Bob Hope’s Satire on the Stage
Bob Hope introduced two of the decade’s most popular show tunes in musicals that satirized topical concerns: “I Can’t Get Started,” sung with Eve Arden (1908–1990) in The Ziegfeld Follies of 1936 and “It’s De-lovely” with Ethel Merman (1908–1984) in Red, Hot and Blue! Satirizing the Supreme Court’s nullification of key New Deal programs, the latter show depicted the high court decreeing a lottery unconstitutional because of its potential benefit to the public.
Bob Hope introduced two of the decade’s most popular show tunes in musicals that satirized topical concerns: “I Can’t Get Started,” sung with Eve Arden (1908–1990) in <em>The Ziegfeld Follies of 1936</em> and “It’s De-lovely” with Ethel Merman (1908–1984) in <em>Red, Hot and Blue!</em> Satirizing the Supreme Court’s nullification of key New Deal programs, the latter show depicted the high court decreeing a lottery unconstitutional because of its potential benefit to the public.