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He works on a round-the-clock schedule that would kill an ordinary man, has his telephones fitted with extra-long cords so he can pace up & down while he talks. He keeps seven writers busy helping him compose gags, has two filing cabinets jammed with jokes divided in three classifications: 1) "checked gags" (available for use)—sample: "I'm thinking of opening a large telephone booth with a drug counter in it"; 2) "unchecked gags" (needing further working on); 3) historic gags (which he never uses but collects for his own amusement).
Unspoiled by false modesty, Hope says: "I'll tell you what it is; I was born with timing and coordination, and I got seven writers. With their brains and my timing, we can't miss." His three-room office over his garage is packed with such proud possessions as a Jap Zero wing sent him by a Guadalcanal Marine. In England two radio hours are regarded almost as sacred periods, when no interruptions are tolerated: 1) the BBC news broadcasts, 2) Bob Hope's program.
He still takes a small boy's delight in his fans. One evening he rode up to a San Diego camp theater with a general in a jeep, hopped out, swaggered through a crowd of Marines and declared: "I don't know about you fellows, but I'm with the general." Whereupon the general stuck out his chest too, observed: "I don't know about you fellows, but I'm with Bob Hope."