name	Bob Hope
birth name	Leslie Townes Hope
birth date	May 29, 1903
birth place	Eltham, London, England
death date	July 27, 2003
death place	Toluca Lake, Los Angeles, U.S.
death cause	Pneumonia
religion	Roman Catholic
nationality	American
years active	1925–2001
occupation	Actor, comedian, author, golfer
spouse	Grace Louise Troxell (m. 1933-1934)Dolores Hope (m. 1934–2003) }}

Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS (born Leslie Townes Hope; May 29, 1903 July 27, 2003) was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel. Throughout his career, he was honored for his humanitarian work. In 1996, the U.S. Congress honored Bob Hope by declaring him the "first and only honorary veteran of the U.S. armed forces." Bob Hope appeared in or hosted 199 known USO shows.

Early years

Hope was born in Eltham, London, England, the fifth of seven sons. His father, William Henry Hope, was a stonemason from Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, and his Welsh mother, Avis Townes, was a light opera singer who later worked as a cleaning woman. The family lived in Weston-super-Mare, then Whitehall and St George in Bristol, before moving to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1908. The family emigrated to the United States aboard the SS ''Philadelphia'', and passed inspection at Ellis Island on March 30, 1908. Hope became a U.S. citizen in 1920 at the age of 17. In a 1942 legal document, Hope's legal name is given as Lester Townes Hope. His name on the Social Security Index is also listed as Lester T. Hope. His name at birth as registered during the July–August–September quarter in the Lewisham district of Greater London was Leslie Towns [''sic''] Hope.

From the age of 12, Hope worked at a variety of odd jobs at a local boardwalk. He would busk, doing dance and comedy patter to make extra money (frequently on the trolley to Luna Park). He entered many dancing and amateur talent contests (as Lester Hope), and won prizes for his impersonation of Charlie Chaplin. Hope also boxed briefly and unsuccessfully under the name Packy East (after the popular Packey McFarland), once making it to the semifinals of the Ohio novice championship.

In 1918, at the age of 15, Hope was admitted (as Lester Hope) to the Boys Industrial School in Lancaster, Ohio. Formerly known as the Ohio Reform School, this was one of the more innovative, progressive institutions for juvenile offenders. As an adult, Hope donated sizable sums of money to the institution.

Silent film comedian Fatty Arbuckle saw one of Hope's performances with his first partner, Lloyd "Lefty" Durbin, and in 1925 got the pair steady work with Hurley's Jolly Follies. Within a year, Hope had formed an act called the Dancemedians with George Byrne and the Hilton Sisters, conjoined twins who had a tap dancing routine. Hope and his partner, George Byrne, had an act as a pair of Siamese twins as well, and both danced and sang while wearing blackface, before friends advised Hope that he was funnier as himself. In 1929, he changed his first name to "Bob". In one version of the story, he named himself after racecar driver Bob Burman. In another, he said he chose Bob because he wanted a name with a friendly "Hiya, Fellas!" sound to it. After five years on the vaudeville circuit, by his own account, Hope was surprised and humbled when he and his partner (and future wife) Grace Louise Troxell failed a 1930 screen test for Pathé at Culver City, California.

Career

Film

Hope, like other stage performers, made his first films in New York. Educational Pictures employed him in 1934 for a short-subject comedy, ''Going Spanish''. Hope sealed his fate with Educational when Walter Winchell asked him about the film. Hope cracked, "When they catch John Dillinger, they're going to make him sit through it twice." Educational fired him, but he was soon before the cameras at New York's Vitaphone studio starring in 20-minute comedies and musicals from 1934 through 1936, beginning with ''Paree, Paree'' (1934).

Paramount Pictures signed Hope for the 1938 film ''The Big Broadcast of 1938'', also starring W. C. Fields. During a duet with Shirley Ross as accompanied by Shep Fields and his orchestra, Hope introduced the song later to become his trademark, "Thanks for the Memory", which became a major hit and was praised by critics. The sentimental, fluid nature of the music allowed Hope's writers (whom he is said to have depended upon heavily throughout his career) to later invent endless variations of the song to fit specific circumstances, such as bidding farewell to troops while on tour. Hope became one of Paramount's biggest stars, and would remain with the studio through the 1950s. Hope's regular appearances in Hollywood films and radio made him one of the best known entertainers in North America, and at the height of his career he was also making a large income from live concert performances. He was both a world-class singer and dancer, introducing many major songs during the course of his career, including the Oscar-winning "Buttons and Bows" in ''The Paleface'' (1948), his biggest hit song by far, and he matched James Cagney's bravura dancing during the tabletop showdown sequence in ''The Seven Little Foys'' (1955). As a movie star, he was best known for comedies like ''My Favorite Brunette'' and the highly successful "Road" movies in which he starred with Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour. Hope had seen Lamour as a nightclub singer in New York, and invited her to work on his USO tours. Lamour is said to have arrived for filming prepared with her lines, only to be baffled by completely re-written scripts from Hope's writers without studio permission. Hope and Lamour were lifelong friends, and she remains the actress most associated with his film career. The series consists of ''Road to Singapore'' (1940), ''Road to Zanzibar'' (1941), ''Road to Morocco'' (1942), ''Road to Utopia'' (1946), ''Road to Rio'' (1947), ''Road to Bali'' (1952), and ''The Road to Hong Kong'' (1962). Hope's other leading ladies included Paulette Goddard, Katharine Hepburn, Hedy Lamarr, Lucille Ball, Jane Russell, Betty Grable, Betty Hutton, Arlene Dahl, Rosemary Clooney, Eva Marie Saint, Rhonda Fleming, Lana Turner, Anita Ekberg, and Elke Sommer. Hope's informal teaming with Bing Crosby for the seven "Road" pictures from 1940 to 1962 and countless stage, radio, and television appearances together over the decades were critically important to Hope's career. At the beginning of the "Road" series, Broadway star Hope was relatively little known nationally compared to Crosby, and was actually billed under Dorothy Lamour in the first film, while Crosby had already been a hugely popular singer and movie star for years. After the release of ''Road to Singapore'' (1940), Hope's screen career immediately became white hot and stayed that way for over two decades, actually continuing until ''Cancel My Reservation'' (1972), his last theatrical starring role. Bing Crosby and Bob Hope became linked in public perception to the extent that it became difficult to think of one without the other even though they actually conducted predominately separate careers. They had planned one more movie together, ''The Road to the Fountain of Youth'', until Crosby's demise abruptly intervened. Hope starred in fifty-two theatrical features altogether between 1938 and 1972, not to mention cameos and short films, and frequently stated that his movies were the most important part of his career. Some notable examples include ''College Swing'' (1938; with George Burns, Gracie Allen, and Betty Grable), ''Some Like It Hot'' (1939; with Shirley Ross and Gene Krupa), ''The Ghost Breakers'' (1940, with Paulette Goddard), ''The Paleface'' (1948; with Jane Russell), ''Sorrowful Jones'' (1949; with Lucille Ball), ''The Seven Little Foys'' (1955; with James Cagney as George M. Cohan), ''The Iron Petticoat'' (1956; with Katharine Hepburn), and ''Beau James'' (1957; with Hope as James J. Walker).

Hope was host of the Academy Awards ceremony 18 times between 1939 and 1977. His feigned lust for an Academy Award became part of his act. In one scene from ''Road to Morocco'' he erupted in a frenzy, shouting about his imminent death from exposure. Bing Crosby reminds him that rescue is just minutes away, and a disappointed Hope complains that Crosby has spoiled his best scene, and thus his chance for an Academy Award. Also, in ''The Road to Bali'', when Crosby finds Humphrey Bogart's Oscar for ''The African Queen'', Hope grabs it, saying "Give me that. You've got one." Although Hope was never nominated for an Oscar for his performances (Bing Crosby won the Best Actor for ''Going My Way'' in 1944), the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honored him with four honorary awards, and in 1960, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. While introducing the 1968 telecast, he quipped, "Welcome to the Academy Awards, or, as it's known at my house, Passover."

Broadcasting

Hope first appeared on television in 1932 during a test transmission from an experimental CBS studio in New York. In January 1947, Hope was master of ceremonies for the first telecast by California's first television station, KTLA. His career in broadcasting spanned 64 years and included a long association with NBC. Hope made his network radio debut in 1937 on NBC. His first regular series for NBC Radio was the ''Woodbury Soap Hour''. A year later, ''The Pepsodent Show Starring Bob Hope'' began, continuing as ''The New Swan Show'' in 1948 (for the same sponsor, Lever Brothers). After 1950, the series was known simply as ''The Bob Hope Show'', with Liggett & Myers (1950–52), General Foods (1953) and American Dairy Association (1953–55) as his sponsors, until it finally went off the air in April 1955. Regulars on his radio series included zany Jerry Colonna and Barbara Jo Allen as spinster Vera Vague.

Hope did many specials for the NBC television network in the following decades, beginning in April 1950. These were often sponsored by General Motors (1955–1961), Chrysler (1963–73) and Texaco (1975–1985), and Hope served as a spokesman for these companies for many years and would sometimes introduce himself as "Bob, from Texaco, Hope." Hope's Christmas specials were popular favorites and often featured a performance of "Silver Bells" (from his 1951 film ''The Lemon Drop Kid'') done as a duet with an often much younger female guest star (such as Olivia Newton-John, Barbara Eden, and Brooke Shields).

In October 1956, Hope appeared on an episode of the most-viewed program in America at the time, ''I Love Lucy''. He said, upon receiving the script: "What? A script? I don't need one of these", and ad-libbed the entire episode. Desi Arnaz said of Hope after his appearance: "Bob is a very nice man, he can crack you up, no matter how much you try for him to not." Lucy and Desi returned the favor by appearing on one of his ''Chevy Show'' specials (with Vivian Vance and William Frawley) later that season.

Hope's 1970 and 1971 Christmas specials for NBC—filmed in Vietnam in front of military audiences at the height of the war—are on the list of the Top 30 U.S. Network Primetime Telecasts of All Time. Both were seen by more than 60% of the U.S. households watching television.

In 1992, Bob Hope made a guest appearance as himself on ''The Simpsons'', in the episode "Lisa the Beauty Queen" (season 4, episode 4). The episode attracted 11.1 million viewers when it premiered on October 15. Hope's NBC television career consisted of monthly shows successfully spanning so many decades that it literally outlasted his ability to read his monologue from cue cards; toward the end, ''SCTV'' Hope impressionist Dave Thomas would deliver the monologue for him while imitating Hope's delivery. His final television special, ''Laughing with the Presidents'', was broadcast in 1996, with Tony Danza helping Hope present a personal retrospective of presidents of the United States known to the comedian.

USO

''For more on this topic see'' USO – Honoring Bob Hope

Hope's first wartime performance occurred at sea. Aboard the RMS ''Queen Mary'' when World War II began in September 1939, he went to the captain to volunteer to perform a special show for the panicked passengers, during which he sang "Thanks for the Memory" with rewritten lyrics. Hope performed his first United Service Organizations (USO) show on May 6, 1941, at March Field, California. He continued to travel and entertain troops for the rest of World War II and later during the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the third phase of the Lebanon Civil War, the latter years of the Iran–Iraq War, and the 1990–1991 Persian Gulf War. When overseas he almost always performed in Army fatigues as a show of support for his audience. Hope's USO career lasted half a century, during which he headlined approximately 60 tours. For his service to his country through the USO, he was awarded the Sylvanus Thayer Award by the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1968.

Of Hope's USO shows in World War II, writer John Steinbeck, who was then working as a war correspondent, wrote in 1943:

In addition to the star-studded casts Hope recruited his own family members for the far-reaching travel. Wife Dolores sang from atop an armored vehicle as recently as the Desert Storm tour, with granddaughter Miranda alongside Hope on an aircraft carrier in the Indian Ocean.

A 1997 act of Congress signed by President Clinton named Hope an "Honorary Veteran." He remarked, "I've been given many awards in my lifetime — but to be numbered among the men and women I admire most — is the greatest honor I have ever received."

Hope appeared in so many theaters of war over the decades that it was often cracked (in Bob Hope style) that "Where there's death, there's Hope".

In 2009, Stephen Colbert carried a golf club on stage each night during his own week-long USO performance and taping of ''The Colbert Report'' and explained in his last episode that it was an homage to Hope.

Theater

Hope's first Broadway appearances, in 1927's ''The Sidewalks of New York'' and 1928's ''Ups-a-Daisy'', were minor walk-on parts. He returned to Broadway in 1933 to star as Huckleberry Haines in the Jerome Kern/Dorothy Fields musical ''Roberta''. Stints in the musicals ''Say When'', the 1936 Ziegfeld Follies (with Fanny Brice), and ''Red, Hot and Blue'' with Ethel Merman and Jimmy Durante followed. His performances were generally well-received and critics noted his keen sense of comedic timing. Hope reprised his role as Huck Haines in a 1958 production of ''Roberta'' at The Muny Theater in Forest Park, St. Louis, Missouri.

On May 2, 2011, the New York Pops celebrated its 28th birthday at Carnegie Hall with a gala night that honored Hope and that featured highlights from his Broadway and show business career.

Hope rescued Eltham Little Theatre from closure by providing the funds to buy the property, he continued his interest and support and regularly visited when in London. The Theatre was renamed in his honor in 1982.

Sports

Hope was an avid golfer. He was introduced to the game in the 1930s, and eventually played to a four handicap. His love for the game, and the humor he could find in it, made him a much sought-after foursome member. He once remarked that President Dwight D. Eisenhower gave up golf for painting – "fewer strokes, you know." Throughout his career, a golf club became an integral prop for Hope during the stand-up segments of his television specials and USO Shows. In 1978, he putted against a then two-year-old Tiger Woods in a television appearance with James Stewart on The Mike Douglas Show. The Bob Hope Classic was founded in 1960, and is currently the only FedEx Cup tournament that takes place over five rounds. The tournament made history in 1995, when Hope teed up for the opening round in a foursome that included Presidents Gerald R. Ford, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton – the only time ever that three presidents participated in a golf foursome.

Hope would frequently use his television specials to promote the annual College Football All-America Team. The team members would enter the stage one by one and introduce themselves, and Hope would then give a one-liner about the player or his school. Hope would often don a football uniform for these presentations.

Hope bought a small stake in the Cleveland Indians in 1946 and owned it for most of the rest of his life. In 1993, he sang "Thanks for the Memory" after the Indians' last game at Cleveland Stadium. Hope also bought a share of the Los Angeles Rams football team in 1947 with Bing Crosby and sold it in 1962.

Personal life

A book, ''The Secret Life of Bob Hope'', by Groucho Marx's son, Arthur Marx, who was also a writer for Bob Hope for years, alleges that there was much money spent on keeping Bob Hope's image clean, and hiding his dark sides.

Hope crafted his very public persona over the years into a monument personifying American values and good will. His trademark style of humor was benign, never crude, rude, or offensive. This image did not wholly coincide with his private life.

Hope served as an active honorary chairman on the board of Fight for Sight. He recruited numerous top celebrities for the annual "Lights On" fundraiser, led a coast-to-coast telecast for Fight for Sight in 1960, and donated $100,000 to establish the Bob Hope Fight for Sight Fund.

Marriages

According to biographer Arthur Marx, Hope's first wife was his vaudeville partner Grace Louise Troxell, whom he married on January 25, 1933. When the marriage record was unearthed some years later, Hope denied that the marriage had any substance and said they had quickly divorced. There were rumors that he fathered a daughter with Troxell and that he continued to send generous checks to her despite a widely documented reputation for frugality. In 1934, Bob Hope married Dolores (DeFina) Reade, and adopted four children at The Cradle in Evanston, Illinois: Linda, Tony, Kelly and Nora. From them he had several grandchildren, including Andrew, Miranda, and Zachary Hope. Tony (Anthony J. Hope), who served as a presidential appointee in the George H.W. Bush and Clinton administrations and in a variety of posts under Presidents Ford and Reagan, died at age 63 in 2004.

Extramarital flings

Hope's "endless extramarital flings had been an open secret in Hollywood for years."

In 1949, while Hope was in Dallas on a publicity tour for his radio show, he met starlet Barbara Payton, a contract player at Universal Studios, who at the time was on her own PR jaunt. Shortly thereafter, Hope set Payton up in a luxury apartment in Hollywood. The arrangement soured as Hope was not able to satisfy Payton’s definition of generosity and her insatiable need for attention. Hope paid her off to end the affair quietly. Payton later revealed the affair with a tell-all printed in July 1956 in ''Confidential''. "Hope was...at times a mean-spirited individual with the ability to respond with a ruthless vengeance when sufficiently provoked."

