Bob Hope And Bing Crosby Were The Perfect Pair, But They Weren’t Always Pals Behind The Scenes

To generations of moviegoers, Bob Hope and Bing Crosby will be forever remembered as best buddies. Because over several decades they established a cinematic partnership that would go down in legend. But when the cameras were turned off, things were quite different. And the slaps on the back, chuckles and smiles between the two on the screen, didn’t necessarily translate off of the screen.

It’s easy to understate nowadays but Hope and Crosby were both genuine titans of the entertainment industry. As a comedic pairing, they were one of the most successful double acts in cinema history, ringing in huge box-office receipts. But in their own ways, they also helped lay the groundwork for stand-up comedy and big band singing.

PBS’ American Masters credited Hope in 2017 with being the man who invented stand-up as it is today, for example. He came out of the vaudeville scene in the 1920s. But while there were comedians before him, his act was new in that it addressed events of the day and had a spontaneous, off-the-cuff approach. “The modern stand-up comedy monologue was essentially his creation,” PBS said. So what about Crosby’s impact?

According to NPR in 2013, “Bing Crosby’s influence on modern singing is so huge, we barely notice it anymore.” His style, which adopted a “laid back jazz influence,” made him a star so massive that even a young Frank Sinatra was his biggest fan. And at the height of his powers Crosby had an astonishing 50 million people listening to him on the radio every week.

Yet despite being two of the most popular entertainers of all time, both Hope and Crosby left complicated legacies. In 2014 Richard Zoglin published the biography Hope: Entertainer of the Century, which included some bombshells about Hope’s private life. He reportedly cheated on wife Dolores countless times during their marriage, for one thing.