Dear Diary,
Fibber Mc Gee pulled a corny gag last night. I’ve forgotten it, but after he said it, Molly countered with the usual, “It ain’t funny, McGee.” He said, “That’s funny. I traded Bob Hope three ‘She’s so fat that’ jokes for that one. It ought to be pretty good.”
I saw an article today that explained why Bob wasn’t in pictures sooner. His first test, for MGM, was so bad he got no results from it. Afterwards, when producers saw him in “Roberta” on Broadway, they invariably sent to MGM for his screen test. Nobody ever signed him. After about two years of that, Bob asked the help of a friend of his at MGM. This friend got the test, pretending a big shot wanted to see it, and took it out of the studio and burned it. A few months later, when Paramount wanted a test of Bob, they had to make a new one. This one was the real Hope – and so our dream man made the grade!
Five weeks ago.
Dear Diary,
I got the most beautiful new bedroom suite today that I ever rested my peepers on. It defies description, but it’s just exactly what I’ve always wanted. Just at the moment the bed doesn’t match the rest of the pieces, but a new one will be out from the factory in two weeks. The present bed is made exactly like the others, only in a different wood.
I got several pictures of Bob today. One of them showed him pumping a writer around the Paramount lot on a bicycle. Another accompanied an article about Bing Crosby, so naturally Bing’s in the picture, too. There’s a lot about Bob in the article too. (Who ever saw an article on either Bing or Bob that didn’t have almost as much about the other ?)
Dear Diary,
When Cecil B. DeMille started to announce next week’s play on his show tonight he said, “The telegram will explain it better than I can.” The telegram read like this: “We appreciate your invitation to the clambake next week. Due to the fuel shortage, please send camel to pick us up on the road to Paramount.” To hear the audience sigh and applaud, you’d know that C.B. didn’t need to say another word. But when he did say, “Signed, Bing Crosby and Bob Hope,” the whole audience broke loose. Naturally, the play will be “Road to Morocco.” The one hitch is that Ginny Simms will take Dorothy Lamour’s place. At that point the audience groaned a little.
Dear Diary,
Lynne Overman, who has been ill with a heart ailment for several days, died last night. He has been in two pictures with Bob —”Caught in the Draft” and “Star-Spangled Rhythm,” the latter of which was his last picture. I saw Lynne and got his autograph late in 1939 when I was visiting Paramount Studios, and he has always been one of my favorite actors.
Muriel Windham's Diary 