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television show on the air. When I got to the theater that night I said, “You know, Bob Hope has got to be the mystery guest tonight. He's been on every other show in town-- everything from 'Howdy Doody‘up. Let's not guess him;” So we decided that we were going to have some fun. We came out and we put on our masks. You could always tell when it was, first, a big star because the audience went wild. You could tell by the audience applause how big a star was on. You could tell when it was a pretty girl too because there would be a lot of wolf whistles. Then, when it was a comedian, you always knew that it was a comedian because he would perform some little trick as he came out--you know, signing in some crazy way--and roars would go up. Bob Hope walked out and was greeted with an ovation. We had our masks on, but it was obviously Bob Hope. It was agreed that I would be the first questioner. I said, “Are you a comedian?” He said, “Yes.” We spent the rest of the evening guessing every comedian in the world except Bob Hope.

After about three rounds, it became absolutely obvious to the audience that we knew perfectly well it was Bob Hope. You know, every name that we'd bring out, they'd scream more with laughter. We got down to Zeppo Marx. Bob joked along with us for a couple of rounds, but then he began getting angry. We were asking these idiotic questions and dredging up comedians long forgotten. When we had asked ten questions and hadn't named Hope, John said, “Take off your masks, panel, and say hello to our friend Bob Hope,”