He invented the modern stand-up monologue. Others, like Will Rogers, told jokes on stage and contributed to the genre early-on, but Bob Hope crafted the snappy, brash monologue jam-packed with one-liners.

Today (May 29) is his birthday. 

Click Bob's image to see a short clip on his legacy to the world of comedy.

After a short stint as a boxer ("I was called Rembrandt Hope in my boxing days, because I spent so much time on the canvas!") and after working the vaudeville circuit ("When vaudeville died, television was the box they put it in."), Bob Hope’s career took off with his appearance in The Big Broadcast of 1938. He and Shirley Ross were cast as a divorced couple who meet again on a transatlantic ocean liner and sift through the ashes of their marriage. The duet, “Thanks for the Memory,” has been called "one of the most beautifully written and performed musical numbers in all of movies.” This five-minute-plus piece of film gave him a career-long theme song and made him a star.

Click Shirley Ross and Bob Hope to see them performing what became his theme song, "Thanks for the Memory" from The Big Broadcast of 1938.

In his vaudeville days Bob Hope perfected his dancing skills. ("I grew up with six brothers. That's how I learned to dance - waiting for the bathroom.") Clicking Bob dancing connects to a great dancing scene with James Cagney, who was a superb song and dance man before he became a movie gangster.

Many early TV sketches played off of vaudeville routines. Click Jack Benny and Bob to see them playing it for laughs with a birthday cake Jack presents to Bob. Slapstick at its messiest!

Bob had a staff of writers who helped him fill a vault of cataloged jokes throughout his career. He was known for relying on cue cards, and some critics considered the jokes to be the weakest part of his act. The strongest part was his crisp, I-dare-you-not-to-laugh delivery. He used this formula in a record number of appearances as an Oscar show host (nineteen, including his co-host stints - He frequently joked about never winning an Oscar: "Welcome to the Academy Awards, or as it's known at my house, Passover!"), his annual Christmas visitations with the troops (which would then be packaged as specials), and his guest appearances on other television programs with their own monologists, like Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show.

Click Bob in action to see an example of his delivery.

Want more Hope? Here are some quotable quips:

A bank is a place that will lend you money if you can prove you don't need it.

I do benefits for all religions - I'd hate to blow the hereafter on a technicality.

I always like to go to Washington D.C. It gives me a chance to visit my money.

The older you get, the tougher it is to lose weight, because by then your body and your fat are really good friends.

I don't do a lot of political jokes. Too many are getting elected.

I love flying. I've been to almost as many places as my luggage.

Bigamy is the only crime where two rites make a wrong.

A sense of humor is good for you. Have you ever heard of a laughing hyena with heart burn?

Incredibly, this show is coming to you live, no matter how I may look to you in this suit!

It's the birthday of "The King of the One Liners!" Henny Youngman was born March 16, 1906.

In a time when many comedians told stories, Henny Youngman's routine consisted of one-liner jokes, occasionally with interludes of violin playing. The jokes depicted simple, cartoon-like situations, eliminating lengthy build-ups and going straight to the punch line. The famous gossip columnist, Walter Winchell, labeled him, "The King of the One Liners." A stage performance by Youngman lasted only 15 to 20 minutes but contained dozens of jokes in rapid-fire succession.

Click the Henny image to see and hear him trade insults with Milton Berle. And, play the violin! (Aw, click the image anyway!)

Henny Youngman began as a comedian after he had worked for years at a print shop, where he wrote "comedy cards" containing one-line gags. The comedy cards were discovered by up-and-coming comedian Milton Berle, who encouraged Youngman and formed a close friendship with him. Berle said about him, "The only thing funnier than Henny's jokes is his violin playing."

Click the Jest(er)-Henny image for some rapid-fire delivery!

Youngman never retired. He performed his stage act all over the world until his final days. (He died in 1998.) He never considered himself aloof or above others, and he never refused to perform a show in a small venue or unknown club.

Roger Ebert illustrated this point as follows:

"I once observed Henny Youngman taping a TV show in the old NBC studios at the Merchandise Mart. We got into an elevator together. It stopped at the second floor, a private club. A wedding was under way. Youngman got off the elevator, asked to meet the father of the bride and said, 'I'm Henny Youngman. I'll do 10 minutes for $100.'"

When the New York Telephone Company started its Dial-a-Joke in 1974, over three million people called in one month to hear 30 seconds of Youngman's material—the most ever for a comedian.

Henny's traveling salesman joke!

Henny on the David Letterman Late Night show, talking about this career and the origin of "Take my wife, please!"

... More Henny!

