BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Library of Congress -- Exhibit: Hope for America: Performers, Politics and Pop Culture

DC -- Library of Congress -- Exhibit: Hope for America: Performers, Politics and Pop Culture:

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. LOCBH_171120_006.JPG: Hope for America: Performers, Politics and Pop Culture For better or worse, politicians and entertainers have dominated public life in America for much of the twentieth century. Members of both professions, striving to create a vibrant connection with the public, have found their worlds increasingly entangled. Hope for America: Performers, Politics, and Pop Culture explores some of these entanglements, focusing on the careers of Bob Hope and other entertainers who chose to involve themselves in the political climate of their times. By virtue of their artistic talents and celebrity status, in front of the cameras and behind the scenes, with charisma and chutzpah, entertainers have served party, cause, and country -- not to mention their own ambitions -- as they sought to make a difference in the political life of the nation. Hope for America opens with the time-honored tradition of American comedians commenting on the political scene in satires gentle and vicious that have entertained and rattled the political establishment. The exhibition next surveys the involvement of entertainers in a wide range of causes and campaigns that on occasion have led to clashes and controversies. Hope for America concludes in contemporary times by examining the blurring of lines between the two worlds of entertainment and politics. Throughout the exhibition, stations displaying films, television shows, and sound recordings bring the themes of the exhibition to life. Bob Hope, who entertainment historian and critic Leonard Maltin declared "may be the most popular entertainer in the history of Western civilization," was arguably the nation's best-loved topical humorist during the twentieth century. Hope for America draws from the personal papers, joke files, films, radio and television broadcasts, and other materials donated to the Library of Congress by Bob Hope and his family. To put the history of the involvement of entertainers in politics into perspective, the exhibition also profiles the politically oriented activities of other prominent figures represented in the Library's vast collections. The exhibition invites visitors to examine artifacts that represent an array of viewpoints and draw their own conclusions regarding the interplay of politics and entertainment in American public life and its consequences for the nation's political culture.
2. LOCBH_171120_009.JPG: Hope for America: Performers, Politics and Pop Culture For better or worse, politicians and entertainers have dominated public life in America for much of the twentieth century. Members of both professions, striving to create a vibrant connection with the public, have found their worlds increasingly entangled. Hope for America: Performers, Politics, and Pop Culture explores some of these entanglements, focusing on the careers of Bob Hope and other entertainers who chose to involve themselves in the political climate of their times. By virtue of their artistic talents and celebrity status, in front of the cameras and behind the scenes, with charisma and chutzpah, entertainers have served party, cause, and country -- not to mention their own ambitions -- as they sought to make a difference in the political life of the nation.
3. LOCBH_171120_013.JPG: Hope for America opens with the time-honored tradition of American comedians commenting on the political scene in satires gentle and vicious that have entertained and rattled the political establishment. The exhibition surveys the involvement of entertainers in a wide range of causes and campaigns that on occasion have led to clashes and controversies. Hope for America concludes in contemporary times by examining the blurring of lines between the two worlds of entertainment and politics. Throughout the exhibition, stations displaying films, television shows, and sound recordings bring the themes of the exhibition to life.
4. LOCBH_171120_015.JPG: Bob Hope, who entertainment historian and critic Leonard Maltin declared "may be the most popular entertainer in the history of Western civilization," was arguably the nation's best-loved topical humorist during the twentieth century. Hope for America draws from the personal papers, joke files, films, radio and television broadcasts, and other materials donated to the Library of Congress by Bob Hope and his family. To put the history of the involvement of entertainers in politics into perspective, the exhibition also profiles the politically oriented activities of other prominent figures represented in the Library's vast collections. The exhibition invites visitors to examine artifacts that represent an array of viewpoints and draw their own conclusions regarding the interplay of politics and entertainment in American public life and its consequences for the nation's political culture.
5. LOCBH_171120_018.JPG: From My House to the White House "God gave me a certain ability to make people laugh, but America gave me the chance to do it. In no other country in the world does free speech pay so well." -- Bob Hope, 1973 A versatile performer -- actor, monologist, dancer, singer, sketch comedian, and master of ceremonies -- Bob Hope honed his myriad talents in front of vaudeville audiences of all kinds before graduating to the Broadway stage. Hope then entertained an ever-expanding mainstream national audience through radio, motion pictures, and television. For his weekly NBC radio shows, Hope hired a host of comedy writers to supply him with an abundant flow of topical material to give his new audience a sense of connection to the pulse of the times. In a career that spanned eight decades, Hope walked a fine line between tolerant comedy that poked fun and biting satire that punctured, regaling audiences from all walks of life with jokes about the state of the nation's affairs and its leaders.
6. LOCBH_171120_029.JPG: The Hope Family The fifth child of a traveling stonemason, Bob Hope (1903–2003), born Leslie Townes Hope near London, immigrated to Cleveland at age four. Hope's desire to entertain might be traced to his parents. "My dad was sort of an amateur comedian," he remarked, "and he would go 'round and play a few pubs in England and have a few drinks with the boys. My mother was a concert singer in Wales before she got married." In this photograph, Hope is seated in front of his father.
7. LOCBH_171120_031.JPG: Hope in Vaudeville Bob Hope, going at that time by the name Lester Hope, entered vaudeville as part of a comedy dancing act before going solo as an emcee and comedian upon discovering he had a knack for telling jokes to audiences. "I would develop a routine and keep the same jokes for at least a season," he later wrote, "not daring to change a line for fear all the magic would be lost and I'd have to go back to plucking chickens in my brother Fred's meat market."
8. LOCBH_171120_042.JPG: Radio's "Leading Entertainer" "Radio was a medium where, every week, more people would hear my jokes than had seen my vaudeville act in ten years," Hope wrote. "The radio season ran thirty-nine weeks. That meant I had to tell thirty-nine times as many jokes as I had used in a whole year of vaudeville." Hope's facility at delivering rapid-fire topical monologues attracted more than 23 million listeners each week. Critics voted him radio's "leading entertainer" in 1941.
9. LOCBH_171120_043.JPG: A Dinner to Honor President Eisenhower Bob Hope became a Washington, D.C. institution entertaining eleven presidents from Franklin Roosevelt (1882–1945) to Bill Clinton (b. 1946). Hope learned that presidents themselves enjoyed the ribbing he dished out. "They're the greatest audience," Hope remarked. "They love it when you bruise them a little, because nobody does." After Hope accepted an invitation to be Master of Ceremonies at a White House Photographers Association Dinner honoring President Eisenhower, the president of the association, Tony Muto (c. 1904–1964), sent Hope this appreciative telegram that underlined the importance of entertainment as a respite from presidential pressures.
10. LOCBH_171120_049.JPG: "Another Will Rogers" Hope's lampooning of national life on his radio show led to an appearance at the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner in 1944, where he left President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) roaring with laughter. FDR particularly liked Hope's joke that compared the likelihood of locating a room to rent in wartime Washington with that of finding his wife Eleanor's newspaper column, "My Day," in the Chicago Tribune, a paper owned by the anti-New Deal isolationist Robert R. McCormick (1880–1955). Hope's performance at the dinner prompted columnist Richard Wilson (1905–1981) to call him "another Will Rogers" and predict that "from now on he will be sought in Washington to provide that extra touch at the capital's lavish public functions." Wilson proved to be prophetic.
