Queen Elizabeth State Dinner with President Ford
Queen Elizabeth State Dinner with President Ford
Queen Elizabeth State Dinner with President Ford Washington, DC
Queen Elizabeth State Dinner with President Ford
MS President GERALD FORD and First Lady BETTY FORD leading QUEEN ELIZABETH and PRINCE PHILIP into White House for entertainment portion of evening. TLS President Ford welcoming audience, asking them to be seated: "Please sit down. Your Majesty, Your Royal Highness, Ladies and Gentlemen, Last Sunday our nation celebrated its 200th year of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Our guest tonight has been pursuing happiness all over the world for a few years, but more importantly he's been making people happy and sharing it with people in all areas of this wonderful world in which we live. It's been my good fortune to know Bob Hope and to play a little golf with him from time to time and ... What's he doing now? (laughter) I thought he was a friend of mine. Last Saturday I played golf with him, and as I was about to putt, and it was very crutial, he said, 'You know, I'm an uncommitted delegate' (laughter) I've introduced him a few times and he's introduced me a few times. For my own protection its a lot easier for me to introduce him, than to follow him. It's a great pleasure and privilege for me to introduce a dear friend of our great, great entertainers, Mr. Bob Hope."
Queen Elizabeth State Dinner with President Ford
BOB HOPE comes out to entertain. Makes jokes about politics, celebrities, England, royalty, etc. "Thank you Mr. President, Your Majesty, Your Royal Highness, Vice President, Distinguished Guests, it is a wonderful kick for me to be here. At this beautiful affair, wearing my Academy Award suit. It s about the only time I whip this out. I think they got the tearstains out pretty well. It has my acceptance speech in the pocket, its still there. I can t tell you how long it s been there, but it s in Latin. Anyway, I have been a few times here at the White House, I ve been invited a few times and I have never seen an affair as glamorous ass this. This is the most beautiful affair, (Applause) it really is. I ve never seen such diamonds and jewels, emeralds and the women look good too. No, this is just a beautiful affair. It s the most elegant affair I ever attended. In fact I was discussing it earlier with my waiter, Rex Harrison, and he said he thought it was unbelievable. Anyway, it s nice to be here and the President has been wonderful. Betty Ford insisted I do this and I insisted I do it also. And I m staying here at the White House which is very, very nice. The meals are good, room is nice and the hospitality is fine and if it s any interest to you, Mr. President, I m up for adoption. No the room service is wonderful, I ll tell ya, and I did order room service, but I was a little embarrassed. I mean, what do you tip Henry Kissinger? (Laughter) No, it s very, very nice. I just hope this time they don t put me too near the hotline. Last time I was here I ordered some blankets and they came from Moscow. Actually I staying in the Lincoln Room, where I stayed before. And really, I hope they re not mad at me. I did make a mistake. How did I know that thing under the bed was his stovepipe hat? And I stepped on it and I m very sorry about that. But it s one way to leave your footsteps on the pages of history I guess. But it is a weird feeling staying in the Lincoln Room. Lying there I felt like a live five dollar bill. And it had a strange effect on me, in the morning I got up went to the phone and freed my writers. (Laughter) And I don t mind authenticity but I think when you have to get up in the night, who wants to go to another building? I think it would have warmed Lincoln s heart to know that Sammy Davis Jr. slept in that bed. He s the first one of his minority to sleep in Lincoln s bed. He s a Democrat and I just think that ah... No, it s very, very nice. I must tell you that they have tours through this place, through the Lincoln Room, and I overslept the other morning and a group of boy s scouts pitched a tent on my stomach."
Queen Elizabeth State Dinner with President Ford
Bob Hope, "But it s wonderful to be here and I just hope that Your Majesty and His Highness had a wonderful time. I know the sights have been fantastic on the Hudson with all the ships and everything. It sort of worried the New Yorker s, they didn t know what it was all about, they taught they were getting ready for another taxi strike. I thought the tall ships were wonderful and I found out it takes a lot of wind, they re just like politicians it takes a lot of wind to get them where there going. They re beautiful. Now I was astounded to find out that the British ships, the British ship the Winston Churchill was manned by women which I felt was wonderful and it was easy to tell because it had forty sails and twenty pair of panty hose flying from the mast. And I guess you haven t lived until you seen twenty tough British Tars lined up for their rations for Channel No. 5. I taught it was quite good. You must imagine the kick I get out of this, because the way I love England. It was the scene of my greatest performance. I was born there. I really was born there. I mentioned that because no one else will. We always had, my folks were English, they were too poor to be British. But we had a great And I ve done many Royal Commands there, it s also the reason I left. I ve done many shows and I think I did a show for Prince Phillip, The Wild Life Society at the Talk of the Town was the last show. It was an amazing show it had 25 members of Royalty. It looked like a Chess Game live. I have, I have never seen such Blue Bloods, my fountain pen kept giving matting calls. (Laughter) No, it was really, really something and you know of course we, we don t understand that type of thing over here, you know monarchy is strange to us. When we see a crown we expect to see margarine commercial, you know? And the closest thing we have to a monarchy is of course, is our President and Vice President, but they run every four years so they have to do the bowing. But I just do want to welcome their Majesties, and I just want to say that this isn t one of your colonies now. You re treating us like an antique dealer. I mean with some of the stuff that you re through with, like the Queen Mary and the London Bridge. It s not like you lost a colony, it s like you found an attic. (Laughter) And I think maybe that you made a mistake sending us the Queen Mary because, thanks to American ingenuity we only had her a few years and we lost 50 million dollars. Which I think is quite a victory. And nobody s had the heart to tell the Capitan that they sold it. He thinks he s on a long tea break. I ll just say this one thing, there will always be an England, I know that. Because anyone, anyone that survived Dunkirk, the Blitz and Crosby can survive anything."