Later years

As Hope entered his ninth decade, he showed no signs of slowing down and continued appearing in numerous television specials. He was given an 80th birthday party in 1983 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. which was attended by President Ronald Reagan. In 1985, he was presented with the Life Achievement Award at the Kennedy Center Honors. He was presented with the Ronald Reagan Freedom Award in 1997 by Nancy Reagan. The following year, Hope was appointed an honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II. Upon accepting the appointment, Hope quipped, "I'm speechless. 70 years of ad lib material and I'm speechless." At the age of 95, Hope made an appearance at the 50th anniversary of the Primetime Emmy Awards with Milton Berle and Sid Caesar. Two years later, Hope was present at the opening of the Bob Hope Gallery of American Entertainment at the Library of Congress. The Library of Congress has immortalized Bob Hope's life with two major exhibitions - "Hope for America: Performers, Politics and Pop Culture" and "Bob Hope and American Variety."

Hope celebrated his 100th birthday on May 29, 2003. He is among a small group of notable centenarians in the field of entertainment. To mark this event, the intersection of Hollywood and Vine in Los Angeles, California was named ''Bob Hope Square'' and his centennial was declared ''Bob Hope Day'' in 35 states. Hope spent the day privately in his Toluca Lake, Los Angeles home where he had lived since 1937. Even at 100, Hope was said to have maintained his self-deprecating sense of humor, quipping, "I'm so old, they've canceled my blood type." He converted to Roman Catholicism.

Death

Hope had premature obituaries on two separate occasions. In 1998, a prepared obituary by The Associated Press was inadvertently released on the Internet, prompting Hope's death to be announced in the U.S. House of Representatives. In 2003 he was among several famous figures whose pre-written obituaries were published on CNN's website because of a lapse in password protection.

Beginning in 2000, Hope's health steadily declined and he was hospitalized several times before his death. In June 2000, he spent nearly a week in a California hospital after being hospitalized for gastrointestinal bleeding. In August 2001, he spent close to two weeks in the hospital recovering from pneumonia.

On July 27, 2003, Bob Hope died at his home in Toluca Lake at 9:28 p.m. According to the Soledad O'Brien interview with Hope's grandson Zach Hope, when asked on his deathbed where he wanted to be buried, Hope told his wife, "Surprise me." He was interred in the Bob Hope Memorial Garden at San Fernando Mission Cemetery in Los Angeles, where his mother is also buried.

Short subjects

Honors

In 1962, Bob Hope was presented with the United States Congressional Gold Medal.

In 1969, President Lyndon Johnson bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Bob Hope for his service to the men and women of the armed forces through the USO.

Inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1983.

He was a member of the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in the radio division.

Knight Commander of the Order of St. Gregory the Great (KCSG) – 1989

In 1995, Bob Hope was presented with the National Medal of Arts.

Hope received the Ronald Reagan Freedom Award in 1997.

Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) – 1998

Member of the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels

One of the few non-members given the privilege of dotting the 'i' in the Script Ohio routine performed by The Ohio State University Marching Band.

The historic chapel at the Los Angeles National Cemetery was renamed as the Bob Hope Veterans Chapel on his 99th birthday, May 29, 2002 in "celebration of his lifelong service to our American Veterans."

San Diego Chargers owner and friend, Alex Spanos donated $500,000 to the historic Fox Theater in downtown Stockton, California to rename the theater, it was later approved from the city to change it to "The Bob Hope Theater".

The Burbank, California, public airport was renamed Bob Hope Airport in 2003.

The historic Bob Hope Patriotic Hall building on Figueroa Street in Los Angeles County was named in his honor on August 3, 2003, by the Board of Supervisors.

of the U.S. Military Sealift Command was named after the performer in 1997. It is one of very few U.S. naval ships that were named after living people.

The United States Air Force named a C-17 Globemaster III transport aircraft after Hope, the ''Spirit of Bob Hope''.

The hotel on Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, OH, the scene of the Dayton Peace Accords ending the fighting in the Former Yugoslavia, is named the Hope Hotel after Bob Hope. The bar in the hotel is called "Packy's" after Hope's prize fighting name.

The USO at Los Angeles International Airport LAX is dedicated to Bob Hope.

The dining facility at Camp Lemonnier (Djibouti) is named the Bob Hope Galley.

In 2008, the research library at the Ellis Island Immigration Museum was renamed by Congress with the consent of the President, as the Bob Hope Memorial Library.

For contributions to the live theater, radio, motion picture, and television, Bob Hope was honored with four stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

At the U.S. Naval Academy, Alumni Hall is home to the Bob Hope Performing Arts Center.

The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. has a wing funded by Dolores and Bob Hope in memory of his mother. It is dedicated to a miracle in Pontmain, France.

The municipal clock tower of Utica, New York is named the Tower of Hope in honor of Bob Hope.

In 2009, "A National Salute to Bob Hope and the Military" was dedicated in San Diego, California.

The 64th and only civilian recipient of the United States Air Force "Order of the Sword." The Order of the Sword recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to the enlisted corps. Presented June 10, 1980.

In 2011, British independent label Audio Antihero released a charity compilation to raise money for the Japan crisis entitled "Bob Hope would" in tribute to his many fundraising efforts.

At Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, the base theater is named the Bob Hope Theater.

Books by Bob Hope

(Listed in chronological order)

Hope, Bob. ''They Got Me Covered.'' Hollywood California: Bob Hope, 1941.

Hope, Bob. ''I Never Left Home.'' New York: Simon & Schuster, 1944.

Hope, Bob. ''Bob Hope's So This is Peace.'' New York: Simon & Schuster, 1946.

Hope, Bob and Pete Martin. ''Have Tux, Will Travel: Bob Hope's Own Story.'' New York: Simon & Schuster, 1954. ISBN 0-74326-103-8.

Hope, Bob. ''I Owe Russia $1200.'' New York: Doubleday, 1963. ISBN 978-0017450395.

Hope, Bob. ''Five Women I Love: Bob Hope's Vietnam Story.'' Amarillo , Texas: Hale Publishing, 1967. ISBN 978-0517504550.

Hope, Bob and Pete Martin. ''The Last Christmas Show.'' New York: Doubleday, 1974. ISBN 0-70915-660-X.

Hope, Bob and Bob Thomas. ''The Road to Hollywood: My 40-year Love Affair with the Movies.'' New York: Doubleday, 1977. ISBN 0-38502-292-1.

Hope, Bob and Dwayne Netlund. ''Bob Hope's Confessions of a Hooker: My Lifelong Love Affair with Golf.'' New York: Doubleday, 1985. ISBN 0-38517-442-X.

Hope, Bob and Melville Shavelson. ''Don't Shoot, It's Only Me: Bob Hope's Comedy History of the United States.'' New York: Putnam, 1990. ISBN 0-39913-518-9.

Hope, Bob and Linda Chandler Munson. ''We Could've Finished Last Without You: An Irreverent Look at the Atlanta Braves, the Losingest Team in Baseball for the Past 25 Years.'' Longstreet Press, 1991. ISBN 0-92926-484-3.

Hope, Bob and Ward Grant. ''Bob Hope Remembers World War II: The European Theater and D-Day.'' Hollywood, California: Hope Enterprises, 1994. ISBN 1-88599-701-9.

Hope, Bob and Ward Grant. ''Bob Hope's Dear Prez, I Wanna Tell Ya!: A Presidential Jokebook.'' Los Angeles, California: General Pub. Group, 1996. ISBN 1-57544-009-1.

Hope, Bob, Delores Hope and Ward Grant. ''Thanks for the Memories.'' Los Angeles, California: General Pub. Group, 1998. ISBN 1-57544-040-7.

Hope, Bob. ''Greater Late Than Never: Fulfilling Your Dreams After 50.'' Atlanta, Georgia: Longstreet Press, 1998. ISBN 1-56352-470-8.

Hope, Bob and Linda Hope. ''Bob Hope: My Life in Jokes.'' New York: Hyperion Books, 2004. ISBN 1-40130-742-6.

References

;Notes ;Bibliography

Faith, William Robert. ''Bob Hope: A Life in Comedy''. New York: Da Capo Press, a division of Perseus Books, 2003, First edition 1982. ISBN 0-306-81207-X.

Friedrich, Otto. of Nets: A Portrait of Hollywood in the 1940's.'' Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1986. ISBN 0-520-20949-4.

Lahr, John. "Profiles: The CEO of Comedy." ''The New Yorker'', December 21, 1998, pp. 62–79.

Maltin, Leonard. ''The Great Movie Shorts.'' New York: Outlet, 1972. ISBN 978-0517504550.

McCaffrey, Donald W. ''The Road to Comedy: The films of Bob Hope.'' Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2005, First edition 2004. ISBN 978-0275982577.

Moreno, B. '': Ellis Island's Famous Immigrants'' (Images of America: New Jersey). Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing, 2008. ISBN 978-0738555331.

O'Dowd, John. ''Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye, The Barbara Payton Story.'' Duncan, Oklahoma: BearManor Media, 2006. ISBN 978-1593930639.

Quirk, Lawrence J. ''Bob Hope: The Road Well-Traveled.'' New York: Applause Books, 1998. ISBN 978-0786233076.

Steinbeck, John. ''Once There Was A War.'' New York: Bantam, 1958.

;Further reading

Mills, JD, Robert L. ''The Laugh Makers:: A Behind the Scenes Tribute to Bob Hope's Incredible Gag Writers''. Duncan, Oklahoma: BearManor Media, 2009. ISBN 1-59393-323-1.

Marx, Arthur. ''The Secret Life of Bob Hope: An Unauthorized Biography.'' New York: Barricade Books, 1993. ISBN 978-0942637748.

External links

Bob Hope Biography on Chortle.co.uk

Bob Hope and American Variety at the Library of Congress

Hope for America: Performers, Politics and Pop Culture at the Library of Congress

"1967 Hope for the Blind 3rd International Blind Golfers Tournament Held at Edgmont Country Club"

MSNBC tributes:

* "Hope-ful Century of Wit and Laughter"

* "100 Years of Hope: The Early Years"

* "100 Years of Hope: Slapstick and the Great Divide"

CNN: Bob Hope dead at 100

BOB HOPE – 1942-05-05 – War Years – Guest – Claudette Colbert – Great Lakes Naval Training Station

''Bob Hope Show'' radio archive (27 episodes from Bob Hope radio Show)

Congressional Gold Medal Recipients

Lifetime Honors – National Medal of Arts

The Bob Hope Theatre, Eltham

Literature on Bob Hope

Category:Actors awarded British knighthoods Category:Academy Honorary Award recipients Category:American centenarians Category:American people of English descent Category:American Roman Catholics Category:Burlesque performers Category:California Republicans Category:Congressional Gold Medal recipients Category:Converts to Roman Catholicism Category:Deaths from pneumonia Category:20th-century actors Category:English film actors Category:English emigrants to the United States Category:English people of Welsh descent Category:English radio personalities Category:English stand-up comedians Category:English television actors Category:Honorary Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire Category:Infectious disease deaths in California Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:Kentucky colonels Category:Actors from London Category:World Golf Hall of Fame inductees Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States Category:Peabody Award winners Category:People from Eltham Category:People from the Greater Los Angeles Area Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients Category:United States National Medal of Arts recipients Category:National Radio Hall of Fame inductees Category:Vaudeville performers Category:American people of Welsh descent Category:RCA Victor artists Category:Knights of St. Gregory the Great Category:1903 births Category:2003 deaths Category:People from Cleveland, Ohio

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name	James Cagney
birth name	James Francis Cagney, Jr.
birth date	July 17, 1899
birth place	New York City, New York, U.S.
death date	March 30, 1986
death place	Stanford, New York, U.S.
spouse	Frances Vernon(1922-86) (his death)
occupation	Actor/Dancer
years active	1919–84 }}

James Francis Cagney, Jr. (July 17, 1899 March 30, 1986) was an American actor, first on stage, then in film, where he had his greatest impact. Although he won acclaim and major awards for a wide variety of performances, he is best remembered for playing "tough guys." In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him eighth among its 50 Greatest American Screen Legends.

In his first professional acting performance, he danced dressed as a woman in the chorus line of the 1919 revue ''Every Sailor''. He spent several years in vaudeville as a hoofer and comedian, until he got his first major acting part in 1925. He secured several other roles, receiving good notices, before landing the lead in the 1929 play ''Penny Arcade''. After rave reviews, Warner Bros. signed him for an initial $500-a-week, three-week contract to reprise his role; this was quickly extended to a seven-year contract.

Cagney's seventh film, ''The Public Enemy'', became one of the most influential gangster movies of the period. Notable for its famous grapefruit scene, the film thrust Cagney into the spotlight, making him one of Warners' and Hollywood's biggest stars. In 1938, he received his first Academy Award for Best Actor nomination, for ''Angels with Dirty Faces'', before winning in 1942 for his portrayal of George M. Cohan in ''Yankee Doodle Dandy''. He was nominated a third time in 1955 for ''Love Me or Leave Me''. Cagney retired for twenty years in 1961, spending time on his farm, before returning for a part in ''Ragtime'', mainly to aid his recovery from a stroke.

Cagney walked out on Warners several times over the course of his career, each time coming back on better personal and artistic terms. In 1935, he sued Warners for breach of contract and won; this marked one of the first times an actor had beaten a studio over a contract issue. He worked for an independent film company for a year while the suit was being settled, and also established his own production company, Cagney Productions, in 1942, before returning to Warners again four years later. Jack Warner called him "The Professional Againster", in reference to Cagney’s refusal to be pushed around. Cagney also made numerous morale-boosting troop tours before and during World War II, and was president of the Screen Actors Guild for two years.

Early life

Cagney was born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. His biographers disagree as to the actual location: either on the corner of Avenue D and 8th Street or in a top floor apartment at 391 East Eighth. His father, James Sr. was by the time of his son's birth an Irish American bartender and amateur boxer, though on Cagney's birth certificate, he is listed as a telegraphist. His mother, Carolyn Nelson, was half Irish, half Norwegian; her father was a Norwegian ship captain while her mother was Irish American.

Cagney was the second of seven children, two of whom died within months of birth; he himself was very sick as a young child, so much so that his mother feared he would die before he could be baptized. He later attributed his sickness to the poverty in which they grew up. The family moved twice while he was still young, first to East 79th Street, and then to East 96th Street.

The red-haired, blue-eyed Cagney graduated from Stuyvesant High School in New York City in 1918, and attended Columbia College of Columbia University where he intended to major in art. He also took German and joined the Student Army Training Corps, but dropped out after one semester, returning home upon the death of his father during the 1918 flu pandemic.

He held a variety of jobs early in his life, giving all his earnings to his family: junior architect, copy boy for the ''New York Sun'', book custodian at the New York Public Library, bellhop, draughtsman, and night doorman. Cagney believed in hard work, later stating, "It was good for me. I feel sorry for the kid who has too cushy a time of it. Suddenly he has to come face-to-face with the realities of life without any mama or papa to do his thinking for him."

He started tap dancing as a boy (a skill that would eventually contribute to his Academy Award) and was nicknamed "Cellar-Door Cagney" after his habit of dancing on slanted cellar doors.

He was a good street fighter, defending his older brother Harry, a medical student, against all comers when necessary. He engaged in amateur boxing, and was a runner-up for the New York State lightweight title. His coaches encouraged him to turn professional, but his mother would not allow it. He also played semi-professional baseball for a local team, and entertained dreams of playing in the Major Leagues.

His introduction to films was unusual; when visiting an aunt in Brooklyn who lived opposite Vitagraph Studios, Cagney would climb over the fence to watch the filming of John Bunny movies. He became involved in amateur dramatics, starting as a scenery boy for a Chinese pantomime at Lenox Hill Neighborhood House, one of the first settlement houses in the nation, where his brother Harry performed. He was initially content working behind the scenes and had no interest in performing. One night, however, Harry became ill, and although Cagney was not an understudy, his photographic memory of rehearsals enabled him to stand in for his brother without making a single mistake. Afterward, he joined a number of companies as a performer in a variety of roles.

Early career (1919–1930)

While working at Wanamaker's Department Store in 1919, Cagney learned, from a colleague who had seen him dance, of a role in the upcoming production ''Every Sailor''. A wartime play in which the chorus was made up of servicemen dressed as women, it was originally titled ''Every Woman''. Cagney auditioned for the role of a chorus girl, despite considering it a waste of time; he only knew one dance step, the complicated Peabody, but he knew it perfectly. This was enough to convince the producers that he could dance, and he copied the other dancers' moves while waiting to go on. He did not find it odd to play a woman, nor was he embarrassed. He later recalled how he was able to shed his own natural shy persona when he stepped onto the stage: "For there I am not myself. I am not that fellow, Jim Cagney, at all. I certainly lost all consciousness of him when I put on skirts, wig, paint, powder, feathers and spangles."

Had Cagney's mother had her way, his stage career would have ended when he quit ''Every Sailor'' after two months; proud as she was of his performance, she preferred that he get an education. Cagney appreciated the $35 a week he was paid, which he called "a mountain of money for me in those worrisome days." So strong was his habit of holding down more than one job at a time, he also worked as a dresser for one of the leads, portered the casts' luggage, and understudied for the lead. Among the chorus line performers was sixteen-year-old Frances Willard "Billie" Vernon, whom he would marry in 1922. The show began Cagney's ten year association with vaudeville and Broadway. Cagney and his wife were among the early resident of Free Acres, a social experiment established by Bolton Hall in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey.