11. LOCBH_171120_061.JPG: Will Rogers Will Rogers (1879–1935) preceded Bob Hope as his era's most beloved political humorist. Of Cherokee heritage, Rogers, like Hope, learned his trade in vaudeville and slyly mastered self-deprecation so that his audience would accept his satiric quips. "Will had the warmth and kindness to kindle the infinite spirit of man," Hope remarked. "I would be grateful to a bountiful destiny if I could truly walk in the path of a man like Will Rogers."
12. LOCBH_171120_067.JPG: Vaudeville's Tony Pastor Tony Pastor (1832–1908), known as the "Dean of Vaudeville," operated variety theaters in New York City from 1865 until his death. In addition to hosting a diverse array of performing talent -- singers, dancers, comedians, musicians, magicians, acrobats, and other acts -- Pastor's theater and traveling troupe presented sketches satirizing events and personages in the news from the working-class perspective of his core clientele. Topical sketch comedy continued in variety shows into the television era.
13. LOCBH_171120_070.JPG: Comic Relief for President Lincoln Ohio newspaperman David Ross Locke (1833–1888) created "Petroleum V. Nasby" to comment satirically on politics and life in America from the 1860s through the 1880s. A "Copperhead" during the Civil War -- a Northern Democrat who opposed the war -- Nasby attracted the attention of President Lincoln (1809–1865), who read his letters, published in pamphlet form, when he was "greatly fatigued, annoyed, or depressed . . . frequently with great relief," according to artist Francis B. Carpenter (1830–1900).
14. LOCBH_171120_073.JPG: "Mr. Dooley" and Theodore Roosevelt Chicago newspaperman Finley Peter Dunne (1867–1936) created nationally syndicated comic sketches featuring the fictional barkeeper "Mr. Dooley," who offered in a thick Irish brogue, satirical opinions on the politics and society of the 1890s and early twentieth century. A few days after "Mr. Dooley's" lampooned review of Theodore Roosevelt's (1858–1919) bestseller, The Rough Riders, appeared in Harper's Weekly, Roosevelt invited Dunne to visit. Their subsequent friendship lasted throughout Roosevelt's presidency and life.
15. LOCBH_171120_079.JPG: Lenny Bruce Critic Ralph J. Gleason (1917–1975) wrote that Lenny Bruce's humor "is the seminal influence of his generation." Bruce (1925–1966) and the comedians he influenced, such as Dick Gregory (b. 1932), Richard Pryor (1940–2005), and George Carlin (1937–2008), employed satire to reveal hypocrisies underlying conventional ways of life. Bruce professed that the "world is sick and I'm the doctor. I'm a surgeon with a scalpel for false values." Bruce's sketches satirizing racial, religious, and sexual mores, provoked more outrage than those of his contemporaries.
16. LOCBH_171120_085.JPG: Steve Allen Steve Allen (1921–2000), comedian, musician, songwriter, author, and an innovator in the television talk show format, gave many of the new wave comedians, including Lenny Bruce (1925–1966), their first television exposure on the live prime-time show he hosted from 1956 to 1959. Known for his spontaneous irreverent wit, verbal dexterity, and experimental ethos, Allen in this letter commends Village Voice critic Nat Hentoff (b. 1925) for his support of Bruce, whom Allen considered "a true social philosopher."
17. LOCBH_171120_091.JPG: Breaking with Tradition "I admire Mort Sahl. . . . the beatnik Will Rogers. . . . Mort's not a sick comic. I think he's a well comic with a sick audience." -- Bob Hope, 1959 In the 1950s, a new generation of comedians produced political satire that was biting, experimental, and irreverent. Comics like Lenny Bruce, Mort Sahl, and Dick Gregory took Bob Hope's topical style a step further by ad-libbing up-to-the-minute material in front of live audiences. The new political satirists, along with comedians specializing in social commentary, were dubbed the "sick comics" by the press. The "sick" label, cartoonist Jules Feiffer has argued, was mistaken: "A humorist will hold up a mirror, look at its reflection chuckle warmly and say ‘Well it's silly but it's not such a bad reflection after all'; a satirist will have a darker view." These satirists, Feiffer contended, "weren't sick. But they had to be handled, tagged, pinned down somehow because they were dangerous."
18. LOCBH_171120_093.JPG: Dick Gregory -- From the Back of the Bus Growing up poor in a St. Louis African American community, Dick Gregory (b. 1932) gained his improvisational skills trading insults on neighborhood streets. He honed his ironic barbs in Chicago's black nightclubs before crossing over to mainstream venues. His success at the Playboy Club led to bookings at nightspots around the country, network television exposure, and a recording contract. His first book, From the Back of the Bus, offered satiric observations on race in America in the midst of the civil rights era.
19. LOCBH_171120_098.JPG: Stan Freberg Zany satirist Stan Freberg (b. 1926) made comedy recordings and humorous radio and television advertising his forte. Freberg's audio parodies beginning in the early 1950s drew on his previous experience as a creator of cartoon voices and his expertise in creating aural worlds of technical and artistic virtuosity in the sound studio. Despite his popularity, Freberg's topical satires on recordings and radio faced strong resistance from bureaucrats worried about lawsuits and offending listeners.
20. LOCBH_171120_103.JPG: Comedians of the 1950s Mainstream magazines discovered the new wave comedians by the late 1950s, after their comedy albums became bestsellers. In July 1959, Time dubbed them "The Sickniks" in an article that highlighted their hefty salaries and their "highly disturbing hostility" that distinguished them from the previous generation of comics. New Yorker, Newsweek, Esquire, Look, and other national magazines soon profiled the leaders. "Suddenly satire had become commercial," cartoonist Jules Feiffer observed.
21. LOCBH_171120_111.JPG: Nichols and May Mike Nichols (1931–2014) and Elaine May (b. 1932) began their performing careers as members of the Compass Players, an improvisational comedy troupe situated within the University of Chicago's Hyde Park community. Forming a team in 1957, Nichols and May moved to New York, where, in the words of critic Robert Brustein (b. 1927), their routines satirizing "false piety, cloying sentiment, and institutional stupidity," found success in nightclubs, television, their own Broadway show, and, especially, comedy albums.
22. LOCBH_171120_115.JPG: Mort Sahl at Sunset Taped in 1955, Mort Sahl at Sunset was released after Mort Sahl had gained national renown three years later. Sahl's conversational style relied on an improvisational approach similar to that of a jazz musician. "I never found you could write the act," he told an interviewer. "You can't rehearse the audience's responses. You adjust to them every night." Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. (1917–2007), believed "Sahl's popularity is a sign of a yearning for youth, irreverence, trenchancy, satire, a clean break with the past."
23. LOCBH_171120_119.JPG: Dick Gregory While not the first black comedian to perform before integrated audiences, Dick Gregory, in the words of author Mel Watkins (b. 1940), "avoided most of the superficial mannerisms and traditional subjects that overtly defined old-time African American humor, concentrating on the irony and satire that undergirded it." Ebony magazine credited Dick Gregory's success in mainstream show business venues with opening doors for other black comedians, such as Nipsey Russell (1918–2005), Slappy White(1921–1995), Jackie "Moms" Mabley (1894–1975), Timmie Rogers (1914–2006), George Kirby (1923–1995), Redd Foxx (1922–1991), Bill Cosby (b. 1937), Godfrey Cambridge(1933–1976), and Richard Pryor(1940–2005). Gregory's commitment to social activism became apparent with the release of the album My Brother's Keeper, the proceeds of which funded a food bank in Mississippi.
