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welcome back

uh welcome to talk with History Podcast

I am your host Scott I'm here with my

wife and historian Jen uh on this

podcast we talk about history's

continuing impact on all of us and our

personal journey through YouTube as we

explore record and share our history

walks with you

today Jen we are talking about Bob Hope

yes best known for as like the Larger

than Life TV radio personality best

known probably for the 1950s and 60s but

really he got his start in the 30s so

um so why are we talking about Bob Hope

today

well

first off I I wanted really understood

that I I love Bob Hope especially what

he did with the Uso and I just always

thought he was so

personable and funny but we found

ourselves living in Erie Pennsylvania

for the last two years before we moved

here to Virginia

and one of the urban legends of Erie

Pennsylvania is that Bob Hope was

married in Erie PA

and there was more to the story

um

that he also claimed to be married there

a second time to his wife that he was

with for 69 years

and the story went that there was really

no

documentation to back up that second

marriage

so there's documentation for the first

marriage as a marriage license it's on

file at the Erie County Courthouse

but there is no documentation of the

second marriage even though they both

always claim that they were married in

Erie Pennsylvania as well so so how did

you find out about that how did you hear

about that I think I was just looking

through you know when you moved to a new

location you're searching Facebook and

looking for local things to do in local

stories and I think I there was a eerie

like Memories page or an ear you know

and they were talking about things that

had changed in Erie or you know just

bringing up old memories of Erie and

someone had brought up that story and so

I had read about it I just found it so

interesting yeah so so why don't you if

someone hasn't watched the video

um why don't you talk a little bit about

Bob Hope and and why especially for that

era I mean he was just a massive Global

figure yeah so Bob Hope

he has a very much an American story so

he's born in 1903 in England and his

parents come over to America when he's

four and they come through Ellis Island

and they settle in Cleveland and he's

one of seven boys

and he's born Leslie T hope that's his

name when he's born and

I think to entertain his brothers

probably get a word in edgewise he turns

to dancing and singing and he gets his

start in Vaudeville which most young

actors in the 30s are going to start in

Vaudeville and that's where you do

it's a variety show of singing and

dancing and little monologues on a stage

kind of like a traveling show kind of

like a circus Traveling Show without all

the animals and Oddities right and

that's how he kind of gets to start and

if you

think about geography Cleveland is only

an hour and a half away from Erie it's

to the West also on Lake Erie and then

Buffalo is an hour and a half to the

east of Erie so Erie always is on a

circuit because it's so close to these

major cities and back in that day it was

on the circuit yes and and it is even

today when even when tours

um sure they come up from Pittsburgh

Cleveland or Buffalo or something like

that it's just easy to hit that town

and so he had performed an area a couple

times and

and so then in the 19 actually in the

1930s 1933 he has a Vaudeville partner

named Grace who he marries

at the Erie County courthouse and that's

the one that they have the paperwork for

they have the record of the paperwork

for was January 25th

1933 and they have the marriage license

he uses his name Leslie

and um and I think he he claims to be

not Vaudeville I think she's a secretary

and he's something else on the marriage

license but it's filed and and they get

married and somehow you know it doesn't

work out

but his second wife Dolores Reed who is

his wife that most people will know for

69 years and he will adopt four children

with they both claim that they're

married February 19 1934 so a little

over a year later yeah so it sounds like

that first year went really well for Bob

Hope exactly so he must have met you

know Dolores in that time they were in a

play together called Roberta in 1934 I'm

in they get married they claim to get

married in February 1934 so

January they meet so yeah him and Grace

must not have hit it off very well I

know in the divorce decree which is was

is found by a historian

filed in Cleveland

DeForest isn't granted till November

1934 which is after when he says he was

married exactly he claims to have

married Dolores February 1934 but the

divorce isn't granted till November 1934

and he claims gross neglect and

um I think it's like a mean disposition

or disagreeable disposition you know so

who knows what that means exactly so I

think that's what any man would put on

divorce papers exactly yeah but him and

Dolores always hold to the story that

they were married in Erie

February 19 1934 when really if you look

at papers he was in New York on Broadway

at that time now it's not saying you

can't drive to Erie and get married you

can

but that's a good seven or eight hour

drive by today's standards by today's

standards and Erie seems to be so

proud that they kept the original

marriage license and kept the paperwork

that they they say that they would have

kept

second paperwork if it actually would

have been filed

now

that's not to Clay say that dolorison

Bob were never really married because

you will find celebrities sometimes use

initials or they'll use

different names pseudonym if they get

married and maybe they had done that and

maybe they had gotten married in another

city in another place however they

always claim February 19 1934 in Erie

when he's still technically married to

Grace still

yeah now back then with information not

traveling as quickly as it does today

was that more common or was that still

usually people back then would wait

until divorce was final

and then actually get married or was it

just kind of like uh yeah follow the

paperwork and you know she's mean so I'm

gonna go somewhere else yeah I think

