Gift
of
Bob
& Dolores
Hope
Bob
Hope Collection
The twentieth
century's
foremost comedian
and entertainer
has honored
the Library
and the Nation
with his gift
of personal
and professional
papers. This
extraordinary
collection
comprises
thousands
of photos,
scripts, monologues,
appointment
books, business
and correspondence
papers, music,
scrapbooks,
personal appearance
logs, original
lacquer discs
of radio broadcasts,
and more than
40 years of
television
specials,
not to mention
the famous
Bob Hope joke
file of over
400,000 jokes.
The
materials
document the
life and career
of this legendary
entertainment
figure and
recapitulate
the hisotry
of American
show business
itself. Hope
is one of
the few performers
who has excelled
in all the
major entertainment
media, from
vaudeville
to stage,
radio, motion
picutres,
and television.
Hope's equally
amazing second
career as
friend and
supporter
of the American
armed forces
throughout
the world
for over fifty
years is also
documented.
His "cowardly
wise-guy"
humor has
endeared him
to millions
of GIs he
has entertained
during hundreds
of trips to
American military
bases and
hospitals
throught the
world.
An
additional
monetary gift
from the Hope's
will support
the processing
and preservation
of the collection,
and will enable
the creation
of the Bob
Hope Gallery
of American
Entertainment
in the Jefferson
Building,
schuduled
to open in
May of 2000.
Here, the
Library is
creating a
permanent
rotating display
of items from
the Hope Collection,
as well as
supplemental
selections
from other
entertainers'
collections
now in the
Library, such
as those of
Ira and George
Gershwin,
Leonard Berstein,
Irving Berlin,
Danny Kay,
Bob Fosse,
Martha Graham,
and Ella Fitzgerald.
The
Hope Collection
will be consulted
for many years
to come, not
just by those
who wish to
study one
man's mastery
of so many
forms of entertainment,
but also by
those who
want to experience
the humor
that helped
us through
some of the
twentieth
century's
most turbulent
events.