24. LOCBH_171120_123.JPG: The First Family Vaughn Meader (1936–2004) achieved instant fame impersonating President John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) in The First Family, a record album that playfully spoofed the Kennedy clan "as though they might be anybody's next-door neighbor," Meader explained. The recording sold 7.5 million copies in the year before Kennedy's death. Anthropologist Margaret Mead (1901–1978) celebrated the album's welcome within American culture: "This making fun of people in authority is very healthy. It is the difference between democracy and tyranny."
25. LOCBH_171120_128.JPG: George Carlin George Carlin (1937–2008) stated he was "changed forever" by the comedy of Lenny Bruce (1925–1966): "The defiance inherent in that material, the brilliance of the mimicry, the intellect at work, the freedom he had." In Carlin's early career, he believed that the role of a comedian was to speak out against authority. Carlin's approach mellowed on his television appearances, but by the late 1960s, he had regained the role of social satirist.
26. LOCBH_171120_131.JPG: United States History in Satire Unlike his comedic contemporaries Mort Sahl (b. 1927), Lenny Bruce (1925–1966), and Dick Gregory (b. 1932), who improvised onstage before live audiences, Stan Freberg mastered the aesthetic opportunities of the sound studio for his satires. In Stan Freberg Presents The United States of America, Vol. 1, The Early Years, he created a musical revue that lampooned events from 1492 to the Revolution, while satirically commenting on contemporary times. Time called the work "arguably the best comedy album ever made."
27. LOCBH_171120_136.JPG: A Fan's Support Mort Sahl (b. 1927) directed his iconoclastic darts not only at politicians. Distinguishing his style of political humor from Bob Hope's, Sahl remarked: "I do satire and satire is essentially subversive. To do satire you have to be on the outside." After the telecast of Hope's 1969 Christmas show from Vietnam attracted more viewers than any previous entertainment show, Sahl appeared on a Los Angeles talk show and insulted Hope, stating "Bob Hope sells Christmas to the highest bidder," prompting this letter of support from a fan.
28. LOCBH_171120_139.JPG: The Dangers of Satire "When anyone publicly abuses another in a loud voice, or writes a poem for the purpose of insulting him, or rendering him infamous, he shall be beaten with a rod until he dies." -- Roman Twelve Tables of Law, ca. 450 B.C.E. Some of the satirists from the 1950s used their entertainment platforms to do more than simply entertain. Following the assassination of President Kennedy, Mort Sahl, who had written jokes for Kennedy and had satirized him mercilessly, launched an attack on the veracity of the Warren Report that left his audiences unsettled. In the last years of his life, Lenny Bruce spent large portions of his act commenting on his own legal battles fighting obscenity charges. Dick Gregory's career as a comedian often was interrupted as he became deeply involved in the civil rights, antiwar, feminist, and environmental movements, in addition to running for president. All wove political activism into their comedic performances at the risk of alienating their audiences.
29. LOCBH_171120_141.JPG: Satire on Trial Lenny Bruce (1925–1966) was arrested on obscenity charges after performing at a San Francisco club on October 4, 1961. During the trial, Bruce's lawyer invoked the tradition of Chaucer and James Joyce, arguing that Bruce employed satire to criticize a hypocritical society. Although the jury found Bruce not guilty, he subsequently faced similar prosecutions in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, and died of a drug overdose while waiting for the appeal of a jail sentence.
30. LOCBH_171120_144.JPG: Satire as a Weapon As a 1968 presidential candidate, Dick Gregory (b. 1932) garnered 47,000 votes. Taking the oath of "President of the United States in Exile," Gregory declared, "America is worth saving," encouraging his youthful followers to "find out where the cancer is and cut it out." Chicago Defender journalist Ethel L. Payne (1911–1991) commented of Gregory's inauguration, "It was something like a satirical farce, only satire has become a deadly weapon of protest instead of amusement as it once was."
31. LOCBH_171120_151.JPG: Hope and Satire "One of our greatest freedoms is to crack jokes at our government's expense. . . . When we're afraid to be funny about our political opponents, there won't be any politics left, just dictators." -- Bob Hope, 1955 Throughout his career, Bob Hope received an inordinate amount of criticism when his comments seemed to cross an ever-changing line of good taste. Hope's vaudeville act was censored in Boston. On the radio, NBC received protests when Hope made jokes about electoral politics and "faded" the audio level when he satirized the network itself. In a 1949 radio broadcast, Hope did a sketch lampooning President Harry Truman and his wife Bess that provoked many letters in protest, one of which warned, "ridicule is the surest and quickest way to weaken and destroy our respect for the highest office in our country." Hope discovered that the ancient dangers of satire remained potent even in a nation founded on the promise of liberty.
32. LOCBH_171120_157.JPG: Cartoons and Satire "I began my cartoon with no intention of getting into politics. . . . I was more concerned with the social focus of the country, on relationships between men and women, people and their jobs, parents and children. After a time I discovered that even these interests involved politics. The Eisenhower sensibility affected every phase of our lives, as did the Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon sensibilities later on." -- Jules Feiffer, 1974 Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist, playwright, author, and screenwriter Jules Feiffer created satirical cartoons on a weekly basis for the Village Voice for more than forty years, beginning in 1956. His cartoon was entitled "Sick, Sick, Sick," and like the so-called "sick" comedians, Feiffer brought into focus disturbing aspects of a sick society. Like Bob Hope, Feiffer often centered his satires on American presidents. Unlike Hope, Feiffer's cartoons mercilessly ridiculed attitudes, decisions, and actions of leaders who, in his view, had caused the nation to lose its way. Feiffer, as he commented, "thought the country was coming unglued and that many of the values that we sentimentalized had this dark side that we chose not to reveal to ourselves." Like other satirists of his time, Feiffer became politically active during the 1960s, and his cartoons from that period reflected his deepening concerns. Jules Feiffer Jules Feiffer (b. 1929) arrived on the national scene after his first collection of Village Voice cartoons, Sick, Sick, Sick: A Guide to Non-Confident Living, published in April 1958, became a best seller. "My definition of humor," he stated, "is that to be really funny a joke, a story, a comic routine must make an observation on an existing situation, not the myth that we've come to know the situation by." Feiffer's satires attracted the interest of like-minded show business innovators, including filmmaker Stanley Kubrick (1928–1999) and comedian Steve Allen (1921–2000).
33. LOCBH_171120_161.JPG: The "Radical Middle" Feiffer devoted a number of cartoons to warning his readers about the tendency within American politics and the media to marginalize extreme views at either end of the political spectrum. This stifling of debate, he believed, narrowed the range of acceptable solutions to persistent societal problems. He stated that the "voice of the middle or Radical Middle . . . was in its guise of reasonableness exacerbating our problems while pretending to address them."
34. LOCBH_171120_173.JPG: The Sting of Satire In January 1967, Capp created "Joanie Phoanie," a hypocritical, money-hungry folksinger who visited Dogpatch with her slovenly cohorts. The folksinger Joan Baez (b. 1941) charged that the character was a caricature of herself and a "stupid, vulgar satire" of the anti-war movement. After she demanded a retraction, Capp criticized her "protests about others' rights to protest." Years later, Baez confessed that the satire stung especially because of her own "confusion about being rich and famous." Senators Malarkey and MacCarony In May 1953, Walt Kelly (1913–1973) introduced into the Okefenokee Swamp of his popular Pogo comic strip the bobcat Simple J. Malarkey and Mole MacCarony in a satirical smack at crusading anticommunist senators Joseph McCarthy (1908–1957) and Pat McCarran (1876–1954). Jules Feiffer, noting the rage Kelly expressed in his "brilliant swipes," later wrote, "I thrived on his satire in those early cold war years." In this strip, Malarkey and MacCarony, members of a group investigating the swamp's inhabitants, turn on each other.
