Bing, Bob or Dottie? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Bob

Of the three, Bob Hope lived the longest. He was born on May 29, 1903 and died almost exactly two months after his 100th birthday on July 27th, 2003.

Bing Crosby lived the shortest of the three Roadsters, from May 2, 1903 to October 14, 1977, and died at the age of 74.

Dorothy Lamour lived for just under 82 years, from December 10, 1914 to September 22, 1996.

Hope also had the longest professional career of the three, and worked actively for almost 80 years.

Answer: Bing

Bing Crosby's film career eclipsed those of Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour, and it spanned 89 film appearances in a wide variety of genres (some six of which were first seen as full-length television releases). Bob Hope appeared in 71 films (a few of these were short walk-on cameos), as were a couple of Bing Crosby's appearances, sometimes with Bob. Dorothy Lamour had fewer film roles, probably because it is harder in Hollywood to get work as a mature actress than it is for an older man.

She appeared in 58 films, and she also played in many television series in the latter part of her career.

Answer: Bob, Bing and Dottie

All three of the Roadsters were married twice in their lives.

Dorothy Lamour's first husband was musician Herbie Kay, whose orchestra Lamour sang with. The two married in 1935 and divorced in 1939. Lamour's second husband was Air Force Captian (Ret.) and ad man, William Ross Howard II, and they were married from 1943 until his death in 1978.

Bing Crosby was married to singer and actress Dixie Lee from 1930 (when her career was bigger than his) until her death in 1953. He then had several semi-serious relationships with different actresses until he married his second wife, actress Kathryn Grant in 1957. They were married until his death in 1977.

Bob Hope's first marriage was a brief one, to his vaudeville partner, a former secretary from Chicago named Grace Louise Troxell. They married in January 1933, and didn't dissolve their marriage officially until November 1934, when their divorce became final. Hope's second marriage is the one that most know about. This union was to singer and dancer Dolores Reade, who had joined Bob's vaudeville troop in July 1933. Hope and Reade always said they were married in February 1934 (though there is been no documentary proof of the marriage on that date, when Hope was still technically married to Troxell). The couple remained together until Hope's death in 2003.

Answer: Bing

Of the three, Bing Crosby had the most children, with four sons from his first marriage (Gary, twins Philip and Dennis, and Lindsay) and two sons and a daughter from his second marriage (Harry, Mary and Nathaniel). Bob Hope had four adopted children with Dolores Reade, and Dorothy Lamour had two sons from her second marriage to William Howard.

Answer: Bing

Bing Crosby is the only one of the three who won an acting award from the Academy, though he was nominated three times. He won the Oscar for Best Actor for his portrayal of Father O'Malley in "Going My Way" (1945). At the time, Crosby was worried about portraying a priest, since he was serious about his faith and didn't want to reflect badly on the church. The tale of a young priest who steps in to help out an older father whose church was in danger of closing due to debts and other problems, was a popular hit and earned Crosby the highest acting honors. His second nomination was for his reprise of the role of Fr. O'Malley in "Bells of Saint Mary's" (1946), in which he co-starred with Ingrid Bergman. Ray Milland's portrayal of an unrepentant alcoholic in "The Lost Weekend" ultimately beat out Crosby's second nomination. His third came in 1955 for his role as an alcoholic singer and actor in "The Country Girl" opposite Grace Kelly (who was also nominated for her performance as Crosby's long-suffering wife). Grace Kelly won the award that year, but Crosby lost again to Marlon Brando's powerhouse turn as a longshoreman in Elia Kazan's "On the Waterfront".

Neither Bob Hope nor Dorothy Lamour were ever nominated for Oscars, though Bob Hope did win five special honorary or humanitarian awards from the academy for his lifetime of service. Hope often told a joke that the Oscars were celebrated in his household as "Passover".

Answer: Bob

Bob Hope was known as The King of the Oscars. He appeared as host an amazing 19 times from 1939 until 1977. Only Billy Crystal has come close to that figure. Though both Bing and Dottie appeared as guests in the audience of the Academy Awards at different times, and Bing received an Oscar once, neither hosted the show at any time in their careers.

Answer: Bob and Dottie

Bob Hope appeared in Broadway musicals, like "Roberta" and "Red, Hot and Blue". In addition, he was in many vaudeville reviews for live audiences and for radio broadcast in New York theaters, which is where he met Bing Crosby (at the Capitol Theater) as well as Dolores Reade, his lifelong partner.

Dorothy Lamour also has a Broadway musical on her resume, having made her Broadway debut in 1959 in "Oh, Captain!". Though that was the first and last show that she appeared in on Broadway, she did participate in two national tours of "Hello, Dolly!" and was also very active in dinner theater productions during the latter part of her career.

Bing's Broadway experience was limited to radio shows for a live audience at theaters like The Capitol. When Bing met Bob at the Capitol Theater in New York City in 1932, their easy impromptu comic repartee was a hit with the crowds. This was where Paramount officials first got the idea of designing a movie for the two to star in. When they finally got the first Road picture off the ground, "The Road to Singapore", the formula was made: The two friends compete for the affections of a beautiful woman and get themselves into trouble in different parts of the world. Dorothy Lamour was the perfect foil for the two actors, and they went to Singapore, Zanzibar, Morocco, Utopia, Rio, Bali and Hong Kong. They were in preliminary talks to make a final eighth picture, "The Road to the Fountain of Youth" when Bing died in 1977, and that final picture was never made.

Answer: Bob

Bob Hope did attend Bing Crosby's small private funeral, along with family members, a few coworkers and friends. Dorothy Lamour did not attend the service. Bing had wanted a private affair after the funeral of his first wife, Dixie, became a media circus. Bing's family decided to have a small gathering at 6:00 am to keep the public and the media from barging in on it.

There is no record of Bob's attending Dorothy Lamour's funeral, and neither Bing nor Dottie were alive when Bob died.

Answer: Bob, Bing and Dottie

Though it is true that all Bing, Dorothy and Bob did tour during WWII and entertain the troops overseas, neither Bing nor Dorothy came close to doing it as much as Bob Hope. In fact, the bulk of Bing and Dorothy's USO volunteering was on tours organized with Bob.

Because of Hope's service starting in 1941, from WWII through the Korean and Vietnam Wars and extending to the Persian Gulf Conflict in 1990, which added up to an incredible 57 tours, Bob was honored by several Presidents and received the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Answer: Bob, Bing and Dottie

Bing Crosby's birth name was Harry Lillis Crosby. Though he was sometimes listed as Harry Lillis Crosby, Jr., his dad's name was Harry Lowe Crosby, so he is not a Jr. in the strictest sense of the word. His nickname, Bing, is said to have come from a parody newspaper that the precocious seven-year-old Bing loved, "The Bingville Bugle". Originally dubbed Bingo from Bingville, the nickname was soon shortened to Bing, and it stuck, for good.

Bob Hope was born Leslie Townes Hope. Before he became well-known as a comedian and actor, he changed his first name to Bob, allegedly to give it a friendlier tone. He may have already changed his first name from Leslie to Lester because the papers changing his name legally to Bob listed his first name as Lester. It may also have been a mistake made by the clerk filing the papers. The important thing is that Bob Hope is the name that everyone came to know him by.

Dottie Lamour was born as Mary Leta Dorothy Slaton in New Orleans. Her parents divorced when she was young, and her mother remarried a man whose last name was "Lambour". When it came time to take a professional name, Dottie opted for one of her middle names, Dorothy, and a modified name of her step-father Lamour. The rest is history.