© 2024 KASU
Your Connection to Music, News, Arts and Views for 65 Years
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Bob Hope impersonator talks about portraying his hero

Fowler Foods and A-State College of Nursing and Health Professions present "An Evening with Bob Hope" benefiting the A-State Beck PRIDE Center for America's Wounded Veterans. This features Bill Johnson, a Bob Hope Impersonator. Johnson has performed as Bob for the USO, as well as military groups, conventions, festivals, and corporations. The night also features Two on Tap. Melissa Giattino and Ron DeStefano perform a variety show that feature dancing and music of the golden age of the silver screen. The A-State jazz band and A-State choirs will also perform.  Tickets are $20 and the event will be Tuesday, September 16th at 7:00 pm in Riceland Hall of the A-State Fowler Center. The public is invited to attend.  KASU's Marty Scarbrough interviewed Bill Johnson for Arkansas Roots.  Click above to hear the entire interview. 

Can you describe what you do during the Bob Hope impersonations? 

I would say that it is a tribute to a great American.  There will only be one Bob Hope.  He meant so much too so many people.  If I can just trigger a memory or a positive feeling as people think back to those times or listen to one of those routines that is all that you can ask for.   Originally my dad served in World War Two and he would never talk about it, but my dad loved Bob Hope.  We would watch the special on TV.  My dad is no longer with us, so this was originally a way to connect with him.  However, as I dug down deeper into the history of this man, it has become a passion of mine as well. 

For our younger listeners who may not be familiar with him, can you tell us who Bob Hope was?

He was born in England in 1903 and he was the 5th of 7 brothers.  The family immigrated to America in 1908 and moved to Cleveland, Ohio.  Bob would become an American citizen and grew up in Cleveland.  Most people don’t know this, but he actually started his career as a celebrity impersonator.  At the age of 12, he won a Charlie Chaplin look-alike contest and he got a taste of being in front of a crowd and entertaining people, and the rest is history.  He was also a phenomenal dancer, and he began dancing with a friend of his and they called themselves “Dancemedian”, which was a combination of dancing and comedian.  They would try to do funny dance steps and such.  He didn’t become a monologist until later in his career when someone was sick or didn’t show up for a show, a producer gave him a shot.  Instead of just announcing the action, he stood up and told some jokes went from there.  In the 1930’s he started work for NBC radio, and over the next six decades, he would work on radio and television. In 1941, one of his writers had a brother serving a March Field in Riverside, California.  The brother stated how bored they were out there and requested some form of entertainment.  He convinced Bob Hope to take one of his radio shows on the road to March Field and to do the show for the soldiers.  It was so well-received, that they would continue doing that for the rest of his radio career.  His sponsors of the radio show loved the idea and the U.S Government also got involved and teamed up with the USO, which was also new at the time.  Hope would say, “We teamed up with the USO and have gone steady ever since.”

What was it about Bob Hope that appealed to you personally?

He came off as the kind of guy that you could come up to and talk to on the street.  He was the kind of person that could be your chum, and someone that you could shoot the breeze and have a good laugh or two.  I think, as a child, you are kind of drawn to that kind of personality.

How did you get started doing these tributes to Bob Hope?

I was doing a show in Las Vegas at one of the hotels.  It was an interactive show.  I was not a magician, but they hired magicians and other actors to put on interactive shows with the guests at the hotel.  I could do the show any way that I liked, so I do my character like Bob Hope.  He was a hero of mine.  After one of the shows, a lady came up to me and said that she had a World War Two reunion coming up and asked if I would should up and take pictures with the guests.  She stated that she would provide a uniform if I came to the event and show up like Bob Hope.  I agreed, because he was a hero of mine and I had worked out a new routine and I had some jokes ready.  So, I started pursuing this after that. 

Why do you think his sense of humor was so appealing to Americans, particularly in the middle of the 20th century?  Why did he connect with people so well?

I think it was because people could put themselves in his shoes.  He would do topical humor that would reflect on what was going on in the world today.  He would take a shot at all of the presidents, regardless of whether they were the ones he would campaign for or not.  Everybody was a fair target, and he would say that even those men—who had the weight of the world on their shoulders—could enjoy a good joke, even at their own expense. 

What do you think that Bob Hope would be joking about if he were alive today?

I think he would be joking about the fact that everybody can’t get along. It seems like that would be something that he would joke about.  The economy was fair game, the political strife in Washington and other issues.  Of course, he wanted to go back and entertain the troops overseas.  The last time he entertained the troops was when he was 89. When he was 90, his doctors told him that he couldn’t go anymore.

Johnathan Reaves is the News Director for KASU Public Radio. As part of an Air Force Family, he moved to Arkansas from Minot, North Dakota in 1986. He was first bitten by the radio bug after he graduated from Gosnell High School in 1992. While working on his undergraduate degree, he worked at KOSE, a small 1,000 watt AM commercial station in Osceola, Arkansas. Upon graduation from Arkansas State University in 1996 with a degree in Radio-Television Broadcast News, he decided that he wanted to stay in radio news. He moved to Stuttgart, Arkansas and worked for East Arkansas Broadcasters as news director and was there for 16 years.