35. LOCBH_171120_179.JPG: Feiffer on President Nixon Feiffer needed time to develop "some sort of psychological take" on presidents, he wrote, before he could create a "decent caricature." Anger at their policies improved his art. He stated, "Political cartoons are more likely to be good when the attitude is hostile, to be even better when the attitude is rage, and when you reach hate, you can really get going." In this regard, he thought of Richard Nixon (1913–1994) as "Father Christmas."
36. LOCBH_171120_183.JPG: Head for the DMZ In 1968, two Columbia University professors, Isaiah Sheffer (b. 1935) and Eric Bentley (b. 1916), opened a political satire cabaret "DMZ," a venue rooted in European urban culture, but rare in the United States. Bentley noted, "Our idea for radical satire wasn't acceptable everywhere." He surmised that club owners "didn't mind being outspoken on sex, but wanted to be polite on politics." Jules Feiffer contributed a poster and satiric sketches for the cabaret, which survived off and on for four years.
37. LOCBH_171120_186.JPG: Satire Enters Television "I honestly think that the secret of TV is being relaxed, casual and easy. . . . The truth is that when you're right in the room with those who watch you and listen to you, as you are in TV, practically sitting in their laps and muttering into their ears, your personality is more important than anything you can say." -- Bob Hope, 1954 Television, famously dubbed the "cool medium" by Marshall McLuhan, would seem an unlikely stage for political satirists. Yet variety shows, featuring a playbill of acts designed for diverse audiences, allowed stand-up comics, sketch comedians, and folk singers an outlet for topical material. Ed Sullivan, Steve Allen, and other variety and late-night hosts provided a venue for comedians of the 1950s and early 1960s, though they had to dilute or eliminate material offensive to some members of the national audience. From the mid-1960s to the present, shows like That Was the Week That Was (1964–1965), The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (1967–1969), Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In (1968–1973), and Saturday Night Live (1975– ) courted controversy when they commented on current events. Political and social satire entered the sitcom when All in the Family (1971–1979) situated the liberal-conservative culture clash within a working-class household in Queens, New York. The Smothers Brothers Tom (b. 1937) and Dick (b. 1939) Smothers attained national success as a folksong and comedy duo during the folk revival of the early 1960s. Their innovative variety show, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, debuted in February 1967, mixing old and new acts and styles of comedy. Their political satires on war, religion, guns, drugs, and racism, during increasingly polarized times, antagonized CBS officials and affiliates. The series was censored and eventually cancelled in 1969.
38. LOCBH_171120_197.JPG: Bob Hope and the Return of the Smothers Brothers Less than six months after CBS fired the Smothers Brothers, Bob Hope invited them to appear on his NBC comedy special that satirized television censorship. "I'm revolting against NBC on this show," Hope quipped. A few months later, when the brothers hosted their own NBC special on censorship and freedom of speech, Hope's appearance on the show provoked letters of outrage from fans. Tom Smothers sent Hope a respectful note of gratitude for his appearance.
39. LOCBH_171120_206.JPG: The Tonight Show For thirty years as host of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962–1992), Johnny Carson (1925–2005) delivered topical monologues that lightly skewered those in power. "Carson's comedic take on the events of the day," critic Richard Zoglin judged, "has been the most reliable barometer of the public's mood." However, some viewers were at times offended by Carson's topical humor, as the letter displayed here demonstrates. Carson provided late-night national exposure for leading comedians, including George Carlin (1937–2008) and Richard Pryor (1940–2005), shown here, and those hoping to break into the big time.
40. LOCBH_171120_210.JPG: Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In In Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, with its "Laugh-In Looks at the News" segment, light-heartedly interwove satiric political barbs into a m�lange of silly and absurd one-liners, sight gags, and blackouts. It became television's top-rated show during its first two seasons. Producer George Schlatter (b. 1932) noted that although the show presented "very barbed references to the Pentagon and the military-industrial complex," it lacked anger and tried not "to change political views, but to comment humorously on all political views."
41. LOCBH_171120_214.JPG: Mayor Bob Hope In January 1948, Bob Hope was installed as honorary mayor of Palm Springs, California, an office he held for decades. In his honor, leading cartoonists of the day created comic tributes in celebration of Hope's new office.
42. LOCBH_171120_218.JPG: Presidential Medal of Freedom "When the time for recognition of service to the nation in wartime comes to be considered, Bob Hope should be high on the list. This man drives himself and is driven. It is impossible to see how he can do so much, can cover so much ground, can work so hard and be so effective. He works month after month at a pace that would kill most people." -- John Steinbeck, 1943 On his last morning in office, President Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–1973) awarded Presidential Medals of Freedom to twenty individuals, including Bob Hope. Bob Hope's citation noted that, "With his gifts of joy to all the American people, he has written his name large in the history of our times."
43. LOCBH_171120_219.JPG: Presidential Medal of Freedom When the time for recognition of service to the nation in wartime comes to be considered, Bob Hope should be high on the list. This man drives himself and is driven. It is impossible to see how he can do so much, can cover so much ground, can work so hard and be so effective. He works month after month at a pace that would kill most people. -- John Steinbeck, 1943 On his last morning in office, President Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–1973) awarded Presidential Medals of Freedom to twenty individuals, including Bob Hope. Bob Hope's citation noted that, "With his gifts of joy to all the American people, he has written his name large in the history of our times."
44. LOCBH_171120_226.JPG: Marlene Dietrich Marlene Dietrich (1901–1992) made two overseas USO tours. The first was to North Africa and Italy, where she became the first entertainer to reach rescued soldiers at Anzio. During her second tour, lasting eleven months, she entertained near the front in France and Germany. In this card to her friend Rouben Mamoulian (1897–1987), Dietrich remarks about being cold. She developed frostbite that winter and later received the Medal of Freedom.
45. LOCBH_171120_229.JPG: Card from Marlene Dietrich to Rouben Mamoulian. "Somewhere in Germany," 1944.
46. LOCBH_171120_231.JPG: Bob Hope's First George Foster Peabody Award In recognition of his efforts at home and abroad to strengthen morale, Bob Hope was awarded a special George Foster Peabody award in May 1944. On issuing the award, representing outstanding achievement in broadcasting, the selection committee stated, "The joy and strengthened morale which he has given to the men and women of the armed forces can never be measured. The Peabody committee does not wish to overlook this superb contribution." This was the first of three Peabody awards that Hope received in his lifetime.
47. LOCBH_171120_234.JPG: Ernie Pyle and Bob Hope, 1943, with inscription from Pyle dated 1944
48. LOCBH_171120_237.JPG: "Mr. United States" After his trip to Russia, Bob Hope was cited as a symbol of the nation -- "Mr. United States" -- as he received the prestigious George Foster Peabody Television Award "for his Outstanding Contribution to International Understanding."
