The 44-cent stamp featuring the comic legend will be officially issued on May 29, with a first day ceremony taking place in San Diego, California. (Hope would have turned 106 on that day). The stamp design was previously unveiled in New York last November at the Bob Hope Memorial Library, formerly called the Ellis Island Research Library.
Description of the Stamp
The portrait of Hope was by artist Kazuhiko Sano, who had worked on last year’s Frank Sinatra stamp. In addition to the 44-cent stamp, other items associated with the Bob Hope issue include two first day covers each with a different cancellation mark, which is a drawing of Hope by the famous artist Al Hirschfeld.
The Bob Hope issue comes in a sheet of 20 stamps—the selvage features various photographic images of the entertainer with the inscription “Thanks for the Memory,” a reference to his signature song.
“His gift…was to make people laugh,” said his daughter Linda Hope in a United States Postal Service press release. "And he shared that gift for 50 years with the men and women who were far from home, defending the principles we cherish,”
A True Comic Original
The comedian was born Leslie Townes Hope in 1903 in Eltham, England and moved to America with his family as a child, settling in Cleveland. His early brush with entertainment came from participating in amateur shows; then at 18 he entered the vaudeville circuit and later worked his way up to Broadway musicals.
In 1938 Hope had his own NBC radio show and became a fixture in the medium for the next 18 years. The radio work naturally led him to the movies, the most famous being his collaboration with Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour on The Road To… films between 1940 and 1962. Other movies Hope appeared include The Lemon Drop Kid and The Princess and The Pirate. While he never won in the acting category, Hope received two honorary Academy Awards.
Hope’s legacy will always be remembered for his NBC specials, and his avid interest in golf that included the Bob Hope/Chrysler Classic pro-am tournament. His other greatest contribution other than comedy was entertaining American troops overseas for almost 60 years. In 1997 Hope was made an honorary veteran through Resolution 75, which was passed by both houses of Congress.
Hope died on July 27, 2003 at the age of 100.
One of several postal-related jokes came from Hope’s joke files in 1953, which can be found on the Library of Congress Web site: “My brother worked at the post office during the Christmas rush last year but they had to let him go…Every time they’d hand him a load of packages, [he'd say], ‘For me?’”
Source material on Hope's life and career used for this article is from Bob Hope’s official Website
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