them

683
00:35:43,680 --> 00:35:45,840
Speaker 1: sharing brief stories about how he had given them a

684
00:35:45,880 --> 00:35:48,680
Speaker 1: reprieve from the harsh realities they had been in, and

685
00:35:48,719 --> 00:35:52,200
Speaker 1: then closing with the soldiers singing Hope's signature song, thanks

686
00:35:52,200 --> 00:35:55,840
Speaker 1: for the Memory, and in a very rare moment where

687
00:35:55,840 --> 00:36:00,040
Speaker 1: Hopes like compartmentalization and the comic facade, the sort of

688
00:36:00,360 --> 00:36:04,440
Speaker 1: personality that he showed people publicly, that fell away, and

689
00:36:04,520 --> 00:36:08,640
Speaker 1: he wept openly at this presentation. I feel like this

690
00:36:08,760 --> 00:36:12,960
Speaker 1: is the this is like the movie White Christmas, and

691
00:36:13,920 --> 00:36:17,960
Speaker 1: I cry thinking about that. Also, I highly encourage you. You

692
00:36:17,880 --> 00:36:20,520
Speaker 1: You can see footage of that event online and if

693
00:36:20,520 --> 00:36:23,520
Speaker 1: you don't cry, you might be a robot um. It's

694
00:36:23,600 --> 00:36:26,600
Speaker 1: quite moving and it is really lovely. But hops time

695
00:36:26,640 --> 00:36:29,880
Speaker 1: with the USO continued after those Kennedy Center honors. His

696
00:36:29,960 --> 00:36:32,400
Speaker 1: last overseas tour was during the Persian Gulf War in

697
00:36:33,480 --> 00:36:36,080
Speaker 1: and at that point he was eight seven uh and

698
00:36:36,160 --> 00:36:39,879
Speaker 1: while his energy had always outpaced almost everyone he worked with,

699
00:36:40,239 --> 00:36:42,600
Speaker 1: everyone talked about how like they didn't know how he

700
00:36:42,680 --> 00:36:45,239
Speaker 1: kept going. He was just his machine. He basically would

701
00:36:45,239 --> 00:36:47,399
Speaker 1: just take cat naps and run on adrenaline for days

702
00:36:47,400 --> 00:36:49,879
Speaker 1: and days and days. But those techniques, at the age

703
00:36:49,880 --> 00:36:52,120
Speaker 1: of eight seven, we're not really working. They were not

704
00:36:52,239 --> 00:36:54,520
Speaker 1: quite enough to keep him from slowing down a little bit.

705
00:36:55,480 --> 00:36:58,680
Speaker 1: And this was especially true because he continued to always

706
00:36:58,719 --> 00:37:01,640
Speaker 1: add impromptu performance as to his tours to make sure

707
00:37:01,640 --> 00:37:04,799
Speaker 1: he reached as many military personnel as possible. So for

708
00:37:04,920 --> 00:37:08,640
Speaker 1: all of Hope's work with the troops, over fifty years

709
00:37:08,680 --> 00:37:12,000
Speaker 1: of traveling to dangerous and remote locations just to bring

710
00:37:12,080 --> 00:37:14,840
Speaker 1: some laughs or some comfort, he was given so many honors,

711
00:37:14,840 --> 00:37:17,560
Speaker 1: and we're going to tick through just a few of them.

712
00:37:17,600 --> 00:37:20,120
Speaker 1: So in nineteen sixty eight he was given the Savannah

713
00:37:20,160 --> 00:37:23,080
Speaker 1: Stayer Award at the U. S. Military Academy at West Point.

714
00:37:23,920 --> 00:37:27,040
Speaker 1: President Lyndon B. Johnson awarded him the Presidential Medal of

715
00:37:27,080 --> 00:37:30,680
Speaker 1: Freedom in nineteen sixty nine. In nineteen seventy one, he

716
00:37:30,719 --> 00:37:33,920
Speaker 1: received the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service.

