Translated material
Hope never dies
Today Bob Hope turns 100 years old
American actor Leslie Towens Hope, who went down in history under the pseudonym Bob Hope, accepts congratulations on his centenary anniversary. He changed his name at school because, according to the roll call rules, they called him Hope Leslie, which sounded very similar to the English word hopeless. Perhaps it was the change of name that played a decisive role in Hope’s life: he arrived at his centenary in good health and with the status of “the most popular representative of show business in the entire history of Western civilization” (as the influential Leonard Maltin recommended Bob Hope in his encyclopedia). Representatives of several generations of Americans spent their lives in the company of Hope, who first appeared on the silver screen in 1934. The series of comedies “On the Road to...” brought him unimaginable fame, in which Hope starred throughout the forties and fifties in the company of Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour; His other films were no less successful. But Hope became the real king of the industry with the rise of the television era. It seems that there was not a single more or less significant television show where he did not take part as an actor or guest of honor: all the stars of the television screen were happy to see him - from Frank Sinatra to Kermit the Frog from The Muppet Show. Hope remains in this status of everyone's favorite to this day.We don't know Hope very well - films with his participation are only occasionally available in Illusion, and hilarious TV shows have never been shown. (Despite the fact that in 1962, Hope came to perform in Moscow and even wrote a book of memories about this trip under the chic title “I Owe Russia Fifteen Thousand Dollars.”) Perhaps most likely, our viewers could see Hope in a tiny episode of the film by John Landis "Spies Like Us" where Hope plays himself. Nevertheless, even in this case one cannot help but appreciate the scale of the personality. Hope's name is mentioned twice in the Guinness Book of Records - in connection with the longest contract ever concluded with a television company (61 years), and because Hope is the most honored actor of all time - he has more than one and a half thousand professional and honorary awards. Hope alone has five Oscars, and four stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The mind-boggling statistics, which would be enough for several dozen lives, can be continued endlessly. During his long life, Hope performed for eleven American presidents, and also entertained American soldiers during three wars - World War II, Korean and Vietnam. And it’s easier to remember what he didn’t do - everything “that happened and what happened” actually takes no less than a hundred years. Moreover, longevity in the Hope family is a good tradition: the grandfather of today’s hero of the day lived for 99 years and 11 months.