John Turner wrote:

If Bing hadn't died when he did, or if he had recovered from his heart attack, do you think he would have continued to record? Would he have ever retired completely?

He would almost certainly have continued. There had been mention of the possibility of several projects including a Road film. At one time a title Road To Tomorrow was suggested then there was mention of Road To The Fountain Of Youth.


 

There was also a planned Bob Hope duet album in the same vein as the Fred Astaire duet album.

Thanks everyone. What we lost with such an untimely death!

Bob did it for the money money money.
Bing and Bob appeared on BBC and were being paid the normal fee. Story is that Bing didn’t wish to receive the fee but Hope couldn’t get his hands on the money quick enough and because of the arrangement/agreement Bing had to accept his fee.
Think he always did his BBC appearances - wireless or TV for free.

Although Bing appeared on Vera Lynn’s TV show in September 1975, I’ve always thought it was a great shame that time couldn’t have been found while Bing was in the UK in July, August and September of that year, for them to go into a studio to record an album. Possibly a “themed” album with each of them singing the other’s wartime hits. Bing on “We’ll Meet Again”, Vera singing “Sunday, Monday or Always”, duetting on “Yours”...

Bing and Vera Lynn were two of the greatest voices of the War. It would have been great to have them together. WHAT AN ALBUM it would have been.

Had he survived, part of me hopes that final Road film would still not have been filmed. As a huge, long standing fan of Bob Hope's, even I have to concede for around a good fifteen years prior to 1977, he had long since been telephoning in his screen performances. The difference between the brilliantly timed sharpness of those wonderfully tight 1940's (and four road movies) comedies and then his consistant, barely off cue card turns just after The Road to Hong Kong, is massively marked.

I've no such concerns over Bing, who although being the established "straighter" and lighter comedy figure of the two, was by then still easily able to demonstrate a more laid back, looser and therefore more understated, 1970's comedic sensibility. Plus, he still possesed a more commited and disciplined approach to his on screen performances. Unless a contemporary up and coming comedy director such as John Landis and writers of the Kentucky Fried Movie/Airplane/National Lampoon school were permitted to fashion a modern, irreverent and partly abstract script (Bing had already mentioned a Monty Python/Marty Feldman approach) and to authoritatively have seen it through - with Hope's TV gag writers kept out of the way - and the man himself held in check, I really do wonder what an earth would have become of all this.

Lew Grade was to produce, which also bodes badly as he was infamous for a number of unwise 70's cinematic/TV rejections and clunky misfires - and being the man who just before filming began, withdrew the finanacing from Monty Python's "Life of Brian". Following Bing's death, Bob Hope gave a final starring movie comedy performance (and his first since 1972), where even more non-committedly, he walked through the 1986 US produced teleplay, "A Masterpiece of Murder". 

I read that later, "Road to the Fountain of Youth"/"The Road to Tomorrow" was still being considered with George Burns stepping in for Bing. As we know, Burns gave a masterful 1975 Oscar Winning turn when he replaced the late Jack Benny, opposite Walter Matthau in Neil Simon's, "The Sunshine Boys"... but replacing Bing in a Road film?

On the plus side, I suppose if both Bing and Bob were up for it, much ironic comic mileage could have been made out of the increased seniority of their ages and yet still somehow managing to get caught up in all this madness. Dorothy Lamour could have been rolling her eyes and with an increased sized part from 'Hong Kong, putting both our heroes back on the straight and narrow.

However, all one for the birds … 

Last edited by Ian Kerstein (23/3/2022 2:55 am)

Oh Jeremy what a moment! Thank you so much for relating this. I have watched this performance of hers on a number of occasions (and naturally, just now again) - and had of course never noticed this before. Just as Dame Vera was making room for Robert Hardy. You, looking very dashing in your uniform very charmingly then make a lovely, brief head bow to her as it happened. Two gracious people showing each other great respect. Were/are you services or showbiz - or both? May I ask how you become involved with the performance?

PS: Praise be to YouTube!

Last edited by Ian Kerstein (21/3/2022 11:09 pm)

jeremyrose wrote:

I had the incredible privilege of appearing with Dame Vera Lynn on the stage of the London Palladium on the occasion of the Royal Variety Show in honour of the 90th Birthday of Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother in 1990. I should immediately state that there were quite a few other people on the stage at the same time (!), but I did stand immediately alongside her at the front of the stage as we sang a final chorus of 'We'll Meet Again"
As she took her bow, she moved a couple of steps upstage and bumped into me. As the lights went down, she briefly grabbed my hand and said, 'Sorry about that...'

I would have never washed my hands again!
 

Lobosco wrote:

jeremyrose wrote:

I had the incredible privilege of appearing with Dame Vera Lynn on the stage of the London Palladium on the occasion of the Royal Variety Show in honour of the 90th Birthday of Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother in 1990. I should immediately state that there were quite a few other people on the stage at the same time (!), but I did stand immediately alongside her at the front of the stage as we sang a final chorus of 'We'll Meet Again"
As she took her bow, she moved a couple of steps upstage and bumped into me. As the lights went down, she briefly grabbed my hand and said, 'Sorry about that...'

I would have never washed my hands again!
 

Seconded!
 

Oh wow! What an incredible fact. Out "hitting" Bing! Did Dame Vera ever visit your shores to perform?

That's good to hear. Were you able to attend, Graham? If so, do you have any particular memories of the concert?