717
00:37:34,320 --> 00:37:38,160
Speaker 1: In nine seven, Congress named him an Honorary Veteran. Ninety

718
00:37:38,200 --> 00:37:40,040
Speaker 1: seven was big for him, as you will see because

719
00:37:40,080 --> 00:37:42,439
Speaker 1: also in n seven, the U. S. Air Force named

720
00:37:42,440 --> 00:37:45,560
Speaker 1: a Boeing C. Seventeen Globe Master three, the Spirit of

721
00:37:45,600 --> 00:37:49,040
Speaker 1: Bob Hope, and one more thing from seven. The US

722
00:37:49,200 --> 00:37:52,360
Speaker 1: Navy named a T A k R three hundred cargo

723
00:37:52,440 --> 00:37:55,400
Speaker 1: ship the U s n S. Bob Hope, and that

724
00:37:55,480 --> 00:37:59,759
Speaker 1: ship incidentally was constructed here in New Orleans by Avondale Industries.

725
00:38:01,360 --> 00:38:04,439
Speaker 1: It is really really sort of astonishing, uh, to think

726
00:38:04,560 --> 00:38:06,440
Speaker 1: about all of the work that Bob Hope did with

727
00:38:06,480 --> 00:38:09,160
Speaker 1: the USO, and then consider, as I mentioned before, that

728
00:38:09,200 --> 00:38:11,680
Speaker 1: those efforts were all in addition to a very full

729
00:38:11,719 --> 00:38:14,440
Speaker 1: career as an entertainer, and it is impossible to know,

730
00:38:14,560 --> 00:38:16,919
Speaker 1: like I said, how many thousands of performances he gave

731
00:38:16,920 --> 00:38:18,840
Speaker 1: for troops, because there were so many done on the

732
00:38:18,880 --> 00:38:21,400
Speaker 1: fly that we will probably never know about, sometimes for

733
00:38:21,440 --> 00:38:23,040
Speaker 1: a few as two or three guys at a time.

734
00:38:23,640 --> 00:38:25,480
Speaker 1: And in a way, he was inventing a lot of

735
00:38:25,520 --> 00:38:28,520
Speaker 1: things that are standard elements of comedy today, and a

736
00:38:28,560 --> 00:38:31,320
Speaker 1: lot of that was tied into his work with the troops.

737
00:38:31,640 --> 00:38:34,360
Speaker 1: While working in vaudeville, he had developed a really rapid

738
00:38:34,400 --> 00:38:37,719
Speaker 1: fire style of telling jokes that he honed in these

739
00:38:37,760 --> 00:38:42,359
Speaker 1: early U. S O tours, essentially developing stand up comedy. Yeah,

740
00:38:42,360 --> 00:38:44,280
Speaker 1: prior to that, I mean you guys have seen vaudeville

741
00:38:44,680 --> 00:38:47,120
Speaker 1: stuff where it's like, well, tell the joke and then

742
00:38:47,160 --> 00:38:49,239
Speaker 1: we wait for the laugh. And he never waited for

743
00:38:49,280 --> 00:38:51,279
Speaker 1: the laugh. He would just keep rolling into the next joke,

744
00:38:51,719 --> 00:38:54,440
Speaker 1: which was a completely new way of approaching telling jokes.

745
00:38:54,840 --> 00:38:57,360
Speaker 1: And as he moved into TV, he did this unique

746
00:38:57,360 --> 00:39:00,239
Speaker 1: thing because he knew he did not want to deal

747
00:39:00,280 --> 00:39:03,000
Speaker 1: with the kind of grueling schedule that a weekly show

748
00:39:03,000 --> 00:39:06,400
Speaker 1: would entail. So instead, uh, he kind of borrowed that

749
00:39:06,440 --> 00:39:09,000
Speaker 1: idea that was born in Berlin in when he did

750
00:39:09,040 --> 00:39:11,719
Speaker 1: his Christmas show for the Troops, he essentially created the

751
00:39:11,760 --> 00:39:14,080
Speaker 1: idea of a comedy special, which is a huge part

752
00:39:14,160 --> 00:39:19,040
Speaker 1: of the comedy industry today. So in the introduction to

753
00:39:19,080 --> 00:39:21,239
Speaker 1: one of the books that Holly read while preparing for

754
00:39:21,239 --> 00:39:24,560
Speaker 1: this show, Bob Hope, Bo Bob Hope biographer wrote the

755
00:39:24,719 --> 00:39:27,440
Speaker 1: following about his long term work with the U s O.

