Bob Hope Busy Rehearsing for Yule Visit to Entertain U.S. Troops in Gulf

Bob Hope announced Thursday that he will be traveling to the Middle East this Christmas to entertain American troops deployed in Operation Desert Shield.

“The rumors that he’s not going aren’t true,” said Hope spokesman Ward Grant, referring to earlier announcements that there would be no trip. “Mr. Hope is going.

“He’s going through piles of material and he’s busy rehearsing with Ann Jillian and Khrystyne Haje and Delores (Hope),” Grant added.

Grant said the 87-year-old entertainer’s party, which also includes the Pointer Sisters, Marie Osmond, country singer Aaron Tippin, ex-Cincinnati Reds’ star Johnny Bench and former Chicago Bears running back Walter Payton, will leave Los Angeles this weekend and return Dec. 29.

The itinerary was not released because of the military nature of the trip, Grant said in a telephone interview.

Hope is accustomed to spending Christmas with soldiers and sailors. The first of his 44 holiday trips occurred in 1948, when he was asked to go for the Berlin airlift.

The spokesman said the current trip would be unlike other trips, because of limitations of the number of entertainers allowed to accompany Hope and the nature of their performances in an area of Islamic conservatism.

“It has been the feeling of the U.S. government that you have to limit the number of entertainers you take over there,” spokesman Grant said.