Raymond Strait - Bob Hope: A Tribute

By Raymond Strait

A Crossroad Press Biography

Digital Edition published by Crossroad Press

Smashwords edition published at Smashwords by Crossroad Press

Digital Edition Copyright 2016 Raymond Strait

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R aymond Strait has built an international reputation via his numerous celebrity biographies and syndicated columns relating to Hollywood and the world of celebrity.

Considered an expert in his field, he is a very popular speaker whose books and anecdotes provide a wealth of material from which he effortlessly draws to inform his audiences about the excessive lives of the stars.

He was, for ten years, press secretary to the late film sex-symbol, Jayne Mansfield prior to embarking upon a career in writing.

In addition to his numerous books he has written hundreds of feature articles and columns for major magazines and newspapers covering motion pictures, television, music, sports and politics.

November 1997 to December 1999co-host on KHPY Talk Radios Spirit of the Law.

Currently co-host with Fred Primleys In The Mix on KCAA (AM/FM) radio, San Bernardino NBC Affiliate.

A literate and articulate speaker, he has guested on dozens of radio and television shows, including Merv Griffin, Mike Douglas, Hilly Rose, Geraldo Rivera, E-Entertainments Secrets and Scandals, Hollywood and the Kennedys, and the Joan Rivers Show. He also appeared in a CBS Sports Olympics Special on Sonja Henie with 60 Minutes reporter Morley Safer during the 1994 Winter Olympics. Featured guest on A&Es Biography of Jayne Mansfield; Tribute to Rosemary Clooney (aired 4-21-99 on the Family Channels Famous Families,) and a BBC profile of Jayne Mansfield, filmed in Palm Springs, California on June 19, 1999. released in the fall of 1999. He is also a veteran of the book tour circuit.

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Dedicated to

Mrs. Bob Hope a devoted wife and mother

and to

The World of Celebrity without which I would still be wondering what to do when I grow up

I owe a very special thank you to Robert F. Slatzer and Arthur Marx for their more than generous cooperation and kindness in allowing me access to their research and books, and for directing me to important sources which helped bring this project to life. Thanks also to William Faith, a walking encyclopedia of the life and times of Leslie Townes Bob Hope, and to John Austin, a walking encyclopedia of Hollywood, California.

I am also deeply grateful to three women: The late Barbara Payton and Marilyn Maxwell (for their willing and forthright responses during our interviews in the 1950s and 1960s) as well as Jean Carmen, the greatest woman trick golf artist in the world, who provided strategic pieces of the jigsaw puzzle that was the psyche of Bob Hope.

And my thanks to the following, some of whom have passed on yet contributed important bits and pieces during interviews over the years: Leo Guild, Paul Blane, Nancy Bacon, Robert Ellison, Eric Root, Joey Barnum, Sue Terry, Mark Anthony, James Bacon, Earl Wilson, Lucille Ball, Milton Berle, Joey Heatherton, Tony Romano, Doris Day, Rosemary Clooney, Dorothy Lamour, Phyllis Diller, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Edith Head, Fred Otash, Fred MacMurray, Jack Oakie, Martha Raye, Jane Russell, Dinah Shore, Danny Thomas, Rudy Vallee, Steve Allen, Constance Bennett, Jayne Mansfield, Mamie Van Doren, Joan Collins, Cass Daley, Anthony Quinn, Roman Gabriel, Hedy Lamarr, Harry James, Rosey Grier, Mickey Hargitay, Sonja Henie, William Holden, Walter Winchell, Hedda Hopper, Ed Sullivan, Irv Kupcinet, Adela Rogers St. Johns, Sidney Skolsky, Rona Barrett, Toni Holt, Dorothy Manners, and Louella Parsons. I also want to include George Jessel, Margaret Whiting, Keenan Wynn, Jim Backus, Maxine Andrews, Jerry Colonna, Jimmy Durante, Judy Garland, Tommy Howard, George Montgomery, Lana Turner, and Jan King.

REFERENCES: Dont Shoot, Its Only Me, (Bob Hope and Melville Shavelson); Have Tux, Will Travel, (Bob Hope and Pete Martin); Bob Hope, A Life in Comedy, (William Robert Faith); Bob Hope, Portrait of a Superstar, (Charles Thompson); Bing Crosby, The Hollow Man, (Donald Shepherd and Robert F. Slatzer); My Side of the Road, (Dorothy Lamour with Dick McInnes); The Last Christmas Show, (Bob Hope and Pete Martin); Long Live the King: ABiography of Clark Gable, (Lyn Tornabene); The Lucille Ball Story, (James Gregory); Going My Way, (Gary Crosby & Ross Firestone); A Child of the Century, (Ben Hecht); Desi Arnaz, a Book, (Desi Arnaz); March of Democracy, (James Truslow Adams); No People Like Show People, (Maurice Zolotow); Show Biz, from Vaude to Video, (Abel Green and Joe Laurie, Jr.); The Amazing Careers of Bob Hope, (Morelia, Epstein and Clark); Milton Berle, an Autobiography, (Milton Berle & Haskel Frankel); A Hell of a Life, (Harry Richman); The Brothers Shubert, (Jerry Stagg); Who Could Ask For Anything More, (Ethel Merman and Pete Martin); Merman, An Autobiography, (Ethel Merman and George Eels); They Got Me Covered, (Bob Hope); The Road to Hollywood, (Bob Hope and Bob Thomas); The Incredible Crosby, (Barry Ulanov); Didnt You Used to be George Murphy? (George Murphy and Victor Lasky); Out Without My Rubbers, (John Murray Anderson); Schnozzola, (Gene Fowler); Cole Porter, The Life That Late He Lived, (George Eels); The Great Movie Comedians, (Leonard Maltin); I Never Left Home, (Bob Hope); None of Your Business,