756
00:39:27,520 --> 00:39:29,000
Speaker 1: And it seemed like a really good way to close

757
00:39:29,040 --> 00:39:33,560
Speaker 1: this out. He wrote, all this had a careerist aspect.

758
00:39:33,640 --> 00:39:37,319
Speaker 1: Of course, Hope sincerely loved entertaining the troops and it

759
00:39:37,400 --> 00:39:40,080
Speaker 1: fed the patriotic pride of an immigrant who had lived

760
00:39:40,120 --> 00:39:44,400
Speaker 1: a classic Horatio Algerias success story. But his Troops shows

761
00:39:44,560 --> 00:39:47,880
Speaker 1: also provided him with huge, easy to please audiences, lofty

762
00:39:47,920 --> 00:39:52,919
Speaker 1: TV ratings, and boundless good publicity. Still, no cynical view

763
00:39:52,960 --> 00:39:56,320
Speaker 1: of his motives can diminish the impact that Hope had

764
00:39:56,440 --> 00:40:04,120
Speaker 1: for setting a standard of public service in Hollywood. We

765
00:40:04,360 --> 00:40:08,200
Speaker 1: seriously cannot thank the National World Ward Museum enough for

766
00:40:08,360 --> 00:40:12,120
Speaker 1: graciously hosting us, and particularly their Public Engagement and Community

767
00:40:12,160 --> 00:40:16,440
Speaker 1: Programs coordinator Amber Mitchell, who made sure everything went smoothly,

768
00:40:16,640 --> 00:40:19,640
Speaker 1: and she was just an amazing host. The museum was amazing.

769
00:40:19,920 --> 00:40:23,000
Speaker 1: Everybody that we worked with was so fantastic. The entire

770
00:40:23,040 --> 00:40:26,040
Speaker 1: staff is incredible. Amber really just like is one of

771
00:40:26,040 --> 00:40:29,560
Speaker 1: those people that is super relaxed but also super on

772
00:40:29,640 --> 00:40:31,640
Speaker 1: top of things, so you feel like you're in great

773
00:40:31,680 --> 00:40:33,800
Speaker 1: hands and like nothing is going to slip through the cracks,

774
00:40:33,840 --> 00:40:37,279
Speaker 1: and she's just a delight. We also did mention at

775
00:40:37,280 --> 00:40:39,640
Speaker 1: the top of the show the museum's new podcast, which

776
00:40:39,680 --> 00:40:42,480
Speaker 1: is called Service on Celluloid, and if you like both

777
00:40:42,520 --> 00:40:46,200
Speaker 1: film history and military history, uh, it is probably going

778
00:40:46,239 --> 00:40:48,200
Speaker 1: to be right up your alley. The show looks at

779
00:40:48,239 --> 00:40:50,680
Speaker 1: how World War Two has been portrayed in film from

780
00:40:50,680 --> 00:40:54,400
Speaker 1: the nineteen forties right up through modern Cinema, including discussions

781
00:40:54,400 --> 00:40:57,360
Speaker 1: of saving Private Ryan Schindler's List, and they actually have

782
00:40:57,360 --> 00:40:59,960
Speaker 1: an upcoming episode on the League of their Own Giant

783
00:41:00,000 --> 00:41:02,719
Speaker 1: pretty excited about. We're going to include links to that

784
00:41:02,719 --> 00:41:04,719
Speaker 1: show on our show page for this episode, so it

785
00:41:04,760 --> 00:41:06,880
Speaker 1: will be easy for you to check out. And again,

786
00:41:06,920 --> 00:41:10,000
Speaker 1: thank you so much to the World War Two Museum,

