Author of this article: Robert L. Mills.

View Authors profile

Robert L. Mills has been with FAFY - Free Article For You since Friday, 29 January 2010.

View additional articles from this Author!

• Music Was Important in Bob Hope's Success (12 April 2010)
• Bob Hope's TV Itinerary Read Like a Travel Brochure (10 April 2010)
• The One and Only Don Knotts (05 April 2010)
• The One and Only Barbara Mandrell (05 April 2010)
• The One and Only Barbara Eden (01 April 2010)
• The One and Only Danny Kaye (01 April 2010)
• The One and Only Loni Anderson (31 March 2010)
• The One and Only Glen Campbell (30 March 2010)
• The "Perfect Storm" in American Popular Entertainment (25 March 2010)
• Errors in a TV Script Are Seen By Millions (23 March 2010)
• Bob Hope: British And Proud of It (22 March 2010)
• Laughing at it Makes Growing Old Easier (19 March 2010)
• The Fax Machine -- The Twitter of the 1980s (18 March 2010)
• The Disaster of Not Sticking to The Script (18 March 2010)
• Were Hope & Crosby Pals Off-Screen? (18 March 2010)
• Effective Comedy is Based on Surprise (18 March 2010)
• The Late Night Talk Show That Never Was (17 March 2010)
• Forget I'm Bob Hope. When I'm Wrong, Tell Me. (16 March 2010)
• Liz Taylor Survives a TV Appearance With O.J. (11 March 2010)
• I Switched Careers Mid-Stream and You Can Too! (11 March 2010)
• Bob Hope's British Reserve Could Be Mistaken For Insensitivity (09 March 2010)
• Bob Hope Understood the Value of Fans (07 March 2010)
• I'm Richard Burton. Have a Part in Your Show For Me? (06 March 2010)
• Funny Is Money: Writing Jokes For Fun and Profit (06 March 2010)
• Was Bob Hope Funny Off Stage? (05 March 2010)
• Variety Show Sketch Playing Is More Difficult Than It Looks (04 March 2010)
• The Early TV Career of Brooke Shields (04 March 2010)
• When Anxiety Mimics a Heart Attack (04 March 2010)
• Bob Hope's Museum: Smithsonian or Show Biz Garage Sale? (04 March 2010)
• Flying In On a Wing, a Prayer and Some Jokes (27 February 2010)
• Was Bob Hope a Tightwad? Depends on Whom You Ask (27 February 2010)
• Bob Hope in Decline: The Long Goodbye (27 February 2010)
• Learn to Sell From the Master of Promotion: BOB HOPE (19 February 2010)
• A Hollywood Talent Manager Tells All (15 February 2010)
• Bob Hope's Man of Steel -- "Superiorman" (14 February 2010)
• Bob Hope as the "Son of Shogun" (12 February 2010)
• Bob Hope and Gerald Ford -- A Model Friendship (11 February 2010)
• The One & Only Betty White (11 February 2010)
• What it Feels Like to be Interviewed by Larry King (10 February 2010)
• Caught in the Web of China's Secret Police (10 February 2010)
• "Catch a Falling Star" -- Remembering Perry Como (09 February 2010)
• The One and Only George Gobel (09 February 2010)
• Think Only Hoop Stars Pack Heat? (09 February 2010)
• Our Ship Runs Aground in Tahiti (09 February 2010)
• Bob Hope in China: The Peking Opera Meets Gilbert & Sullivan (09 February 2010)
• Language Needn't Be a Barrier to Friendship (09 February 2010)
• Bob Hope Goes to College: From Notre Dame to S.M.U. (09 February 2010)
• Famous Quotes That History Overlooked (08 February 2010)
• History's Oddities (Social Satire) (08 February 2010)
• A Homey Prayer Companion (With Apologies to Garrison Keillor) (08 February 2010)
• Andy Williams Without the Osmonds (07 February 2010)
• SGT. PALIN OF THE YUKON (Political Parody) (06 February 2010)
• Death Wasn't In The Script (06 February 2010)
• Bob Hope & George Burns Bring Back Vaudeville (06 February 2010)
• Bob Hope's Employees Were Also His Friends (05 February 2010)
• Censorship of What We See and Hear Has a Long History (05 February 2010)
• Ever Try To Entertain a Country in Mourning? (05 February 2010)
• The Bob Hope Show at Annapolis (04 February 2010)
