The Bob Hope Pepsodent Show - "Terminal Island With Guest Orson Welles" (09-28-43)

Terminal Island With Guest Orson Welles (Aired September 28, 1943)

Hope was surprised and humbled when he and his partner Grace Louise Troxell failed a 1930 screen test for Pathé at Culver City, California. (Hope had been on the screen in small parts, 1927's The Sidewalks of New York and 1928's Smiles. Hope returned to New York City and subsequently appeared in several Broadway musicals including Roberta, Say When, the 1936 Ziegfeld Follies, and Red, Hot and Blue with Ethel Merman. His performances were generally well-received and critics noted his keen sense of comedic timing. He changed his name from "Leslie" to "Bob", reportedly because people in the US were calling him "Hopelessly", although in the 1920s he sometimes used the name "Lester Hope".

THIS EPISODE:

The Pepsodent Show. September 28, 1943. "Guest Orson Welles" - NBC network, KFI, Los Angeles aircheck. Sponsored by: Pepsodent. The program originates from the Naval Air Station, Terminal Island, California. Bob and Frances take a moonlit buggy ride. The Pepsodent middle commercial features "Miriam" and "Irium." Stan Kenton is introduced and interviewed as "the new band leader" (it was actually his second appearance on the show). Guest Orson Welles appears as a mystic swami to tell Bob's future. Bob Hope, Frances Langford, Stan Kenton and His Orchestra, Larry Keating (commercial spokesman), Wendell Niles (announcer), Jerry Colonna, Barbara Jo Allen (as "Vera Vague"), Orson Welles. 29:56. Episode Notes From The Radio Gold Index.