BOB HOPE’S LEADING LADIES

“A Bob Hope Comedy Special”

(S17;E1)

~ 
September
28, 1966 

Directed
by Jack
Shea

Written
by Mort
Lachman, Bill Larkin, John Rapp, Lester A. White, Charles Lee, Gig
Henry

Bob
Hope
(Himself, Host) was born Lesley Townes Hope in England in 1903.
During his extensive career in virtually all forms of media he
received five honorary Academy Awards. In 1945 Desi Arnaz was the
orchestra leader on Bob Hope’s radio show. Ball and Hope did four
films together. He appeared as himself on the season
6 opener
of “I Love Lucy.” He did a brief cameo in a 1964 episode of “The
Lucy Show.”
When Lucille Ball moved to NBC in 1980, Hope appeared on her welcome
special.
He died in 2003 at age 100.

The Leading Ladies (in alphabetical Order):

Lucille
Ball (1911-1989)
was
born in Jamestown, New York. She began her screen career in 1933 and
was known in Hollywood as ‘Queen of the B’s’ due to her many
appearances in ‘B’ movies. With Richard Denning, she starred in a
radio program titled “My Favorite Husband” which eventually led
to the creation of “I Love Lucy,” a television situation comedy
in which she co-starred with her real-life husband, Latin bandleader
Desi Arnaz. The program was phenomenally successful, allowing the
couple to purchase what was once RKO Studios, re-naming it Desilu.
When the show ended in 1960 (in an hour-long format known as “The
Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour”) so did Lucy and Desi’s marriage. In 1962,
hoping to keep Desilu financially solvent, Lucy returned to the
sitcom format with “The Lucy Show,” which lasted six seasons. She
followed that with a similar sitcom “Here’s Lucy” co-starring
with her real-life children, Lucie and Desi Jr., as well as Gale
Gordon, who had joined the cast of “The Lucy Show” during season
two. Before her death in April 1989, Lucy made one more attempt at a
sitcom with “Life With Lucy,” also with Gordon, which was not a
success and was canceled after just 13 episodes.

Joan
Caulfield
(1922-1991) with Bob Hope: Monsieur
Beaucaire
(1946), Variety
Girl
(1947), “The Bob Hope Show” (1957, 1960)  

Joan
Collins (b.
1933)
with
Bob Hope: The
Road to Honk Kong
(1962), “The Bob Hope Show” (1959, 1962)  

With
Lucille Ball: “All-Star Party for Lucille Ball” (1984), “Night
of 100 Stars II” (1985)  

With
Lucille Ball and Bob Hope: “Women I Love: Beautiful But Funny”
(1982)

Arlene
Dahl
(b. 1925) with Bob Hope: Here
Come The Girls
(1953)

Phyllis
Diller (1917-2012)
with
Bob Hope: “Hollywood Star Spangled Revue” (1966), “The Bob Hope
Vietnam Christmas Show” (1966), Boy
Did I Get a Wrong Number!
(1966), “Kraft Music Hall: The Phyllis Diller Happening” (1967),
“The Phyllis Diller Show: Learn To Be A Millionaire” (1967), “The
Bob Hope Show” (1967, 1970), Eight
on the Lam
(1967), “Rowan and Martin at the Movies” (1968), The Private Navy
of Sgt. O’Farrell (1968), “George Jessel’s Here Comes the Stars:
Bob Hope” (1969), “The Bob Hope Show: Bob Looks at Women’s Lib”
(1970), “The Bob Hope Show: Bob Hope’s 22nd Anniversary” (1971), “Plimpton!  Did You Hear the One About?”
(1971), “The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast: Bob Hope” (1974), “Bob
Hope’s Bicentennial Star-Spangled Special” (1976), “Joys”
(1976), “The Bob Hope Comedy Special from Palm Springs” (1978),
“The Bob Hope Funny Valentine Special” (1981), “The
Merriest of the Merry: Bob Hope’s Christmas Show, A Bagful of Comedy”
(1982), “George Burns Celebrates 80 Years in Show Business”
(1983), “Bob Hope’s Happy Birthday Homecoming” (1984),
“All-Star Party for Dutch Reagan” (1985), “All-Star Tribute to
General Jimmy Doolittle” (1986), “Hope News Network” (1988),
“Bob Hope’s USO Christmas from the Persian Gulf: Around the World
in Eight Days” (1988), “Ole! It’s Bob Hope’s Spring Fling of
Comedy and Music from Acapulco” (1990), “Bob Hope: The First 90
Years” (1993), “Bob Hope’s Birthday Memories” (1994), “Bob
Hope’s Young Comedians” (1995), “100 Years of Hope and Humor”
(2003) 

