The Circus Blog

Posted By thecircusblog on December 20, 2009

Bob Hope every so often would do one of his TV specials. One day,  much to my surprise I got a call from Eddie Rio who was Mr. Hope’s good friend and also mine. Eddie was working on the special doing production and Mr. Hope wanted to do  a bit with a chimp. Eddie knew that all chimps can not be trusted around people and wanted to know if I had a chimp that could work with Bob Hope safely. It was just luck that I had a five year old chimp named Little Cathy.  She was given to me by some people that no longer could keep her, as their life style had changed. I gladly took her. This little chimp was so sweet and had not mean streak in her. Off to the studio to introduce her to Bob Hope and it was like they were two old friends. Bob took Cathy into his arms and off they went  with Bob cracking one liners. It really is a shame that they didn’t shoot this. The bit for Cathy was very simple. The scene was Bob looking though film clips of one of his movies and Cathy walked over and with a pair of scissors, leans over and cuts the film into several pieces.  Bob’s reaction was……… Hey! That’s my part in the show. Short fast and sweet and it was over but they loved the bit. I could not use Cathy in the chimp act as she was intimidated by the other chimps. In time it could worked out but I just didn’t have the time. I had a friend who had a children circus and I knew he could use Cathy as she would be perfect with kids. I gave Cathy to my friend Dave Toomey. Somewhere in the mass of pictures I have,  there is one of Mr. Hope and Cathy I’ll post when found.                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Categories: Henry's Chimps
Tags: Bob Hope