"Bob Hope is an American icon. Some call him the most successful comedian who ever lived. For example, Woody Allen says Hope is his favorite comic." "A critical minority has gone mostly unheard. Groucho Marx insisted that Hope wasn't funny af all but rather was a translator of funny lines written by his writers. Nevertheless, no one can argue with Hope's long and tremendous popularity with the American people." "But is the public image of the smiling, gentle, good-humored, super-patriot, the true Hope?" "Not at all, says author Arthur Marx. That image is phony. It's an artificial portrait painted by the press after careful manipulation by a high-powered Bob Hope public relations machine." "Just as the American public was deceived into believing that J. Edgar Hoover was a he-man G-man when he was actually a cross-dressing gay, so is Bob Hope projected as warm, friendly, and generally nice. That isn't the whole parcel." "In reality, Hope is also mean-spirited and hypocritical. He is a paradox. He treats his family generously and then is cheap and cruel to his writers. He will drop everything to fly off to-impossible-to-pronounce military bases to entertain U.S. servicemen, but he'll be sure to insist that his entourage include a female companion for himself. He is frequently sadistic. He is notably cheap. He is grasping. And yet he is one of the wealthiest men in America with a fortune that may exceed $400,000,000." "In The Secret Life of Bob Hope, Arthur Marx reveals for the first time the story of Hope's hidden marriage. It details his womanizing. This, even as Hope pictures himself as a faithful Catholic husband." "In these pages are the names, places and events involving his extra-marital relationships - many of which ended with Hope punishing the ladies who worked with but would not sleep with him." "There are parts of this book that Bob Hope fans would prefer never saw the light of print. But in this day of increasing honesty, it is important to put this prominent super-celebrity in his rightful place among the stars. And this star isn't all in heaven..."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved