Buy this book.
Show and Tell: New Yorker Profiles
by Author: John Lahr
Released: April, 2002
ISBN: 0520233778
Paperback
In it the author allows him to dig his own grave....then he jumps right in
more from:
The Guardian <snip>
....But by the time opposition to the Vietnam war was growing, Hope sometimes found that the increasingly restless and disillusioned troops were less than grateful. At Long Binh in 1971, he was greeted with banners that read "Peace not Hope" and "The Vietnam War is a Bob Hope joke".
As John Lahr recorded in his New Yorker profile of Hope, troops walked out of at the end of the show when Hope was presented by a general with a "Ho Chi Minh bicycle", and he shouted after them:
"You've all listened to that garbage of the other cats ... What have they ever done for the world? They talk a lot about the My Lai massacre ... but that's a load of nothing, because they forget the good that we've done helping little kids and build orphanages!" <snip>
Boston.com<snip>
Finally, there's the Hope who, though he once cared little for partisan politics, according to Gelbart, allied himself with the Hollywood and Washington establishments in the '60s and '70s. A frequent White House guest and presidential golfing partner, Hope hobnobbed with Republicans and Democrats alike. However, he made no effort to hide his fondness for conservatives like Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, or for the hawks in Washington who pressed forward with the war in Vietnam.
<snip>
globeandmail.com<snip
He lent writers to U.S. Vice-president Spiro Agnew and even his jokes were heavy-handed, and distinctly unhip. "Students are revolting all over the world. I don't know what they're revolting about, I just know that they're revolting." Or, on feminism: "Where else but in America could the Women's Liberation Movement take off their bras, then go on TV to complain about their lack of support?" Even in Vietnam, his audience waved banners with messages such as, "We want peace, not Hope."
<snip>
Cal Thomas and Town Hall.<snip>
Senators McGovern, Hatfield, Gruening and Morse took a lot of heat for their principled opposition to the war. Hatfield, a practicing Christian, was told by critics he was opposing God. The others were called communists or communist sympathizers. "America: Love It, or Leave It" was a popular slogan among war supporters, including Republicans who hated communists more than they hated The Great Society. Bob Hope presided at pro-America rallies to whip up support for the war.
<snip>
A guy who liked to tell racist/sexist/homophobic jokes and dug wars as long as he didn't have to fight in them!
He was a real swell fella, alright. To me Bob seemed to be on par with Jerry Lewis...who in my opinion was about as funny as a truckload of dead baby's. The fact that soldiers like my cousin, during Vietnam, and my Uncle during WWII, were ordered to attend his shows and clap for his antics, hardly confirms his skill as a comedian. It takes all kinds I guess....can't fault you for your tastes.
On his passing...my condolences to his wife.
RC
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