it's a lot like that I think today DNA's

technology is so fast

and so

documentation is so easy to check and to

verify back then not so much and you

could make up a story you could claim a

story and you could stick by a story and

who's going to actually verify it who's

actually going to take the time to do

that unless you're a big star like he

was but I think they claim a small town

like Erie because they can claim oh

maybe they lost it or it wasn't filed

correctly or something like that and

since they knew Erie he'd already been

married in Erie he could kind of talk

about what the courthouse look like or

sure you know give good verifying

evidence did he perform in in Erie yes

he did at the Warner Theater and I on

the walk with history video we go there

to the Warner Theater it's under

construction in the video and because it

was coveted at the time so they were

taking the time to

rehab it was a it's an older theater it

was built by Warner Brothers

um but yeah he had performed in Erie

many times so saw a place he would know

pretty well

but

no one's ever found any evidence of that

second marriage and and I mean like I

said Dolores and and Bob Hope were

married for 69 years they had one of

those marriages that people really look

to

as like a golden standard of Hollywood

marriage now

you will always hear stories of Bob

Hope's philandering we don't I don't

really talk about that but he was yeah

there's a lot of that well he traveled

quite a bit didn't he quite a bit Uso

shows I think as we say it in the walk

with history video but from 1941 to 1991

he did 57 tours with the Uso oh my gosh

so

I think most every Leading Lady

had some kind of affair with Bob Hope

and they they openly admit to it and I

think his wife Dolores was just

accepting of it

and I don't know if this story has

anything to do with that because

they're technically not married I mean

common law depending on how long and

what state you're in

and what's interesting about that as

well and I say this in the walk with

history video

is his first wife Grace

he maintains a financial

situation with her he takes care of her

children by her second marriage and he

pays for her funeral

and even after he passes away Dolores

still keeps up that Financial connection

to Grace's children

so

I'm just

telling you that truth I don't know what

that Financial connection was all about

but it seems like there's more

there more there yeah now you mentioned

connection now I actually have yeah the

family connection uh in you know Six

Degrees of Bob Hope

um but so so once you talk about my

family connection because you were

actually more excited about my family

connection and Bob Hope than I than I

was when I found out about it so I I

married a true Californian I married a a

man with Hollywood history

your great-grandfather Dwight Thompson

was a prop master and I think he worked

for Paramount and for Universal he did

Ten Commandments he did The Greatest

Show on Earth he did Some Like It Hot

with Marilyn Monroe and Tony Curtis and

Jack Lemmon

he did rear window and in our home we

have a picture a rear window the movie

with Alfred Hitchcock and Jimmy Stewart

I'm sitting here looking at it right now

and he has placed the name cards under

the windows so if you ever see the movie

Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly kind of

name every window they give him kind of

like a cute name based on how they're

acting or what they see and he actually

has those name cards under the windows

as he's setting curtains or

props that you would see in the

background like what's on the table or

The Pianist on his the composer on his

piano and things like that so we have a

picture of him with Yul Brenner and Ten

Commandments yep and we have a picture

of him setting the basket in Moses yeah

no and and just for for the audience

right I was vaguely aware growing up

right so in my youth I would drive from

Central California down to Southern

California to visit my grandparents and

in the garage yes I always remember

seeing so he used to work this set of

Bonanza yes all of he did all of the

episodes he did every single at the All

Seasons all the episodes and all that

stuff right so so that was his regular

job and I always remember seeing in my

childhood I would that's where we would

go down and we would play Nintendo and

then the adults would be in the other

rooms like hoping that we didn't come

bother them but I always remember seeing

the the three main characters

from Bonanza with their signatures to my

great grandfather yes and it's just it's

in my I can picture it right now but

just above the light switch in my garage

just down the stairs off to the right

that's where the picture would just hang

it might still be there I'm like Michael

Landon yep

um the Ponderosa right the ranch see we

we don't even I our parents would know

better than us yeah but um

but so your connection is your

grandmother so his daughter

your grandmother has a picture with Bob

Hope and it's it's signed to her and

dedicated and it looks like a very

familiar picture yeah she was she looks

like she was probably 16. she's a

teenager yeah and it looks like she's in

a home with him or like it doesn't look

like she's at some kind of signing thing

it looks like she's like oh he probably

brought her to work one day because he

did a movie with him he did fancy pants

with him and Lucille Ball it's on his

IMDb page if you ever look up Dwight

Thompson and

maybe he had brought her

that's your grandmother his daughter

maybe he had brought her to the set one

day or something like that yeah but

that's how we have uh that family

connection to Bob Hope yeah which which

I have through marriage now yeah yeah so

it's it's been really interesting and

again for for those listening and for

those who haven't seen the video

um we talk a little bit about in my

family connection but it's it's fun to

talk a little bit more about it here

because you really Dove more into

my family ties with Bob Hope and the

movie industry and I started finding out

about my family history in the in

Hollywood through you because you were

asking my father and yes he had all

