The Laugh Makers

by Bob Mills

A couple of months after he celebrated his 100th birthday, comedian Bob Hope took his final bow, bringing down the curtain on a career that stretched from Vaudeville to television. In those years, he gained a reputation as one of the industry's best performers, and now Bob Mills, one of his scriptwriters, takes us on the road with Bob Hope, providing insights into how this successful artist worked.

Bob Mills was just 17 the first time he met Bob Hope at a book-signing in his home town, "A queue quickly formed and I got into it, my copy of Bing's book clutched securely for action. Hope began signing, and, as he asked each person's name, would add a little joke or comment -- "O'Callahan. Jewish, huh?" -- an accommodation that slowed the process, but one that presaged something in his nature that, years later, I would observe time and again -- whenever he had the chance, he made fans and supporters feel that they were somehow special. It was the mark of a consummate salesman which, I would someday learn, he was.

"I reached the head of the line and said "Hi, Bob." He nodded. Then, in that smart-alecky way only teens can handle just right, I said, "I can't afford your book, but will this do?" He looked at the dog-eared paperback, held it up for the others in line to see -- it had a picture of Bing with his pipe on the front -- and tossed it straight up, where it hovered momentarily at mezzanine level and then fluttered to the floor like a wounded pheasant, landing beside a Hoover upright on sale in the adjoining housewares department. The crowd reacted just as I expected they would. My visual gag produced a spontaneous, genuine laugh. I had created my first comic routine for Bob Hope!
I had no way of knowing then, of course, that some two decades later, he'd hire me to write thousands of them."

According to Mills, working as one of Bob Hope's writers wasn't a typical job ...

"When you signed on with Bob Hope, it was akin to entering an ancient, tradition-laden religious order where you agreed to forego the temptations of the secular world in exchange for a life of unwavering loyalty, absolute obedience and, I have to admit, more thrills and excitement than anyone could possibly imagine.

"Hope himself was the first to point out that having maintained a staff of the most able writers he could find contributed as much to his sustained popularity and prodigious body of work as the uncommon physical stamina with which he had been genetically gifted.

"The unique performer-writer symbiosis that developed between Hope and his comedic entourage was the first -- and most likely will be the last -- of its kind."

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