As the eighties drew to a close, Hope had begun showing his age. It came as a shock to those who had worked with him, many of whom had come to believe that he would defy the normal ravages of time forever.  In what seemed a remarkably short time, he went from someone who had perennially appeared to be fifteen years younger to a certified
octogenarian.

There were increasing signs that the mental acuity that had allowed him to maintain almost total control of his life and his career for so long had begun to fail him. Most alarming, he began to forget lines in the act he’d been performing on stage for decades. Strutting across the footlights in the midst of a joke or a song, his mind would suddenly short circuit. 

He began to deliver abbreviated performances, sometimes leaving his prepared material to take questions from the audience.  Promoters who had paid his standard performance fee of $50,000 to $80,000 began demanding refunds. Some even threatened breach-of-contract suits. So it was that before the decade of the nineties had barely begun, Hope’s days of performing live, his favorite part of show business, came to an unpleasant and involuntary end.

Throughout his life, Hope had enjoyed remarkably good health, but now his eyesight and his hearing failing simultaneously, he often seemed disoriented and confused. 

The last fully staffed regular season special entitled "Bob Hope’s America — Red, White and Beautiful," aired on May 17, 1992.  In 1993, NBC honored him with a three-hour special entitled "Bob Hope, The First Ninety Years" hosted by Johnny Carson. Hope played a passive role on the show, mostly applauding the acts that had come to pay him homage — George Burns, Milton Berle, Angela Lansbury, Whoopi Goldberg, Chevy Chase and Walter Cronkite among them. 

This excerpt, read by the author, traces events during the final years of the 20th century and the closing decades of one of the entertainment icons who helped define it.

Excerpted from THE LAUGH MAKERS: A Behind-the-Scenes-Tribute to Bob Hope's Incredible Gag Writers (c) 2009 by Robert L. Mills and published by Bear Manor Media.com and available in both print and audio versions.