Bob Hope's Alive And Laughing After News Of His Death

WASHINGTON - Some folks were a bit too quick to thank Bob Hope for the memories.

The twin worlds of media and politics paused to remember the comedian yesterday after Rep. Bob Stump, R-Ariz., declared on the House floor that "with great sadness, I announce that Bob Hope is dead."

Democratic Congressman David Bonior of Michigan joined an impromptu tribute to the 95-year-old comedian, whom he described as "a great American and a great world figure."

Minutes after the two finished speaking, newspapers across the country posted alerts about Hope's death on their Web pages, and network camera crews were dispatched to the entertainer's office in Burbank, Calif.

There was only one complication - Hope was still alive.

"Dad is at home, having his breakfast. He is fine," Hope's daughter Linda told Reuters.

"Bob roared with laughter," said Ward Grant, a longtime Hope friend and spokesman. "They were wrong, weren't they?"

A mishap by The Associated Press, a premature announcement by the House majority leader and a bulletin by Reuters combined yesterday to tell the world that the entertainer was dead.

It was yet another reminder that even unconfirmed reports move at the speed of light in the satellite age, especially when they get a boost from Congress.

AP, like other news organizations, prepares obituaries on celebrities so copy can be moved quickly when they die. Yesterday's trouble began when AP mistakenly posted an incomplete Hope obit on its Web site, The WIRE. The headline: "Bob Hope, Tireless Master of the One-Liner, Dead at xx."

Ruth Gersh, editor of AP Multimedia Services, said the preparedness was miscoded by human error so that instead of showing up only on an internal display where an editor could work on it, the preparedness was posted to AP's Web site.

The preparedness that moved had the word "Dead" only in the headline. The story was marked by series of XXXX's to show editors where to fill in the time and place of the entertainer's death.

But the AP Internet story looked real to an aide to House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, who gave a copy to Stump and asked him to announce Hope's death on the House floor.

Stump's announcement, broadcast live on C-SPAN, became the basis for other news organizations reporting that Hope had died. The Reuters news agency quickly moved the following bulletin: "Entertainer Bob Hope is dead, lawmaker says."

The rest is history.

"I get back to my office and the phones are ringing off the hook," Stump said in an interview at his Capitol Hill office.

Shortly after realizing the mistake, Armey issued a statement apologizing to "Bob Hope, his family, and the entire nation for the erroneous announcement."

Stump said he spoke to Linda Hope by telephone to apologize for the error.

"She was not the least upset," he said. "She took it in the way I think Mr. Hope would have taken it - lightheartedly."

Material from Knight Ridder Newspapers, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and The Associated Press is included in this report.