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Article: He Springs Eternal.(Bob Hope)
- Article from:
- National Review
- Article date:
- October 9, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 National Review, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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When the American Film Institute (AFI) released its list of "America's 100 Funniest Movies," only one film starring Bob Hope made the cut: Road to Morocco, number 78. This was just the latest in a long string of slights directed at Hope during the past couple of decades. Although audiences still enjoy his movies on video, revisionist authors have painted Hope as a greedy, promiscuous hypocrite, in a stream of articles and books that includes Arthur Marx's The Secret Life of Bob Hope (1993) and Lawrence Quirk's relentlessly hostile and innuendo-filled Bob Hope: The Road Well-Traveled (1998).
The public, of course, has long seen Hope as a gifted comedian, a smart ...