With
Lucille Ball and Bob Hope:
“Swing Out, Sweet Land” (1970), “The Dean Martin Celebrity
Roast: Lucille Ball” (1975), “Women I Love: Beautiful But Funny”
(1982), “Happy Birthday, Bob” (1978) (1983), “Bob
Hope’s Unrehearsed Antics of the Stars (1984)”, “Bob
Hope Buys NBC?” (1985), “Bob Hope’s High-Flying Birthday”
(1987), “Bob Hope’s High-Flying Birthday Extravaganza” (1986),
“America’s Tribute to Bob Hope” (1988), “Happy
Birthday, Bob: 50 Stars Salute Your 50 Years with NBC” (1988)

Female
Impersonator Jim Bailey did his impersonation of Phyllis Diller on a
November 1972 episode of “Here’s Lucy.”

Rhonda
Fleming (b.
1923) with
Bob Hope: The
Great Lover
(1949), “The Bob Hope Show” (November 24, 1957 & December 11,
1959) “The All-Star Christmas Show” (1958), Alias
Jesse James (1959),
The
Road to Eltham
(1978), “All-Star Party for Dutch Reagan” (1985)

With
Lucille Ball and Bob Hope: “Bob Hope Presents: Have Girls, Will
Travel” (1964), “Dinah: Bob Hope The Road to Hollywood” (1977),
“Bob Hope’s Road to Hollywood” (1983)

Joan
Fontaine
(1917-2013) with Bob Hope: Casanova’s
Big Night
(1954)

Signe
Hasso (1910-2002)
with Bob Hope:
Where There’s Life (1947),
“Bob Hope Presents: Code Name Heraclitus Parts One and Part Two“
(1966 & 1967)

Hedy
Lamarr
(1914-2000) with Bob Hope: My
Favorite Spy
(1951)

Dorothy
Lamour
(1914-1996) with Bob Hope: The
Big Broadcast of 1938, Road To Singapore
(1940), Road
To Zanzibar
(1941), Caught
In the Draft
(1941), Road
To Morocco (1942),
Star
Spangled Rhythm
(1942), They
Got Me Covered (1943),
Road
To Utopia
(1945), My
Favorite Brunette
(1947),
Variety Girl
(1947), Road
To Rio
(1947), “All-Star Revue” (1951), The
Greatest Show on Earth (1952),
Road
to Bali
(1952), “The Bob Hope Show” (1954 & 1956), “The Arthur
Murray Special for Bob Hope” (1960), “The Bob Hope Show” (March
& April 1962), The
Road To Honk Kong (1962),
“Bing Crosby Special: Making Movies” (1968), “The Annual
National Sports Award” (1974),
The Road To Eltham (1978),
“The John Davidson Show” (February 1982), “All-Star Party for
Dutch Reagan” (1985), “Bob Hope and Friends: Making New Memories”
(1991),

With
Lucille Ball and Bob Hope: “Dinah: Bob Hope The Road to Hollywood”
(1977), “Women I Love: Beautiful But Funny” (1982), “Bob Hope’s
Road to Hollywood” (1983), “Happy 100th Birthday Hollywood” (1987)

Marilyn
Maxwell (1920-1972)
with Bob Hope: “The Colgate Comedy Hour” (1950, 1951, 1953,
1953), The
Lemon Drop Kid
(1951), Off
Limits
(1952), “The Bob Hope Show” (1954)

