While at the Erma Bombeck convention, it was my very great pleasure to meet Martha Bolton. What a funny lady! Martha was one of the first women to ever be hired as a joke writer. And guess who she worked for? Bob Hope.
And oh did Martha have wonderful stories to tell of this beloved man. Two of them really made an impression.
The first one she told was about Bob going to Vietnam to entertain the troops. He would return with thousands of soldiers' names and their mothers' phone numbers.
Soldiers would come up to Bob and say, "Hey, could you just call my mom and tell her you saw me and that I'm okay?" Martha said he was good on his word. For days after he returned home he called each and every one of those mothers to tell them he had seen their sons. I balled like a baby.
The other story was equally as heart melting. One soldier had been waiting and waiting to see Bob Hope. Wouldn't you know it? The day Bob arrived was the day this kid was on patrol duty. When Bob heard about this he went out after the show and redid it just for this young soldier.
If Martha had done just that I would have been thrilled. But then she went on and discussed her own writing and one liners just kept coming and coming.
Every person there fell in love with Martha. She has graciously agreed to come on the show. I'm so excited.