787
00:41:10,040 --> 00:41:12,800
Speaker 1: and just for the city of New Orleans, because everyone

788
00:41:12,840 --> 00:41:14,560
Speaker 1: that came up for meet and greet after the show

789
00:41:14,640 --> 00:41:16,719
Speaker 1: was super gracious and they were they wanted to make

790
00:41:16,719 --> 00:41:19,480
Speaker 1: sure we had enjoyed the city, and I just couldn't

791
00:41:19,520 --> 00:41:22,520
Speaker 1: be affirmative enough about how much we did. Uh. I

792
00:41:22,680 --> 00:41:25,319
Speaker 1: have a little listener mail, that is, I won't read

793
00:41:25,320 --> 00:41:26,960
Speaker 1: the whole mail, but I want to make sure we

794
00:41:27,000 --> 00:41:30,680
Speaker 1: thank this person. Our listener, Marina, who also listens to

795
00:41:30,800 --> 00:41:34,000
Speaker 1: a lot of other UH House Stuff Work shows, including

796
00:41:34,520 --> 00:41:37,239
Speaker 1: UH Stuff You Should Know and UH Stuff to Blow

797
00:41:37,280 --> 00:41:41,160
Speaker 1: Your Mind and the soundtrack show and Savor. Marina sent

798
00:41:41,280 --> 00:41:45,360
Speaker 1: us an amazing parcel of delicious things. She's from Germany

799
00:41:45,520 --> 00:41:48,000
Speaker 1: and so one she mentioned that our show in particular

800
00:41:48,239 --> 00:41:50,200
Speaker 1: shares parts of history that she didn't really get. She

801
00:41:50,200 --> 00:41:53,000
Speaker 1: didn't get a lot of American or or certainly British history.

802
00:41:53,320 --> 00:41:56,640
Speaker 1: We always mentioned that we want to feature other things

803
00:41:56,640 --> 00:41:58,879
Speaker 1: other than that, but that is the easiest and most

804
00:41:58,920 --> 00:42:02,560
Speaker 1: accessible history uh info that's usually available to us, so

805
00:42:02,640 --> 00:42:05,680
Speaker 1: that does tend to be featured a lot um. But

806
00:42:05,800 --> 00:42:08,600
Speaker 1: then she gave us, like I said, an amazing box

807
00:42:08,640 --> 00:42:11,799
Speaker 1: of absolutely delicious looking goodies, and I will be sure

808
00:42:11,880 --> 00:42:14,200
Speaker 1: as she requested to share those throughout the office. So

809
00:42:14,440 --> 00:42:16,560
Speaker 1: thank you, thank you, thank you, Marina. If you would

810
00:42:16,560 --> 00:42:18,120
Speaker 1: like to write to us, you can do so at

811
00:42:18,200 --> 00:42:20,880
Speaker 1: History podcast at house to works dot com. We can

812
00:42:20,920 --> 00:42:23,480
Speaker 1: also be found pretty much everywhere on social media as

813
00:42:23,600 --> 00:42:26,200
Speaker 1: missed in History, and you can come to our website

814
00:42:26,360 --> 00:42:29,080
Speaker 1: missed in History dot com for every episode of the

815
00:42:29,120 --> 00:42:31,439
Speaker 1: show that has ever aired, as well as show notes

816
00:42:31,480 --> 00:42:33,560
Speaker 1: on any of the episodes Tracy and I have worked on.

817
00:42:33,680 --> 00:42:35,720
Speaker 1: So we encourage you come and visit us at missed

818
00:42:35,719 --> 00:42:38,440
Speaker 1: in History dot com and you can subscribe to the

819
00:42:38,480 --> 00:42:43,760
Speaker 1: podcast on Apple Podcasts, I Heart, radios, app or anywhere

820
00:42:43,800 --> 00:42:51,280
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts. For more on this and thousands

821
00:42:51,280 --> 00:42:59,600
Speaker 1: of other topics, visit housetop works dot com