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Entertainer, comedian, and actor Bob Hope took his show on the road a lot during his career, including numerous overseas USO shows for active American troops.

He also made stops in Toledo in 1947 and 1949. He donated his services in 1947 to help raise money to support the St. Vincent Hospital building fund. He and his 40-member troupe returned to Toledo for a performance at the Sports Arena on January  29, 1949.

He arrived in a chartered four-engine DC-6 at Toledo’s Municipal Airport.

Greeting Hope at the airport was a welcoming party headed by Toledo Mayor Michael V. DiSalle. The mayor’s chore was to scramble up a stepladder with a brush and black paint, to write his name on the nose of the plane. Then on a map on the plane’s side, he brushed in a line from Philadelphia to Toledo, marking the hop that concluded the Hope company’s 28-city tour.

This photo is Mayor DiSalle in the act of putting Toledo on the map. To the mayor’s right are Doris Day and Irene Ryan, who were part of the performance at the Sports Arena. In the checkered hat on the top right is Bob Hope.

A police escort of Willy’s Overland vehicles carried the troupe from the airport to the arena and to the Commodore Perry Hotel.

Mr. Hope was born in England, but when he was 4 years old his family came to the United States and settled in Cleveland. He died July 27, 2003, at the age of 100.

BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY TOM O’REILLY