''Pitter Patter'' was not hugely successful, but it did well enough to run for 32 weeks, enabling Cagney to join the vaudeville circuit. He and Vernon toured separately with a number of different troupes, reuniting as "Vernon and Nye" to do simple comedy routines and musical numbers. "Nye" was a rearrangement of the last syllable of Cagney's surname. One of the troupes that Cagney joined was Parker, Rand and Leach, taking over the spot vacated when Archie Leach—who would later change his name to Cary Grant—left.

After years of touring and struggling to make money, Cagney and Vernon moved to Hawthorne, California in 1924, partly for Cagney to meet his new mother-in-law, who had just moved there from Chicago, and partly to investigate breaking into the movies. Their train fares were paid for by a friend, the press officer of ''Pitter Patter'', who was also desperate to act. They were not very successful at first; the dance studio Cagney set up had few clients and folded, and he and Vernon toured the studios, but garnered no interest. Eventually, they borrowed some money and headed back to New York via Chicago and Milwaukee, enduring failure along the way when they attempted to make money on the stage.

Cagney secured his first significant non-dancing role in 1925. He played a young tough guy in the three-act play ''Outside Looking In'' by Maxwell Anderson, earning $200 a week. As with ''Pitter Patter'', Cagney went to the audition with little confidence of getting the part; he had had no experience with drama at this point. Cagney felt that he only got the role because his hair was redder than that of Alan Bunce, the only other red-headed performer in New York. Both the play and Cagney received good reviews; ''Life'' magazine wrote, "Mr. Cagney, in a less spectacular role [than his co-star] makes a few minutes silence during his mock-trial scene something that many a more established actor might watch with profit". Burns Mantle wrote that it "contained the most honest acting now to be seen in New York".

Following the show's four month run, Cagney went back to vaudeville for the next couple of years. He achieved varied success, but after appearing in ''Outside Looking In'', the Cagneys were more financially secure. During this period, he met George M. Cohan, whom he would go on to portray in ''Yankee Doodle Dandy'', though they never spoke.

Cagney secured the lead role in the 1926–27 season West End production of ''Broadway'' by George Abbott. The show's management insisted that he copy Broadway lead Lee Tracy's performance, despite Cagney's discomfort in doing so, but the day before the show sailed for England, they decided to replace him. This was a devastating turn of events for Cagney; apart from the logistical difficulties this presented—the couple's luggage was in the hold of the ship and they had given up their apartment—he almost quit show business. As Billie recalled, "Jimmy said that it was all over. He made up his mind that he would get a job doing something else."

The Cagneys had run-of-the-play contracts, which lasted as long as the play did. Billie was in the chorus line of the show, and with help from the Actors’ Equity Association, Cagney understudied Tracy on the Broadway show, providing them with a desperately needed steady income. Cagney also established a dance school for professionals, then landed a part in the play ''Women Go On Forever'', directed by John Cromwell, which ran for four months. By the end of the run, Cagney was exhausted from acting and running the dance school.

He had built a reputation as an innovative teacher, so when he was cast as the lead in ''Grand Street Follies of 1928'', he was also appointed the choreographer. The show received rave reviews and was followed by ''Grand Street Follies of 1929''. These roles led to a part in George Kelly's ''Maggie the Magnificent'', a play generally not liked by the critics, although Cagney's performance was. Cagney saw this role (and ''Women Go on Forever'') as significant because of the talented directors he encountered; he learned "what a director was for and what a director could do. They were directors who could play all the parts in the play better than the actors cast for them."

Warner Bros. (1930–1935)

Playing opposite Cagney in ''Maggie the Magnificent'' was Joan Blondell, who would star again with him a few months later in Marie Baumer's new play ''Penny Arcade''. While the critics panned ''Penny Arcade'', Cagney and Blondell were both highly praised. Al Jolson, sensing film potential, bought the rights for $20,000. He then sold the play to Warner Brothers, with the stipulation that Cagney and Blondell be cast in the film version. Retitled ''Sinners' Holiday'', the film was released in 1930. Cagney was given a $500-a-week, three-week contract. In the film, he portrays Harry Delano, a tough guy who becomes a killer, but generates sympathy because of his unfortunate upbringing. This role of the sympathetic "bad" guy would be a recurring character type for Cagney throughout his career. During filming of ''Sinners' Holiday'', he also demonstrated the stubbornness that would characterize his work attitude. He later recalled an argument he had with director John Adolfi about a line: "There was a line in the show where I was supposed to be crying on my mother's breast... [The line] was 'I'm your baby, ain't I?' I refused to say it. Adolfi said 'I'm going to tell Zanuck.' I said 'I don't give a shit what you tell him, I'm not going to say that line'". They took the line out.

Despite this outburst, the studio liked him, and before his three-week contract was up—while the film was still shooting—they gave Cagney a three-week extension, which was followed by a full seven-year contract at $400 a week. The contract, however, allowed Warners to drop him at the end of any 40-week period, effectively only guaranteeing him 40 weeks income at a time. As when he was growing up, Cagney shared his income with his family.

With the good reviews that Cagney received, he immediately starred in another gangster role in ''The Doorway to Hell''. The film was a financial hit, helping cement Cagney's growing reputation. He made four more movies before his breakthrough role.

Warner Brothers′ succession of gangster movie hits, in particular ''Little Caesar'' with Edward G. Robinson, culminated with the 1931 film ''The Public Enemy''. Due to the strong reviews in his short film career, Cagney was cast as nice-guy Matt Doyle, opposite Edward Woods as Tom Powers. However, after the initial rushes, each was reassigned the other's part. The film cost only $151,000 to make, but it became one of the first low budget films to gross $1 million.

Cagney received widespread praise for his role. The ''New York Herald Tribune'' described his performance as "the most ruthless, unsentimental appraisal of the meanness of a petty killer the cinema has yet devised." He received top billing after the film, but while he acknowledged the importance of the role to his career, he always disputed that it changed the way heroes and leading men were portrayed; he cited Clark Gable's slapping of Barbara Stanwyck six months earlier (in ''Night Nurse'') as more important.

The scene in which Cagney pushes a grapefruit into Mae Clarke's face is viewed by many critics as a one of the most famous moments in movie history. The scene itself was a very late addition, and who originally thought of the idea is a matter of debate; producer Darryl Zanuck claimed he thought of it in a script conference, director William Wellman claimed that the idea came to him when he saw the grapefruit on the table during the shoot, and writers Glasmon and Bright claimed it was based on the real life of gangster Hymie Weiss, who threw an omelet into his girlfriend's face. Cagney himself usually cited the writers' version, but the fruit's victim, Clarke, agreed that it was Wellman's idea, saying, "I'm sorry I ever agreed to do the grapefruit bit. I never dreamed it would be shown in the movie. Director Bill Wellman thought of the idea suddenly. It wasn't even written into the script.". However, according to Turner Classic Movies (TCM), the grapefruit scene was a practical joke that Cagney and costar Mae Clark decided to play on the crew while the cameras were rolling. Wellman liked it so much that he left it in. TCM also notes that the scene made Clarke's ex-husband, Lew Brice, very happy. "He saw the film repeatedly just to see that scene, and was often shushed by angry patrons when his delighted laughter got too loud."

Filmmakers have mimicked it many times, such as Lee Marvin's character splashing scalding coffee in the face of Gloria Grahame in ''The Big Heat''. Cagney himself was offered grapefruit in almost every restaurant he visited for years after, and Clarke claimed it virtually ruined her career due to typecasting.

Cagney's stubbornness was starting to become well known behind the scenes, not least after his refusal to join in a 100 percent participation free charity drive that was being pushed by Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. Cagney did not object to donating money to charity, but rather to being forced to. Already he had acquired the nickname "The Professional Againster".

Warners was quick to team its two rising gangster stars — Cagney and Edward G. Robinson — for the 1931 film ''Smart Money''. So keen was the studio to follow up the success of Robinson's ''Little Caesar'' that Cagney actually shot ''Smart Money'' (for which he received second billing) at the same time as ''The Public Enemy''. As in ''The Public Enemy'', Cagney was required to be physically violent to a woman on screen, a signal that Warners was keen to keep Cagney in the public eye; this time he slapped co-star Evalyn Knapp.

With the introduction of the United States Motion Picture Production Code of 1930, and particularly its edicts concerning on-screen violence, Warners decided to allow Cagney a change of pace. They cast him in the comedy ''Blonde Crazy'', again opposite Blondell. As he completed filming, ''The Public Enemy'' was filling cinemas with all-night showings. Cagney began to compare his pay with his peers, thinking his contract allowed for salary adjustments based on the success of his films. Warners disagreed, however, and refused to give him a raise. The studio heads also insisted that Cagney continue promoting their films, even the ones he was not in, something he opposed. Cagney moved back to New York, leaving his apartment to his brother Bill to look after.

While Cagney was in New York, his brother, who had effectively become his agent, angled for a substantial pay rise and more personal freedom for his brother. Warners' hand was forced by the success of ''The Public Enemy'' and ''Blonde Crazy''; they eventually offered Cagney a contract paying $1000 a week. Cagney's first film upon returning from New York was 1932's ''Taxi!''. The film is notable for not only being the first time that Cagney danced on screen, but it was also the last time he would allow himself to be shot at with live ammunition (a relatively common occurrence at the time, as blank cartridges and squibs were considered too expensive and hard to find to be used in most motion picture filming). He had been shot at in ''The Public Enemy'', but during filming for ''Taxi!'', he was almost hit. In his opening scene, Cagney spoke fluent Yiddish, a language he had picked up during his boyhood in New York City. The film was again praised by critics. ''Taxi!'' was the source of one of Cagney's most misquoted lines; he never actually said, "MMMmmm, you dirty rat!", a line commonly used by impressionists. The closest he got to it in the film was, "Come out and take it, you dirty, yellow-bellied rat, or I'll give it to you through the door!" The film was swiftly followed by ''The Crowd Roars'' and ''Winner Take All''.

Despite his success, Cagney was dissatisfied with his contract. He wanted more money for his successful films, but he also offered to take a smaller salary should his star wane. Warners refused, and so Cagney once again walked out. He was holding out for $4000 a week, the same salary as Edward G. Robinson, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., and Kay Francis. Warners refused to cave in this time, and suspended Cagney. Cagney announced that he would do his next three pictures for free if Warners would cancel the five years remaining on his contract. He also threatened to quit Hollywood and go back to Columbia University to follow his brothers into medicine. After six months of suspension, a deal was brokered by Frank Capra that gave the actor an increased salary of around $3000 a week, a guarantee of no more than four films a year, and top billing.

Having learned about the block-booking studio system that almost guaranteed the studios huge profits, Cagney was determined to spread the wealth. He would send money and goods to old friends from his neighborhood, though he did not generally make this known. His insistence on no more than four films a year was based on his having witnessed actors—even teenagers—regularly being worked 100 hours a week to turn out more films. This experience would also be an integral reason for his involvement in the formation of the Screen Actors Guild, which came into existence in 1933.

Cagney returned to the studio and made ''Hard to Handle'' in 1933. This was followed by a steady stream of films, including the highly regarded ''Footlight Parade'', which gave Cagney the chance to return to his song-and-dance roots. The film includes show-stopping scenes with Busby Berkeley-choreographed routines. His next notable film was 1934's ''Here Comes the Navy'', which paired him with Pat O'Brien for the first time; the two would have an enduring friendship.

In 1935, Cagney was listed as one of the Top Ten Moneymakers in Hollywood for the first time, and was cast more frequently in non-gangster roles; he played a lawyer who joins the FBI in ''G-Men'', and he also took on his first, and only, Shakespearean role, as Nick Bottom in ''A Midsummer Night's Dream''.

Cagney's last movie in 1935 was ''Ceiling Zero'', his third film with Pat O'Brien. O'Brien received top billing, which was a clear breach of Cagney's contract. This, combined with the fact that Cagney had made five movies in 1934, again against his contract terms, caused him to bring legal proceedings against Warners for breach of contract. The dispute dragged on for several months. Cagney received calls from David Selznick and Sam Goldwyn, but neither felt in a position to offer him work while the dispute went on. Meanwhile, while being represented by his brother William in court, Cagney went back to New York to search for a country property where he could indulge his passion for farming.

Independent years (1936–1937)

Cagney spent most of the next year on his farm, and only went back to work when Edward L. Alperson from Grand National Films, a newly established, independent studio, approached him to make movies for $100,000 a film and 10% of the profits. Cagney made two films for Grand National: ''Great Guy'' and ''Something to Sing About''. He received good reviews for both, but overall the production quality was not up to Warners standards, and the films did not do well. A third film, ''Dynamite'', was planned, but Grand National ran out of money.

Cagney also became involved in political causes, and in 1936, agreed to sponsor the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League. Unknown to Cagney, the League was in fact a front organization for the Communist International (Comintern), which sought to enlist support for the Soviet Union and its foreign policies.

The courts eventually decided the Warner Brothers lawsuit in Cagney's favor. He had done what many thought unthinkable: taking on the studios and winning. Not only did he win, Warners knew that he was still a star and invited him back for a five-year, $150,000 a film deal, with no more than two pictures a year. Cagney would also have full say over what films he did and did not make. Additionally, William Cagney was guaranteed the position of assistant producer for the movies his brother starred in.

Cagney had demonstrated the power of the walkout in keeping the studios to their word. He later explained his reasons, saying, "I walked out because I depended on the studio heads to keep their word on this, that or other promise, and when the promise was not kept, my only recourse was to deprive them of my services." Cagney himself acknowledged the importance of the walkout for other actors in breaking the dominance of the studio system. Normally, when a star walked out, the time he or she were absent was added on to the end of an already long contract, as happened with Olivia de Havilland and Bette Davis. Cagney, however, walked out and came back to a better contract. Many in Hollywood watched the case closely for hints of how future contracts might be handled.

Artistically, the Grand National experiment was a success for Cagney, who was able to move away from his traditional Warners tough guy roles to more sympathetic characters. How far he could have experimented and developed will never be known, but back in the Warners fold, he was once again playing tough guys.

Return to Warner Bros. (1938–1942)

Cagney's two films of 1938, ''Boy Meets Girl'' and ''Angels with Dirty Faces'', both costarred Pat O'Brien. The former saw Cagney in a comedy role, and received mixed reviews. Warners had allowed Cagney his change of pace, but was keen to get him back to playing tough guys, which was more lucrative. Ironically, the script for ''Angels'' was one that Cagney had hoped to do while with Grand National, but the studio had been unable to secure funding.

Cagney starred as Rocky Sullivan, a gangster fresh out of jail and looking for his former associate, played by Humphrey Bogart, who owes him money. While revisiting his old haunts, he runs into his old friend Jerry Connolly, played by O'Brien, who is now a priest concerned about the Dead End Kids' futures, particularly as they idolize Rocky. After a messy shootout, Sullivan is eventually captured by the police and sentenced to death in the electric chair. Connolly pleads with Rocky to "turn yellow" on his way to the chair so that the Kids will lose their admiration for him, and hopefully avoid turning to crime. Sullivan refuses, but on his way to his execution, he breaks down and begs for his life. It is unclear whether this cowardice is real or just feigned for the Kids' benefit. Cagney himself refused to say, insisting he liked the ambiguity. The film is regarded by many as one of Cagney's finest, and garnered him an Academy Award for Best Actor nomination for 1938. He lost to Spencer Tracy in ''Boys Town''. Cagney had been considered for the role, but lost out on due to his typecasting. (He also lost the role of Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne in ''Knute Rockne, All American'' to his friend Pat O'Brien for the same reason.

During his first year back at Warners, Cagney became the studio's highest earner, making $324,000. He completed his first decade of movie-making in 1939 with ''The Roaring Twenties'', his first film with Raoul Walsh, and his last with Bogart. It was also his last gangster film for ten years. Cagney again received good reviews; Graham Greene stated that "Mr. Cagney, of the bull-calf brow, is as always a superb and witty actor". ''The Roaring Twenties'' was the last film in which Cagney's character's violence was explained by poor upbringing, or their environment, as was the case in ''The Public Enemy''. From that point on, violence was attached to mania, as in ''White Heat''. In 1939, Cagney was second to only Gary Cooper in the national acting wage stakes, earning $368,333.

His next notable role was George M. Cohan in ''Yankee Doodle Dandy'', a film Cagney "took great pride in" and considered his best. Producer Hal Wallis said that having seen Cohan in ''I'd Rather Be Right'', he never considered anyone other than Cagney for the part. Cagney, on the other hand, insisted that Fred Astaire had been the first choice, but turned it down.

Filming began the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the cast and crew worked in a "patriotic frenzy" as the United States' involvement in World War II gave the cast and crew a feeling that "they might be sending the last message from the free world", according to actress Rosemary DeCamp. Cohan was given a private showing of the film shortly before his death, and thanked Cagney "for a wonderful job". A paid première, with seats ranging from $25 to $25,000, raised $5,750,000 for war bonds for the US treasury.

