During World War II, Bob Hope traveled almost ceaselessly to outposts large and small, entertaining US troops – and inspiring them; Martha Bolton brings the extent of this work to light in Dear Bob.
Writer Martha Bolton worked with and for comedian Bob Hope. Now, with Hope’s daughter Linda, she has gathered and organized the letters written to Bob by the soldiers he helped.
Hope, English born, and born to entertain, once said he could not retire and go fishing because “Fish don’t applaud.” Among his sizzling lines – and there are hundreds recorded here – he told one audience that he’d gotten a wonderful welcome when he arrived at their camp: “I received a 10-gun salute… They told me on the operating table.”
His performances could have been forgotten were it not for the letters from soldiers of every stripe, and those soldiers’ families – who did not forget him.
One such letter recounts to Bob, of his visit to Sicily in 1943, that “It was something more than a show- it seemed to lift us spiritually.” Another soldier tells him, “Your humor leaves a wake behind you which lasts longer than the wake behind a ship.” One man, “merely a lonely Private” sequestered in a hospital after a grenade blew up in his face, heard Bob on his radio show and said that from it he, “derived my only pleasure during my blindness.”
Hope for his part, responded to as many letters as he could, injecting more of his humor for his admirers: “Give all the boys my best and tell them I’ll take care of the girls until their return.” To the folks back home, he praised the soldiers, “We know them as the finest fighting machine and the finest audience in the world.” He would insist on making as many show stops as possible on every tour, diligently hunting out remote camps far from where he was initially invited.
Post-war, he continued his mission to present material in honor of these fighters. President Truman gave him a Citation of Thanks, and President Clinton named him as the first Honorary Veteran.
Hope had indeed served in the armed forces in a way that used his abilities to their best effect. And yet, as many recall, he was also just himself, doing what he knew how to do, and sharing that gift unselfishly with thousands of others.
Bolton offers an in-depth look at Bob’s shows and the people around him.
Dear Bob includes a multitude of photographs and written input from others in Bob’s cast, lists of his singular honors, and the names of organizations and people who worked beside him and behind the scenes to keep these memories safely stored away.
His enthusiastically delivered humor gave hard-working, battle-weary soldiers the few hours of relaxation they needed. Laughter is a medicine, and in that way, Bob Hope was a medic as well as an entertainer. Bolton’s collection will be read by a new generation and by the few fighters left who might have seen him, heard him, and had the impetus to compose a letter beginning with, “Dear Bob…”
Dear Bob by Martha Bolton won Grand Prize in the 2021 CIBA Military and Front Line Book Awards.
