Stars: The Comedian as Hero

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and we find out who we really hate." For years he has kidded General David Sarnoff, who takes both his brigadier's star and position as RCA board chairman with great seriousness. But even Sarnoff chuckles when Hope whips out with: "When I started with the NBC network, he was using the enlisted-men's washroom." And he has certainly had the last say on the progress of television. After Newton Mi-now's 1961 complaint that TV was a "vast wasteland," Hope measured television's subsequent progress and concluded: "Mr. Newton Minow is a man of high ideals, whose needling, prodding and constructive suggestions have led our great industry up the path to The Beverly Hillbillies."

Good News. Nor does he spare the troops. In Viet Nam last Christmas, Hope told them that "it's such a thrill to see the Huntley-Brinkley show performed live. But you better get on the ball. If you don't get better ratings, this whole war may be canceled." Hope also had "good news" for the boys: "The country is behind you—50%."

Between shows, he spins through the hospitals, where he makes it a point to give the wounded everything but sympathy. "That's the last thing they want," he says. So he deliberately throws open the door of a ward and yells: "Okay, fellas, don't get up!" To a G.I. who has lost an arm: "You'll do anything to avoid the draft, won't you?" To another: "Did you see the show this evening, or were you already sick?" In the hospitals or in the field, it is not the cheers or the applause that affects Hope most, but "when one of those thick-necked kids come up to you, touches your sleeve and says Thanks,' that's gotta break you up."

The Ambassador. Serves him right. Hope has been breaking up audiences for nearly 50 years. Even his fellow showfolk, notoriously envious of talent, get practically blubbery about him. "You spell Bob Hope C-L-A-S-S," says Lucille Ball. Adds Joey Bishop: "I'd like to get the applause at the end of my show that he gets before he opens his mouth." Woody Allen, himself a gag writer as well as performer, says: "He has been a terrific influence on every standup, one-line monologist. The thing which makes him great just can't be stolen or imitated." Jack Benny, Hope's warmest admirer, says: "It's not enough just to get laughs. The audience has to love you, and Bob gets love as well as laughs from his audiences."

Watching Hope among. people, says Artist Marion Pike, a family friend, is "a most moving experience." As he ambles through a crowd, eyes light and smiles turn on in swift progression, like a series of lamps brightening up a corridor. What the crowds, large or small, recognize is not only a man who has made them laugh but one who, without sentimentality, ostentation or ballyhoo, has become a national hero. The trophy room in Hope's North Hollywood home is filled like an overendowed museum with awards, honorary degrees and gifts that would be the envy of a Nobel prizewinner. One of them is the gold medal, voted by Congress and presented to him by President Kennedy in 1963, honoring him as ''America's most prized Ambassador of Good Will." It gave Hope "one sobering thought. I received this for going