these records and old things we've got

movie scripts sitting in our house now

yes we got the call sheets to um The

Greatest Show on Earth with Charlton

Heston and Jimmy Stewart

CeCe DeMille movie which was um

same thing as Ten Commandments and then

we have a call sheet from Some Like It

Hot with the Marilyn Monroe going to set

at the hotel Dell yeah so it was

interesting doing this video because it

let us explore not just Bob Hope and his

two supposed marriages and the

interesting kind of secret there that

not a lot of people know about but if

you're from Erie yeah it's kind of a

part of you know the in these small

towns Erie is about a hundred thousand

people yes and for for I would call it a

smaller City in the greater United

States

someone a big character like that that's

a that's a kind of a point of Pride

there yeah it's a big deal I mean Bob

Hope

we were trying to think about who would

be the equivalent to him today and we

can't really think of someone because he

was a larger than life figure he did

like 54 feature films he did a ton of

things with Bing Crosby he went he was

one of those actors who transitioned

from Radio to feature film and then he

hosted the Academy Awards forever yeah

so I was trying to think about it and at

first I was like well maybe Jay Leno

right The Tonight Show but he did Jay

Leno didn't travel all over the world

going to Uso show so I think if you

combined like Billy Crystal Jay Leno and

you know take someone from Radio

put them all together yeah that was Bob

Hope I mean Bob Hope was the larger than

life host I mean he was the Hollywood

host that's how I would describe him for

the 50s it was a huge influence on the

Uso he it's because of him that Marilyn

Monroe went on the Uso tours and Ann

Margaret like he was the the pull for

all that I mean he was

he was his comedic timing they say his

comedic timing is one of the best in

history although I I will say one thing

when I was researching stuff for the the

YouTube video and I encourage folks to

go watch it if you're listening because

it is very interesting and I find some

old Uso clips and and the clips and the

jokes that he tells overseas to these

GIS overseas he would not be able to

tell today they don't stand up in time

no yeah I mean I would say probably 40

of them don't he was pretty clean it's

not like he was cursing like no it was

just the cultural it was the more

cultural references that like back then

people didn't think about today he would

get canceled totally get canceled he um

he was self-deprecating of course he

would definitely make fun of himself and

his one-liners are great and so funny a

lot like Billy Crystal right does

um

but yeah he definitely was a larger than

life character and

the marriage

like the the marriage story is just a

very very interesting story and that's

why we kind of have the thumbnails kind

of of him saying like shh be quiet

because it's kind of like a secret yep

that he never really married

I mean there's no documentation that he

ever really married Dolores

and I don't know if I actually

convey that very well in the video

because it is one of our early videos

yeah and I'm trying to say it but that

that's the whole point is he a bigamist

or did he lie

about his

um second marriage yeah well and this

was our third video I think that we had

done so right then if we transition over

to talking about how we're filming and

how we're trying to figure this out like

we had literally this was our third one

filming right you were still getting

used to yes the handling the camera and

talking to the camera and I was getting

used to trying to how to tell these

stories which is difficult to do when

there's lots of information and you're

trying to tell a story about a true per

you know a real person true events and

still keep it interesting yes

um so that so that was difficult so you

know it's one of our earlier videos I

would say more recent videos If folks

are interested they can go watch but um

it was still just a very interesting

because he is he is Americana he is

embodied so um people know that profile

absolutely it's yeah absolutely now

there was uh

I mean Bob Hope was kind of a jokester

all the way

basically until his deathbed oh yes

so um do you remember what he said to

his wife

um when she asked him where where would

you like to be buried do you remember

what he said to her I don't he said

surprise me he said surprise me so so if

you think about that right here's Bob

Hope you know knowing that he's probably

gonna pass uh before too long and his

wife says hey where do you want to be

buried and he just says surprise me yeah

um he dies at 100 in 2003 so it was a

hundred it's a hundred oh my gosh well

so

again this this was a very interesting

video and it was fun to make because not

only do we live in Erie

and that Erie had ties to Bob Hope and

his first marriage and supposedly his

divorce and second marriage which no one

was able to ever confirm so that's what

we point out in the video is hey was he

technically married to two people at the

same time

um

and then from there Not only was there

that in here in Erie but then I go on to

find out through you through my family

that I have personal ties we have family

ties now to Bob Hope through my family

and my great grandfather who worked in

the Hollywood Hollywood industry he was

a prop Master for many old movies yes in

the uh 60s 70s 50s all that stuff so

um again thank you Jen for kind of

taking us through an interesting fact

that a lot of people don't know about

Bob Hope who was a larger than life

character for those who were listening I

I we thank you for listening please feel

free to share this podcast with your

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of any other interesting uh facts about

Bob Hope for those listening if you on

Twitter or you can just reach out to us

through our website talk with

history.com let us know if you know

anything else interesting about Bob Hope

absolutely are you rediscovering him now

through us or did you know who he was

yeah so thank you again and we will talk

to you guys again soon thank you

foreign

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