Many critics of the time and since have declared it to be Cagney's best film, drawing parallels between Cohan and Cagney; they both began their careers in vaudeville, struggled for years before reaching the peak of their profession, were surrounded with family and married early, and both had a wife who was happy to sit back while he went on to stardom. The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards and won three, including Cagney's for Best Actor. In his acceptance speech, Cagney said, "I've always maintained that in this business, you're only as good as the other fellow thinks you are. It's nice to know that you people thought I did a good job. And don't forget that it was a good part, too."

Independent again (1942–1948)

Cagney announced in March 1942 that he and brother William were setting up Cagney Productions to release films though United Artists. Free of Warners again, Cagney spent some time relaxing on his farm in Martha's Vineyard before volunteering to join the USO. He spent several weeks touring the US, entertaining troops with vaudeville routines and scenes from ''Yankee Doodle Dandy''. In September 1942, he was elected president of the Screen Actors Guild.

Almost a year after the creation of his new production company, Cagney Productions produced its first film, ''Johnny Come Lately'', in 1943. While the major studios were producing patriotic war movies, Cagney was determined to continue dispelling his tough guy image, so he produced a movie that was a "complete and exhilarating exposition of the Cagney 'alter-ego' on film". According to Cagney, the film "made money but it was no great winner", and reviews varied from excellent (''Time'') to poor (New York's ''PM'').

Following the film's completion, Cagney went back to the USO and toured US military bases in the UK. He refused to give interviews to the British press, preferring to concentrate on rehearsals and performances. He gave several performances a day for the Army Signal Corps of ''The American Cavalcade of Dance'', which consisted of a history of American dance, from the earliest days to Fred Astaire, and culminated with dances from ''Yankee Doodle Dandy''.

The second movie Cagney's company produced was ''Blood on the Sun''. Insisting on doing his own stunts, Cagney required judo training from expert Ken Kuniyuki and Jack Halloran, a former policeman. The Cagneys had hoped that an action film would appeal more to audiences, but it fared worse at the box office than ''Johnny Come Lately''. At this time, Cagney heard of young war hero Audie Murphy, who had appeared on the cover of ''Life'' magazine. Cagney thought that Murphy had the looks to be a movie star, and suggested that he come to Hollywood. Cagney felt, however, that Murphy could not act, and his contract was loaned out and then sold.

While negotiating the rights for his third independent film, Cagney starred in 20th Century Fox's ''13 Rue Madeleine'' for $300,000 for two months of work. The wartime spy film was a success, and Cagney was keen to begin production of his new project, an adaptation of William Saroyan's Broadway play ''The Time of Your Life''. Saroyan himself loved the film, but it was a commercial disaster, costing the company half a million dollars to make; audiences again struggled to accept Cagney in a non-tough guy role.

Cagney Productions was in serious trouble; poor returns from the produced films, and a legal dispute with Sam Goldwyn Studio over a rental agreement forced Cagney back to Warners. He signed a distribution-production deal with the studio for the film ''White Heat'', effectively making Cagney Productions a unit of Warner Brothers.

Back to Warner (1949–1955)

Cagney's portrayal of Cody Jarrett in the 1949 film ''White Heat'' is one of his most memorable. Cinema had changed in the ten years since Walsh last directed Cagney (in ''The Roaring Twenties''), and the actor's portrayal of gangsters had also changed. Unlike Tom Powers in ''The Public Enemy'', Jarrett was portrayed as a raging lunatic with few if any sympathetic qualities. In the 18 intervening years, Cagney's hair had begun to gray, and he developed a paunch for the first time. He was no longer a romantic commodity, and this was reflected in his performance. Cagney himself had the idea of playing Jarrett as psychotic; he later stated that "it was essentially a cheapie one-two-three-four kind of thing, so I suggested we make him nuts. It was agreed so we put in all those fits and headaches."

Cagney's final lines in the film — "Made it, Ma! Top of the world!" — was voted the 18^th greatest movie line by the American Film Institute. Likewise, Jarrett's explosion of rage in prison on being told of his mother's death is widely hailed as one of Cagney's most memorable performances. Some of the extras on set actually became terrified of the actor because of his violent portrayal. Cagney attributed the performance to his father's alcoholic rages, which he had witnessed as a child, as well as someone that he had seen on a visit to a mental hospital.

The film was a critical success, though some critics wondered about the social impact of a character that they saw as sympathetic. Cagney was still struggling against his gangster typecasting. He said to a journalist, "It's what the people want me to do. Some day, though, I'd like to make another movie that kids could go and see." However, Warners, perhaps searching for another ''Yankee Doodle Dandy'' assigned Cagney a musical for his next picture, 1950's ''The West Point Story'' with Doris Day, an actress he admired.

His next film, ''Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye'', was another gangster movie, which was the first by Cagney Productions since its acquisition by Warners. While compared unfavorably to ''White Heat'' by critics, it was fairly successful at the box office, with $500,000 going straight to Cagney Productions' bankers to pay off their losses. Cagney Productions was not a great success, however, and in 1953, after William Cagney produced his last film, ''A Lion Is in the Streets'', the company came to an end.

Cagney's next notable role was the 1955 film ''Love Me or Leave Me'', his third with Day. Cagney played Martin "Moe the Gimp" Snyder, a lame Jewish-American gangster from Chicago, a part Spencer Tracy had turned down. Cagney described the script as "that extremely rare thing, the perfect script". When the film was released, Snyder reportedly asked how Cagney had so accurately copied his limp, but Cagney himself insisted he had not, having based it on personal observation of other people when they limped: "What I did was very simple. I just slapped my foot down as I turned it out while walking. That's all".

His performance earned him another Best Actor Academy Award nomination, 17 years after his first. Reviews were strong, and the film is considered to be one of the best of his later career. In Day, he found a co-star he could build a rapport with, such as he had had with Blondell at the start of his career. Day herself was full of praise for Cagney, stating that he was "the most professional actor I've ever known. He was always 'real'. I simply forgot we were making a picture. His eyes would actually fill up when we were working on a tender scene. And you never needed drops to make your eyes shine when Jimmy was on the set."

Cagney's next film was ''Mister Roberts'', directed by John Ford and slated to star Spencer Tracy. It was Tracy's involvement that ensured that Cagney accepted a supporting role, although in the end, Tracy did not take part. Cagney had worked with Ford before on ''What Price Glory?'', and they had got along fairly well. However, as soon as Ford met Cagney at the airport, the director warned him that they would "tangle asses", which caught Cagney by surprise. He later said, "I would have kicked his brains out. He was so goddamned mean to everybody. He was truly a nasty old man." The next day, Cagney was slightly late on set, incensing Ford. Cagney cut short his imminent tirade, saying "When I started this picture, you said that we would tangle asses before this was over. I'm ready now – are you?" Ford walked away, and they had no more problems, even though Cagney never particularly liked Ford.

Cagney's skill at noticing tiny details in other actors' performances became apparent during the shooting of ''Mister Roberts''. While watching the Kraft Music Hall anthology television show some months before, Cagney had noticed Jack Lemmon performing left-handed. The first thing that Cagney asked Lemmon when they met was if he was still using his left hand. Lemmon was shocked; he had done it on a whim, and thought no one else had noticed. He said of his costar, "his powers of observation must be absolutely incredible, in addition to the fact that he remembered it. I was very flattered."

The film was a success, securing three Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Sound Recording and Best Supporting Actor for Lemmon, who won. While Cagney was not nominated, he had thoroughly enjoyed the production. Filming on Midway Island and in a more minor role meant that he had time to relax and engage in his hobby of painting. He also drew caricatures of the cast and crew.

Later career (1955–1961)

Cagney worked with MGM on the Western film ''Tribute to a Bad Man'', a role that had originally been written for Spencer Tracy. He received praise for his performance, and the studio liked his work enough to offer him ''These Wilder Years'' with Barbara Stanwyck. The two stars got on well; they had both previously worked in vaudeville, and they entertained the cast and crew off-screen by singing and dancing.

In 1956, Cagney undertook one of his very rare television roles, starring in Robert Montgomery's ''Soldiers From the War Returning''. This was a favor to Montgomery, who needed a strong fall season opener to stop the network from dropping his series. Cagney's appearance ensured that it was a success. The actor made it clear to reporters afterwards that television was not his medium: "I do enough work in movies. This is a high-tension business. I have tremendous admiration for the people who go through this sort of thing every week, but it's not for me."

The following year, Cagney appeared in ''Man of a Thousand Faces'', in which he played Lon Chaney. He received excellent reviews, with the ''New York Journal American'' rating it one of his best performances, and the film, made for Universal, was a box office hit. Cagney's skill at mimicry, combined with a physical similarity to Chaney, helped him generate empathy for his character.

Later in 1957, Cagney ventured behind the camera for the first and only time to direct ''Short Cut to Hell'', a remake of the 1941 Alan Ladd film ''This Gun for Hire'', which in turn was based on the Graham Greene novel ''A Gun for Sale''. Cagney had long been told by friends that he would make an excellent director,

In 1959, Cagney played a labor leader in what proved to be his final musical, ''Never Steal Anything Small'', which featured a comical song and dance duet with Cara Williams, who played his girlfriend.

For Cagney's next film, he traveled to Ireland for ''Shake Hands with the Devil'', directed by Michael Anderson. Cagney had hoped to spend some time tracing his Irish ancestry, but time constraints and poor weather meant that he was unable to do so. The overriding message of violence inevitably leading to more violence attracted Cagney to the role of an Irish Republican Army commander, and resulted in what some critics would regard as the finest performance of his final years.

Cagney's career began winding down, and he made only one film in 1960, the critically acclaimed ''The Gallant Hours'', in which he played Admiral William F. "Bull" Halsey. The film, although set during the Guadalcanal Campaign in the Pacific Theater during World War II, was not a war film, but instead focused on the impact of command. Cagney Productions, which shared the production credit with Robert Montgomery's company, made a brief return, though in name only. The film was a success, and ''The New York Times''' Bosley Crowther singled its star out for praise: "It is Mr. Cagney's performance, controlled to the last detail, that gives life and strong, heroic stature to the principal figure in the film. There is no braggadocio in it, no straining for bold or sharp effects. It is one of the quietest, most reflective, subtlest jobs that Mr. Cagney has ever done."

Cagney's penultimate film was a comedy. He was hand-picked by Billy Wilder to play a hard-driving Coca-Cola executive in the film ''One, Two, Three''. Cagney had concerns with the script, remembering back 23 years to ''Boy Meets Girl'', in which scenes were re-shot to try to make them funnier by speeding up the pacing, with the opposite effect. Cagney received assurances from Wilder that the script was balanced. Filming did not go well, though, with one scene requiring 50 takes, something Cagney was unaccustomed to. In fact, it was one of the worst experiences of his long career. For the first time, Cagney considered walking out of a film. He felt he had worked too many years inside studios, and combined with a visit to Dachau concentration camp during filming, he decided that he had had enough, and retired afterward. One of the few positive aspects was his friendship with Pamela Tiffin, to whom he gave acting guidance, including the secret that he had learned over his career: "You walk in, plant yourself squarely on both feet, look the other fella in the eye, and tell the truth."

Retirement and death (1961–1986)

Cagney remained in retirement for twenty years, conjuring up images of Jack Warner every time he was tempted to return, which soon dispelled the notion. After he had turned down an offer to play Alfred Doolittle in ''My Fair Lady'', he found it easier to rebuff others, including a part in ''The Godfather Part II''. He made few public appearances, preferring to spend winters in Los Angeles, and summers either at his Martha's Vineyard farm or at Verney Farms in New York. When in New York, he and Billie held numerous parties at the Silver Horn restaurant, where they got to know Marge Zimmermann, the proprietress.

Cagney was diagnosed with glaucoma and began taking eye drops, but he continued to have problems with his vision. On Zimmerman's recommendation, he visited a different doctor, who determined that glaucoma had been a misdiagnosis, and that Cagney was actually diabetic. Zimmerman then took it upon herself to look after Cagney, preparing his meals to reduce his blood triglyceride level, which had reached alarming proportions. Such was her success that, by the time Cagney made a rare public appearance at his AFI Lifetime Achievement award ceremony in 1974, he had lost and his vision had drastically improved.

Opened by Charlton Heston and introduced by Frank Sinatra, the ceremony was attended by so many Hollywood stars—said to be more than for any event in history—that one columnist wrote at the time that a bomb in the dining room would have brought about the end of the movie industry. During his acceptance speech, Cagney lightly chastised impressionist Frank Gorshin, saying, "Oh, Frankie, I never said 'MMMMmmmm, you dirty rat!' What I actually said was 'Judy, Judy, Judy!'", a joking reference to a famous misquotation attributed to Cary Grant.

While at Coldwater Canyon in 1977, Cagney had a minor stroke. After two weeks in hospital, Zimmerman became his full-time caregiver, traveling with him and Billie wherever they went. After the stroke, Cagney was no longer able to undertake many of his favorite pastimes, including horse riding and dancing, and as he became more depressed, he even gave up his beloved painting. Encouraged by his wife and Zimmerman, Cagney accepted an offer from Miloš Forman to star in a small but pivotal role in the 1981 film ''Ragtime''.

The film was shot mainly at Shepperton Studios in London, and on his arrival at Southampton aboard the ''Queen Elizabeth 2'', Cagney was mobbed by hundreds of fans. Cunard officials, who were responsible for the security at the dock, said they had never seen anything like it, although they had experienced past visits by Marlon Brando and Robert Redford.

Despite it being his first film in twenty years, Cagney was immediately at ease. Flubbed lines and miscues were all committed by his co-stars, many of whom were in awe of Cagney. Howard Rollins, who received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his performance, said, "I was frightened to meet Mr. Cagney. I asked him how to die in front of camera. He said 'Just die!' It worked. Who would know more about dying than him?" Cagney also repeated the advice he had given to Pamela Tiffin, Joan Leslie and Lemmon. As filming progressed, Cagney's sciatica worsened, but he finished the nine-week shoot, and reportedly stayed on the set after completing his scenes to help other actors with their dialogue.

He and co-star Pat O'Brien appeared on the ''Parkinson'' talk show, and Cagney made a surprise appearance at the Queen Mother's command birthday performance at the London Palladium. His appearance on stage prompted the Queen Mother to rise to her feet, the only time she did so during the whole show, and she later broke protocol to go backstage to speak with Cagney directly.

Cagney made a rare TV appearance in the lead role of the film ''Terrible Joe Moran'' in 1984 (where his dialogue had to be mostly overdubbed because of the effects of another stoke), before finally retiring for good.

Cagney died at his Dutchess County farm in Stanfordville, New York, on Easter Sunday 1986, of a heart attack. He is interred in the Cemetery of the Gate of Heaven in Hawthorne, New York. His pallbearers included boxer Floyd Patterson, Mikhail Baryshnikov (who had hoped to play Cagney on Broadway), actor Ralph Bellamy, and Miloš Forman. His close friend, President Ronald Reagan, gave the eulogy at the funeral.

Personal life

On September 28, 1922, Cagney married dancer Frances Willard "Billie" Vernon, with whom he remained for the rest of his life. They had met on the chorus line of ''Pitter Patter''. They adopted a son, James Cagney, Jr., in 1941, and then a daughter, Cathleen "Casey" Cagney. Cagney was a very private man, and while he was more than willing to give the press opportunities for photographs when necessary, he generally spent his private time out of the public eye.

Cagney's son married Jill Lisbeth Inness in 1962. The couple had two children, James III and Cindy. Cagney Jr. died from a heart attack on January 27, 1984 in Washington D.C., two years before his adoptive father's death. He had become estranged from his father and had not seen or talked to him since 1982.

Cagney's daughter Cathleen married Jack W. Thomas in 1962. She too was estranged from her father during the final years of his life. She died August 11, 2004.

As a young man, Cagney became interested in farming — sparked by a soil conservation lecture he had attended — and during his first walkout from Warners, he found a farm in Martha's Vineyard; owning a farm had long been a dream of his. Cagney loved that there were no concrete roads surrounding the property, only dirt tracks. The house was rather run-down and ramshackle, and Billie was initially reluctant to move in, but soon came to love the place as well. After being inundated by movie fans, Cagney sent out a rumor that he had hired a gunman for security. The ruse proved so successful that when Spencer Tracy came to visit, his taxi driver refused to drive up to the house, saying, "I hear they shoot!", which forced Tracy to walk the rest of the way. He expanded it over the years to . Such was Cagney's enthusiasm for farming that when he was awarded an honorary degree from Rollins College. He surprised the staff by writing a paper on soil conservation, rather than just "turning up with Ava Gardner on my arm," as he put it.

Cagney loved horses from childhood, when he would sit on the horses of local delivery riders and ride in horse-drawn streetcars with his mother. He raised horses on his farms, specializing in Morgans, a breed of which he was particularly fond.

