Bob Hope Entertains the Troops, America Watches From Safe, Comfy Couch
Many of us slightly older people remember the almost-forgotten era of the Christmas Special. Families would gather around the ginormous wooden T.V. and thrill to the likes of Bing Crosby, Andy Williams, and John Denver celebrating the season with corny sketches, great music, and special guest stars. Some were truly awful but many were also great, including Bob Hope’s yearly shows filmed from whatever country we happened to be bombing at the time.
Bob Hope’s Christmas Show for the American troops on December 24, 1972 was his ninth and final holiday performance in Vietnam. The legendary entertainer, who was actually an Englishman by birth, began his annual performances for U.S. servicemen in 1941 during WWII. “I still remember fondly that first soldier audience,” Hope recalled in later years. “I looked at them, they laughed at me, and it was love at first sight.”
The Bob Hope Christmas Show racked up more than a million miles during WWII, entertaining the troops in the U.S., Europe, the Pacific Theater, and North Africa. He brought his show to Korea in the early ’50s and entertained U.S. troops at military bases in Japan throughout the rest of the decade.
U.S. forces in Vietnam were quickly multiplying by 1962, and Hope lobbied military brass for permission to perform for the U.S. servicemen stationed there. Plans moved ahead for a 1963 Christmas Show but they were scrapped when the Pentagon deemed it was too dangerous for the show to go on.
Hope continued to press the issue and was finally granted permission to proceed with the December 1964 Christmas shows. These performances would be filmed and shown as holiday specials early in the year back in the States, complicating already complicated logistics even further.
Security for Hope’s shows was exceptionally tight. The locations of Hope’s appearances were top secret, and no official confirmation of his performances was made. Even Bob Hope and his staff didn't know what bases they were performing at until they arrived. The troops were also clueless and had no idea who would be stepping on the stage.
Hope’s travel plans were kept more guarded than those of high-level government officials. This was par for the course for all of…
