Hope for America: Performers, Politics and Pop Culture

An ongoing exhibition at the Library of Congress:

Bob Hope, who entertainment historian and critic Leonard Maltin declared “may be the most popular entertainer in the history of Western civilization,” was arguably the nation’s best-loved topical humorist during the twentieth century. Hope for America draws from the personal papers, joke files, films, radio and television broadcasts, and other materials donated to the Library of Congress by Bob Hope and his family. To put the history of the involvement of entertainers in politics into perspective, the exhibition also profiles the politically oriented activities of other prominent figures represented in the Library’s vast collections.

The exhibition invites visitors to examine artifacts that represent an array of viewpoints and draw their own conclusions regarding the interplay of politics and entertainment in American public life and its consequences for the nation’s political culture.

http://myloc.gov/exhibitions/hopeforamerica/Pages/default.aspx