Gene and Martha have done a superb job capturing the essence of Hope. I wrote for Bob myself and know what he was like on a day-to-day basis and they nailed him. He was a true joy to work for and left all of us with valued memories of experiences we'd otherwise have only dreamed of. Gene and Martha have documented what it was like to work for a legend. My hat's off to them both!

If you read just one book on Show Business this is the one!! I can't tell you how much I enjoyed the experinece of going behind the scenes with two of Bob Hope's Comedy Writers. Both writers paint a real and exciting picture of a true comedy ledgend. I would also reccomend that anyone interrested in becoming a comedy writer read this book.

Trust me. Read this one. Any fan of Hope, or any fan of comedy, will love the behind-the-scenes stories of being on the road with Hope. How the punch lines came about are as funny as the lines themselves. I bought a copy for my Dad - a BIG Hope fan - with the intention of stealing it back. No such luck. He won't let it go!

Written especially to commemorate Bob Hope's 100th birthday, The Spirit Of Bob Hope is a meaningful and informative biography that ranges from his birth in England, to his youthful career as a professional boxer, to his long and talented journey toward becoming a vaudeville, stage, movie, television icon. Personal testimonies and tributes from fellow celebrities, in their own words, enhance this welcome tribute to a great entertainer and citizen. Over 100 black-and-white photographs illustrate this biographical homage to a truly great and enduringly popular comedian, a true icon of twentieth century American popular culture.

Richard Grudens once again does a teriffic job of writing and displaying a mans life in great fashion. As an avid collector of all music memorabilia and a musician, I am very humbled by this wonderful presentation of Bob Hope. I'm only a 24 year old guy, and in my time I have not seen a single man do so much in a lifetime of all the people I know and know of. I remember all the good Bob Hope did being at the USO shows for our troops and watching the reruns of the Bob Hope and Bing Crosby movies with my dad. My dad is also a huge fan of Bob Hope and all the old timers stuff, so we say(that would be coming from a young person like myself). This book belongs on the library shelves as a reference to Bob Hope. ---- an instant classic ----

This is the best Bible study I have seen regarding what the Bible teaches regarding faith. As always, Bob George uses simple and clear language as you step through ton's of scripture! Through study of the scripture, it becomes clear that faith is only as good as the object in which it's placed. The faith of a Chrisitan is placed in no one else but Jesus Christ! Great study guide!

It's amazing that the following mistakes appear in this book:

1) A reference to Cecil B. DeMille's "Sunset Boulevard".
It's Billy Wilder's and Leigh Brackett's picture. DeMille had
a cameo in it.

2) Donna Douglas (of "Beverly Hillbillies" fame) is referred to
in a caption as "Donna Dixon" and in the accompanying text as
"Joey Heatherton".

3) Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman, in English riding clothes,
are described as wearing "Western gear".

4) Sammy Davis Jr's ex-wife, Mai Britt, is twice referred to as
"May Britt".

Did anybody edit this book, or were Garrett's reminiscences taken
on faith because he, of all people, should know?

This is a wonderful compilation of photographs and text taken throughout the years by Murray Garrett. All of the Hollywood golden age stars are featured: Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Jean Simmons, Natalie Wood, Ava Gardner. The photos catch the personal side of the stars, such as the photo of Richard Burton strapped into an airline seat along with his daughter's doll, as well as their entrances into glamourous events. He also adds his personal recollections such as Ava Gardner's love of jokes, off color or not, Eve Arden's love of her daughter, the secrecy of Natalie Wood's 21st birthday party. The stories are fascinating. The pictures are beautiful and unique. I am glad Murray decided to share them with us.

I have had the priveledge of knowing Murray Garrett for over 25 years as a business associate and friend. I was completely blown away by his incredible talent as a photographer and writer. This book captures a Hollywood that I remember as my home town and really was the entertainment capitol of the world. The pictures are unique, and definitely candid. Murray's comments about the stars shed new insights into the personalities and quirks of some of the most loved and famous celebrities of the era. A beautiful collection of memorys from a man who approaches Hollywood from an honest, compasionate and humorous point of view. Highly recommended.