With
Lucille Ball: DuBarry
Was A Lady
(1943), Thousands
Cheer
(1943), Forever
Darling (1956),
“Here’s Lucy: Lucy The Co-Ed” (1970)

With
Lucille Ball and Bob Hope: Critic’s
Choice
(1963), “Bob Hope Presents: Have Girls, Will Travel” (1964)

Virginia
Mayo
(1920-2005) with Bob Hope: The Princess and the Pirate (1944),
“All-Star Party for Dutch Reagan” (1985)

With
Lucille Ball and Bob Hope: “Bob Hope’s Road to Hollywood” (1983)

Dina
Merrill
(1923-2017) with Bob Hope: I’ll
Take Sweden
(1965)

With
Bob Hope and Lucille Ball: “Bob Hope’s Road to Hollywood” (1983)

Vera
Miles (b.
1929) with Bob Hope: Beau
James
(1957), “America’s All-Star Tribute To Elizabeth Taylor” (1989)

Janis
Paige (b. 1922) with Bob Hope: “The Colgate Comedy Hour” (1951),
“The Bob Hope Show” (1954, 1955, 1957, 1957, 1959, 1961, 1962,
1963, 1963, 1965),
Roberta
(1958), “The Tonight Show” (1963), Roberta
(1969), “All-Star Party for Dutch Reagan” (1985)

With
Bob Hope and Lucille Ball: “Women I Love: Beautiful But Funny”
(1982), “Bob Hope’s Road to Hollywood” (1983)

Also
Starring:

Jerry
Colonna
as Smithers,
Lucy’s Chauffeur
(1904-1986) with Bob Hope: Watch
the Birdie (1935),
College Swing
(1938), Road
To Singapore
(1940), Star-Spangled
Rhythm
(1942), Road
To Rio
(1947), “The Colgate Comedy Hour” (1953), “The Bob Hope Show”
(1954, 1956, 1959, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1964, 1966, 1967, 1968,
1969, 1970, 1971, 1973), The
Road To Honk Kong
(1962), “The Bob Hope Christmas Show” (1962), “The Bing Crosby
Show” (1964), “The Bob Hope Vietnam Christmas Show” (1966),
“The Bob Hope Special” (1971), “Dinah!” (1975), “Joys”
(1976)

With
Lucille Ball: G.I.
Journal (1946)

Paul
Lynde as Doctor Fleischer (1926-1982)
with Bob Hope: “Bob Hope Presents: The Blue-Eyed Horse” (1966),
“The Bob Hope Show” (1967), “The Hollywood Squares” (1967),
“Donny and Marie” (1975), “The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast:
Dean Martin” (1976), “Bob Hope for President” (1980)

With
Bob Hope and Lucille Ball: “The Dean Martin 1968 Christmas Show”,
“The Dean Martin Show” (1970)

With
Lucille Ball: “Donny and Marie” (1977)

Ken
Murray as Harvey Sarnoff (1903-1988)
with Bob Hope: Rough But Hopeful (1946), “The Colgate Comedy Hour”
(1951), “The Bob Hope Show” (1957, 1967, 1973)

With
Lucille Ball: “The Ken Murray Show” (1950)

Les
Brown and His Band of Renown

Featuring
on Tonight’s Show (End Credits):

Phil
Arnold as Delivery Boy (1909-1968)
with Bob Hope: I’ll Take Sweden (1965), “The Bob Hope Show”
(1967), Eight on the Lam (1967)

With
Lucille Ball: “I Love Lucy”: “Lucy is Matchmaker” (1953)
and “Lucy Changes Her Mind” (1953)

Frank Barton (Announcer)

Lilyan
Chauvin
as Mary,
Dina Merrill’s Maid (1925-2008)

Bob
Jellison as Phyllis Diller’s Hairdresser (1908-1980)
with Bob Hope: “The Bob Hope Show” (1955, 1963, 1968, 1969, 1969,
1970, 1971)

