MOVIES - Aug. 18, 1989

George Burns and Bob Hope, the “professors of comedy,” will perform together for the first time in their combined 179 years of laughter for a Madison Square Garden pairing Oct. 1. “This will be the greatest thing to hit New York since the Leona Helmsley trial,” Hope said during a news conference at the St. James’s Club to announce the concert partnership. Burns, 93, and Hope, 86, have crossed paths for decades but have never performed together. The Madison Square Garden show will be in-the-round with a full orchestra and will include Dionne Warwick and the reigning Miss Universe and Miss USA.