Editing Bob Hope (section)

=== 1927–1937: Early theatre and film roles ===
[[File:Bob Hope.jpg|thumb|upright|Bob Hope]]
In the early days, Hope's career included appearances on stage in vaudeville shows and Broadway productions.<ref name="PBS">{{cite web | url=http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/bob-hope-biography/9725/| title=This Is Bob Hope... Biography| author=Zoglin, Richard| date=November 30, 2017| publisher=[[PBS]]| access-date=May 13, 2018| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180514064753/http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/bob-hope-biography/9725/| archive-date=May 14, 2018| url-status=live}}</ref> Hope's first Broadway appearances, in 1927's ''The Sidewalks of New York'' and 1928's ''Ups-a-Daisy'', were minor walk-on parts.{{sfn|Faith|2003|p=403}} He returned to Broadway in 1933 to star as Huckleberry Haines in the [[Jerome Kern]] and [[Dorothy Fields]] musical ''[[Roberta (musical)|Roberta]]''.{{sfn|Quirk|1998|p=71}} Stints in the musicals ''[[Say When (musical)|Say When]]'', the 1936 [[Ziegfeld Follies]] with [[Fanny Brice]], and ''[[Red, Hot and Blue]]'' with [[Ethel Merman]] and [[Jimmy Durante]] followed.{{sfn|Quirk|1998|pp=73–75}}

He began performing on the radio in 1934 mostly with [[NBC]] radio, and switched to [[television]] when that medium became popular in the 1950s. He started hosting regular TV specials in 1954,{{sfn|Quirk|1998|p=229}} and hosted the [[Academy Awards]] nineteen times from 1939 through 1977.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.biography.com/news/bob-hope-king-of-the-oscars-21156325 | title=Bob Hope: King of the Oscars | website=Biography | access-date=July 19, 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170728163444/https://www.biography.com/news/bob-hope-king-of-the-oscars-21156325 | archive-date=July 28, 2017 | url-status=dead }}</ref> Overlapping with this was his movie career, spanning 1934 to 1972, and his [[United Service Organizations|USO]] tours, which he conducted from 1941 to 1991.{{sfn|Quirk|1998|pp=318–320}}{{sfn|Grudens|2002|pp=181–182}}

Hope signed a contract with [[Educational Pictures]] of New York for six short comedies. The first was a comedy, ''[[Going Spanish]]'' (1934). He was not happy with it, and told newspaper columnist [[Walter Winchell]], "When they catch [bank robber] [[John Dillinger|Dillinger]], they're going to make him sit through it twice."{{sfn|Maltin|1972|p=25}} Educational Pictures took umbrage at the remark and canceled Hope's contract after only the one film. He soon signed with the [[Vitaphone]] short-subject studio in [[Brooklyn]], New York, making musical and comedy shorts during the day and performing in Broadway shows in the evenings.{{sfn|Quirk|1998|pp=105, 107}}