With
Lucille Ball: “I Love Lucy: The Gossip” as the Milkman
(1953); “I Love Lucy” Hollywood episodes as Bobby the Bellboy (6
episodes,1955); “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour: Lucy Hunts
Uranium” as Las Vegas Bellhop (1958)

With
Lucille Ball and Bob Hope: “The
Bob Hope Show” (1962)

Ray
Kellogg
as H.B., Dina Merrill’s Director
(1919-1981) with Bob Hope: “The Bob Hope Show” (1969, 1971, 1971)

With
Lucille Ball: “I Love Lucy” (1954, 1955), “The Lucy Show” (6
episodes 1964-68), “Here’s Lucy” (1968, 1969), “Jack Benny’s
Birthday Special” (1969)

Johnine
Lee
as NBC
Page
(b. 1950) with Bob Hope: “The Bob Hope Show” (April 1966)

Peter
Leeds
as Hank Hellman, Reporter (1917-1996)
with Bob Hope: “The Red Skelton Hour: Clem and Married Life”
(1951), “The Bob Hope Show” (13 episodes, 1955-1967), “The
Colgate Comedy Hour” (1955), “The Bob Hope Christmas Show”
(1962, 1965), “The Bing Crosby Show” (1964), “The Bob Hope
Comedy Special” (1965, 1972), I’ll
Take Sweden
(1965), The
Oscar
(1966), Eight
on the Lam (1967),
“Bob Hope Lampoons Show Business” (1990), “Bob Hope and
Friends: Making New Memories” (1991)

With
Lucille Ball and Bob Hope: “I Love Lucy: Lucy and Bob Hope”
(1956), The
Facts of Life
(1960)

With
Lucille Ball: “I Love Lucy: The Publicity Agent” (1952), The
Long, Long Trailer
(1954), “Here’s Lucy: Lucy and Candid Camera” (1971)

Eddie
Marr as Joseph, Joan Caulfield’s Chauffeur (1900-1987)
with Bob Hope: “The Bob Hope Show” (8 episodes, 1956-1972), “Bob
Hope’s All-Star Comedy Spectacular from Lake Tahoe” (1977)

With
Bob Hope and Lucille Ball: “The Bob Hope Show” (1970)

With
Lucille Ball: The
Affairs of Annabel (1938)

Michael
Ross as Bob Hope’s
Masseur
(1911-1993) with Bob Hope: My
Favorite Spy
(1951), The
Lemon Drop Kid (1951),
Off
Limits
(1952), Here
Come the Girls
(1953), Casanova’s
Big Night
(1954), Alias
Jesse James
(1959), “The Bob Hope Christmas Show” (1965), “The Bob Hope
Show” (1965, 1969)

With
Lucille Ball: Miss
Grant Takes Richmond
(1949)

Archive
Footage

Madeleine
Carroll (1906-1987)
as Karen Bentley in My
Favorite Blonde
(1942)

Anita
Ekberg (1931-2015)
as  Luba in Call
Me Bwana
(1963)

Jane
Russell (1921-2011)
as Calamity Jane in The
Paleface (1948)

---

Bob’s
Opening Monologue

Hope:
“I’m
B.O.B. Hope. They only performer on TV who isn’t from
U.N.C.L.E.”

“The
Man from U.N.C.L.E” (1964-68) was a hit NBC spy series at the time.
Two days later the show  presented the third episode of their third
season, which coincidentally also starred Joan Collins.

Hope
jokes that the title of this show is “15 of My Leading Ladies” or
“Richard Burton Eat Your Heart Out”.  Both Burton and Elizabeth Taylor are mentioned during the show. Two years earlier, the two stars had wed and become one of Hollywood’s super couples. They would appear on “Here’s Lucy” in 1970.

Hope:
“I always enjoyed working with Lucille Ball.  She’s the nicest
producer I’ve ever kissed.”  

Hope
says that he will be appearing on Lucy’s show in exchange. He
actually had already done so, doing a walk-on cameo in a 1964 episode
of “The Lucy Show” guest-starring Jack Benny.  Reciprocal appearances
by Hope and Ball were common and date back to the early 1950s.