Cagney was a keen sailor and owned boats on both coasts of the United States, although he occasionally experienced seasickness—sometimes not being stricken in a heavy sea, but becoming ill on a calm day. He also enjoyed painting, and claimed in his autobiography that he might have been happier as a painter than a movie star, if somewhat poorer. One of his teachers in later life was Sergei Bongart, who went on to own two of Cagney's paintings. Cagney refused to sell his paintings, considering himself an amateur. He signed and sold only one painting, which Johnny Carson bought to benefit a charity.

Political views

In his autobiography, Cagney stated that as a young man he had no political views, since he was simply more concerned with where the next meal was coming from. Fanzines in the 1930s, however, described his politics as "radical". This somewhat exaggerated view was enhanced by his public contractual wranglings with Warners at the time, his joining of the Screen Actors Guild in 1933, and his involvement in the revolt against the so-called Merriam tax. During the 1934 Californian gubernatorial campaign, this tax was levied by the studio heads, automatically taking a day's pay from their biggest earning stars and helping raise half a million dollars for Frank Merriam. Cagney (and Jean Harlow) refused to pay.

He supported political activist and labor leader Thomas Mooney's defense fund, but was repelled by the behavior of some of Mooney's supporters at a rally. Around the same time, he gave money for a Spanish Republican Army ambulance during the Spanish Civil War, which he put down to being "a soft touch", an act which enhanced his liberal reputation. He also became involved in a "liberal group...with a leftist slant", along with Ronald Reagan. However, when he and Reagan saw the direction in which the group was heading, they resigned the same night.

Cagney was accused of being a Communist sympathizer in 1934 and again in 1940. The 1934 accusation stemmed from a letter from a local Communist official found by police which alleged that Cagney would be bringing other Hollywood stars to meetings. Cagney denied this, and Lincoln Steffens, husband of the letter's writer, backed up this denial, asserting that the accusation stemmed solely from Cagney's donation to striking cotton workers in San Joaquin Valley. William Cagney claimed this donation was the root of the 1940 charges. Cagney was cleared by U.S. Representative Martin Dies, Jr. on the House Un-American Activities Committee.

Cagney became president of the Screen Actors Guild in 1942 for a two year term. He took an active role in the Guild's fight against the Mafia, which had taken an active interest in the movie industry. Billie once received a phone call telling her that Cagney was dead. Cagney alleged that, having failed to scare him and the Guild off, they sent a hitman to kill him by dropping a heavy light onto his head. On hearing about the rumor of the hit, George Raft made a call, and the hit was supposedly canceled.

During World War II, to raise money for war bonds, Cagney took part in racing exhibitions at the Roosevelt Raceway and sold seats for the premiere of ''Yankee Doodle Dandy''. He also allowed the Army to practice maneuvers at his Martha's Vineyard farm.

After the war, Cagney's politics started to change. He had worked on Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidential campaigns, including the 1940 presidential election against Wendell Willkie. However, by the time of the 1948 election, he had become disillusioned with Harry S. Truman, and voted for Thomas E. Dewey, his "first non-Democratic vote". By 1980, Cagney was contributing financially to the Republican Party, supporting his friend Reagan's bid for the presidency in the 1980 election. As he got older, he became more and more conservative, referring to himself in his autobiography as "arch-conservative". He regarded his move away from liberal politics as "a totally natural reaction once I began to see undisciplined elements in our country stimulating a breakdown of our system... Those functionless creatures, the hippies ... just didn't appear out of a vacuum."

Honors and legacy

In 1974, Cagney received the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award. Charlton Heston, in announcing that Cagney was to be honored, called him "one of the most significant figures of a generation when American film was dominant, Cagney, that most American of actors, somehow communicated eloquently to audiences all over the world …and to actors as well."

He received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1980. In 1984, Ronald Reagan awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Cagney was among Stanley Kubrick's favorite actors, and was considered by Orson Welles to be "maybe the greatest actor to ever appear in front of a camera." Warner Bros. would arrange private screenings of Cagney films for Winston Churchill.

Filmography

! Year	! Film	! Role	! Notes
	''Sinners' Holiday''	Harry Delano	Film debut
''The Doorway to Hell''	Steve Mileaway
	''How I Play Golf, by Bobby Jones No. 11: 'Practice Shots'''	Himself	uncredited
''Blonde Crazy''	Bert Harris
	Jack
	Schofield, Insurance Salesman
''The Public Enemy''	Tom Powers
''Other Men's Women''	Ed "Eddie" Bailey
		Jim "Jimmy" Kane
	Joe Greer
''Taxi!''	Matt Nolan
		Dan Quigley
''Footlight Parade''	Chester Kent
''The Mayor of Hell''	Richard "Patsy" Gargan
''Picture Snatcher''	Danny Kean
''Hard to Handle''	Myron C. "Lefty" Merrill
	''The St. Louis Kid''	Eddie Kennedy
''The Hollywood Gad-About''	Himself	short subject
''Here Comes the Navy''	Chester "Chesty" J. O'Conner
''He Was Her Man''	Flicker Hayes, aka Jerry Allen
	"Jimmy" Corrigan
		Extra	uncredited
	Bottom, the weaver
''The Irish in Us''	Danny O'Hara
''G Men''	"Brick" Davis
''Devil Dogs of the Air''	Thomas Jefferson "Tommy" O'Toole
''Trip Thru a Hollywood Studio''	Himself	short subject
''A Dream Comes True''	Himself	short subject
''Frisco Kid''	Bat Morgan
	''Great Guy''	Johnny "Red" Cave
''Ceiling Zero''	Dizzy Davis
1937		Terrence "Terry" Rooney	stage name of Thadeus McGillicuddy
	''Angels with Dirty Faces''	Rocky Sullivan	Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actor
''Boy Meets Girl''	Robert Law
''For Auld Lang Syne''	Himself - Introducing arriving celebrities	short subject
	''The Roaring Twenties''	Eddie Bartlett
''Each Dawn I Die''	Frank Ross
''Hollywood Hobbies''	Himself	short subject
''The Oklahoma Kid''	Jim Kincaid
	''City for Conquest''	Danny Kenny (Young Samson)
''Torrid Zone''	Nick "Nicky" Butler
''The Fighting 69th''	Jerry Plunkett
	''The Bride Came C.O.D.''	Steve Collins
''The Strawberry Blonde''	T. L. "Biff" Grimes
	''Yankee Doodle Dandy''	George M. Cohan	Academy Award for Best Actor
''Captains of the Clouds''	Brian MacLean (bush pilot)
	''Johnny Come Lately''	Tom Richards
''You, John Jones!''	John Jones	short subject
1944	''Battle Stations''	Narrator	short subject
1945	''Blood on the Sun''	Nick Condon
1947	''13 Rue Madeleine''	Robert Emmett "Bob" Sharkey aka Gabriel Chavat
1948		Joseph T. (who observes people)
1949	''White Heat''	Arthur "Cody" Jarrett
		Elwin "Bix" Bixby
''Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye''	Ralph Cotter
	''Starlift''	Himself	Cameo
''Come Fill the Cup''	Lew Marsh
1952		Capt. Flagg
1953	''A Lion Is in the Streets''	Hank Martin
		Capt. Morton
''The Seven Little Foys''	George M. Cohan
	Martin Snyder	Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actor
	Matt Dow
	''These Wilder Years''	Steve Bradford
''Tribute to a Bad Man''	Jeremy Rodock
	''Short-Cut to Hell''	Himself	in pre-credits sequence, also director
''Man of a Thousand Faces''
		Sean Lenihan
''Never Steal Anything Small''	Jake MacIllaney
1960	''The Gallant Hours''		also producer
1961	''One, Two, Three''	C.R. MacNamara
1968	''Arizona Bushwhackers''	Narrator
1981

Television

''The Ballad of Smokey the Bear'' () - voice, narrator ''Terrible Joe Moran'' ()

References

Notes

Bibliography

External links

Photographs and literature

Category:1899 births Category:1986 deaths Category:American film actors Category:Best Actor Academy Award winners Category:Presidents of the Screen Actors Guild Category:Burials at Gate of Heaven Cemetery Category:California Republicans Category:California Democrats Category:Columbia University alumni Category:Deaths from myocardial infarction Category:American people of Irish descent Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:New York Democrats Category:New York Republicans Category:American people of Norwegian descent Category:People from Berkeley Heights, New Jersey Category:People from New York City Category:People from Lower East Side Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients Category:Stuyvesant High School alumni Category:Vaudeville performers Category:20th-century actors

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Name	Jack Benny
Birth name	Benjamin Kubelsky
Birth date	February 14, 1894
Birth place	Chicago, Illinois, United States
Death date	December 26, 1974
Death place	Beverly Hills, CaliforniaUnited States
Show	The Jack Benny Program
Network	NBC, CBS
Style	Comedian
Country	United States
Website	}}

Jack Benny (born Benjamin Kubelsky, February 14, 1894 – December 26, 1974) was an American comedian, vaudevillian, and actor for radio, television, and film. Widely recognized as one of the leading American entertainers of the 20th century, Benny played the role of the comic penny-pinching miser, insisting on remaining 39 years old on stage despite his actual age, and often playing the violin badly.

Benny was known for his comic timing and his ability to get laughs with either a pregnant pause or a single expression, such as his signature exasperated "''Well!''" His radio and television programs, tremendously popular from the 1930s to the 1960s, were a foundational influence on the situation comedy genre. Dean Martin, on the celebrity roast for Johnny Carson in November 1973, introduced Benny as "the Satchel Paige of the world of comedy."

Biography

Early life

Benny was born Benjamin Kubelsky on February 14, 1894, in Chicago, Illinois, and grew up in neighboring Waukegan, Illinois. He was the son of Meyer Kubelsky and Emma Sachs Kubelsky. Meyer was a Jewish saloon owner, later to become a haberdasher, who had emigrated to America from Poland. Emma had emigrated from Lithuania. Benny began studying the violin, an instrument that would become his trademark, when he was just six, with his parents' hopes that he would be a great classical violinist. He loved the violin, but hated practice. By age 14, he was playing in local dance bands as well as in his high school orchestra. Benny was a dreamer and a poor student and he was expelled from high school. He did equally badly in business school and at his father's trade. At age 17, he began playing the instrument in local vaudeville theaters for $7.50 a week. He was joined by Ned Miller, a young composer and singer, on the vaudeville circuit. They became life-long friends and Miller eventually joined the cast of ''The Jack Benny Program'' in the 1960s.

In 1911, Benny was playing in the same theater as the young Marx Brothers, whose mother Minnie was so enchanted with Benny's musicianship that she invited him to be their permanent accompanist. The plan was foiled by Benny's parents, who refused to let their son, then 17, go on the road, but it was the beginning of his long friendship with Zeppo Marx. Benny's future wife Mary Livingstone was a distant cousin of the Marx Brothers.

The following year, Benny formed a vaudeville musical duo with pianist Cora Salisbury, a buxom 45-year-old widow who needed a partner for her act. This provoked famous violinist Jan Kubelik, who thought that the young vaudeville entertainer with a similar name (Kubelsky) would damage his reputation. Under pressure from Kubelik's lawyer, Benjamin Kubelsky agreed to change his name to Ben K. Benny (sometimes spelled Bennie). When Salisbury left the act, Benny found a new pianist, Lyman Woods, and re-named the act "From Grand Opera to Ragtime". They worked together for five years and slowly added comedy elements to the show. They even reached the Palace Theater, the "Mecca of Vaudeville", but bombed. Benny left show business briefly in 1917 to join the U.S. Navy during World War I, and he often entertained the troops with his violin playing. One evening, his violin performance was booed by the troops, so with prompting from fellow sailor and actor Pat O'Brien, he ad-libbed his way out of the jam and left them laughing. He got more comedy spots in the revues and was a big hit, and earned himself a reputation as a comedian as well as a musician.

Shortly after the war, Benny started a one-man act, "Ben K. Benny: Fiddle Funology". But then he heard from another lawyer, this time that of Ben Bernie, another patter-and-fiddle performer who also threatened to sue. So Benny adopted the common sailor's nickname Jack. By 1921, the fiddle became more of a prop and the low-key comedy took over.

Benny had several romantic encounters, including one with a dancer, Mary Kelly, whose devoutly Catholic family forced her to turn down Benny's proposal because he was Jewish. Benny was introduced to Mary Kelly by Gracie Allen. Some years after their split, Kelly resurfaced as a dowdy fat girl and Jack gave her a part in an act of three girls: one homely, one fat and one who couldn't sing. This lasted until, at Mary Livingstone's request, Mary Kelly was let go.

In 1922, Jack accompanied Zeppo Marx to a Passover seder where he met Sadye (Sadie) Marks, whom he married in 1927 after meeting again on a double-date. She was working in the hosiery section of the Hollywood Boulevard branch of the May Company and Benny would court her there. Called on to fill in for the "dumb girl" part in one of Benny's routines, Sadie proved a natural comedienne and a big hit. Adopting Mary Livingstone as her stage name, Sadie became Benny's collaborator throughout most of his career. They later adopted a daughter, Joan.

In 1929, Benny's agent Sam Lyons convinced MGM's Irving Thalberg to catch Benny's act at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles. Benny was signed to a five-year contract and his first film role was in ''The Hollywood Revue of 1929''. His next movie, ''Chasing Rainbows'', was a flop and after several months, Benny was released from his contract and returned to Broadway in Earl Carroll's ''Vanities''. At first dubious about the viability of radio, Benny was eager to break into the new medium. In 1932, after a four-week nightclub run, he was invited onto Ed Sullivan's radio program, uttering his first radio spiel "This is Jack Benny talking. There will be a slight pause while you say, 'Who cares?'..."

Radio

History

Benny had been only a minor vaudeville performer, but he became a national figure with ''The Jack Benny Program'', a weekly radio show which ran from 1932 to 1948 on NBC and from 1949 to 1955 on CBS. It was consistently among the most highly rated programs during most of that run.

On April 6, 1932, the NBC Commercial Program Department arranged for an audition of Jack Benny for Ayer and its client Canada Dry, after which its head, Bertha Brainard made an assessment of this new comic: “We think Mr. Benny is excellent for radio, and while the audition was unassisted as far as orchestra was concerned, we believe he would make a great bet for an air program.” With Canada Dry Ginger Ale as a sponsor, Benny came to radio on ''The Canada Dry Program'', beginning May 2, 1932, on the NBC Blue Network and continuing there for six months until October 26, moving the show to CBS on October 30. With Ted Weems leading the band, Benny stayed on CBS until January 26, 1933. The commercial ran twice a week from 9:30 to 10:00, it ran for almost a year.

Arriving at NBC on March 17, Benny did ''The Chevrolet Program'' until April 1, 1934. He continued with sponsor General Tire through the end of the season. In October, 1934, General Foods, the makers of ''Jell-O'' and ''Grape-Nuts'', became the sponsor most identified with Jack, for the next ten years. American Tobacco's ''Lucky Strike'' was his longest-lasting radio sponsor, from October, 1944, through the end of his original radio series.

The show switched networks to CBS on January 2, 1949, as part of CBS president William S. Paley's notorious "raid" of NBC talent in 1948–49. There it stayed for the remainder of its radio run, which ended on May 22, 1955. CBS aired repeats of old radio episodes from 1956 to 1958 as ''The Best of Benny''.

Characters

Benny's stage character was just about everything the actual Jack Benny was not: cheap, petty, vain, and self-congratulatory. His comic rendering of these traits became the linchpin to the Benny show's success. Benny set himself up as the comedic foil, allowing his supporting characters to draw laughs at the expense of his character's flaws. By allowing such a character to be seen as human and vulnerable, in an era where few male characters were allowed such obvious vulnerability, Benny made what might have been a despicable character into a lovable Everyman character. Benny himself said on several occasions: "I don't care ''who'' gets the laughs on my show, as long as the ''show'' is funny." In her book, Benny's daughter Joan said her father always said it doesn't matter who gets laughs, because come the next day they will say, "Remember the Jack Benny Show, last night, it was good, or it was bad." Jack felt he got the credit or blame either way, not the actor saying the lines, so it had better be funny.

The supporting characters who amplified that vulnerability only too gladly included wife Mary Livingstone as his wisecracking and not especially deferential female friend (not quite his girlfriend, since Benny would often try to date movie stars like Barbara Stanwyck, and occasionally had stage girlfriends such as "Gladys Zybisco"); rotund announcer Don Wilson (who also served as announcer for Fanny Brice's hit, ''Baby Snooks''); bandleader Phil Harris as a jive-talking, wine-and-women type whose repartee was rather risqué for its time; boy tenor Dennis Day, who was cast as a sheltered, naïve youth who still got the better of his boss as often as not (this character was originated by Kenny Baker, but perfected by Day); and, especially, Eddie Anderson as valet-chauffeur Rochester van Jones who was as popular as Benny himself.

And that was itself a radical proposition for the era: unlike the protagonists of ''Amos 'n' Andy'', Rochester was a black man allowed to one-up his vain, skinflint boss. In more ways than one, with his mock-befuddled one-liners and his sharp retorts, he broke a comedic racial barrier. Unlike many black supporting characters of the time, Rochester was depicted and treated as a regular member of Benny's fictional household. Benny, in character, tended if anything to treat Rochester more like an equal partner than as a hired domestic, even though gags about Rochester's flimsy salary were a regular part of the show.

Rochester seemed to see right through his boss's vanities and knew how to prick them without overdoing it, often with his famous line "Oh, Boss, come now!" Benny deserves credit for allowing this character and the actor who played him (it is difficult, if not impossible, to picture any other performer giving Rochester what Anderson gave him) to transcend the era's racial stereotype and for not discouraging his near-equal popularity. A New Year's Eve episode, in particular, shows the love each performer had for the other, quietly toasting each other with champagne. That this attention to Rochester's race was no accident became clearer during World War II, when Benny would frequently pay tribute to the diversity of Americans who had been drafted into service.

After the war, once the depths of Nazi race hatred had been revealed, Benny made a conscious effort to remove the most stereotypical aspects of Rochester's character. In 1948, it became apparent to Benny how much the times had changed when a 1941 script for "The Jack Benny Program" was re-used for one week's show. The script included mention of several African-American stereotypes (i.e. a reference to Rochester carrying a razor), and prompted a number of listeners, who didn't know the script was an old one, to send in angry letters protesting the stereotypes. Thereafter, Benny insisted that his writers should make sure that no racial jokes or references should be heard on his show. Benny also often gave key guest-star appearances to African-American performers such as Louis Armstrong and The Ink Spots.

The rest of Benny's cast included character actors and comedians:

Sheldon Leonard (later a hugely successful television producer and creator) as a tight-lipped racetrack tout

Joseph Kearns (best remembered as cantankerous Mr. Wilson on the television version of ''Dennis the Menace'') as Ed, the superannuated guard to Jack's money vault

Verna Felton as Dennis Day's mother

Frank Nelson, usually as an oily desk clerk or floorwalker, always greeting Benny with an eager ''Yeeeeeeesss?'';

singer/bandleader Bob Crosby (who succeeded Phil Harris in the early 1950s);

Artie Auerbach as the Yiddish-accented Mr. Kitzel ("hoo, hoo, ''hoo!''");

Bea Benaderet, as Gertrude the switchboard operator;

Mel Blanc, who provided several characters' voices, including the railroad station announcer who said, "Train leaving on track five for Anaheim, Azusa and Cucamonga!". This running gag became so well known that it eventually led to a statue of Benny in Cucamonga. Blanc also was featured with Benny in the classic ''Si-Sy'' routine and on radio as the sound of Benny's Maxwell automobile. Blanc is perhaps best remembered as Benny's perpetually frustrated violin teacher, Professor LeBlanc, who was as likely to throw his own and Benny's instrument into the fireplace as he was to have a nervous breakdown before he was out the door.

Other musical contributions came starting in 1946 from the singing quartet the Sportsmen (members: Bill Days, Max Smith, Marty Sperzel and Gurney Bell) singing the middle Lucky Strike commercial. In the early days of the program, the supporting characters were often vaudevillian ethnic stereotypes whose humor was grounded in dialects. As the years went by, the humor of these figures became more character-based.

Benny's method of bringing a character into a skit, by announcing his name, also became a well-known Benny shtick: "Oh, Dennis..." or "Oh, Rochester..." typically answered by, "Yes, Mr. Benny (Boss)?"

Situations

''The Jack Benny Program'' evolved from a variety show blending sketch comedy and musical interludes into the situation comedy form we know even now, crafting particular situations and scenarios from the fictionalization of Benny the radio star. Any situation from hosting a party to income tax time to a night on the town was good for a Benny show, and somehow the writers and star would find the right ways and places to insert musical interludes from Phil Harris and Dennis Day. With Day, invariably, it would be a brief sketch that ended with Benny ordering Day to sing the song he planned to do on that week's show.

One extremely popular scenario that became an annual tradition on ''The Jack Benny Program'' was the "Christmas Shopping" episode, in which Benny would head to a local department store. Each year, Benny would buy a ridiculously cheap Christmas gift for Don Wilson from a store clerk played by Mel Blanc. Benny would then have second (then third, and even fourth) thoughts about his gift choice, driving Blanc (or, in two other cases, his wife and his psychiatrist, as well) to hilarious insanity by exchanging the gift, pestering about the Christmas card or wrapping paper countless times throughout the episode: in many cases, the clerk would commit suicide, or attempt and fail to commit suicide ("Look what you done! You made me so nervous, I missed!") as a result.

In the 1946 Christmas episode, for example, Benny buys shoelaces for Don, and then is unable to make up his mind whether to give Wilson shoelaces with plastic tips or shoelaces with metal tips. After Benny exchanges the shoelaces repeatedly, Mel Blanc is heard screaming insanely, "Plastic tips! Metal tips! I can't stand it anymore!" A variation in 1948 concerned Benny buying an expensive wallet for Don, but repeatedly changing the greeting card inserted—prompting Blanc to shout: "I haven't run into anyone like you in 20 years! Oh, why did the governor have to give me that pardon!?" – until Benny realizes that he should have gotten Don a wallet for $1.98, whereupon the put-upon clerk immediately responds by committing suicide. Over the years, in these Christmas episodes, Benny bought and repeatedly exchanged cuff links, golf tees, a box of dates, a paint set, and even a gopher trap.

In 1936, after a few years broadcasting from New York, Benny moved the show to Los Angeles, allowing him to bring in guests from among his show business friends — such as Frank Sinatra, James Stewart, Judy Garland, Barbara Stanwyck, Bing Crosby, Burns and Allen (George Burns was Benny's closest friend), and many others. Burns and Allen and Orson Welles guest hosted several episodes in March and April 1943 when Benny was seriously ill with pneumonia, while Ronald Colman and his wife Benita Hume appeared frequently in the 1940s as Benny's long-suffering neighbors.

Sponsors

In the early days of radio (and in the early television era, often as not), the airtime was owned by the sponsor, and Benny made a point of incorporating the commercials into the body of the show. Sometimes the sponsors were the butt of jokes, though Benny did not deploy this device as frequently as his friend and "rival" Fred Allen did at the time, or as his cast member Phil Harris later did on his own successful radio sitcom. Nevertheless, for many years Benny insisted in contract negotiations that his writers pen the sponsor's commercial in the middle of the program (leaving the sponsor to provide the opening and closing spots) and the resulting ads were cleverly and wittily worked into the storyline of the show. For example, on one program, Don Wilson accidentally misread Lucky Strike's slogan ("Be happy, go Lucky") as "Be Lucky, go happy", prompting a story arc over several weeks that had Wilson unable to attend the show due to being severely traumatized by the error.

In fact, the radio show was generally not announced as ''The Jack Benny Program''. Instead, the primary name of the show tied to the sponsor. Benny's first sponsor was Canada Dry Ginger Ale from 1932 to 1933. Benny's sponsors included Chevrolet from 1933 to 1934, General Tire in 1934, and Jell-O from 1934 to 1942. ''The Jell-O Program Starring Jack Benny'' was so successful in selling Jell-O, in fact, that General Foods could not manufacture it fast enough when sugar shortages arose in the early years of World War II, and the company had to stop advertising the popular dessert mix. General Foods switched the Benny program from Jell-O to Grape-Nuts from 1942 to 1944, and it became, naturally, ''The Grape Nuts Program Starring Jack Benny''. Benny's longest-running sponsor, however, was the American Tobacco Company's Lucky Strike cigarettes, from 1944 to 1955, when the show was usually announced as ''The Lucky Strike Program starring Jack Benny''.

Writers

Benny was notable for employing a small group of writers, most of whom stayed with him for many years. This was very much in contrast to other successful radio or television comedians, such as Bob Hope, who would change writers frequently. Historical accounts (like those by longtime Benny writer Milt Josefsberg) indicate that Benny's role was essentially that of both head writer and director of his radio programs, though he was not credited in either capacity. In contrast to Fred Allen, who initially personally wrote all of his own radio scripts (and continued to extensively rewrite scripts produced in later years by a writing staff), Jack Benny was often described by his writers as a consummate comedy editor rather than a writer per se. He would often debate the precise wording of jokes, and always sought to ensure the preservation of the integrity of the show's characters above easy gags.

Theme music

During his early radio shows, there was no recurring theme, the program instead opening each week with a different then-current popular song. Throughout the Jello and Grapenuts years, announcer Don Wilson would announce the name of the show, some of the cast, and then state "The orchestra opens the program with [name of song]". The orchestra number would continue softly as background for Don Wilson's opening commercial.

Starting in the Lucky Strike era, Benny adopted a medley of "Yankee Doodle Dandy" and "Love in Bloom" as his theme music, opening every show. "Love in Bloom" later became the theme of his television show as well. His radio shows often ended with the orchestra playing "Hooray for Hollywood". The TV show ended with one of two bouncy instrumentals written for the show by his musical arranger and conductor, Mahlon Merrick.

Benny would sometimes joke about the propriety of "Love in Bloom" as his theme song. On a segment often played in ''Tonight Show'' retrospectives, Benny talks with Johnny Carson about this. Benny says he has no objections to the song in and of itself, only as ''his theme.'' Proving his point, he begins reciting the lyrics slowly and deliberately: "Can it be the ''trees.'' That fill the breeze. With rare and magic perfume. Now what the hell has that got to do with ''me?''"

"Your money or your life"

In an episode broadcast March 28, 1948, Benny borrowed neighbor Ronald Colman's Oscar, and was returning home when accosted by a mugger (voiced by comedian Eddie Marr). After asking for a match to light a cigarette, the mugger demanded, "Don't make a move, this is a stickup. Now, come on. Your money or your life." Benny paused, and the studio audience—knowing his skinflint character—laughed. The robber then repeated his demand: "Look, bud! I said your money or your life!" And that's when Benny snapped back, without a break, "I'm thinking it over!" This time, the audience laughed louder and longer than they had during the pause.

The punchline came to Benny staff writers John Tackaberry and Milt Josefsberg almost by accident. Writer George Balzer described the scene to author Jordan R. Young, for ''The Laugh Crafters'', a 1999 book of interviews with veteran radio and television comedy writers: :... they had come to a point where they had the line, "Your money or your life." And that stopped them... Milt is pacing up and down, trying to get a follow... And he gets a little peeved at Tack, and he says, "For God's sakes, Tack, say something." Tack, maybe he was half asleep—in defense of himself, says, "I'm thinking it over." And Milt says, "Wait a minute. That's it." And that's the line that went in the script... By the way, that was ''not'' the biggest laugh that Jack ever got. It has the reputation of getting the biggest laugh. But that's not true.

The actual length of the laugh the joke got was five seconds when originally delivered and seven seconds when the gag was reprised on a follow-up show. In fact, the joke is probably not so memorable for the length of the laugh it provoked, but because it became the definitive "Jack Benny joke"—the joke that best illustrated Benny's "stingy man" persona. The punchline—"I'm thinking it over!"—simply would not have worked with any other comedian but Benny.

The actual longest laugh known to collectors of ''The Jack Benny Program'' lasted in excess of 32 seconds. The International Jack Benny Fan Club reports that, at the close of the program broadcast on December 13, 1936, sponsored by Jell-O, guest Andy Devine says that it is the "last number of the eleventh program in the new Jelly series." The audience, who loved any sort of accidental flub in the live program, is still laughing after 32 seconds, at which point the network cut off the program to prevent it from running overtime.

According to Jack himself, Mary Livingstone got the biggest laugh he ever heard on the show, on the April 25, 1948 broadcast. The punchline was the result of the following exchange between Don Wilson and noted opera singer Dorothy Kirsten:

:Don Wilson: Oh, Miss Kirsten, I wanted to tell you that I saw you in "Madame Butterfly" Wednesday afternoon, and I thought your performance was simply magnificent. :Dorothy Kirsten: Well, thanks, awfully. It's awfully nice and kind of you, Mr. Wilson. But, uh, who could help singing Puccini? It's so expressive. And particularly in the last act, starting with the ''allegro vivacissimo''. :Don Wilson: Well, now, that's being very modest, Miss Kirsten. But not every singer has the necessary ''bel canto'' and flexibility or range to cope with the high ''tessitura'' of the first act. :Dorothy Kirsten: Thank you, Mr. Wilson. And don't you think that in the aria, "''Un bel dì vedremo''", that the strings played the ''con molto passione'' exceptionally fine and with great ''sostenuto''? :Jack Benny: Well, I thought-- :Mary Livingstone (to Jack): Oh, shut up!

According to Jack, the huge laugh resulted from the long buildup, and the audience's knowledge that Jack, with his pompous persona, would have to break into the conversation at some point.

A nearly identical exchange occurred over a year earlier, among renowned violinist Isaac Stern, actor Ronald Colman, Jack Benny, and Mary Livingstone. The quartet's back-and-forth, which centered on Stern's recent public performance of a Mendelssohn piece, was heard on an episode first broadcast on February 16, 1947. The resulting laughter lasted some 18 seconds, after which Jack retorted, "Mary, that's no way to talk to Mr. Stern."

Later in life, when performing as a stand-up comedian in Las Vegas, Jack had just begun to tell an old joke about the salesman, the farmer and the farmer's daughter: "So the salesman and the farmer's daughter come to the front door, and the farmer opens the door." At this point, Sammy Davis, Jr. walks onstage behind Jack, the audience screams, and Sammy proceeds to speak and sing and dance about 25 minutes or so, while Jack continues to stand at center stage, quietly watching the spectacle. When Davis finally walks offstage and the audience's applause dies down, Jack continues to watch Davis offstage for a few moments, then as the audience is finally quiet continues: "... So the farmer said--" And that's about as far as that joke got, because the audience laughed for minutes afterward.

The Benny-Allen "feud"

In 1937 Benny began his famous radio "feud" with rival Fred Allen. Allen kicked the "feud" off on his own show, after child violinist Stewart Canin gave a performance credible enough that Allen wisecracked about "a certain alleged violinist" who should by comparison be ashamed of himself. Benny, who either listened to the Allen show or was told about the crack, answered in kind on his own show. And the two comedians were off and running.

For a decade, the two went at it back and forth, so convincingly that fans of either show could have been forgiven for believing they had become blood enemies. In fact, the two men were good friends and each other's greatest admirers. Benny and Allen often appeared on each other's show during the thick of the "feud"; numerous surviving episodes of both comedians' radio shows feature each other, in both acknowledged guest spots and occasional cameos. Benny in his eventual memoir (''Sunday Nights at Seven'') and Allen in his ''Treadmill to Oblivion'' later revealed that each comedian's writing staff often met together to plot future takes on the mock feud. If Allen zapped Benny with a satirisation of Benny's show ("The Pinch Penny Program"), Benny shot back with a parody of Allen's early favourite, ''Town Hall Tonight''. Benny's parody? "Clown Hall Tonight." And their playful sniping ("Benny was born ignorant, and he's been losing ground ever since") was also advanced in the films ''Love Thy Neighbor'' and ''It's in the Bag!''.

Perhaps the climax of the "feud" came during Fred Allen's parody of popular quiz-and-prize show ''Queen for a Day'', which was barely a year old when Allen decided to have a crack at it on ''The Fred Allen Show''---an episode that has survived for today's listeners to appreciate. Calling the sketch "King for a Day", Allen played the host and Benny a contestant who sneaked onto the show using the alias Myron Proudfoot. Benny answered the prize-winning question correctly and Allen crowned him "king" and showered him with a passel of almost meaningless prizes. Allen proudly announced, "Tomorrow night, in your ermine robe, you will be whisked by bicycle to Orange, New Jersey, where you will be the judge in a chicken-cleaning contest." To which Benny joyously declared, "I'm ''king'' for a day!" At this point a professional pressing-iron was wheeled on stage, to press Benny's suit properly. It didn't matter that Benny was still ''in'' the suit. Allen instructed his aides to remove Benny's suit, one item at a time, ending with his trousers, each garment's removal provoking louder laughter from the studio audience. As his trousers began to come off, Benny howled, "Allen, you haven't seen the ''end'' of me!" At once Allen shot back, "It won't be long ''now!''"

The laughter was so loud and chaotic at the chain of events that the Allen show announcer, Kenny Delmar, was cut off the air while trying to read a final commercial and the show's credits. (Allen was notorious for running overtime often enough, largely thanks to his ad-libbing talent, and he overran the clock again this time.)

Benny was profoundly shaken by Allen's sudden death of a heart attack in 1956. In a statement released on the day after Allen's death, Benny said, "People have often asked me if Fred Allen and I were really friends in real life. My answer is always the same. You couldn't have such a long-running and successful feud as we did, without having a deep and sincere friendship at the heart of it."

