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- <text id=93HT0237>
- <link 90TT1535>
- <title>
- 1940s: Bob Hope
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1940s Highlights
- PEOPLE
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- Bob Hope
- </hdr>
- <body>
- <p>(September 20, 1943)
- </p>
- <p> For fighting men, this grimmest of wars is in one small way
- also the gayest. Never before have the folks who entertain the
- boys been so numerous or so notable; never have they worked so
- hard, traveled so far, risked so much. From the ranks of show
- business have sprung heroes and even martyrs, but so far only
- one legend.
- </p>
- <p> That legend is Bob Hope. It sprang up swiftly,
- telepathically, among U.S. servicemen in Britain this summer,
- traveling faster than even whirlwind Hope himself, then flew
- ahead of him to North Africa and Sicily, growing larger as it
- went. Like most legends, it represents measurable qualities in
- a kind of mystical blend. Hope was funny, treating hordes of
- soldiers to roars of laughter. He was friendly--ate with
- servicemen, drank with them, read their doggerel, listened to
- their songs. He was indefatigable, running himself ragged with
- five, six, seven shows a day. He was figurative--the straight
- link with home, the radio voice that for years had filled the
- living room and that in foreign parts called up its image. Hence
- boys whom Hope might entertain for an hour awaited him for
- weeks. And when he came, anonymous guys who had had no other
- recognition felt personally remembered.
- </p>
-
- </body>
- </article>
- </text>
-
-