Charities, movies, books, television shows and musicals may have made Hope's image, but Dolores Hope made the man.
He married Dolores Reade, a popular singer, on Feb. 19, 1934. Together they shared Hope's career and charity projects -- and awards. The Hopes were named 1983 recipients of the Coachella Valley Humanitarian Award for charity work in their home area.
Hope's humor was obviously shared by Dolores, who came up with a quip of her own when asked what it is like to be married to Bob Hope. "I don't know," she said. "I have no basis for comparison because I've never been married to anyone else.''
Together they adopted four children -- Linda, Tony, Nora and Kelly.
Hope said he was reluctant to expose his 'Young Hopefuls' to the public eye. But postwar magazine articles show a brood in the 'Ozzie and Harriet' mold. Despite the endless work and constant touring, Hope transformed himself into a baby boomer dad -- in the image of the troopers he entertained.
Both Bob and Dolores Hope came from large families and praised traditional values: dogs, discipline and dinners at home.
Here are excerpts of what Bob and Dolores Hope wrote and said about married life:
BOB:
"My name is Bob Hope. I'm married to a former show girl named Dolores Reade and we have four children. We have four children beause we think there's a big future in them. The oldest of the four is Linda. She was 10 on July 28. Her full name is Linda Roberta Theresa Hope. Next is Tony, or, if you prefer, Anthony Reade Hope, was 9 July 1. The youngest two are of about equal age. Norah will be 3 Aug. 6. She was christened Honora Avis Mary Hope. Kelly, or William Kelly Francis Hope, was 3 July 17. Then there's Chuckie, a mongrel, who is part Doberman, part police dog, a pal, a bodyguard and the dog who came to dinner."
-- Bob Hope, "Meet My Family,"
Parents Magazine, December 1949
DOLORES:
"I am sure I would never have had the nerve to marry Bob Hope if I had looked into the crystal ball and seen what was coming. No one in her right mind would believe anybody could keep his sense of balance with the whole world laughing at him. But it's true and he has.
"We have a reasonably normal existence--a mixture of laughs, dogs,
children, people, planning of meals, reading and, occasionally, resting.
"Bob puts tremendous effort into his business of making people laugh. He makes me laugh without even trying. This doesn't mean he brings his show home with him. At home he is just himself -- ad lib, in words and actions.'
-- "My Life with a Gagster,"
Women's Home Companion, May, 1944
BOB:
"During the summer of 1940, when the radio show was off the air, I had a ball traveling around the country with Dolores and the cast, playing vaudeville dates .... I must have been pretty difficult to live with, because when somebody in the mob of autograph hounds outside the stage door asked Dolores if she was connected with Bob Hope, she replied, 'No, I'm his wife.'"
-- "Don't Shoot, It's Only Me"
DOLORES:
"Bob has changed perceptibly since he came back from his tour of the overseas theaters of war. The experience has given him a new outlook.
"He makes a rule, for instance, to have dinner at home every evening that is possible. We both, in fact, prefer to have our meals at home. Bob wants his food served in the good old-fashioned family way, with the plates fixed in the kitchen. Course dinners annoy him. He could enjoy roast lamb with mint sauce, pan-browned potatoes, pineapple and cottage cheese salad, lemon meringue pie and milk every night in the week ...."
-- "My Life with a Gagster"
BOB:
"When we found out that she couldn't bear children, she began to bend my ear about adoption. We were getting along fine and I wasn't too keen about the idea. I was content with a wife and show business and golf, but after five years of being nudged by Dolores, I was talked into visiting The Cradle in Evanston, Illinois ....
"I wish I could really tell you what The Cradle means to me here in Hollywood, where all day long the talk is box office and autographs and premieres and who'll get the Oscar. 'The town of make-believe,' they call it, but don't get the idea everything is make-believe in Hollywood. There's nothing make-believe about our children. They are real."
-- "Have Tux, Will Travel"
DOLORES:
"We used to come (to Palm Springs) with the children when they were little and go to Deep Well or Smoketree before we bought the house in '41. And our golf was nine holes at O'Donnell's or, if Jackie Kaufman invited us out, she and her husband had their own nine-hole course in Indio. Or we'd go up to Riverside and play at the Victoria Country Club there. That was our golf."
-- Dolores Hope in an interview with Holly Ocasio Rizzo, Living editor of The Desert Sun, at the Hopes' Southridge home,
Jan. 19, 1995
BOB:
"Linda is 14 now and has been taking harp lessons for more than a year. I didn't know whether she was doing good with the instrument until my 50th birthday party of May 29, 1953. Then she walked into the living room, where she keeps the harp, and played 'Thanks for the Memory.' It was the best present I had. Her fingering was a little slow, but she hit all the strings vibrating in her daddy's heart."
-- "Have Tux, Will Travel"
DOLORES:
"When we were celebrating our 50th anniversary, people would say, 'Fifty years?' And Bob would say, 'Yeah, but I've only been home three weeks.'
"I was trying to think of what to give him for our 50th anniversary. So I had a gold paperweight made, and it had a caricature on it that had been done for some USO luncheon, and I said, 'Don't think these three weeks haven't been fun.'"
-- The Desert Sun, Jan. 19, 1995