I enjoyed this book and found some of the detail fascinating although at other times I felt it was skimming the surface and not going deep enough. There are slight errors eg Fletcher Henderson did not write King Porter Stomp he only arranged it and I was surprised to see Bubber Miley's picture included in a set of fifties Ellington men - he must have smelt pretty bad!

On the whole a worthwhile read for anyone interested in the big bands

Like the Best Damn Trumpet Player, Grudens writes with feeling about all his heroes. Reading the interview with band leader Artie Shaw proves his respect for the musicians. Grudens is not a critic. He loves the music of his life and proves to all of us that the music of the era was the best music ever recorded. Where else have you ever read about people like Red Norvo, The Dorsey's the family of Duke Ellington, the great Stan Kenton, with help from Audree Kenton, Les Paul, the great Les Brown etc. You will love this book if you love that music. There is a feature about all the bands of Europe like Syd Lawrence and Ted Heath. The book is just great.There is even a section about the great songwriters, Ervin Drake ( I Believe and It Was a Very Good Year)and Jack Lawrence ( Linda, Tenderly) and others.

Richard, you did a terrfic job, your book is for all music lovers but especially those of us who love big bands and great singers. And you know I love ANN JILLIAN'S SINGING! Count me in man. Best of luck Richard. Andy

At first, I thought this book was pure EVIL. So I burned it, only to have it appear that night (in perfect condition, yet still warm and a slight smokey odor) under my pillow. So I burned it again the next morning. Yep, you guessed it, under my pillow the next night. I began to read and spent the majority of the next 3 months with gut-wrenching laughter and tears of joy as this confusing world was clearified and classified into an eternal perpetual joke for which only BOB has the punchline. YES!, Brothers and Sisters, You too can be saved by the Grace of BOB. Eternal Salvation or triple you money back!!! No other religion can make such a hefty promise! This is the world's only admitted "for-profit" religion. This book has changed my life. Before, I was a low-life loser who never had any money, women, fun, or slack. Now I am a low-life loser who has no money, women or fun,.... .... BUT I HAVE PLENTY OF SLACK!!!!! PRAISE BOB!

In 1993 I received an unexpected surprise: my brother and I were browsing through the Buck-a-Book discount bookstore in the Cambridge area (Buck-a-Book is a prime source for Slack!) one day, when he found a copy of the Book of the SubGenius on sale for one dollar. He showed it to me, knowing how I had pointed out "Bob" a few times in the past. I snatched the book up and bought it...after all, what's a buck these days? Plenty, as it turned out. I enjoyed the book immensely, and I thought the message of the Church of the SubGenius was a good one. This was back when memberships in the Church were still $20, and every so often I would look through the Book and say, "I should really send in the money and get ordained." But I didn't...because I didn't GET IT.

But the pivotal day came in February, 1994, when Buck-a-Book came through again! This time I was browsing the store in the business district of Boston during my lunch hour, when I came across the book that was to change my life: "High Weirdness by Mail." ("Three-Fisted Tales of 'Bob'" was also on sale for a buck that day, but I didn't get it yet.) I picked it up and said to myself, "I really should get this - it's only a buck!" and I bought it. A good omen occured right there at the cash register: the cashier saw the book and he said, "That is such a GREAT book! I've gotten so much weird stuff from that book...my neighbors think I'm crazy!"