49. LOCBH_171120_241.JPG: Cheering the Wounded During his USO tours, Bob Hope made a point of visiting hospital wards. "A soldier stands in the twilight between his civilization and the raw savagery of war," Hope explained to an audience in 1971. Wounded soldiers, Hope believed, "did not want sympathy, they wanted cheer." Hope often greeted them flippantly: "Okay, fellas, Don't get up." On occasion, Hope collected greetings to loved ones. Bob Hope and his USO troupe visiting a hospital ward in the South Pacific. From left, Tony Romano, Jerry Colonna, Bob Hope, Patty Thomas, and Frances Langford, 1944.
50. LOCBH_171120_243.JPG: "I Love My Men" Bob Hope and his USO troupe arrived in Sicily three days after the Seventh Army, led by General George S. Patton (1885–1945), took the key town of Messina. Patton asked Hope to tell his radio audience "that I love my men." Hope learned afterwards that Patton had public relations concerns because he had slapped and verbally abused two legitimately hospitalized soldiers whom he accused of cowardice. Patton's diary describes his desire to seem "amusing and human" during Hope's visit. Hal Block, Bob Hope, Barney Dean, General George S. Patton, Frances Langford, and Tony Romano, in Sicily, August 21, 1943.
51. LOCBH_171120_247.JPG: Airlifting Supplies and Entertainers In 1948, as the relationship between the Soviet Union and the West deteriorated and plans for a separate West German state were announced, the Soviets blockaded Berlin. In response, Western fliers airlifted supplies into the city for nearly a year before the Soviets relented. At President Truman's request, Bob Hope put together a Christmas show for fatigued airmen, the first of Hope's annual Christmas tours that he joked "saved me a fortune in Christmas presents." Irving Berlin, Jinx Falkenburg, and Bob Hope, December 1948.
52. LOCBH_171120_265.JPG: "In the Right Racket" Bob Hope's USO shows always had one of Hollywood's current sex goddesses. In 1957, Jayne Mansfield (1933–1967), shown here in two playful photographs, prompted Hope to quip "I reminded the boys that Jayne was wearing a special dress for the occasion, made of two hundred yards of barbed wire." Of that year's show in Korea, Hope wrote, "when you see these combat troops squatting in the snow, hungry for any break in their drab routine, you feel like you're in the right racket." Bob Hope carrying Jayne Mansfield at Burbank airport at start of Far East USO tour, (Johnny Grant, 1923–2008, at left, Hedda Hopper, 1885–1966, at right), December 16, 1957.
53. LOCBH_171120_267.JPG: The Billboard, December 25, 1943
54. LOCBH_171120_270.JPG: Bolstering Morale Entertainment is always a national asset. Invaluable in time of peace, it is indispensable in wartime. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1943 The entertainment industry promoted two morale-boosting initiatives that achieved phenomenal success. On April 17, 1941, the USO (United Service Organizations) was formed by six prominent social service agencies with the approval of President Roosevelt, and was dedicated "to the maintenance of morale" of armed forces personnel. On April 30, Roosevelt bought the first U.S. Savings Bond in a campaign designed to offset the cost of the impending war and "strengthen the national morale" by allowing average citizens the opportunity to buy bonds. Many of Hollywood's most popular stars promoted the sale of bonds on screen and at rallies. By war's end, $185 billion had been raised through bonds and stamps, and USO Camp Shows had entertained 161 million soldiers in the U.S. and abroad. The All-Star Bond Rally. (Top row, from left) Frank Sinatra (1915–1998), Bing Crosby (1903–1977), Bob Hope (1903–2003), Harpo Marx (1888–1964), Betty Grable (1916–1973). (Middle row, from left) Linda Darnell (1923–1965), Vivian Blaine (1921–1995). (Bottom row, from left) Carmen Miranda (1909–1955), Marian (1898-1961) and Jim (1896–1988) Jordan ("Fibber McGee and Molly"). Canadian Motion Picture War Services Committee, 1945.
55. LOCBH_171120_275.JPG: Hollywood Victory Caravan Cary Grant, Joan Bennett, Claudette Colbert, Joan Blondell, Charles Boyer, James Cagney . . . It was really a tough trip . . . You were lucky if you could mention your own pictures once every half hour. -- Bob Hope, 1942 On April 30, 1942, more than twenty Hollywood stars were invited to the White House by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt before opening their musical revue extravaganza that during the next two weeks played in fourteen cities and netted $800,000 for Army and Navy relief funds. The "Hollywood Victory Caravan," traveled cross country in a special train, performing songs, dances, skits, playlets, operatic pieces, and spectacular ensemble numbers. The production, emceed by Bob Hope and Cary Grant, was considered by the New York Times to be "the most ambitious money-raising project ever staged by the theatrical world." Eleanor Roosevelt on White House lawn with "Hollywood Victory Caravan" entertainers (seated, from left) Oliver Hardy (1892–1957), Joan Blondell (1906–1979), Charlotte Greenwood (1890–1977), Charles Boyer (1899–1978), Ris� Stevens (b. 1913), Desi Arnaz (1917–1986), Frank McHugh (1898–1981), writer Matt Brooks (1907–1990), James Cagney (1899–1986), Pat O'Brien (1899–1983), Juanita Stark, Alma Carroll; (standing, from left) Merle Oberon (1911–1979), Eleanor Powell (1912–1982), Arleen Whelan (1914–1993), Marie McDonald (1923–1965), Fay McKenzie (b. 1918), Katharine Booth, Mrs. Roosevelt (1884–1962), Frances Gifford (1920–1994), Frances Langford (1913–2005), Elyse Knox (b. 1917), Cary Grant (1904–1986), Claudette Colbert (1903–1996), Bob Hope (1903–2003), Ray Middleton (1907–1984), Joan Bennett (1910–1990), Bert Lahr (1895–1967), director Mark Sandrich (1900–1945), writer Jack Rose (1911–1995), Stan Laurel (1890–1965), Jerry Colonna (1904–1986), and Groucho Marx (1890–1977), April 30, 1942.
56. LOCBH_171120_294.JPG: Hollywood Canteen There are few accomplishments in my life that I am sincerely proud of. The Hollywood Canteen is one of them. -- Bette Davis, 1987 After learning of the success of New York's Stage Door Canteen, Bette Davis (1908–1989), along with fellow Hollywood star John Garfield (1913–1952), established the Hollywood Canteen, where during World War II some 2,500 servicemen danced nightly with stars and volunteer hostesses, enjoyed top flight entertainment, and dined for free. Stars, such as Marlene Dietrich (1901–1992) and Basil Rathbone (1892–1967) served sandwiches, bussed tables, washed dishes, and manned the snack bar. To celebrate the canteen's first birthday, Davis and Garfield paid tribute to the more than 6,000 members of the motion picture industry who had joined the armed forces by unveiling the Hollywood Hall of Honor. Bette Davis pointing out the Hollywood Hall of Honor . . . to Marlene Dietrich and Bob Hope at the Hollywood Canteen during its first anniversary party, October 31, 1943.
57. LOCBH_171120_304.JPG: A Week of National Unity In July 1941, defeated presidential candidate Wendell Wilkie (1892–1944) addressed crowds during National Unity Week, an initiative to bring together isolationists and interventionists. Twenty-eight years later, at the request of President Nixon (1913–1994), Bob Hope served as cochairman in a similarly titled effort in response to anti-war moratorium events that attracted millions nationwide. A Week of National Unity, aimed at the "silent majority," occurred the same week as anti-war mobilization rallies that drew hundreds of thousands of demonstrators.