• The Bob Hope Show at The Air Force Academy & West Point (04 February 2010)
• Think Airport Security is A Pain? Try Perth in 1978 (04 February 2010)
• Bob Hope Was Just a Phone Call Away From the President (04 February 2010)
• A Star's Marriage Can Effect His On-Screen Performance (04 February 2010)
• Bob Hope in Tahiti: Paradise or Paradise Lost? (04 February 2010)
• How to Rib Presidents Without an IRS Audit (03 February 2010)
• Harvesting Marijuana in China (03 February 2010)
• Examining the Comic Genius of Don Knotts (03 February 2010)
• When Steve Martin Begged to Be on TV (03 February 2010)
• Here's Johnny! Johnny Carson Was the Shyest Performer I Ever Worked With (03 February 2010)
• The Godfather of Monday Night Football (02 February 2010)
• Can Scripted Comedy Be Over Rehearsed? (02 February 2010)
• How One TV Star Kept the Critics Happy (02 February 2010)
• Chinese Cuisine in 1979 B.C. -- Before the Colonel (02 February 2010)
• Aside From Golf, Football Was Bob Hope's Favorite Sport (02 February 2010)
• Bob Hope in Australia: Opening The Perth Entertainment Centre (01 February 2010)
• Think China Plays Hardball Today? Try 1979 (31 January 2010)
• Bob Hope in China: Translating Hope's Jokes Into Mandarin and Cantonese (31 January 2010)
• Enjoy Searching For Antiques? Try China in 1979 (31 January 2010)
• Bob Hope in China: Lights! Camera! Cue the Great Wall (31 January 2010)
• When Sponsor Loyalty Paid Handsome Returns (30 January 2010)
• When Annual Holiday Specials Brought Families Together (30 January 2010)

You have permission to re-publish this article electronically or in print, as long as you are able to follow the Publishers Guidelines.

Use the tools below to copy the article in plain text form, or you can copy it as HTML, ready to copy and paste directly into a web page.

HTML Version

• <html> <head> <title>The Bob Hope Show: Camelot in Downtown Burbank</title> </head> <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" leftmargin="0" topmargin="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0"> <h1>The Bob Hope Show: Camelot in Downtown Burbank</h1> <strong>Author: Robert L. Mills</strong><br /> <p></p> <p>Excerpted from <strong>THE LAUGH MAKERS: A Behind-the-Scenes Tribute to Bob Hope's Incredible Gag Writers</strong> (c) 2009 by Robert L. Mills and published by Bear Manor Media -- www.bearmanormedia.bizland.com/id370.html<br /> <br /> FREE SAMPLE CHAPTERS + Photos:  www.laughmakers.blogspot.com   <br /> <br /> An unabridged audio version read by the author is available at:  http://teach.learnoutloud.com/Browse/Arts-and-Entertainment/Film_-Music_-Radio_-TV_-and-Pop-Culture/The-Laugh-Makers/33067<br /> <br /> <strong>Throughout the sixties and seventies, Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme were frequent guests, favorites of Hope because he could use them both as singers and comic actors. Steve and Eydie had met while appearing as regulars on The Garry Moore Show where they learned the art (and it’s definitely an art) of sketch comedy.<br /> <br /> In a 1978 special entitled Bob Hope’s Tribute to the Palace Theater, we took advantage of their musical comedy talents by casting them in a sketch playing Sir Lancelot and Lady Guinevere opposite Hope’s King<br /> Arthur in a parody we called “Squares at the Round Table.”<br /> <br /> (Trumpeters beside the entrance to the castle sound a fanfare. Eydie, in a flowing purple gown, enters strumming a small harp)<br /> <br /> (‘Greensleeves”)<br /> <br /> EYDIE: (sings) I’m Guinevere... good King Arthur’s wife... and I swore to be true to him... all my life...<br /> But alas and alack... now I love him not... because I’m hot to trot... with Sir Lancelot!