So I read the book...and I WAS STRUCK BY A REVELATION! The rightings within this Sacred Tome were as much of an eye-opener as Rick had been! The chapter on dangerous hate groups alone was worth the cost of the book (the full cost, that is - not just a buck), and the book's musings on the philsophies of life and what is good (and what isn't) helped me to truly read between the likes of the Book of the SubGenius at last. YES! I was struck by the reality of the true meaning of the Church of the SubGenius...and it was good! It was something I already believed in! It was a cause worth sending money to! I finally GOT IT! Within the next week, I finally wrote out my $20 and mailed it in to the Sacred P.O. Box. I also went back to Buck-a-Book and got "Three-Fisted Tales" before it vanished, though I thought (and still think) that it wasn't as good as first two books had been.

When you first read "The Book of the SubGenius," you may not GET IT. Only those of true Yeti heritage will be blessed with the vision that is J.R. "Bob" Dobbs...and one of those rare souls could be YOU. You MUST see the Book of the SubGenius. Even if you don't GET IT right now, you will one day...if it is right for YOU!

If you don't own it, most especially if you've never heard of it, you pinkos seriously need a copy. (And if you HAVE heard of it, what the heck are you waiting for?)

If you already own a copy, buy another and GIVE it to that special friend in need of serious help. Use its pages for toilet paper, or bury it in the backyard and watch it REAPPEAR on your front porch ad infinitum. (And it'll be just dandy for propping up the short leg of your TV set.)

It's real simple: everyone needs more [fill in the blank]. This book'll show you how to get it, with easy step-by-step assembly instructions that even the most awkward glue-sniffing yooth can follow. With Dobbs's patented Eurorotorvated Dance Steps and Preprogrammed Learning Materials you can NEVER GO WRONG. (Ok, Dobbs (...) up and the saucers haven't shown up yet. Tough.)

Trust me, it really works, as I can testify from personal experience.

Once you've read the book, send in your (money) and all PRAISE to the mighty Dobbs!!! You and your life will be better for it. Just click on the little button up there...c'mon, you know you want to free yourself from the slavery of JHVH-1 and his many demons... You MUST get SLACK.

I read this book in one sitting. It gave me a kind of Chicken-Soup-For-the-Soul uplift. Bob has led a unique life himself, knows a lot of interesting people and has a ear for a good story. A feel good read.

As I approach 50 it is not without some trepidation. What have I done with my life? Mr. Hope's book is inspirational and entertaining. A Self-help book with real people. It makes me feel like the best is yet to come. I especially liked the way he talked about people we know about, yet on an intimate but not gossipy level. This book was fun, easy to read. Sort of like Chicken Soup for the Soul but not as schmaltzy. I like his style. I hope he writes some more.

This book is about fulfilling ones dreams at any age. It is inspirational without being prescriptive. Bob Hope's witty yet insightful portrayal of both famous and ordinary people who have made the most out of their lives is a delightful read.

This book is clearly one of the most revealing autobiographical accounts of the 20th Century. As a survivor of decades of unspeakable abuse, Brice Taylor shares the horrific details of her unusual life among the powerful and famous with astonishing clarity, insight and even humor. After repressing countless trauma-based mind control tortures she had endured in order to shatter her psyche and condition her for use as a secret operative leading a 'double life,' the amnesiac parts of Brice that held these memories finally emerged from deep within herself to chronicle, like a modern-day Anne Frank, surely one of the darkest episodes in America's history. Her experiences make the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal seem by comparison like the farcical sideshow it was.

Brice Taylor describes exactly what mind control techniques were used on her (including electric shock, drugs, sensory and sleep deprivation, hypnosis, starvation, brainwashing and virtual reality equipment, torture, and sexual abuse) and names specific locations where this was done. Her experience builds upon the documented, declassified government mind control projects that were sponsored by the CIA and other such agencies for over 25 years, such as MKULTRA, MKDELTA, MKSEARCH, BLUEBIRD and ARTICHOKE, all exposed over two decades ago during 1977 Senate Hearings. Quoting from an article in U.S. News & World Report (1/24/94), her book points out that these mind control projects were conducted on a "vast" scale throughout the U.S. The CIA's behavior modification Project MKULTRA alone consisted of 149 subprojects and, according to CIA Director Stansfield Turner, was carried out at 80 institutions, including 44 colleges and universities, 15 research facilities or private companies, 12 hospitals or clinics, and 3 prisons. These projects remained classified and therefore invisible to the American public for more than two decades. Only the incredibly naive could believe that such programs no longer exist in secrecy today.

