The Secret Life of Bob Hope: An Unauthorized Biography

Star of vaudeville, Broadway, radio, movies and TV, friend of presidents and five-star generals, entertainer extraordinaire of troops overseas and one of the country's most honored figures, the Bob Hope encountered in these pages is primarily a petty tyrant whose far-ranging travels are motivated in large part by a desire to get away from his wife so that he can chase women all over the globe. The biography covers carefully and accurately the various facets of the comedian's amazingly long career, but Marx ( My Life With Groucho ) is obviously far more interested in revealing sordid details of Hope's compulsive philandering than any other aspect of his 90 years. The author breaks new ground in sleaziness with hearsay anecdotes about Hope's alleged rigging of a beauty contest in return for the winner's sexual favors, his supposed stranding of an actress on a remote Pacific isle because she rebuffed his advances, unsubstantiated stories of Hope and Bing Crosby exchanging lovers, and one tale that combines oral sex with a case of poison ivy. This is a hatchet-job that many readers will find irresistible. Photos. (Nov.)