Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 792.7028092
EAN num: 9780942637748
ISBN number: 0942637747
Label: Barricade Books
Manufacturer: Barricade Books
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 480
Printing Date: 1993-11
Publishing house: Barricade Books
Sale Popularity Level: 837700
Studio: Barricade Books
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
Reveals how Hope's image as a happily married entertainer of U.S. troops was a myth created to hide his womanizing, the casting couch he operated out of his office, and his sadistic treatment of his staff. 30,000 very first printing.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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The people who panned this book *clearly* have their shorts in a wad (that's a colloquial phrase for "cognitive dissonance") over having their shiny perceptual "Bob Hope" bubbles painfully burst after discovering the rather unsavory truth. Too bad, that's what you get for putting somebody up on a pedestal. Especially somebody who doesn't deserve it. I give the book five stars because it soundly draws a clear distinction between Bob Hope's carefully crafted public persona and what he was REALLY like, "behind the scenes"... a mean-spirited, self-aggrandizing, womanizing opportunist! In other words, he was a first-class spoiled brat and a major league hypocrite. This book would be a lot less interesting if the dichotomy that is Bob Hope wasn't a fact of life, and admittedly, it will not be very interesting to the people who don't remember him. But for those of us that do, it is an excellent biography. Pretty soon we'll all be dead too, but at least we'll kick off knowing the value of "belief" in terms of accepting uncritically and without question whatever is tossed one's way by the public relations machinery.... an object lesson which translates neatly not just for the entertainment business, but for media and government as well.
Rated by buyers -
Well -as you'll note from other reviews, how dare Arthur Marx pick on a great American legend! A man that has entertained us for most of the 20th century. A man that has risked his life to bring comfort to the troops of America's numerous wars and conflicts. A man that just couldn't make enough money or women! It was always known in Hollywood and in the Pentagon, what a flagrant womanizer Bob Hope was -in fact just about to the very end of his life. His wife knew it and with the patience of a saint, she stuck by him through countless affairs and one-nighters, both here and overseas. Thats the way it was. The man who always managed to have an ad-lib ready for any occassion -they were all carefully scripted in advance. Again, thats the way it was. No one likes to hear such stories about their heroes and role models, afterall it kind of makes suckers out of us if we go along and believe something like this book. We figure if Bob was that bad, we would have heard about it long ago. Thats where all those great PR people come in and Bob had the best. Worshiped by the public, the servicemen and all those American presidents from both parties. So who wants to make suckers out of all them, it's worse than burning the flag and then spitting on it. Yes, his image was greater than anyone on Mount Rushmore. What's more, Bob Hope knew it, flaunted it and fully exploited it -all the way to the bank. He became the single biggest private owner of real estate in California. Whereas Jack Benny always traded off his showbiz image of being tight with money, in reality he was the total opposite. However, Bob the benevolent was as tight as they come, extremely shrewd and always politically savvy. Not that all thats a crime, but was he really worthy of becoming the most decorated American in history?
Arthur Marx, son of Groucho, a veteran TV writer, playwright, novelist and biographer, took on an impossible and thankless task of showing Bob Hope in the true cold light of reality. But he strongly felt it was something he had to do. Theres no doubt that Bob Hope was extremely talented, his timing was always spot on. Theres no doubt he was the best MC you could ever get, specially at the Academy Awards. Why is it then, that we can take the good and bad when it comes to someone like Frank Sinatra, but not in super-patriot Bob?
And thats what this book is all about really. It's worthy of your making up your own mind and not blindly believing in all the PR hype. Politicians court showbiz because they crave that same insatiable fan worship. Superstar's yesterday don't seem to mind if you think of them badly or not, as long as their name stays in the headlines and the money keeps coming in. But thats right, Bob was of another era.
Rated by buyers 
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I think it is amazing how quickly people endeavor to destroy a great American hero's reputation as soon as it's safe to do so. How credible can Mr. Marx's accusations be when most of his sources are unnamed or too old or already deceased to confirm his claims? Surely some of these women would have come forward a long time ago with a "Hope's love child" story. I don't buy it Mr. Marx. If I could, I would give a less than one star.
Rated by buyers -
Oh, for gosh sakes. Arthur Marx is a complete loser who managed to squeak out a living as a comedy writer only by working his father's connections. Groucho thought Arthur was a lousy comedy writer, and this book proves he's a lousy human being, as well. Hope was one of Arthur Marx's employers, and it was Hope that turned his father's career around by insisting that he work off the script when he invited Groucho to come on the air with him. Little did he imagine at the time that the thanks he would get for his benevolence to Groucho (a benevolence he displayed throughout his career) would be a knife in the back from his pathetic lowlife son. The book is a collection of snide, filthy, innuendos from unnamed sources, former employees, and the sort of enemies that competent, hard-working, brilliant individuals like Hope always make within their own industries.
Rated by buyers -
All I have to say is, if your a big fan of Bob Hope and believe that Mr. America- loyal, faithful husband and family man then don't read this you will look at him differently or probably won't be able to look at him at all. All I can say is I'm not surprised, what man don't sleep around? What disappoints me is that how easy the women went to bed with him, it takes two to tangle, and obviously these women wanted to do it. So I don't necessarily blaim Bob Hope, if their willing to give it up, any man is going to take it. All I have to say is and I've been saying it for years, Write books like this, when their alive and around to defend themselves. This book will break anybody's heart who's a big Bob Hope fan and believed he was Mr. America- faithful husband and family man. All I have to say is if he was this bad, it would of came out, all the wrongdoing came out about the rest of the stars of the past and present, I'm sure someone would of tried to tarnish his career like what happen to Bill Clinton, I'm sure some woman would of came forward and said something. I don't know what to believe, I wish somebody would let Bob Hope and his family read this book and get their say. Some things are just left best unsaid, and let people and fans believe the illusion and image the stars create.
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