Walter Bowart, a pre-eminent authority and author of the book, Operation Mind Control (1978), wrote the Forward to Brice Taylor's book and further investigated the Senate revelations about the large-scale government mind control program. What he found runs counter to the ignorant claims that total mind control of an individual is impossible. In fact, his 1978 book supports Brice Taylor's experience by revealing that the objective of the government program was to "take human beings, both citizens of the United States and citizens of friendly and unfriendly countries, and transform them into unthinking, subconsciously programmed 'zombies,' motivated without their knowledge and against their wills to perform in a variety of ways in which they would not otherwise willingly perform... and involved techniques of hypnosis, narco-hypnosis, electronic brain stimulation, behavioral effects of ultrasonic, microwave, and low frequency sound, aversive and other behavior modification -- in fact there was virtually no aspect of human behavioral control that was not explored in a search for the means to control the memory and will of both individual and whole masses of people..."

Brice Taylor's book eludes to the existence of a secret program, known as MONARCH, that utilizes hypno-programmed 'slaves' like Brice Taylor to, among other things (such as memorize documents photographically and act as a human tape recorder or computer at high-level meetings), sexually service politicians, including U.S. Presidents, and dignitaries as their 'perk' or 'fringe benefit,' supposedly for the purpose of protecting the immoral needs of such officials from outside sources of venereal disease and 'Lewinskyesque scandals' (but in reality for purposes of blackmail and subliminal control over them by their hidden puppetmasters). In fact, Brice Taylor's book details how this secret program was implemented, based on her own experience with it as one of its secret 'operatives.'

Yes folks, on the surface what Brice Taylor describes in shocking detail is almost beyond belief, but once the reader absorbs the fact that her experience is part of an intentional program (paid for by your tax dollars) to ultimately control our nation's highest officials, it all makes perfect sense. Her allegations have been corroborated by others and its theme is well-known among healing professionals working to help other victims of these unconscionable projects. Two adult survivors of MKULTRA testified about their childhood mind control abuse before the President's Committee on Human Radiation Experiments in 1995. During her many years in recovery and after her attempts to reveal what happened to her, Brice Taylor received and survived many death threats. And, uniformed or deluded individuals, and those with a 'hidden agenda,' continue to attack her with false allegations and disparaging remarks, in an attempt to prevent this information from achieving wider distribution.

Years ago, the Pandora's box of mind control was opened and the atrocities descibed in Brice Taylor's book are now escalating worldwide as the black market for robotic humans (spies, patsies, assassins, informants, couriers, recorders, sex slaves) expands and rising dictatorial governments succumb to the corrupting influence of a totalitarian-bent and pedophile-infested global elite. It is high time for the entire spectrum of post-Cold War cryptocrats propogating the madness she describes to sit down for an East-West/Trilateral summit and throw off the yoke of their sick and moneyed global puppetmasters. Through this book, Brice Taylor offers a precious gift of stunning awareness to those among us who still care about human dignity and freedom!!!

First I would like to ask that you carry this book which I purchased from Brice Taylor Trust. The detail in this book and documentation is proof of this atrocity that has been going on for many years. I am outraged that we as taxpayers are funding Black Operations like MKULTRA which involves child abuse and mind control human slave programs. Our leaders are not who they appear!!

