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’m becoming convinced that the “Soldiers With Wings” program might well be called “The Bob Hope Show.” Tonight one of the guests was George Murphy, a good friend of Bob’s and a co-star with him in the Broadway show, “Roberta,” a few year ago. Another of the acts was Brenda and Cobina, who were on Bob’s program season before last. The announcer was Ben Gage, who was Bob’s announcer last season up until the time he joined the air corps. The program was written by Private George Hope, Bob’s brother. If there was anything else on the show connected with Bob, I didn’t notice it.
Dear Diary,
I went swimming with Betty Lou this morning. We had a lot of fun under the shed in the pool, swimming and floating and diving for rocks.
I bought a magazine this afternoon. I thought I had looked at it, but I started thumbing through the pages and found three pictures of Bob Hope. In one picture he was with George Murphy, who was with Bob in “Roberta” before Bob went to Hollywood. In another he was with Fred MacMurray, who also knew Bob in New York. In the other he was with his wife. He has also known her for several years. (Eight)
Muriel Windham's Diary 