The CBS talent raid

On the advice of MCA's Lew Wasserman, Jack Benny formed a holding company, "Amusement Enterprises" (a tax break major entertainers usually enjoyed in those years), which allowed him to bundle his entire program and personnel into a single commodity. The company also gave Benny the opportunity to produce and package other radio programs (including his 1947 summer replacement series starring Jack Paar), and invest in other entertainment ventures, including the production of a 1949 feature film, ''The Lucky Stiff'', starring Dorothy Lamour, and as a key financial backer of the 1948 Broadway version of Mister Roberts, starring Henry Fonda. While Benny was top of the proverbial heap on NBC, CBS czar William S. Paley cast a hungry eye upon the comedian. Paley apparently had good reason to believe Benny could be had. In the summer of 1948, he successfully negotiated a deal with Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll, buying ''their'' holding company, which owned the Amos 'n' Andy radio show (and the rights to those characters), moving the entire "package" from NBC to CBS that fall: he then learned that NBC balked at buying a "Jack Benny" package deal when "Jack Benny" was not the star's real name. Paley reached out to Benny and offered him a deal that would allow that package-buy.

But Paley, according to CBS historian Robert Metz, also learned that Benny chafed under NBC's almost indifferent attitude toward the talent that attracted the listeners. NBC, under the leadership of David Sarnoff, seemed at the time to think that listeners were listening to NBC because of NBC itself. To Paley, according to Metz, that was foolish thinking at best: Paley believed listeners were listening because of the talent, not because of which platform hosted them. When Paley said as much to Benny, the comedian agreed. Because Paley took a personal interest in the Benny negotiations, as opposed to Sarnoff who had never met his top-rated star, Benny was convinced to make the jump. He convinced a number of his fellow NBC performers (notably Burns and Allen, Edgar Bergen, Red Skelton and Kate Smith) to join him.

To sweeten the deal for a very nervous sponsor, Paley also agreed to make up the difference to American Tobacco if Benny's Hooper rating (the radio version of today's Nielsen ratings) on CBS fell to a certain level below his best NBC Hooper rating. Benny's CBS debut on January 2, 1949 bested his top NBC rating by several points while also pumping up the ratings of the show that followed, ''Amos 'n' Andy''. NBC, with its smash Sunday night lineup now broken up, offered lucrative new deals to two of those Sunday night hits, ''The Fred Allen Show'' and ''The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show''. Benny's bandleader and his singing actress wife now starred in their own hit sitcom, meaning Harris was featured on shows for two different networks.

Benny and Sarnoff eventually met several years later and became good friends. Benny said that if he had had this kind of relationship with Sarnoff earlier, when he was Sarnoff's number-one radio star, he never would have left NBC.

Television

Benny first appeared on television in a brief appearance on the inaugural broadcast of Los Angeles station KTTV (Channel 11) on January 1, 1949. KTTV was the Los Angeles CBS Television outlet at the time.

The television version of ''The Jack Benny Program'' ran from October 28, 1950 to 1965. Initially scheduled as a series of five "specials" during the 1950–1951 season, the show appeared every six weeks for the 1951–1952 season, every four weeks for the 1952–1953 season and every three weeks in 1953–1954. For the 1953–1954 season, half the episodes were live and half were filmed during the summer, to allow Benny to continue doing his radio show. From the fall of 1954 to 1960, it appeared every other week, and from 1960 to 1965 it was seen weekly.

In September 1954, CBS premiered Chrysler's ''Shower of Stars'' co-hosted by Jack Benny and William Lundigan. It enjoyed a successful run from 1954 until 1958. Both television shows often overlapped the radio show. In fact, the radio show alluded frequently to its television counterparts. Often as not, Benny would sign off the radio show in such circumstances with the line "Well, good night, folks. I'll see you on television."

When Benny moved to television, audiences learned that his verbal talent was matched by his controlled repertory of dead-pan facial expressions and gesture. The program was similar to the radio show (several of the radio scripts were recycled for television, as was somewhat common with other radio shows that moved to television), but with the addition of visual gags. Lucky Strike was the sponsor. Benny did his opening and closing monologues before a live audience, which he regarded as essential to timing of the material. As in other TV comedy shows, canned laughter was sometimes added to "sweeten" the soundtrack, as when the studio audience missed some close-up comedy because of cameras or microphones in their way. The television viewers learned to live without Mary Livingstone, who was afflicted by a striking case of stage fright. Livingstone appeared rarely if at all on the television show (for the last few years of the radio show, she pre-recorded her lines and Jack and Mary's daughter, Joan, stood in for the live broadcast as the pre-recordings were played), and finally retired from show business permanently in 1958, as her friend Gracie Allen had done.

Benny's television program relied more on guest stars and less on his regulars than his radio program. In fact, the only radio cast members who appeared regularly on the television program as well were Don Wilson and Eddie Anderson. Day appeared sporadically, and Harris had left the radio program in 1952, although he did make a guest appearance on the television show (Bob Crosby, Phil's "replacement", frequently appeared on television through 1956). A frequent guest was the Canadian born singer-violinist Gisele Mackenzie.

Benny was able to attract guests who rarely, if ever, appeared on television. In 1953, both Marilyn Monroe and Humphrey Bogart made their television debuts on Benny's program.

Canadian singer Gisele MacKenzie, who toured with Benny in the early 1950s, guest starred seven times on ''The Jack Benny Program''. Benny was so impressed with MacKenzie's talents that he served as co-executive producer and guest starred on her 1957–1958 NBC variety show, ''The Gisele MacKenzie Show''. In 1964, Walt Disney was a guest, primarily to promote his production of ''Mary Poppins''. Benny persuaded Disney to give him over 100 free admission tickets to Disneyland for his friends, but later in the show Disney apparently sent his pet tiger after Benny as revenge, at which point Benny opened his umbrella and soared above the stage like Mary Poppins.

In due course the ratings game finally got to Benny, too. CBS dropped the show in 1964, citing Benny's lack of appeal to the younger demographic the network began courting, and he went to NBC, his original network, in the fall, only to be out-rated by CBS's ''Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.'' The network dropped Benny at the end of the season. He continued to make occasional specials into the 1970s. His last television appearance was in 1974, on a Dean Martin Celebrity Roast for Lucille Ball. The videotaped show was telecast just a few weeks after his death.

In his unpublished autobiography, ''I Always Had Shoes'' (portions of which were later incorporated by Jack's daughter, Joan, into her memoir of her parents, ''Sunday Nights at Seven''), Benny said that he, not NBC, made the decision to end his TV series in 1965. He said that while the ratings were still very good (he cited a figure of some 18 million viewers per week, although he qualified that figure by saying he never believed the ratings services were doing anything more than guessing, no matter what they promised), advertisers were complaining that commercial time on his show was costing nearly twice as much as what they paid for most other shows, and he had grown tired of what was called the "rate race." Thus, after some three decades on radio and television in a weekly program, Jack Benny went out on top. In fairness, Benny himself shared Fred Allen's ambivalence about television, though not quite to Allen's extent. "By my second year in television, I saw that the camera was a man-eating monster...It gave a performer close-up exposure that, week after week, threatened his existence as an interesting entertainer."

In a joint appearance with Phil Silvers on Dick Cavett's show, Benny recalled that he had advised Silvers not to appear on television. However, Silvers ignored Benny's advice and proceeded to win several Emmy awards as Sergeant Bilko on the popular series ''The Phil Silvers Show'', while Benny claimed he never won any of the television honors.

Movies

Benny also acted in movies, including the Academy Award-winning ''The Hollywood Revue of 1929'', ''Broadway Melody of 1936'' (as a benign nemesis for Eleanor Powell and Robert Taylor), ''George Washington Slept Here'' (1942), and notably, ''Charley's Aunt'' and ''To Be or Not to Be''. He and Livingstone also appeared in Ed Sullivan's ''Mr. Broadway'' (1933) as themselves. Benny often parodied contemporary movies and movie genres on the radio program, and the 1940 film ''Buck Benny Rides Again'' features all the main radio characters in a funny Western parody adapted from program skits. The failure of one Benny vehicle, ''The Horn Blows at Midnight'', became a running gag on his radio program, although contemporary viewers may not find the film as disappointing as the jokes suggest.

Benny may have had an unbilled cameo role in ''Casablanca'' (claimed by a contemporary newspaper advertisement and reportedly in the ''Casablanca'' press book). When asked in his column "Movie Answer Man", critic Roger Ebert first replied, "It looks something like him. That's all I can say." In response to a follow-up question in his next column, he stated, "I think you're right."

Benny also was caricatured in several Warner Brothers cartoons including ''Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur'' (1939, as Casper the Caveman), ''I Love to Singa'', ''Slap Happy Pappy'', and ''Goofy Groceries'' (1936, 1940, and 1941 respectively, as Jack Bunny), ''Malibu Beach Party'' (1940, as himself), and ''The Mouse that Jack Built'' (1959). The last of these is probably the most memorable: Robert McKimson engaged Benny and his actual cast (Mary Livingstone, Eddie Anderson, and Don Wilson) to do the voices for the mouse versions of their characters, with Mel Blanc—the usual Warner Brothers cartoon voicemeister—reprising his old vocal turn as the always-aging Maxwell, always a ''phat''-phat-''bang!'' away from collapse. In the cartoon, Benny and Livingstone agree to spend their anniversary at the Kit-Kat Club, which they discover the hard way is inside the mouth of a live cat. Before the cat can devour the mice, Benny himself awakens from his dream, then shakes his head, smiles wryly, and mutters, "Imagine, me and Mary as little mice." Then, he glances toward the cat lying on a throw rug in a corner and sees his and Livingstone's cartoon alter egos scampering out of the cat's mouth. The cartoon ends with a classic Benny look of befuddlement. It was rumored that Benny requested that, in lieu of monetary compensation, he receive a copy of the finished film.

Running gags

Benny teamed with Fred Allen for the best-remembered running gag in classic radio history, in terms of character dialogue. But Benny alone sustained a classic repertoire of running gags in his own right, including his skinflint radio and television persona, his perpetual stage age of 39, and his atonal violin playing.

A skit heard numerous times on radio, and seen many times on television, had Mel Blanc as a Mexican in a sombrero and sarape sitting on a bench. Jack Benny sits down and begins a conversation. To each question asked by Benny, Blanc replies Si, Benny asks his name, Blanc replies Sy and when Benny asks where Blanc is going, Blanc replies, "to see his sister", Sue.

A running gag in Benny's private life concerned George Burns. To Benny's eternal frustration, he could never get Burns to laugh. Burns, on the other hand, could crack Benny up with the least effort. An example of this occurred at a party when Benny pulled out a match to light a cigar. Burns announced to all, "Jack Benny will now perform the famous match trick!" Benny had no idea what Burns was talking about, so he proceeded to light up. Burns observed, "Oh, a new ending!" and Benny collapsed in helpless laughter.

Benny even had a sound-based running gag of his own: his famous basement vault alarm, allegedly installed by Spike Jones, ringing off with a shattering cacophony of whistles, sirens, bells, and blasts, before ending invariably with the sound of a foghorn. The alarm rang off even when Benny opened his safe with the correct combination. The vault also featured a guard named Ed (voiced by Joseph Kearns) who had been on post down below before, apparently, the end of the Civil War, the end of the Revolutionary War, the founding of Los Angeles, on Jack's 38th birthday, and even the beginning of humanity. In one appearance, Ed asked Benny, "By the way, Mr. Benny...what's it like on the outside?" Benny responded, "...winter is nearly here, and the leaves are falling." Ed responded, "Hey, that must be exciting." To which Benny replied (in a stunningly risqué joke for the period), "Oh, no—people are wearing clothes now." In one episode of the Benny radio show, Ed the Guard actually agreed when Jack invited him to take a break and come back to the surface world, only to discover that modern conveniences and transportation, which hadn't been around the last time he'd been to the surface, terrorized and confused him. (Poor Ed thought a crosstown bus was "a red and yellow dragon.") Finally, Ed decides to return to his post fathoms below and stay there. The basement vault gag was also used in the cartoon ''The Mouse that Jack Built'' and an episode of ''The Lucy Show''.

A separate sound gag involved a song Benny had written, "When You Say I Beg Your Pardon, Then I'll Come Back to You." Its inane lyrics and insipid melody guaranteed that it would never be published or recorded, but Benny continued to try to con, extort, or otherwise inveigle some of his musical guests (including The Smothers Brothers and Peter, Paul and Mary) to perform it. None ever made it all the way through.

In keeping with his "stingy" schtick, on one of his television specials he remarked that, to his way of looking at things, a "special" is when the price of coffee is marked down.

The explanation usually given for the "stuck on 39" running joke is that he had celebrated his birthday on-air when he turned 39, and decided to do the same the following year, because "there's nothing funny about 40." Upon his death, having celebrated his 39th birthday 41 times, some newspapers continued the joke with headlines such as "Jack Benny Dies – At 39?"

Another popular running gag concerned the social habits of Benny's on-air orchestra, who were consistently portrayed as a bunch of drunken ne'er-do-wells. Led first by Phil Harris and later by Bob Crosby, the orchestra, and in particular band member Frank Remley, were jokingly portrayed as often being too drunk to play properly, using an overturned bass drum to play cards on just minutes before a show, and so enamored by liquor that the sight of a glass of milk would make them sick. Remley was portrayed in various unflattering situations, such as being thrown into a garbage can by a road sweeper who had found him passed out in the street at 4 am, and on a wanted poster at the Beverly Hills police station. Crosby also got consistent laughs by frequently joking about his more famous brother Bing's vast wealth.

The Maxwell

Starting on the radio show, a running joke was that Benny drove a Maxwell automobile, a brand that went out of business in 1925. Benny's old car was so worn out that it would barely run, but the miserly Benny insisted he could get a few more miles out of it. When a sound effects man missed a cue for the automobile engine, Mel Blanc quickly improvised a vocal imitation of a sputtering car engine that was so funny it became a regular feature of the show. By 1943, Jack Benny's Maxwell had become such a well known aspect of popular culture that it was referenced in the Spike Jones record "The Sound Effects Man".

When the Jack Benny Program began appearing on television in 1950, a 1916 Maxwell Model 25 Tourer became one of the production's standard props. Benny's Maxwell later became a 1923 Tourer. In addition to on the program, Benny would often make public appearances in Maxwells. He appeared behind the wheel of one in the film It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and drove a Maxwell onto the stage in one of his last television specials. Benny and his archaic auto were featured in a series of television and print ads for Texaco from the 1950s through the 1970s. A series of gags were built around the premise that Benny appreciated the value of "Sky Chief" brand gasoline in keeping his car running smoothly, but was too cheap to buy more than one gallon at a time.

Final years

After his broadcasting career ended, Benny performed live as a stand up comedian and returned to films in 1963 with a cameo appearance in ''It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World''. Benny was preparing to star in the film version of Neil Simon's ''The Sunshine Boys'' when his health failed. In fact, he prevailed upon his longtime best friend, George Burns, to take his place on a nightclub tour while preparing for the film. (Burns ultimately had to replace Benny in the film as well and went on to win an Academy Award for his performance).

Benny made one of his final television appearances in the fall of 1972 on ''The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson'' when Carson celebrated his 10th anniversary. (An audio recording featuring highlights of Benny's appearance is featured on the album ''Here's Johnny: Magic Moments From The Tonight Show'' released in 1973.) During this appearance, he stated that he loved the violin so much, "if God came to me and said 'Jack, starting tomorrow I will make you one of the world's great violinists, but no more will you ever be able to tell a joke', I really believe that I would accept that." He also related something Isaac Stern once told him: "You know, Jack, when you walk out in front of a symphony orchestra in white tie and tails and your violin, you actually ''look'' like one of the world's great violinists. It's a damned shame you have to ''play''!" Jokes aside, Benny was a serious, dedicated violinist who could play aside Stern and not embarrass himself.

Death

In October 1974, Benny canceled a performance in Dallas after suffering a dizzy spell, coupled with numbness in his arms. Despite a battery of tests, Benny's ailment could not be determined. When he complained of stomach pains in early December, a first test showed nothing, but a subsequent one showed he had inoperable pancreatic cancer. Choosing to spend his final days at home, he was visited by close friends including George Burns, Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, Johnny Carson and New Zealand crooner John Rowles. He died on December 26, 1974. Bob Hope delivered the eulogy at his funeral. Two days after his death, he was interred in a crypt at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California. Benny's will arranged for flowers, specifically a single long-stemmed red rose, to be delivered to his widow, Mary Livingstone, every day for the rest of her life. Livingstone died nine years later on June 30, 1983.

In trying to explain his successful life, Benny summed it up by stating "Everything good that happened to me happened by accident. I was not filled with ambition nor fired by a drive toward a clear-cut goal. I never knew exactly where I was going."

Upon his death, his family donated to UCLA his personal, professional, and business papers, as well as a collection of his television shows. The university established the Jack Benny Award in his honor in 1977 to recognize outstanding people in the field of comedy. Johnny Carson was the first award recipient. Benny also donated a Stradivarius violin purchased in 1957 to the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. Benny had commented, "If it isn't a $30,000 Strad, I'm out $120."

Honors

Jack Benny has one star each on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for TV, film, and radio.

Posthumous tributes

When the price of a standard first-class US postal stamp was increased to 39 cents in 2006, fans petitioned for a Jack Benny stamp to honor his stage persona’s perpetual age. The U.S. Postal Service had issued a stamp depicting Jack Benny in 1991, as part of a booklet of stamps honoring comedians; however, the stamp was issued at the then-current rate of 29 cents.