58. LOCBH_171120_307.JPG: Leonard Bernstein. Draft statement about Black Panther event, January 30, 1970.
59. LOCBH_171120_311.JPG: The "Silent Majority" In a November 3, 1969, televised speech, President Nixon (1913–1994), referring to the recent escalation of anti-war protests, warned, "If a vocal minority, however fervent its cause, prevails over reason and the will of the majority, this nation has no future as a free society." Nixon asked for support from "the great silent majority of my fellow Americans." Bob Hope's criticism of protesters and the media heartened those who identified themselves as part of the "silent majority." Bob Hope's views on dissent, expressed in these commencement speech notes, heartened those who identified themselves as part of the "silent majority."
60. LOCBH_171120_319.JPG: A Week of National Unity In July 1941, defeated presidential candidate Wendell Wilkie (1892–1944) addressed crowds during National Unity Week, an initiative to bring together isolationists and interventionists. Twenty-eight years later, at the request of President Nixon (1913–1994), Bob Hope served as cochairman in a similarly titled effort in response to anti-war moratorium events that attracted millions nationwide. A Week of National Unity, aimed at the "silent majority," occurred the same week as anti-war mobilization rallies that drew hundreds of thousands of demonstrators.
61. LOCBH_171120_327.JPG: "An Attempt to Humanize This Brutalized Society" Students were at the forefront of 1960s protests. Beginning with peaceful sit-ins in 1964 to protest restrictions on campus political activities, the language and actions of dissent turned violent as the war in Vietnam escalated. A Jules Feiffer (b. 1929) cartoon satirizing the hypocrisy of students who had occupied and trashed campus buildings during 1968 and 1969 provoked university administrators to write him and express their gratitude. Feiffer's reply mixed solidarity with the protestors' aims and criticism of their methods.
62. LOCBH_171120_333.JPG: "An Attempt to Humanize This Brutalized Society" Students were at the forefront of 1960s protests. Beginning with peaceful sit-ins in 1964 to protest restrictions on campus political activities, the language and actions of dissent turned violent as the war in Vietnam escalated. A Jules Feiffer (b. 1929) cartoon satirizing the hypocrisy of students who had occupied and trashed campus buildings during 1968 and 1969 provoked university administrators to write him and express their gratitude. Feiffer's reply mixed solidarity with the protestors' aims and criticism of their methods.
63. LOCBH_171120_337.JPG: "We Are the World" More than forty-five leading American pop recording artists gathered together in a Los Angeles studio on January 28, 1985 to record "We Are the World," a song written by Michael Jackson (1958–2009) and Lionel Ritchie (b. 1949), and produced by Quincy Jones (b. 1933) to raise money for famine relief in Africa. Cartoonist Garry Trudeau (b. 1948) spoofed the recording session in two weeks of Doonesbury comics, in which he inserted the strip's fictional pop star, Jimmy Thudpucker, among the performers.
64. LOCBH_171120_340.JPG: Making a Point with Music "I Didn't Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier," published in January 1915, a few months after war broke out in Europe, became a rallying cry for the nation's pacifists. Reflecting the official U.S. policy of neutrality, the song was one of the most popular of the era. Two years later, after America entered the war, "answer" songs, such as "I Didn't Raise My Boy to Be a Slacker," "I Didn't Raise My Boy to Be a Coward," and "I'd Be Proud to Be the Mother of a Soldier," offered a contrasting sentiment.
65. LOCBH_171120_356.JPG: Purlie Actor Ossie Davis (1917–2005) turned playwright with his 1961 play, Purlie Victorious, which satirized segregation. His characters, clich�d to the point of disturbing absurdity, provoked hilarity from audiences, who, he wrote, might "for the moment" share "the same point of view." Laughter, he believed, could foster "mutual respect . . . on which all other relations including the struggle for freedom must ultimately depend." The 1970 musical Purlie won acclaim, but Davis felt it lacked subtlety.
66. LOCBH_171120_362.JPG: South Pacific In the 1949 Pulitzer Prize-winning musical South Pacific, Oscar Hammerstein II (1895–1960) and Richard Rodgers (1902–1979) brought the subject of racial prejudice to a mainstream audience. Though advised to drop the song that addressed the root cause of bigotry, "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught," they refused. James Michener (1907–1997), author of the book on which the show was based, explained "this number represented why they had wanted to do this play." When the show played Atlanta, two state legislators charged that it "justifies intermarriage" and was "inspired by Moscow."
67. LOCBH_171120_364.JPG: Sing for Your Supper One of the Federal Theatre Project's most ambitious musical productions, Sing for Your Supper, satirized congressional critics of the New Deal and stirringly dramatized the joy of a father finding work and the shock of Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass). The subject of congressional concern for its high cost and integrated cast, the revue abruptly closed when Congress halted funding for the project. The show's finale, "Ballad for Uncle Sam," however, achieved later renown as "Ballad for Americans" when Paul Robeson (1898–1976) sang it over national airwaves.
68. LOCBH_171120_374.JPG: A Climate of Fear "But Eisenhower isn't really worried about Russia using the atomic bomb. He's got an ace up his sleeve. . . . One false move and he'll drop Senator McCarthy on Moscow." -- Bob Hope, 1953 The entertainment industries suffered greatly during the Cold War from pressure to purge their ranks of communists, former communists, and those who had endorsed causes that communists also supported. As a result of hearings by the House Committee on Un-American Activities, ten Hollywood screenwriters and directors were imprisoned and hundreds more in the industry were blacklisted. Radio and television networks succumbed to intimidation from advertisers and civic organizations during a period in which China went communist, the Soviets tested an atomic bomb, the Korean War broke out, and a Soviet spy ring was exposed. The period became identified with the term "McCarthysim," as the televised hearings of Senator Joseph R. McCarthy nourished a climate of fear and intimidation throughout the United States.
69. LOCBH_171120_375.JPG: Bob Hope Jokes about McCarthy As a comedian relying on topical material, Bob Hope joked about HUAC -- "Everybody's afraid of being called a ‘Red.' I cut myself shaving and was afraid to bleed" -- but hesitated when Senator Joseph McCarthy (1908–1957) began his crusade accusing the Truman administration of harboring communists. When Hope later did joke about McCarthy, a Wisconsin newspaper deemed Hope a "communist." McCarthy seemed not to have minded, as he wished Hope luck when he opened at London's Palladium. Hope's approach to lampooning McCarthy was mild, as these jokes about the televised Army-McCarthy hearings indicate. Hope nevertheless received angry mail from disappointed viewers.
70. LOCBH_171120_379.JPG: Blacklisting in Radio and Television In June 1950, three former FBI agents who had created American Business Consultants, a vigilante organization to combat communism, issued Red Channels, a booklet listing 151 people connected with the broadcasting industry whom they suspected of subversive activities. The publication listed organizations and activities with which each individual had "reported" associations. Along with in-house private lists, Red Channels was adopted by the radio and television industries as a blacklist to deny employment to those named.
71. LOCBH_171120_385.JPG: House Committee on Un-American Activities During the Cold War, polarization of the Hollywood community reached a peak. In October 1947, Gary Cooper (1901–1961), a member of the right-wing Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, was welcomed to a House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) hearing as a "friendly" witness. In May 1953, blacklisted actor Lionel Stander (1908–1994), testified about a "fanatic group of subversives [who] have blacklisted artists and are attempting to impose censorship," but was silenced. Stander remained blacklisted until 1965.
