Actor and comedian Bob Hope was one of the rare entertainers that performed on Broadway, radio, television and movies, along with traveling U.S.O. tours for the United States Military. Hope was well known for his good natured humor and fast wit.

Hope first appeared on television in 1932 during a test transmission from an experimental CBS studio in New York. While Bob Hope’s official career in broadcast radio started in 1934, his first regular series for NBC Radio was the Woodbury Soap Hour in 1937, a 26-week contract that began on January 4th of that year. A year later, The Pepsodent Show Starring Bob Hope began, and Hope signed a ten-year contract with the show’s sponsor, Lever Brothers. The comedian hired eight writers and paid them out of his salary of $2,500 a week. The original staff included Mel Shavelson, Norman Panama and Jack Rose, along with Sherwood and Al Schwartz. The Pepsodent Show became the top radio program in the country, featuring regulars such as Jerry Colonna and Barbara Jo Allen as spinster Vera Vague. The show would run through 1953.

Hope continued his lucrative career in radio through to the 1950s, when radio’s popularity was overshadowed by television.