<br /> <br /> Note that in just eight lines, Eydie has set up the premise of the entire sketch. With only ten minutes to work with, we had no time to dillydally. <br /> <br /> EYDIE: (cups ear) Hark! I think I hear my handsome knight coming now!<br /> <br /> (Steve Lawrence enters dressed in a suit of mail and dragging a suit of armor behind him)<br /> <br /> STEVE: Sorry I’m, late, but I had to pick up my suit from Earl Scheib.<br /> <br /> (Steve and Eydie rush together and embrace. We hear the clank of metal,)<br /> <br /> STEVE: (sings Trolley Song) Clang, clang, clang goes my armor... Boom, boom, boom goes my lust...I would love you forever... but I think I’m beginning to rust!<br /> <br /> EYDIE: Oh, Lancy, I’m so antsy for you!<br /> <br /> STEVE: (pulls away) No! I can’t go on like this, dallying with my best friend’s wife! I’m a knight, I’m English, I’m sworn to the code of honor. Let’s do the decent thing!<br /> <br /> EYDIE: What’s that?<br /> <br /> STEVE: Kill him!<br /> <br /> EYDIE: You’re sweet, you big lug. (cups ear) Gadzooks,  I think I hear my pain-in-the-armor husband coming now!<br /> <br /> (Trumpeters sound fanfare. Hope enters as King Arthur. He dismounts from an armored hobby horse,)<br /> <br /> HOPE: (to trumpeters) Thanks, Dizzy. Thanks, Miles. (to horse) Whoa, Seattle Slew. (to camera) Lose one race and look where you end up. (horse falls to floor) That’s what I call Jockey Shorts. (to audience) I am the great and good King Arthur... I rule a land that is a magic spot... I even have a place to park my camel —<br /> <br /> STEVE/EYDIE: Where?<br /> <br /> HOPE: (sings) A camel lot.<br /> <br /> This was typical of the late entrance that Hope preferred — delayed while the others set up the premise. Note that it’s packed with multiple jokes, both spoken and visual. So far, he’s gotten six laughs and he hasn’t greeted his co-stars yet! <br /> <br /> HOPE: I had a great day. I slew three dragons, repelled a Saxon invasion, and fought a duel with a weird Viking, “Eric the Pink.” And on the way home, I saved a damsel in distress.<br /> <br /> STEVE: How did you do that?<br /> <br /> HOPE: I changed my mind.<br /> <br /> EYDIE: We’ll celebrate your safe return. Let us withdraw to the round table and partake of a goblet of drinkie-poo.<br /> <br /> HOPE: I could use a little drinkie. My poo is parched.<br /> <br /> HOPE: (raises goblet) Let’s drink to loyalty and love.<br /> <br /> EYDIE: Wait! Before we drink, let me demonstrate my devotion.  (embraces Hope) (whispers over Hope’s shoulder to Steve) While I’m showing him some devotion, you slip some potion in his lotion!<br /> <br /> STEVE: Wait a minute. While you’re showing your devotion, where do I find the lotion for his potion?<br /> <br /> EYDIE: In the ocean!<br /> <br /> This rhyming routine was a takeoff on a classic exchange in The Court Jester starring Danny Kaye. (“The pellet with the poison’s in the vessel with the pestle. The chalice from the palace has the brew that is true!”)<br /> <br /> (While Hope and Eydie kiss, Steve slips poison into Hope’s drink which emits a billow of smoke)<br /> <br /> STEVE: A toast to Gwen and Artie — a fun couple!<br /> <br /> HOPE: (re smoke): Oh, oh. While she’s giving me a hickey, he’s slipping me a mickey. (distracts Steve) Look! It’s Lady Godiva and she’s still horsing around!<br /> <br /> (When Steve looks, Hope exchanges their goblets)<br /> <br /> STEVE: (notices smoke in his goblet) Man, oh, man! My Manischewitz is on fire here! (distracts Hope as he again spins the table)  At last, we drink! (both take a sip)<br /> <br /> HOPE: (slumps in a chair) I think my life just got canceled! This is one heartburn even Liquid Plumber can’t fix! (he expires after a long groan and final gasp)<br /> <br /> EYDIE: (embracing Steve) At last we can be together!