1976 WIU Yearbook
BOB HOPE OFF-STAGE & ON by Deb Leider.Bob Hope. His name is as American as Mom, the flag, and apple pie. Born Leslie Townes Hope, this comedian of the century is cherished for gala TV spa. cials, armed forces entertainment, an entourage of dizzy beauty contest win. nets, and his famous series of "Rood" movies. He's been fast-talking audiences for nearly 50 years — in a style distinctly his own — with jokes so corny they'd be sneered at if delivered by anyone else. Munching on an apple and sporting a 10-gallon cowboy hat, the 74-year-old trouper strolls virtually unnoticed into Western Hall after months of advertise-ments heralding his coming. Macomb, nois, (almost lost among the cornfields of the Midwest) will finally get a glimpse of that unmistakable profile, that celebrated ski-slope nose. Upon his orrivol at Western Hall, the Arie Crown Theatre of WIU), Hope steps up to the gray wooden platform that, in less than six hours, will be transformed into o makeshift stage. Turning, he pauses to size up his crude "auditorium" . . . until besieged by photographers. The sea. caned performer takes it all in stride. He poses leisurely with a 70-year-old Macomb matron who saw him 30 years ago, a dozen giggling girls who 'just hop. pened" to get into the closed rehearsal, and o star-struck, tongue-tied yearbook editor.