I’ve been indulging in some reading of the great Mr. Bob Hope. I started with his 1954 ‘Have Tux, Will Travel and continued on to ‘The Secret Life of Bob Hope by Groucho’s son, Arthur Marx.

It was great to read so much of this comic legend! However, ‘Have Tux,..’ is clearly written by his gag writers. Too many set ups and punch lines. It would also raise the question of how true it is. Marx’s book claims it to be mostly false. It seems to me to be generally true with the details left for your imagination. In the book Bob Hope certainly seems like a nice guy who did some struggling to get where he was. Yet, it was pretty speedy. If you can find this book, though long out of print, it is definitely a fun read!

Arthur Marx is out to skin a hide. I’m not sure if he was just trying to spice the book by the head hammering of Bob Hopes infidelities or that Hope could almost have been looked upon with a psychological problem involving his need for the female of the human species.

‘The Secret Life of…’ surely fills out Hopes life from the ending of ‘Have Tux’ in ’54 to 1993, but it also contradicts and illuminates Hopes obsessions with fame and women. Marx claim is that Hope had a gal available somewhere into his eighties. Hmmmm…. Have to wonder about that.

The Marx book is a better written book and I flew through the hundreds of pages quickly. Both are a great study of a man, his career in humor and the ease of letting everything get run over by the bus carrying the first two.