<br /> <br /> HOPE: (revives) But before I go, I want you both to know that I forgive you (expires again, then revives). And another thing, Guinevere, I want you to subdivide the castle into condominiums. They’ll be very big someday. And municipal bonds are nice, too —<br /> <br /> STEVE: (shoves him back into chair) Will you go already!<br /> <br /> STEVE: Now we can begin our new lives together, my love.<br /> <br /> EYDIE: I can’t wait! Monday nights, it’s dinner at my mother’s —<br /> <br /> STEVE: Your mo-mo-mother’s?<br /> <br /> EYDIE: And on Tuesday nights, she comes here —<br /> <br /> STEVE: Tu-Tu-Tuesdays she comes here?<br /> <br /> EYDIE: Every Tuesday without fail.<br /> <br /> STEVE: Well at least we’ll spend Wednesday nights alone.<br /> <br /> HOPE: (revives) On Wednesday nights, she gets a violent headache.<br /> <br /> STEVE: How do I get out of this?<br /> <br /> HOPE: (hands him his goblet) It’s Miller time!  (Steve drinks from Hope’s goblet and expires next to<br /> him)<br /> <br /> EYDIE: I thought he’d never leave. (looks offstage) you can come in now, Sir Carsolot!<br /> <br /> (Johnny Carson in knight’s garb and a blonde pageboy wig enters and takes Eydie in his arms)<br /> <br /> JOHNNY: (to audience) Well, there goes one of my nights off!<br /> <br /> Prevailing upon Johnny Carson to provide our blackout was fortuitous, to say the least. We were in the midst of the dress-rehearsal late in the afternoon in a studio that adjoined Johnny’s Tonight Show set. Hope, Steve and Eydie were having so much fun in their Camelot costumes, someone came up with the bright idea of having them walk onto Johnny’s show while it was in progress. Johnny was notoriously shy and seldom<br /> appeared as a guest on anyone’s show. If Hope had asked him in advance, he’d have declined, but how could he turn down a request by the beloved Bob Hope right in front of his own audience? Hope knew he couldn’t, and we had our perfect blackout.<br /> </strong></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p><strong><br /> </strong><br /> Excerpted from <strong>THE LAUGH MAKERS: A Behind-the-Scenes Tribute to Bob Hope's Incredible Gag Writers</strong> (c) 2009 by Robert L. Mills and published by Bear Manor Media -- www.bearmanormedia.bizland.com/id370.html<br /> <br /> FREE SAMPLE CHAPTERS + Photos:  www.laughmakers.blogspot.com   <br /> <br /> An unabridged audio version read by the author is available at:  http://teach.learnoutloud.com/Browse/Arts-and-Entertainment/Film_-Music_-Radio_-TV_-and-Pop-Culture/The-Laugh-Makers/33067<br />  </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">A native of San Francisco, Bob Mills served in the Navy from 1956 to 1959, graduated from San Francisco State University in 1962 and the University of California Hastings Law in 1965 and practiced in Palo Alto, California from 1966 until becoming a television writer in 1976, whereupon he ceased all contact with lawyers. He wrote for the "Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts" 1976-77; "The Bob Hope Show" 1977-92 In 1973, he married his wife, Shelley, with whom he lives in Studio City, California. </span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);"> He writes a daily topical blog entitled "Dr. Digit's Hollywood Memory Blog" online at www.bereftontheleft.blogspot.com. He is a volunteer reader at Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic in Hollywood and hosts a weekly program entitled "Inside Television" for Los Angeles Radio Reading Service for the Blind in Northridge, California, streamed online each Tuesday at 0820-0900 Pacific at