Jack Benny Middle School in Waukegan, Illinois, is named after the famous comedian. Its motto matches his famous statement as "Home of the '39ers".

See also

List of most-listened-to radio programs

References

Further reading

New York Times, April 16, 1953, p43,"Jack Benny plans more work on tv."

New York Times, March 16, 1960, p75, "Canned laughter: Comedians are crying on the inside about CBS rule that public know of its use."

''Jack Benny'', Mary Livingstone Benny, Hilliard Marks with Marcia Borie, Doubleday & Company, 1978, 322 p.

''Sunday Nights at Seven: The Jack Benny Story'', Jack Benny and Joan Benny, Warner Books, 1990, 302 p.

''CBS: Reflections in a Bloodshot Eye'', by Robert Metz, New American Library, 1978.

''The Laugh Crafters: Comedy Writing in Radio and TV's Golden Age'', by Jordan R. Young; Past Times Publishing, 1999.

''Well! Reflections on the Life and Career of Jack Benny'', edited by Michael Leannah, BearManor Media, 2007.

''Jack Benny v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue'', 25 T.C. 197 (1955).

Hilmes, M. (1997). Radio voices American broadcasting, 1922-1952. Minnesota Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Further reading

Benny, Jack; Benny, Joan. (1990) ''Sunday Nights at Seven: The Jack Benny Story''. Warner Books.

Josefsberg, Milt. (1977) ''The Jack Benny Show.'' New Rochelle: Arlington House. ISBN 0-87000-347-X

Leannah, Michael, editor. (2007) ''Well! Reflections on the Life and Career of Jack Benny.'' BearManor Media. Contributing authors: Frank Bresee, Clair Schulz, Kay Linaker, Janine Marr, Pam Munter, Mark Higgins, B. J. Borsody, Charles A. Beckett, Jordan R. Young, Philip G. Harwood, Noell Wolfgram Evans, Jack Benny, Michael Leannah, Steve Newvine, Ron Sayles, Kathryn Fuller-Seeley, Marc Reed, Derek Tague, Michael J. Hayde, Steve Thompson, Michael Mildredson.

External links

Audio

*Jack Benny Show – OTR Podcast – Daily episodes of The Jack Benny Program in MP3 format with new introductions and Benny Trivia

*Over 350 episodes of The Jack Benny Program in MP3 format

*Two broadcasts (East/West) of ''The Jello Program'': "Christmas Shopping for Perfume and a Necktie" (12/17/39)

Video

Jack Benny at TVGuide.com

Jack Benny Fred Allen Feud

Jack Benny Audio History

International Jack Benny Fan Club

Online audio and video of Jack Benny

Copies of Jack Benny's Radio and TV scripts, with handwritten edits

Free 2 minute download of Humphrey Bogart on the Jack Benny Show

Jack Benny Middle School

Jack Benny Center for the Cultural Arts

"The Friars Club"

Jack Benny papers at the University of Wyoming - American Heritage Center

FBI file on Jack Benny

Category:1950s American television series Category:1960s American television series Category:1950 television series debuts Category:1965 television series endings Category:American comedians Category:American film actors Category:American Jews Category:American military personnel of World War I Category:American people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent Category:American people of Polish-Jewish descent Category:American radio personalities Category:American radio actors Category:American stand-up comedians Category:American television actors Category:American violinists Category:Cancer deaths in California Category:CBS network shows Category:Deaths from pancreatic cancer Category:Jewish actors Category:Jewish comedians Category:Peabody Award winners Category:National Radio Hall of Fame inductees Category:People from Chicago, Illinois Category:People from Waukegan, Illinois Category:United States Navy officers Category:Vaudeville performers Category:1894 births Category:1974 deaths

de:Jack Benny es:Jack Benny eo:Jack Benny fr:Jack Benny gl:Jack Benny ko:잭 베니 it:Jack Benny hu:Jack Benny ja:ジャック・ベニー pl:Jack Benny pt:Jack Benny simple:Jack Benny sh:Jack Benny fi:Jack Benny sv:Jack Benny tl:Jack Benny

name	Dolores Hope
birth name	Dolores DeFina
birth date	May 27, 1909
birth place	New York City, New York, U.S.
years active	1929–present
spouse	Bob Hope (1934–2003, his death)
children	Eleanora, Linda, Kelly, and Anthony (died 2004)
occupation	Singer/Philanthropist}}

Dolores Hope, DC*SG (born May 27, 1909) is an American singer, philanthropist and the widow of actor/comedian Bob Hope.

Early life and career

She was born as Dolores DeFina in New York City of Italian and Irish descent and raised in the Bronx. After her father's death, she was raised by her mother, Theresa.

During the 1930s, she began her professional singing career under the name Dolores Reade on the advice of her agent. In 1933, after appearing at the Vogue Club, a Manhattan nightclub, Reade was introduced to Bob Hope. The couple were married on February 19, 1934 in Erie, Pennsylvania. They later adopted four children from The Cradle in Evanston, Illinois: Eleanora, Linda, Kelly and Anthony (d. 2004).

In the 1940s, Dolores began helping her husband on his tours entertaining U.S. troops overseas and she would continue to do so for over 50 years. In 1990, she was the only female entertainer allowed to perform in Saudi Arabia.

At age 83, she recorded her first compact disc, ''Dolores Hope: Now and Then''. She followed this with three additional albums and also recorded a Christmas CD with Bob entitled ''Hopes for the Holidays''.

Later years

On May 29, 2003, Dolores was at her husband's side as he celebrated his 100th birthday; he died two months later on July 27, 2003. The following year Dolores lost her eldest son, Anthony Hope, who died at the age of 63, and who was father to two of the Hope grandchildren, Miranda of Washington and Zachary of Santa Monica.

On May 27, 2009, Dolores Hope became a centenarian herself, and her birthday was featured on ''The Today Show'', with her son saying in an ABC interview, "I think of her as love." On May 29, 2010, Mrs. Hope was quoted as saying to local press, of her 101st birthday, "I’m still recovering from my 100th birthday bash, so I’m going to keep this year’s celebration much quieter.” On May 27, 2011, she celebrated her 102nd birthday at her California residence.

Dolores Hope is an Honorary Board Member of the humanitarian organization Wings of Hope.

Health

On October 21, 2008, she was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital in Burbank, California after suffering a suspected stroke. Her publicist released a statement indicating that she spent less than four hours at the hospital where she underwent routine testing.

Honors

Dolores Hope has received numerous honors during her lifetime.

Religious

Dame of St. Gregory with Star (one of a very select few women named Dame of St. Gregory with Star)

The President's Medal from Loyola College in Baltimore.

The Outstanding Catholic Laywoman Award from St. Louis University

The Elizabeth Seton Medal Award from Seton Hall College

Terence Cardinal Cooke Humanitarian Award from Our Lady of Mercy Medical Center

Patronal Medal from the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and The Catholic University of America

Secular

Hollywood Walk of Fame star for her contributions to live theatre

A street named after her in The Bronx (her hometown)

A permanent installation of the Tree Peony Collection bearing her name

Chancellor Medal from the University of California, Riverside

Winnie Palmer Humanitarian Award (from the Metropolitan Golf Writers Association)

References

External links

Dolores Hope Biography

(future gravesite next to Bob Hope at Mission San Fernando Rey de Espana Cemetery) Category:1909 births Category:Living people Category:American centenarians Category:American female singers Category:American philanthropists Category:American people of Irish descent Category:American people of Italian descent Category:People from the Bronx Category:People from the Greater Los Angeles Area

da:Dolores Hope de:Dolores Hope es:Dolores Hope ru:Хоуп, Долорес simple:Dolores Hope fi:Dolores Hope

birth name	Mary Leta Dorothy Slaton
birth date	December 10, 1914
birth place	New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.
death date	September 22, 1996
death place	Los Angeles, California, U.S.
occupation	Actress
years active	1933—94
website	http://dorothylamour.com/
spouse	Herbie Kay (1935–39)William Ross Howard III (1943–78) 2 children }}

Dorothy Lamour (December 10, 1914 – September 22, 1996) was an American film actress. She is best remembered for appearing in the ''Road to...'' movies, a series of successful comedies starring Bing Crosby and Bob Hope (see Timeline of major beauty pageants) .

Early life

Lamour was born Mary Leta Dorothy Slaton in New Orleans, Louisiana, the daughter of Carmen Louise (née LaPorte) and John Watson Slaton, both of whom were waiters. Lamour was of French Louisianan, Spanish and Irish descent. Her parents' marriage lasted only a few years, with her mother re-marrying to Clarence Lambour, and Dorothy took his last name. That marriage also ended in divorce when Dorothy was a teenager.

In 1935, she had her own fifteen-minute weekly musical program on NBC Radio. She also sang on the popular Rudy Vallee radio show and the Chase and Sanborn Hour.

Early in her career, Lamour met J. Edgar Hoover, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. According to Hoover's biographer Richard Hack, Hoover pursued Lamour romantically, but she was initially interested only in friendship with him. Hoover and Lamour remained close friends to the end of Hoover's life, and after his 1972 death, Lamour did not deny rumors that she'd had an affair with him in the years after she divorced Kay. However, this appears nowhere in her memoirs "My Side of the Road" (Prentice-Hall ISBN 0-13-218594-6).

Career

In 1936, she moved to Hollywood and began appearing regularly in films for Paramount Pictures. The role that made her a star was ''Ulah'' (a sort of female Tarzan) in ''The Jungle Princess'' (1936). She wore a sarong, which would become associated with her. While she first achieved stardom as a sex symbol, Lamour also showed talent as both a comic and dramatic actress. She was among the most popular actresses in motion pictures from 1936 to 1952. She starred in the "''Road to...''" movie series with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope in the 1940s and 1950s. The movies were enormously popular during the 1940s, and they regularly placed among the top moneymaking films each year. While the films centered more on Hope and Crosby, Lamour held her own as their "straight man", looked beautiful, and sang some of her most popular songs. Her contribution to the films was considered by the public and theater owners of equal importance to that of Crosby and Hope during the series' golden era, 1940-1952. The series essentially ended with the release of ''Road to Bali'' in 1952, with her career declining while co-stars Hope and Crosby remained major show business figures.

During the World War II years, Lamour was among the most popular pinup girls among American servicemen, along with Betty Grable, Rita Hayworth, Lana Turner and Veronica Lake. Lamour was also largely responsible for starting up the war bond tours in which movie stars would travel the country selling U.S. government bonds to the public. Lamour alone promoted the sale of over $21 million dollars worth of war bonds, and other stars promoted the sale of a billion more.

Some of Lamour's other notable films include John Ford's ''The Hurricane'' (1937), ''Spawn of the North'' (1938; with George Raft, Henry Fonda, and John Barrymore), ''Disputed Passage'' (1939), ''Johnny Apollo'' (1940; with Tyrone Power), ''Aloma of the South Seas'' (1941), ''Beyond the Blue Horizon'' (1942), ''Dixie'' (1943; with Bing Crosby), ''A Medal for Benny'' (1945), ''My Favorite Brunette'' (1947; with Bob Hope), ''On Our Merry Way'' (1948) and the best picture Oscar-winner ''The Greatest Show on Earth'' (1952; with Charlton Heston). Her other leading men included William Holden, Ray Milland, James Stewart, Jack Benny, and Fred MacMurray.

Dorothy Lamour starred in a number of movie musicals and sang in many of her comedies and dramatic films as well. She introduced a number of standards, including "The Moon of Manakoora", "I Remember You", "It Could Happen to You", "Personality", and "But Beautiful".

Lamour's film career petered out in the early 1950s, and she began a new career as a nightclub entertainer and occasional stage actress. In the 1960s, she returned to the screen for secondary roles in three films and became more active in the legitimate theater, headlining a road company of ''Hello Dolly!'' for over a year near the end of the decade.

Later career

Lamour's good humor and lack of pretension allowed her to have a remarkably long career in show business for someone best known as a glamour girl. She was a popular draw on the dinner theatre circuit of the 1970s. In the 1960s and 1970s, she lived with her longtime husband William Ross Howard III (whom she married in 1943), in the Baltimore suburb of Sudbrook Park. He died in 1978. Lamour published her autobiography ''My Side of the Road'' in 1980, revived her nightclub act, and performed in plays and television shows such as ''Hart to Hart'', ''Crazy Like a Fox'', ''Remington Steele'' and ''Murder, She Wrote''.

During the 1990s, she made only a handful of professional appearances but she remained a popular interview subject for publications and TV talk and news programs. In 1995, the musical ''Swinging on a Star'', a revue of songs written by Johnny Burke opened on Broadway and ran for three months; Lamour was credited as a "special advisor". Burke wrote many of the most famous "''Road to...''" movie songs as well as the score to Lamour's ''And the Angels Sing''. The musical was nominated for the Best Musical Tony Award and the actress playing "Dorothy Lamour" in the Road movie segment, Kathy Fitzgerald, was also nominated.

Death

Lamour died at her home in North Hollywood, California at the age of 81 from a heart attack. She was interred in the Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.

Filmography

Features

''Footlight Parade'' (1933)

''College Holiday'' (1936)

''The Jungle Princess'' (1936)

''Swing High, Swing Low'' (1937)

''The Last Train from Madrid'' (1937)

''High, Wide, and Handsome'' (1937)

''The Hurricane'' (1937)

''Thrill of a Lifetime'' (1937)

''The Big Broadcast of 1938'' (1938)

''Her Jungle Love'' (1938)

''Tropic Holiday'' (1938)

''Spawn of the North'' (1938)

''St. Louis Blues'' (1939)

''Man About Town'' (1939)

''Disputed Passage'' (1939)

''Road to Singapore'' (1940)

''Johnny Apollo'' (1940)

''Typhoon'' (1940)

''Moon Over Burma'' (1940)

''Chad Hanna'' (1940)

''Road to Zanzibar'' (1941)

''Caught in the Draft'' (1941)

''Aloma of the South Seas'' (1941)

''The Fleet's In'' (1942)

''Beyond the Blue Horizon'' (1942)

''Road to Morocco'' (1942)

''Star Spangled Rhythm'' (1942)

''They Got Me Covered'' (1943)

''Dixie'' (1943)

''Riding High'' (1943)

''And the Angels Sing'' (1944)

''Rainbow Island'' (1944)

''A Medal for Benny'' (1945)

''Duffy's Tavern'' (1945)

''Masquerade in Mexico'' (1945)

''Road to Utopia'' (1946)

''My Favorite Brunette'' (1947)

''Variety Girl'' (1947)

''Wild Harvest'' (1947)

''Road to Rio'' (1947)

''On Our Merry Way'' (1948)

''Lulu Belle (film)'' (1948)

''The Girl from Manhattan'' (1948)

''The Lucky Stiff'' (1949)

''Slightly French'' (1949)

''Manhandled'' (1949)

''Here Comes the Groom'' (1951) (Cameo)

''The Greatest Show on Earth'' (1952)

''Road to Bali'' (1952)

''The Road to Hong Kong'' (1962) (cameo)

''Donovan's Reef'' (1963)

''Pajama Party'' (1964)

''The Phynx'' (1970)

''Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood'' (1976) (cameo)

''Creepshow 2'' (1987)

Short subjects

''The Stars Can't Be Wrong'' (1936)

''Hollywood Handicap'' (1938)

''Meet the Stars #1: Chinese Garden Festival'' (1940)

''Show Business at War'' (1943)

''Unusual Occupations: Film Tot Holiday'' (1947)

''Screen Snapshots: Hollywood Shower of Stars'' (1955)

Books

Lamour was the heroine of a novel, ''Dorothy Lamour and the Haunted Lighthouse'' (1947, by Matilda Bailey), where "the heroine has the same name and appearance as the famous actress but has no connection ... it is as though the famous actress has stepped into an alternate reality in which she is an ordinary person." The story was written for a young teenage audience and is reminiscent of the adventures of Nancy Drew. It is part of a series known as "Whitman Authorized Editions", 16 books published between 1941-1947 that featured a film actress as heroine.

The real Lamour's autobiography, ''My Side of the Road'', was published by Prentice-Hall in 1980.

She also had a brief print run of 2-3 issues during the 1950s in "Dorothy Lamour Jungle Princess Comics" - A series of comic books dedicated to her movie ''Jungle Princess'' persona. (featuring screen shots from past movies as the covers.)

Notes

External links

Post-Blitz Clydebank — a documentary about Clydebank, Scotland from 1947 to 1952, featuring Dorothy Lamour

Photographs of Dorothy Lamour

Category:1914 births Category:1996 deaths Category:Actors from Louisiana Category:American beauty pageant winners Category:American female singers Category:American film actors Category:American people of French descent Category:American people of Irish descent Category:American people of Spanish descent Category:Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills) Category:Deaths from myocardial infarction Category:People from New Orleans, Louisiana Category:Torch singers Category:Traditional pop music singers Category:Vaudeville performers

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