For 10 years I have had as patients dozens of victims of government mind-control experimentation (Projects Bluebird, Artichoke, Paperclip, Monarch). Brice Taylor outlines in detail some of the methods used to "split" the mind into dissociated parts in order to program the parts to perform a function for the perpetrators without the victim's conscious mind aware of what is happening. This book is for all the skeptics out there who don't believe this is possible. Mind control is about power and greed; control someone's mind and you've got an unpaid labor force for anything you want to do--there are big bucks to be made in child and adult pornography, blackmail, drug and arms running, and controlling information and misinformation to and from powerful people. Manipulating the human mind is easy to do if you have enough knowledge about human physiology and psychology. That information is easy to obtain if you can learn it through experimentation without informed consent or worry about ethical, humane treatment. "Classified in the interest of National Security" is all that is needed to make sure the public doesn't ever know about the terrible human rights abuses perpetrated in this country with tax dollars. This book is shocking because Brice Taylor names big names, and we as a culture are terrified of admitting that many of our leaders and people we hold in high regard are corrupt. Read this book from cover to cover; then ask yourself, "Is this woman crazy, or could this really be happening?"

i love bob hope hence the purchase of the book...i was disappointed in the fact that it was a small hardcover book, and simply a copy of his jokes for the various times of his life...i believe that very little effort went in putting the book together, and it was a disapointment...find another book to read about this great man...

Bob Hope came with a bunch of pretty girls and good musicians to play for me and about a jillion other lonesome GI's so I am predisposed to like the man and this review might not be perfectly objective. He told us jokes that hit right straight home. This book is full of those jokes and each chapter is headed by a little history just to set things straight. He just about covers the whole last century right down the the exposed wire. There is no prejudice or meanness... just the naked truth. He never overlooked any of the facts of the matter. It is, indeed, the best history of the twentieth century I ever read. Thank's for the memories, kind sir... and happy birthday.

Bob is a smart guy, but Generation Queer is so pat and superficial I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. It reminded me of Jonathan Livingston Seagull - a series of philisophical thoughts, most of them generally reflecting upon the need to be comfortable (or to love) oneself.

The Q & A section of the book was better, mostly because the questions were interesting. Bob's answers were common sense replies to difficult questions. Nothing wrong with the replies, but nothing exceptional about them either.

Don't bother with this one.

Who would have thought a former Mr. Universe and Gay Activist would have so much going on upstairs! What I mean is that Bob Paris' new book, Generation Queer, is the kind of book that makes you stop and think, and reflect on your own experiences, then evaluate where to go from here. I enjoyed Bob's honesty and candor in dealing with the many problematic situations presented. His advice is insightful and not the typical "force-fed" rhetoric you find in so many of the gay activist books on the market. At last someone is addressing questions like, How to deal with spiritual concerns and family relationships from a realistic point of view. I found many of my own private questions were discussed in length and that I'm not alone in my concerns. I'm hoping there will be another edition in the near future. I had only two disappointments: (1) After so many mentions of the "mailbag", where's the address so others can share? (2) There's no pictures. (but, then its not that kind of book.) By the way, I was able to meet Bob Paris at a recent booksigning in West Hollywood, and found him to be as real and thoughtful as he is in print.

Bob Paris has produced a body of work in GENERATION QUEER that will undoubtedly create a new standard against which future books on this topic are judged. Yes folks, it is that informative, endearing and thought provoking. The book is written from the author's heart and his Spirit leaps off the page and touches the reader's heart in a magical and masterful way. The power behind his words of timeless wisdom actually transcend the written medium and create a golden opportunity for healing and integration between our humanity and divinity not only as gay men but as human souls. His writing style is not only picturesque and artful it is truly inspiring. GENERATION QUEER is not a book. It is an inner odyssey that is meant to be fully experienced and shared with every friend and loved one in your life. It is an adventure. My only regret is that this book has yet to be incorporated into the mandatory reading curriculum of every college so that each human being regardless of sexual orientation will be afforded such a rich treasure chest of uncoditional love and compassion in a world that desperately needs such lessons now more than ever. Save yourself some money on shipping. Buy five books at once since you will no doubt be giving them out as gifts to your friends like I have. I can not recommend this book highly enough. I can hardly wait for the sequel.