www.larrs.org. Each New Years Day, he co-hosts a three-hour audio description of the Pasadena Rose Parade broadcast to 52 radio stations for the blind reaching 2.7 million listeners via NPR satellite. He's also a substitute co-host of "Access Unlimited" heard on Tuesdays 2:30 to 3:00 pm Pacific on KPFK, 90.7 fm Los Angeles, 98.7 fm Santa Barbara. Streamed live and archived at www.kpfk.org</span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);"> In 2009, his book <strong>THE LAUGH MAKERS: A Behind the Scenes Tribute to Bob Hope's Incredible Gag Writers</strong> was published by Bear Manor Media in both a print and an audio version read by the author. Sample chapters:<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"> www.laughmakers.blogspot.com</span> An unabridged audio version read by the author is available at: <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"> http://teach.learnoutloud.com/Browse/Arts-and-Entertainment/Film_-Music_-Radio_-TV_-and-Pop-Culture/The-Laugh-Makers/33067</span> He is an emeritus member of the Writers Guild of America and holds memberships in two organizations: Yarmy’s Army, a group of veteran writers and entertainers who meet monthly for dinner and produce fund-raisers for worthy causes including the Motion Picture and Television House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California, and in The Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters, a social club made up of former radio and television professionals that meets bimonthly for lunch and a celebrity “roast.”</span></p> <p> </p> <p>Article Source: <a href="http://www.freearticleforyou.com/">Article Directory - http://www.freearticleforyou.com</a></p> <p> </p></p></body> </html>

• TEXT Version

  • The Bob Hope Show: Camelot in Downtown Burbank Author: Robert L. Mills Excerpted from THE LAUGH MAKERS: A Behind-the-Scenes Tribute to Bob Hope's Incredible Gag Writers (c) 2009 by Robert L. Mills and published by Bear Manor Media -- www.bearmanormedia.bizland.com/id370.html FREE SAMPLE CHAPTERS + Photos:  www.laughmakers.blogspot.com   An unabridged audio version read by the author is available at:  http://teach.learnoutloud.com/Browse/Arts-and-Entertainment/Film_-Music_-Radio_-TV_-and-Pop-Culture/The-Laugh-Makers/33067 Throughout the sixties and seventies, Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme were frequent guests, favorites of Hope because he could use them both as singers and comic actors. Steve and Eydie had met while appearing as regulars on The Garry Moore Show where they learned the art (and it’s definitely an art) of sketch comedy. In a 1978 special entitled Bob Hope’s Tribute to the Palace Theater, we took advantage of their musical comedy talents by casting them in a sketch playing Sir Lancelot and Lady Guinevere opposite Hope’s King Arthur in a parody we called “Squares at the Round Table.” (Trumpeters beside the entrance to the castle sound a fanfare. Eydie, in a flowing purple gown, enters strumming a small harp) (‘Greensleeves”) EYDIE: (sings) I’m Guinevere... good King Arthur’s wife... and I swore to be true to him... all my life... But alas and alack... now I love him not... because I’m hot to trot... with Sir Lancelot! Note that in just eight lines, Eydie has set up the premise of the entire sketch. With only ten minutes to work with, we had no time to dillydally. EYDIE: (cups ear) Hark! I think I hear my handsome knight coming now! (Steve Lawrence enters dressed in a suit of mail and dragging a suit of armor behind him) STEVE: Sorry I’m, late, but I had to pick up my suit from Earl Scheib. (Steve and Eydie rush together and embrace. We hear the clank of metal,) STEVE: (sings Trolley Song) Clang, clang, clang goes my