CMH is honored to present: An Interview with Author Richard Zoglin:

CMH: You’ve spent much of your career as a contributing editor and theater critic for Time magazine. What compelled you to write such an extensive biography on Bob Hope?

Richard Zoglin: A few years ago I wrote a book called Comedy at the Edge: How Stand-up in the 1970s Changed America. It got me wondering about the man who was really the founding father of modern stand-up comedy, Bob Hope. I felt he had never gotten the recognition he deserved, as a pioneer not just in stand-up comedy but in many other fields as well, and I was surprised no one had written a really good, definitive biography of him. So I thought it was time.…    

Read Full Interview Here: Hope: Entertainer of the Century - Exclusive Interview with Author Richard Zoglin

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About the book:

Hope: Entertainer of the Century

The first definitive biography of Bob Hope, featuring exclusive and extensive reporting that makes the persuasive case that he was most important entertainer of the twentieth century. Born in 1903, and until his death in 2003, Bob Hope was the only entertainer to achieve top-rated success in every major mass-entertainment medium, from vaudeville to television and everything in between. He virtually invented modern stand-up comedy. His tours to entertain US troops and patriotic radio broadcasts, along with his all-American, brash-but-cowardly movie character, helped to ease the nation’s jitters during the stressful days of World War II. He helped redefine the very notion of what it means to be a star: a savvy businessman, pioneer of the brand extension (churning out books, writing a newspaper column, hosting a golf tournament), and public-spirited entertainer whose Christmas military tours and tireless work for charity set the standard for public service in Hollywood. Bob Hope is a household name. However, as Richard Zoglin shows in this revelatory biography, there is still much to be learned about this most public of figures, from his secret first marriage and his stint in reform school, to his indiscriminate womanizing and his ambivalent relationship with Bing Crosby and Johnny Carson. Hope could be cold, self-centered, tight with a buck, and perhaps the least introspective man in Hollywood. But he was also a dogged worker, gracious with fans, and generous with friends. Hope is both a celebration of an entertainer whose vast contribution has never been properly appreciated, and a complex portrait of a gifted but flawed man, who, unlike many Hollywood stars, truly loved being famous, appreciated its responsibilities, and handled celebrity with extraordinary grace.

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