72. LOCBH_171120_387.JPG: Government Support for the Arts "I'd like to see a special comedy channel created on TV where all these great clowns . . . could do their stuff. I think the Government should subsidize them. . . . We spend so much money on stupid things, why not entertain the public?" -- Bob Hope, 1973 Although George Washington believed that "excellence" in the arts required "public encouragements," federal support for the arts remained unrealized until the twentieth century. During the Great Depression, President Roosevelt established arts projects to employ artists, writers, actors, and even vaudeville performers to entertain the public. In 1958, President Eisenhower signed legislation establishing the National Cultural Center and an advisory committee on the arts, initiatives that eventually resulted in the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. After President Kennedy invited arts luminaries to his inauguration gala to foster an atmosphere of "collaboration between government and the arts," the artistic community responded enthusiastically.
73. LOCBH_171120_401.JPG: Jane Fonda Jane Fonda (b. 1937) watched U.S. political developments during 1968 on television from Paris and "realized that people were finding a way to create change." Returning in late 1969, she traveled across the country, frequenting GI coffeehouses and risking arrest to encourage soldiers to support the peace movement. In 1972, Fonda journeyed to North Vietnam, where she delivered speeches on Hanoi radio imploring U.S. pilots to stop bombing and posed provocatively with an antiaircraft gun.
74. LOCBH_171120_408.JPG: Entertainment and the News "One of the basic troubles with radio and television news is that both instruments have grown up as an incompatible combination of show business, advertising, and news." -- Edward R. Murrow, 1958 Historically, broadcasting networks have tried to separate news and entertainment. In 1976 CBS News president Richard S. Salant insisted on "drawing the sharpest possible line . . . between our line of broadcast business, which is dealing with fact, and that in which our associates on the entertainment side of the business are generally engaged." By the 1990s, the lines had blurred. CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather complained in 1993 that "the Hollywoodization of news" had replaced the journalistic ethos of the Murrow era. With the rise of cable television, celebrity pundits pushed politics further into the realm of spectacle. In response, comedians created faux news shows satirizing the pundits, as they themselves became important sources of news for a new generation of viewers.
75. LOCBH_171120_422.JPG: Television and Politics "TV has altered drastically the nature of our political campaigns, conventions, constituents, candidates, and costs." -- Senator John F. Kennedy, 1959 Television swept the nation during the 1950s, with the number of sets increasing from one million in 1949 to fifty million ten years later. This phenomenal growth marked a new era in communications, one that many believed would change politics dramatically. In 1951, a White House communication related President Harry Truman's concern that congressional hearings should cease to be televised "because of the tendency to make Roman holidays of them." Although Senator John F. Kennedy warned in 1959 that television could be "abused by demagogues, by appeals to emotion and prejudice and ignorance," he believed that television's "net effect can definitely be for the better." He contended that the new medium gave the public a new opportunity to detect for themselves deception and honesty in a politician's image.
76. LOCBH_171120_432.JPG: Entertainers in Politics
77. LOCBH_171120_434.JPG: Entertainers in Politics Clint Eastwood (b. 1930) Arnold Schwarzenneger (b. 1947) Al Franken (b. 1951)
78. LOCBH_171120_436.JPG: Entertainers in Politics Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) Sonny Bono (1935–1998) Members of the entertainment field have long served as behind-the-scenes players in politics. But during World War II, Clare Boothe Luce and Helen Gahagan Douglas, two figures of note from stage and screen, left the entertainment world to win seats in Congress. And, in the 1960s, song-and-dance man George Murphy was elected to the U.S. Senate and Ronald Reagan became governor of California. Especially in the television era, entertainers found that their ability to connect with the public served them well in politics. Although the number of actors-turned-politicians has remained limited, entertainers have continued to span both worlds "It's tough for an actor in politics. With your old movies on TV, it's like having a built-in smear campaign." -- Bob Hope, 1969
79. LOCBH_171120_439.JPG: Entertainers in Politics George Murphy (1902–1992) Shirley Temple Black (b. 1928)
80. LOCBH_171120_442.JPG: Entertainers in Politics Clare Booth Luce (1903–1987) Helen Gahagan Douglas (1900–1980)
81. LOCBH_171120_447.JPG: Hope and the Presidents Bob Hope had a special affinity for presidents. He could make them laugh -- at him, of course -- but also at themselves. From FDR to Bill Clinton, Hope played the White House court jester, often poking pointed jabs at the high and mighty -- Republicans and Democrats alike -- though his satiric thrusts always were inflected with respect and often with affection. The key to joking with presidents, Hope found, was in "making an insult humorous so as to only dent the presidential ego, not damage it." Presidents loved his ability to make them laugh. A White House request to Hope in 1956 to emcee a dinner put it well: "Your presence will make it possible for President Eisenhower to escape for several hours the onerous weight of his public burdens and cares." The first presidential joke I ever told was about George Washington: George told his father, "I cannot tell a lie." I don't know how he made it in politics! [Bob Hope, 1996] Can you imagine if today's press were around in Lincoln's time? When he started out the Gettysburg address with the words "Four score and seven years ago," the press would report it as "Lincoln says he scored four times in seven years." [Bob Hope, September 3, 1992] Well, this is the year we vote for President. . . . And President Roosevelt has finally decided to quit throwing his hat in the ring. . . . He's just tied a string on it now and works it like a yo-yo. [Bob Hope, January 29, 1944] Truman was in fine shape when he talked to Congress. . . . He was full of vim, vigor, and veto. [Bob Hope, January 10, 1950] Ike spent his birthday on the golf course. . . . He knows what he's doing. It's his one chance to walk into the locker room and say "Sixty-eight today." [Bob Hope, October 14, 1958] President Kennedy is just winding up a non-political tour of the eleven states he lost in the last election. . . . It really is non-political. He just wants to see how they're getting along without federal aid. [Bob Hope, October 5, 1963] President Johnson couldn't be here tonight. He's busy. He's placing a wreath on the tomb of the "unknown foreign policy." [Bob Hope, January 21, 1967] President Nixon wanted to be here tonight but he's preparing his speech on the Watergate and he's busy typing it. . . . Which is pretty tough to do with your fingers crossed. [Bob Hope, August 14, 1973] Jerry Ford didn't tape record anyone. He had the equipment but every time he threw the switch it hit someone. [Bob Hope, February 8, 1982] Wasn't Carter's interview in Playboy something? He talks like Billy Graham and dreams like Sinatra. . . . Now we know what he's always smiling about. [Bob Hope, October 7, 1976] You all know that Reagan is our oldest chief executive. . . . Poli-Grip is now the official presidential seal. [Bob Hope, May 3, 1982] George Bush told me to read his lips. While I had my eyes on his lips, he went for my wallet. [Bob Hope, July 19, 1990] Clinton loves to make long speeches. In fact, this will be the first inaugural address with an intermission. [Bob Hope, 1993] I've known eleven presidents about as intimately as a man can without being either a fellow politician or related. I've golfed with them, dined with them, told jokes with them. I've even had them steal my material. Laughter is nonpartisan -- a great leveler. And maybe that's the one thing all eleven presidents have in common. As long as it's funny, you can say almost anything to them and get away with it. -- Bob Hope, 1996
82. LOCBH_171120_455.JPG: Politics and Camp "You can always take the pulse of a time by studying its second-rate arts -- its western and crime movies, radio and TV shows, its true love magazines, its comic books. They are all close approximations of the fantasy life of the lowest common denominator . . . . To know the true temper of a nation's people, turn not to its sociologists; turn to its junk." -- Jules Feiffer, 1966
83. LOCBH_171120_462.JPG: You can always take the pulse of a time by studying its second-rate arts -- its western and crime movies, radio and TV shows, its true love magazines, its comic books. They are all close approximations of the fantasy life of the lowest common denominator . . . . To know the true temper of a nation's people, turn not to its sociologists; turn to its junk. -- - Jules Feiffer, 1966
84. LOCBH_171120_467.JPG: Political Speech "But I love President Nixon's philosophy . . . "If you can't say something nice about someone, let Agnew say it." " -- Bob Hope, 1970 Presidents on occasion have called upon entertainers for assistance with speeches. Orson Welles helped FDR during the 1944 campaign. Actor Robert Montgomery spent a number of years as an unpaid advisor to President Eisenhower to improve his television technique. Senator John F. Kennedy told jokes provided by Mort Sahl during the 1960 campaign. President Ford obtained jokes and coaching from Don Penny, a standup comic, writer, actor, and television ad producer. Al Franken wrote material for President Clinton and Vice President Gore before leaving the entertainment world to make a successful run for the Senate. Although Bob Hope sent jokes to President Johnson during the 1964 campaign, he and his writers contributed the most material to Hope's golfing buddy, Vice President Spiro T. Agnew.
