Friends remember how Hope blended into the social scene
SOUTHRIDGE: "Bob never sells a house," Dolores Hope told The Desert Sun in 1995. She said she and Hope began visiting the desert in 1937, in the early years of their marriage. They bought their first Palm Springs home, at 1014 Buena Vista Drive, in 1941. A home at 1188 E. El Alameda followed in 1946. The Hopes moved into the domed house, now a landmark on the hillside, in the late 1970s.
Bob's valley
In the valley, Bob Hope's name appears on
A MAIN THOROUGHFARE, Bob Hope Drive, connecting Interstate 10 from Cathedral City to Rancho Mirage.
A GOLF TOURNAMENT that is the desert's biggest fund-raiser for
local charities, having raised more than $37 million for more than 130
non-profit agencies.
A GALA, the Bob Hope Classic Ball, that is a social highlight of the season.
A THEATER, the Bob Hope Cultural Center, is the desert's focal point for the performing arts (73-000 Fred Waring Drive, Palm Desert).
A STAR on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars, where a sculpture in his likeness also graces the entrance to The Follies Museum, next to the Plaza Theatre (128 S. Palm Canyon Drive).
A MEDICAL PLAZA on the site of 80 acres he donated for the development in 1966 of Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage. The value of land was estimated at $500,000 at the time (39-000 Bob Hope Drive).
Hope was a centerpiece of Coachella Valley society, and he really knew how to work a room.
'Once he called the drive-in theater and asked, "What time does 'Irma La Douce' go on," he said. 'The theater manager recognized his voice and said, "What time can you get here?" And, believe it or not, the theater manager put on a couple of shorts until he arrived.'
Hope said he was introduced to the Coachella Valley by friends at Paramount
Studios, where he was signed to star in 'The Big Broadcast of 1938' in June
1937. The attraction wasn't the availability of golf, he said.
'When I started (coming to Palm Springs), there was O'Donnell with nine holes and two different sets of tees,' he said. 'Today you have a golf course on every other block.'
The reason for his infatuation with the valley:
'It's the climate,' he said. 'The sun and the lightness of the whole desert is so beautiful. You just get out of the car there and the whole thing is a lift.'
'He stuck with me': Hope's primary residence was Toluca Lake, but he became highly visible in the Coachella Valley, attending parties at the Racquet Club, becoming the grand marshal and frequent participant in Desert Circus and becoming one of the first members in the early 1950s of Thunderbird and Tamarisk country clubs, then part of the unincorporated Cathedral City.
He became reacquainted with many show business friends he had known since the beginning of his career in New York in the 1920s.
'I was in the Paramount School of acting back in Astoria, Long Island, and Dolores Hope tells me we knew each other at that time,' said Rancho Mirage resident Buddy Rogers, who starred in the first Oscar-winning movie, 'Wings,' in 1927. 'She was starting out in movies and I knew her a year before Bob Hope did. So I've always told Bob I've known and loved her a year before he did.
'He was a super, super superstar. We played golf for 40 or 50 years.'
Hope signed a radio contract with Pepsodent in 1938 that began his long relationship with NBC. His announcer, Del Sharbutt of Palm Desert, said Hope taught him how to do comedy while playing golf.
'I did Bob's first radio show in 1938,' Sharbutt said. 'Atlantic Refining said, "We got Bob Hope and we want you to be his right- hand man." I said, "I don't know how to do that." They told him and he said, "Oh, I'll teach him." And, by God, bless his heart, he stuck with me and I learned from him.
'He was the professor on the golf course. He showed me how to build a joke, do a throwaway, how to do a saver. All of these things which I knew nothing about. After all these years, he was the master of it. I say, of all the people he taught, I was the only pupil he taught on the golf course.'
'Extremely loyal': Liberman estimated that Hope only spent 20 days a year in Palm Springs before he cut back on his travel schedule. But he made many friends on local golf courses. Bob Bremson, a trustee at Eisenhower Medical Center and former president of the Hope Chrysler Classic, said he met Hope at a dinner show in Las Vegas more than 30 years ago and discovered how warm Hope could be.
'We had friendly conversation and he suggested that I come over when I'm in Palm Springs and give him a call and we'd play golf,' he said. 'I ignored him because I thought he was being nice. A couple months (later), I ran into him at Tamarisk and he said, "How come we haven't been playing golf?"