If you're going to do something tonight that you'll be sorry for tomorrow morning, sleep late.

I once wanted to become an atheist, but I gave up - they have no holidays.

I've got all the money I'll ever need, if I die by four o'clock.

What's the use of happiness? It can't buy you money.

If at first you don't succeed... so much for skydiving.

You can't buy love, but you can pay heavily for it.

It's the birthday (March 15) of blues guitarist Sam Lightnin' Hopkins ...

Click the image to see and hear Lightnin' in action.

... born in Centerfield, deep in the heart of the Texas pine wood and  cotton country.

Lightnin' wrote and sang and recorded a monumental catalog of blues songs. He played on street corners, in small clubs, and at Carnegie Hall. His voice evoked his rugged past as a field hand and rambler. His guitar work was highly imaginative and improvisational, and was steeped in the deep blues of his soul. Go, Lightnin'!

This "clickable" connects to Lightnin' doing "Mojo Hand," backed up by legendary bluesmen, Willie Dixon on bass and Clifton James, drums.

Clicking ol' Lightnin' lets you see and hear him telling a young Joan Baez how to party!

Lightnin" bogeying' the blues.

"Ain't No Cadillac" - Austin City Limits ("That's what I'm talkin' 'bout! ... Yeah.")

Click the pic of Lightnin' going down home after a gig to hear him do a boogie-woogie blues about the black cat and the white cat and that "Margon Davis wine."

Bonus Lightnin'!: "Shake that Thing!"

It's Ralph J. Gleason's birthday (March 1, 1917) - jazz writer, co-founder of Rolling Stone magazine, and more ...

[Photo of Ralph J. Gleason by Peter Breinig. © Gleason.]

... He also co-founded  the Monterey Jazz Festival and produced a TV program, Jazz Casual, that showcased every important performer who passed through San Francisco. He championed a young Bob Dylan when Dylan was panned for "going electric" and for writing far-out lyrics that didn't belong on mainstream radio. He defended the new "San Francisco Sound" (e.g., the Grateful Dead and the Jefferson Airplane) when most music listeners were tuning in to Your Hit Parade music. That stance was not always appreciated by his jazz compatriots.

Click the image to view Ralph J. Gleason talking about what a jazz musician does.

As a kid living in San Francisco I never missed reading Ralph's column on jazz music. I was already listening to the music at night in my bed going to sleep. It flooded into my ear via the single ear bud plugged into my transistor radio. I didn't greatly appreciate the sounds, but I had to listen! It was an assignment I gave to myself. Something in my head told me someday my heart would be glad I did.

Ralph J. Gleason helped me appreciate jazz. His writing put me in touch with the greats - Miles, Louis, Diz, John Coltrane, Carmen McRae, Brubeck, Duke, and the rest. His heroes became mine!

When Gleason wasn't writing, he was showcasing jazz music on public TV station KQED, San Francisco. His Jazz Casual ran from 1961 to 1968. He featured every top jazz musician to hit town, including the likes of Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane, Dave Brubeck, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Vince Guaraldi, Carmen McRae, & MJQ. Click the image to see him groovin' to the great Count Basie (piano), Freddie Green (guitar), Norman Keenan (bass), and Sonny Payne (drums), doing about a 30 minute set. Ralph also engages the Count in conversation about the good old days.

But Gleason wasn't just a jazz enthusiast. He championed Lenny Bruce, Joseph Heller (Catch 22), the Free Speech Movement, and the Fillmore Auditorium when the City was going to close it down.

On the right, Miles Davis introduces Ralph to drummer Tony Williams, 17 years old when he joined Miles' "Second Greatest Quartet."

Click the image of Bob Dylan and Ralph J. Gleason to see part of the San Francisco press conference during which he answers Ralph's question, "Do you think of yourself as a singer or a poet?" by saying, "I think of myself more as a song and dance man."

"When I first heard Bob Dylan at Monterey (Folk Festival, 1963)  I did not like him," Gleason wrote. "I was deaf."

That changed.  He later wrote that listening to Dylan changed his life. Gleason arranged and hosted a remarkable press conference with Dylan in 1965.

Leading Dylan through the crowded room, Gleason made the introduction while Dylan settled into a seat behind a table. 

"Welcome to KQED's first poet press conference," Gleason said. "Mr. Dylan is a poet. He will answer questions on everything from atomic science to riddles and rhymes. Go."

Click to hear the Airplane's "Wooden Ships."

Go, indeed! Thank you, Ralph for all your insights and for your love of music. As the Jefferson Airplane sang at the end of "Wooden Ships," "Go ride the music!"