The Laugh Makers: A Behind-The-Scenes Tribute to Bob Hope's Incredible Gag Writers

"In The Laugh Makers, Bob Mills takes us on a delightful, side-splitting journey back to the slapstick sketch comedy of television's golden age--a long-ago era of variety, song-and-dance, brilliant patter, and a seemingly endless parade of laughs--sprung from the genius of 'gag men, ' that talented group of wit-blessed wordsmiths to whom the book pays well-deserved homage. The Laugh Makers is a priceless collection of heretofore unpublished recollections revealing untold secrets and goings-on behind the scenes on The Bob Hope Show from Stockholm to Bora Bora, London to Peking. It's jam-packed with stories [and] anecdotes, his guest stars, and his writers--all from a fondly remembered past that will have you chuckling from start to finish. Bob Mills is well qualified to salute the famous corps of gag men who kept the comedian knee-deep in jokes. These firsthand recollections summon up the final phase of Hope's career―and the end of the trail for an entire brand of show business."--Gary Owens, Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In

About the Author :
Robert L. Mills, a native of San Francisco, served in the Navy after high school and graduated from San Francisco State University in 1962 and the University of California Hastings Law in 1965. He practiced law for ten years before moving to Hollywood to write for television. Mills worked on The Dinah Shore Show and The Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts before joining Bob Hope as a staff writer in 1977. He has also written for the Los Angeles Times, and in 1999 he became an enrichment lecturer for Crystal Cruise, performing shows based on his experiences with Hope aboard numerous cruise ships. He lives in Studio City, California, with his wife Shelley. Joe Bevilacqua, also known as Joe Bev, is primarily known as a radio theater dramatist, but his career has taken him into every aspect of show business, including stage, film, and television, as a producer, director, writer, actor, and even cartoonist. In 1971 his father bought him a cassette recorder, on which he created his first audio story, Willoughby and the Professor, acting all the voices himself at the age of twelve. In 1975 Daws Butler, the voice of Yogi Bear and many other Hanna-Barbera and Jay Ward cartoon characters, dubbed himself Bevilacqua's personal mentor after hearing a 120-minute cassette of Willoughby improvisations. Since 1980 Bevilacqua has produced many award-winning radio programs for National Public Radio, Sirius-XM Satellite Radio, and others.