Classic Ads: Thanks For the Memories (and the Lesson in Comparative Religion)!

When it comes to the weighty matters of philosophy and theology, some of history's greatest thinkers come to mind: Socrates, Plato, Augustine, Martin Luther, and Bob Hope.

That's right, Bob Hope. Appearing in nearly every form of popular entertainment during the 20th century (including comic books), Hope was often referred to as "America's Entertainer". However, judging from this 1964 public service ad appearing in April issues of DC Comics, we should add "Philosopher" and "Comparative Religion Expert" to Hope's versatile resume (click on the ad for a larger view).

A couple of things to note:

1. Apparently, there actually was a Brotherhood Week sponsored by an organization known as The National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ) from the 1940's through the 1980's. However, I'm not sure if Bob Hope actually hosted a Brotherhood Week event...or if ten year-old kids actually attended such an event....or, if they did, actually used the word "swell" to describe it.

2. Observation: Kids who attend Bob Hope shows wear suits and ties. Kids who don't...and trip suit-wearing kids, wear jeans and windbreakers.

3. What were the odds a celebrity of Hope's magnitude could sneak up, ninja-like, behind windbreaker-lad?..and was I the only one to hear mysterious-sounding bamboo flute music when he appeared?

4. Bob Hope...always ready with a quip...and a large scroll comparing Golden Rule variations. The very quality that made him America's Entertainer!

5. Since Hope apparently believed in and promoted the Golden Rule, one can only assume that he preferred not to be helped off the ground if he was tripped by a bully, as his indifference toward the young (and obviously injured) tripping victim seems to imply.

6. "Get wise, son, and join the human race! Also, be sure to surround yourself with a harem of big-haired hotties for your early-1980's USO shows!"

"Do unto others as you would have Miss USA Judy Hyek, Cathy
Lee Crosby, Ann Jillian, and Brooke Shields do unto you!"

Comments

[Pat Curley]

Check out the song National Brotherhood Week by Tom Lehrer; mildly subversive but a pretty funny takedown of the whole concept.

If you ever get a chance, I do recommend the early Bob Hope comics; they are much better than anyone would expect with Oksner art and lots of funny situations with Hope dodging his landlady and the boyfriends/fathers of the cute gals he manages to meet. Among all the DC characters, Bob was definitely the Casanova.

The odd thing about the PSAs is that they tended to use DC's older characters. Archie/Reggie clones like Buzzy and Wolfie, for example, appeared long after they were history in DC's lineup.

[Mark Engblom]

Yeah, I wrote about "Cassanova Hope" in a previous Cover-to-Cover post (which I link to in the above post with the phrase "comic books"). I know it was done in good fun, but I've always found the girl-chasing Hope of the DC Comics series kinda weird and disturbing. I realize it was a different world back then (I think it was more permissible for older guys to openly drool over...or, in Hope's case, bark like a dog over...much younger women), but still....kinda weird considering the guy was in his mid-50's when that series was published.

[ShadowWing Tronix]

YOU found it disturbing. Imagine what Mrs. Hope thought when she read these comics. "Bob, why do they having you chasing all these younger women?"

[Jesse Monteagudo]

The real Bob Hope was quite a ladies' man (to put it mildly), a condition that Mrs. Hope apparently accepted. (There was a double standard back then.)

[suedenim]

The thing that gets me is how Brooke Shields is somehow sexier in her 40s than she was in her 20s (and it's not just the big hair or lack thereof!)

[michaelrbn]

Check out any Bob Hope movie of the 50s-60s. The comics aren't all that dissimilar.

[John Savard]

Bob Hope may never have actually appeared in a meeting about National Brotherhood Week. But I was able to Google up a reference to his having (along with other celebrities of the day, such as Groucho Marx, Eddie Cantor, Art Linkletter, Jeff Chandler, Alan Ladd, and Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) recorded a celebrity radio announcement on behalf of Brotherhood Week - so he did have some real-life association with it:

http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/spec/belknap/tvradio/tvthemes.htm