Hope
talks about the new TV shows like “How The West Was Won,” linking
it to discussion of California politics talking about Governor Pat
Brown and Ronald Reagan, who ran against Brown and won, becoming
Governor in January 1967. Hope jokes about First Lady Lady Bird
Johnson’s visit to California on a “Beauty and Conservation Tour”
in early September 1966.

He
talks more about TV shows with animal names in the title like “Rat
Patrol,” “T.H.E. Cat,” “Iron Horse” and “The Monkeys”.
He says that “Run Buddy, Run” and “The Fugitive” had a
head-on collision. “Daktari” and “Rawhide” are both
returning.  

---

After
a commercial break, a film segment depicts an armored car with a two
motorcycle escort pulling up to the NBC Studios where Bob Hope, golf
clubs in tow, emerges from the truck. When Bob gets inside his
dressing room there is a surprise party waiting for him, thrown by
the NBC executives to celebrate his 30th year at the network. One of the men is named Sarnoff (Harvey, a
nephew of NBC founder David Sarnoff), and the other two are named Hubert and
Humphrey, a jab at the current vice president. 

Hope’s Emmy is dramatically
behind an elaborate curtain. He won it in 1966 for “Bob Hope
Presents The Chrysler Theatre.” Although Hope received the
Governor’s Award in 1984, this was his only competitive Emmy.  

The
Executives leave Hope to get a physical by a doctor (Paul Lynde) –
which is an exercise in futility, especially when a buxom blonde Page (Johnine Lee) delivers some telegrams to Hope, making his face twitch. The Doctor
turns into Hope’s therapist.  He recalls some of his leading ladies
accompanied by clips of the films in which he starred with them.
Madeleine
Carroll
in My
Favorite Blonde
(1942), Anita
Ekberg
in Call
Me Bwana
(1963), and Jane
Russell
in The
Paleface (1948),
and a gorilla (“The one time Crosby let me win the girl.”)

Hope
relates that he has the same dream every night, all alone with his
leading ladies. The dream materializes, and Hope is seen in a tuxedo
in an elegant, cloud-like setting with fountains and chandeliers. He
sees Marilyn
Maxwell
and they slow dance.

Maxwell:
“Bob,
when are we going to do another picture together?”
Hope:
“Don’t
be greedy. I put you in this dream, didn’t I?”

Maxwell
dances off and is replaced by Rhonda
Fleming.

Fleming:
“Is
this a private dream, or can anyone cut in?”

Fleming
asks for a kiss. Hope dips her and up comes Arlene
(“with
the beauty spot”)
Dahl.
Dahl sings “I Believe In You,” a song written by Frank Loesser
for the 1961 Broadway musical How
To Succeed in Business…Without Really Trying.
Maxwell and Fleming join Dahl in singing to Hope.  The three women
vanish as the show goes to commercial.

---

Back
with the Doctor in his dressing room Bob is having his blood pressure
taken. 

Hope
(muttering):
“Shirley
Ross, Martha Hyer, Yvonne DeCarlo, Milly Vitale, Vera Zorina, Betty
Grable…”

While
he’s listing the women, the blood pressure cuff balloons!  The Doctor
asks Hope when it all started, and a flashback begins at Schwab’s
Drugstore 28 years earlier (1938). [An establishing slide of the
exterior of Schwab’s looks nothing like the actual Hollywood
landmark.]  

In the flashback, Hope walks into the drug store with a
head of dark hair, sunglasses, yellow shoes, pink trousers, and a
purple check sport coat. Virginia
Mayo is
behind the pharmacy counter.

Hope:
“I
got so many jobs right now I’m trying to decide between a big musical
for Arthur Freed or a comedy for George Marshall.”

George Marshall would later direct several on-location episodes of “Here’s Lucy.”  Marshall had first directed Ball in Valley of the Sun (1942) and with Hope in Fancy Pants (1950). 

Mayo
says she’s working on a new act, but one of her two partners is
quitting. She calls the act in and it is a pantomime horse. Mayo
intimates that Hope could play the back end to
“take advantage of his best side.”

