Broadcast History: 4 January 1935 to 5 April 1935, 14 September 1935 to 3 September 1936, 9 May 1937 to 26 September 1937, 8 December 1937 to 23 March 1938, 27 September 1938 to 8 June 1948, 14 September 1948 to 13 June 1950, and 3 October 1950 to 21 April 1955
Theme Tune: Thanks for the Memory
Bob Hope was born in the county of Kent in South East England in 1903. When he was a child his family moved to Cleveland, Ohio. After finishing school he took a variety of jobs including shoe salesman, telephone lineman, and a stint as a boxer, but he dreamt of being a performer. After a great deal of persistance he ended up taking the juvenile lead in a Broadway musical comedy called The Ramblers (1926).
The audiences took to his boyish goodlucks and cheeky personality and by the 1930s he was headlining in vaudeville and had several starring roles on Broadway including Roberta (1931) and Red, Hot, and Blue (1936). He also made several appearances on radio shows such as Rudy Vallee's Fleischmann Hour Show, which lead to him being given his very own radio show in 1934.
His humour was often topical and some columnists such as Dorothy Kilgallen often critized his risque style, but his many voluntary performances to military units both at home and abroad made him one of the most popular and best-loved performers of the twentieth century.