85. LOCBH_171120_470.JPG: Jules Feiffer's United Nations Plaza Speech On November 13, 1969, Vice President Agnew (1918–1996)delivered a speech that all three television networks carried live, rescheduling their evening newscasts to do so. In the speech, Agnew castigated the networks for biased press coverage of a recent speech on Vietnam by President Nixon (1913–1994) and called on citizens to respond. The next day, Jules Feiffer (b. 1929), speaking at the United Nations Plaza prior to the November 15 anti-war Mobilization demonstrations, delivered this speech in barbed response.
86. LOCBH_171120_473.JPG: Spiro Agnew's Gridiron Club Speech Vice President Spiro T. Agnew (1918–1996) became newsworthy by criticizing the media, prompting CBS Evening News anchor Walter Cronkite (1916–2009) to call Agnew's rhetoric "an implied threat to freedom of speech." When Agnew beaned a fellow golfer, Bob Hope quipped, "Now that Spiro's got the bean-ball shot, he can't wait to play with Walter Cronkite." For Agnew's speeches to the Gridiron Club, a Washington correspondents organization, Hope and his writers contributed self-mocking jokes satirizing Agnew's rhetorical flourishes, his golf game, and his antagonistic relationship with the press.
87. LOCBH_171120_483.JPG: Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) Bob Hope strongly supported his acting colleague Ronald Reagan's entry into politics. In October 1981, with the president in attendance, Hope joked about the recent purchase of expensive White House china by First Lady Nancy Reagan (b. 1921). "Reagan worked hard as a sportscaster, an actor, a governor, and now President," Hope began. "He worked his way up, and all because Nancy had this certain dish pattern she wanted." Ten days later, Reagan wrote a friendly letter in response. As commander-in-chief, Reagan thanked the eighty-four-year-old comedian for bringing a USO Christmas show to entertain armed forces personnel on duty in the Persian Gulf during the Iran-Iraq War.
88. LOCBH_171120_485.JPG: George H. W. Bush (b. 1924) After President George H. W. Bush dispatched Operation Desert Shield forces to the Persian Gulf in response to Iraq's annexation of Kuwait and its threat to invade Saudi Arabia, Bob Hope, at age eighty-seven, entertained troops in Saudi Arabia at Christmas. "Bob was a unifier," Bush remembered. "He got along with everybody. I think of him as a national treasure." Following Bush's launch of air strikes, Hope telephoned the president in support, prompting this reply. "George and Barbara Bush were like family," Bob Hope once wrote. "I knew his father, Prescott, and played golf with him. During his eight years as Reagan's vice president, I became very close to George and I played a lot of golf with him, too." During that period, Bush sent a note of thanks following a visit by the Hopes.
89. LOCBH_171120_488.JPG: Richard M. Nixon (1913–1994) During a 1970 vacation in San Clemente, California, President Richard Nixon finished work on the budget and then took a helicopter to Bob Hope's Toluca Lake estate for a round of golf and to thank Hope for signing up servicemen in Vietnam for educational benefits. Four years later, as Nixon battled the Watergate special prosecutor over releasing White House tapes, Hope wrote to Nixon's assistant to clarify comments a newspaper had quoted. The president replied in this letter.
90. LOCBH_171120_490.JPG: Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–1973) In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson arrived unexpectedly at a USO dinner honoring Bob Hope. As Hope satirized the president, he "would time his stare at me," Hope related. "It was as though he was timing his reaction to help me get a laugh." The next day, Hope and Johnson cavorted on the White House putting green. The book referred to in the first letter, Five Women I Love, Bob Hope's Vietnam Story, described this encounter. During Johnson's 1964 campaign against Senator Barry Goldwater, he asked Hope for jokes to use in speeches. In the second letter, the president thanked Hope for the material.
91. LOCBH_171120_494.JPG: Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) At a White House Correspondents' Association dinner in May 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower clapped vigorously after Bob Hope, recalling their 1943 meeting in Algiers, remarked, "That was when he was a four-star general and had some power." Pictured here, Eisenhower presents Hope with the Army's highest civilian decoration, the Medal of Merit, in appreciation of Hope's wartime contributions to national morale. In this letter, Eisenhower, Hope's hero, expressed a sentimental attachment to the comedian's name.
92. LOCBH_171120_495.JPG: Gerald R. Ford (1913–2006) "Of all the presidents," Bob Hope wrote, Gerald Ford "is the one I can call a pal." The day after Ford pardoned former President Nixon (1913–1994), Hope sent this telegram. "I am certain it was the right thing to do," Ford replied, "and that time will prove it so." He also thanked Hope for seeing his wife Betty (b. 1918) after her mastectomy for breast cancer, calling the visit "a bright spot during a very traumatic period in our lives." Hope loved to kid Ford about his golf game. "His wife founded the Betty Ford Center, which can cure anything except Jerry's slice," he quipped. In the 1979 letter, Ford congratulated Hope on receiving an honorary degree, one of more than sixty awarded to Hope during his lifetime.
93. LOCBH_171120_499.JPG: Bill Clinton (b. 1946) As Governor of Arkansas, Bill Clinton joined Bob Hope onstage during two of the comedian's appearances, prompting Hope to comment, "this man was all show biz." Clinton later remarked, "When he makes fun of me or any other president, I think we know he's doing it with a genuinely good heart and a good spirit and in a way that helps us to laugh at ourselves. And I think we all need to laugh at ourselves a little more."
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Description of Subject Matter: Hope for America: Performers, Politics and Pop Culture
Ongoing exhibition, opened June 11, 2010.
Bob Hope, who entertainment historian and critic Leonard Maltin declared “may be the most popular entertainer in the history of Western civilization,” was arguably the nation's best-loved topical humorist during the twentieth century. Hope for America draws from the personal papers, joke files, films, radio and television broadcasts, and other materials donated to the Library of Congress by Bob Hope and his family. To put the history of the involvement of entertainers in politics into perspective, the exhibition also profiles the politically oriented activities of other prominent figures represented in the Library's vast collections.
The exhibition invites visitors to examine artifacts that represent an array of viewpoints and draw their own conclusions regarding the interplay of politics and entertainment in American public life and its consequences for the nation's political culture.
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