Bob
runs into Janis
Paige. He
tries to convince her to be his escort to a soiree. While pasting his
8 by 10 over magazine covers, he meets Joan
Collins.
They have lunch together at the soda fountain counter where Hope
criticizes everything she orders. Janis Paige grabs him away and
sings “Big Spender,” a song written by Cy Coleman and Dorothy
Fields for the 1966 Broadway musical Sweet
Charity.
Mayo and Collins join her.  

---

Back
in the dressing room, the Doctor leaves Bob with a prescription and
Harvey Sarnoff returns to introduce Hope to Hank Hellman (Peter Leeds), a reporter.
After checking the room for spies, Bob announces that he’s going to
make Gone
With The Wind
as a musical.

Hellman:
“It’ll
be bigger than ‘My Fair Lady’ and ‘Mary Poppins’ combined!”

Actually,
there was a Gone
With The Wind
musical by Harold Rome – on the London stage. It premiered in 1972
and was revived in 2008. The search for an actress to play Scarlett
O’Hara for the original 1939 film was one of Hollywood’s biggest
publicity stunts, with over 1,400 actresses auditioned before the
role went to Vivien Leigh. 

• On
  a sound stage, Vera
  Miles
  walks off her latest picture thinking she is the one to play Scarlet.
• At
  an airport, Joan
  Caulfield cancels
  a trip thinking she is the next Scarlett.
• At
  her home, Dina
  Merrill
  tells her maid to unpack because Bob Hope needs her.
• At
  a corner newsstand, Signe
  Hasso tells a news vendor that she’s from the south – of Sweden – so ideal for Scarlett.
• At
  the beauty salon, Phyllis
  Diller
  is perusing a magazinethat makes her think she’s the one to get the
  role.

At
Bob Hope’s home, he’s getting ready for bed. Hedy
Lamarr
shows up to thank him for casting her. Joan
Fontaine
is on her way up, so Hope asks Lamarr to study the script – in the
closet. When he hears Dorothy
Lamour
is coming, he stows Fontaine in another room. Hearing sirens, he
tells Lamour to wait in the bathroom. It is Lucy!

Lucile Ball arrives pedaling
an adult-size tricycle with Smithers (Jerry Collona), her chauffeur behind
her. 

Hope:
“Lucille
Ball!  What happened to your car?”
Ball:
“Oh,
Gary got up earlier than I did.”

Like
the other leading ladies, Lucy is convinced she’s the one playing
Scarlett. As a young RKO contract player, Lucille Ball was one of
the 1,400 actresses considered for the role in the 1939 MGM film.
Soon, all the women come into the room demanding to know which one
has been cast.  

Including a surprise contender with a black veil –
Phyllis Diller, who gets the part!

In
this scene, Lucille Ball and Bob Hope crack each other up to the
point that Lucy looks to the director as if to say “Are we cutting
or not?” The other actresses in the sequence are all directed to
acknowledge the studio audience’s entrance applause before going back
into the scene. The scene is somewhat clumsily filmed and edited,
with the boom mic frequently in the shot, and even the end of the
bedroom carpet visible.  

After
a preview of “And Baby Makes Five,” the next presentation on “Bob
Hope Presents The Chrysler Theatre,” Hope and all the leading
ladies (each on their own) sing “Thanks For the Memory” with
special lyrics about Bob Hope. Lucy’s verse compares him to Turhan
Bey, a Turkish actor active
in Hollywood
from
1941 to 1953.  

---

“Lucy the Bean Queen” (TLS S5;E3) ~ was aired on CBS two days earlier, 

September 26, 1966. Interestingly, Lucille Ball wears the same blue shirt that she wears on the “Bob Hope Show”! 

---

This
Date in Lucy History ~ September 28th

“Lucy
and the Plumber” (S3;E2) – September 28, 1964 (coincidentally featuring a cameo by Bob Hope!)

“Lucy
and Sammy Davis, Jr.”
(S3;E3) – September 28, 1970