Bob Hope Pavilion - Oklahoma City, OK
Posted by: 
hamquilter
N 35° 33.094 W 097° 34.951
14S E 628477 N 3935136
Named for an icon in the entertainment world, Bob Hope Pavilion is named for a man who thought Oklahoma City "felt like home."
Waymark Code: WMM1NV
Location: Oklahoma, United States
Date Posted: 07/03/2014
Views: 18
The Place:
Located in Stars and Stripes Park, the Bob Hope Pavilion is a popular place for people to hold their social and family events. Bob Hope performed numerous times over the years in Oklahoma. His fund raising performances were instrumental is providing funds for the building of Stars and Stripes Park on the south shore of Lake Hefner. In appreciation, the Oklahoma City Association of Broadcasters honored him with a bronze bust located at the pavilion, which was dedicated on July 4, 1970, and with the naming of this pavilion after him. The pavilion is brick and accommodates 150 people, with 16 picnic tables. It is available for rent. It is fully equipped with water, electric, lighting, rest rooms, grill and fireplace, and a pay telephone. Reservations can be made by calling 405-297-2756.
The Person:
Born in Britain on May 29, 1903, and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Bob Hope always felt a soft place in his heart for Oklahoma, and came here many times over the years to entertain and raise funds for various endeavors. In the 1940s he entertained at the Zoo Amphitheater, and did many shows in the 1960s, his last visit being in 1989 at the Olympic Festival.
Bob Hope's career began in the 1930s in Vaudeville with singing, dancing and comedy. A popular radio show of his ran from 1938 to the mid-1950s. He later broke into movies and television, and received over 50 honorary degrees in his lifetime, including the Lifetime Achievement Award in 1985 at Kennedy Center, the Presidential Medal of Arts in 1995 and a British knighthood in 1998.
Amid his tremendous entertainment career on the stage and in movies, his work as an entertainer with the USO brought enjoyment and encouragement to untold numbers of the military on foreign fields. Beginning in World War II, he continued through the years, visiting Vietnam nine times, and entertaining in the 1990s in the Gulf War arena. A plaque on the base of the bronze bust quotes Hope: "...Good citizens built America the Beautiful. Great Americans fought to keep it that way..."
Bob Hope lived to be 100, passing away from pneumonia on July 27, 2003.