armor... Boom, boom, boom goes my lust...I would love you forever... but I think I’m beginning to rust! EYDIE: Oh, Lancy, I’m so antsy for you! STEVE: (pulls away) No! I can’t go on like this, dallying with my best friend’s wife! I’m a knight, I’m English, I’m sworn to the code of honor. Let’s do the decent thing! EYDIE: What’s that? STEVE: Kill him! EYDIE: You’re sweet, you big lug. (cups ear) Gadzooks,  I think I hear my pain-in-the-armor husband coming now! (Trumpeters sound fanfare. Hope enters as King Arthur. He dismounts from an armored hobby horse,) HOPE: (to trumpeters) Thanks, Dizzy. Thanks, Miles. (to horse) Whoa, Seattle Slew. (to camera) Lose one race and look where you end up. (horse falls to floor) That’s what I call Jockey Shorts. (to audience) I am the great and good King Arthur... I rule a land that is a magic spot... I even have a place to park my camel — STEVE/EYDIE: Where? HOPE: (sings) A camel lot. This was typical of the late entrance that Hope preferred — delayed while the others set up the premise. Note that it’s packed with multiple jokes, both spoken and visual. So far, he’s gotten six laughs and he hasn’t greeted his co-stars yet! HOPE: I had a great day. I slew three dragons, repelled a Saxon invasion, and fought a duel with a weird Viking, “Eric the Pink.” And on the way home, I saved a damsel in distress. STEVE: How did you do that? HOPE: I changed my mind. EYDIE: We’ll celebrate your safe return. Let us withdraw to the round table and partake of a goblet of drinkie-poo. HOPE: I could use a little drinkie. My poo is parched. HOPE: (raises goblet) Let’s drink to loyalty and love. EYDIE: Wait! Before we drink, let me demonstrate my devotion.  (embraces Hope) (whispers over Hope’s shoulder to Steve) While I’m showing him some devotion, you slip some potion in his lotion! STEVE: Wait a minute. While you’re showing your devotion, where do I find the lotion for his potion? EYDIE: In the ocean! This rhyming routine was a takeoff on a classic exchange in The Court Jester starring Danny Kaye. (“The pellet with the poison’s in the vessel with the pestle. The chalice from the palace has the brew that is true!”) (While Hope and Eydie kiss, Steve slips poison into Hope’s drink which emits a billow of smoke) STEVE: A toast to Gwen and Artie — a fun couple! HOPE: (re smoke): Oh, oh. While she’s giving me a hickey, he’s slipping me a mickey. (distracts Steve) Look! It’s Lady Godiva and she’s still horsing around! (When Steve looks, Hope exchanges their goblets) STEVE: (notices smoke in his goblet) Man, oh, man! My Manischewitz is on fire here! (distracts Hope as he again spins the table)  At last, we drink! (both take a sip) HOPE: (slumps in a chair) I think my life just got canceled! This is one heartburn even Liquid Plumber can’t fix! (he expires after a long groan and final gasp) EYDIE: (embracing Steve) At last we can be together! HOPE: (revives) But before I go, I want you both to know that I forgive you (expires again, then revives). And another thing, Guinevere, I want you to subdivide the castle into condominiums. They’ll be very big someday. And municipal bonds are nice, too — STEVE: (shoves him back into chair) Will you go already! STEVE: Now we can begin our new lives together, my love. EYDIE: I can’t wait! Monday nights, it’s dinner at my mother’s — STEVE: Your mo-mo-mother’s? EYDIE: And on Tuesday nights, she comes here — STEVE: Tu-Tu-Tuesdays she comes here? EYDIE: Every Tuesday without fail. STEVE: Well at least we’ll spend Wednesday nights alone. HOPE: (revives) On Wednesday nights, she gets a violent headache. STEVE: How do I get out of this? HOPE: (hands him his goblet) It’s Miller time!  (Steve drinks from Hope’s goblet and expires next to him) EYDIE: I thought he’d never leave. (looks offstage) you can come in now, Sir Carsolot! (Johnny Carson in knight’s garb and a blonde pageboy wig enters and takes Eydie in his arms) JOHNNY: (to audience) Well, there goes one of my nights off! Prevailing upon Johnny Carson to provide our blackout was fortuitous, to say the least. We were in the midst of the dress-rehearsal late in the afternoon in a studio that adjoined Johnny’s Tonight Show set. Hope, Steve and Eydie were having so much fun in their Camelot costumes, someone came up with the bright idea of having them walk onto Johnny’s show while it was in progress. Johnny was notoriously shy and seldom appeared as a guest on anyone’s show. If Hope had asked him in advance, he’d have declined, but how could he turn down a request by the beloved Bob Hope right in front of his own audience? Hope knew he couldn’t, and we had our perfect blackout.     Excerpted from THE LAUGH MAKERS: A Behind-the-Scenes Tribute to Bob Hope's Incredible Gag Writers (c) 2009 by Robert L. Mills and published by Bear Manor Media -- www.bearmanormedia.bizland.com/id370.html FREE SAMPLE CHAPTERS + Photos:  www.laughmakers.blogspot.com   An unabridged audio version read by the author is available at:  http://teach.learnoutloud.com/Browse/Arts-and-Entertainment/Film_-Music_-Radio_-TV_-and-Pop-Culture/The-Laugh-Makers/33067       A native of San Francisco, Bob Mills served in the Navy from 1956 to 1959, graduated from San Francisco State University in 1962 and the University of California Hastings Law in 1965 and practiced in Palo Alto, California from 1966 until becoming a television writer in 1976, whereupon he ceased all contact with lawyers. He wrote for the "Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts" 1976-77; "The Bob Hope Show" 1977-92 In 1973, he married his wife, Shelley, with whom he lives in Studio City, California.   He writes a daily topical blog entitled "Dr. Digit's Hollywood Memory Blog" online at www.bereftontheleft.blogspot.com. He is a volunteer reader at Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic in Hollywood and hosts a weekly program entitled "Inside Television" for Los Angeles Radio Reading Service for the Blind in Northridge, California, streamed online each Tuesday at 0820-0900 Pacific at www.larrs.org. Each New Years Day, he co-hosts a three-hour audio description of the Pasadena Rose Parade broadcast to 52 radio stations for the blind reaching 2.7 million listeners via NPR satellite. He's also a substitute co-host of "Access Unlimited" heard on Tuesdays 2:30 to 3:00 pm Pacific on KPFK, 90.7 fm Los Angeles, 98.7 fm Santa Barbara. Streamed live and archived at www.kpfk.org   In 2009, his book THE LAUGH MAKERS: A Behind the Scenes Tribute to Bob Hope's Incredible Gag Writers was published by Bear Manor Media in both a print and an audio version read by the author. Sample chapters: www.laughmakers.blogspot.com An unabridged audio version read by the author is available at: http://teach.learnoutloud.com/Browse/Arts-and-Entertainment/Film_-Music_-Radio_-TV_-and-Pop-Culture/The-Laugh-Makers/33067 He is an emeritus member of the Writers Guild of America and holds memberships in two organizations: Yarmy’s Army, a group of veteran writers and entertainers who meet monthly for dinner and produce fund-raisers for worthy causes including the Motion Picture and Television House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California, and in The Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters, a social club made up of former radio and television professionals that meets bimonthly for lunch and a celebrity “roast.”   Article Source: Article Directory - http://www.freearticleforyou.com