Hope to Tame USO Tour for Gulf : Saudi Censors May Make His Face Prettiest of Show

Comedian Bob Hope has decided after all that he will travel to the Persian Gulf to stage Christmas shows for U.S. troops, but he’ll change his act to make it acceptable to Arab censors.

“How am I going to go without the girls? I’d hate to think I was the only pretty face there,” Hope said Monday night at dedication ceremonies for the downtown Long Beach-Bob Hope USO.

For decades, Hope has been accompanied on his Christmas season tours by a platoon of starlets and Hollywood beauty queens. In Saudi Arabia, the 87-year-old comedian will be forced to change the routine.

The announcement reversed Hope’s earlier position on a performance in the Middle East. Hope wouldn’t say why he changed his mind, but he was sharply criticized for saying in August he had no plans to travel to Saudi Arabia.

“Palm Springs is my desert,” he had said. “The only way I’m going to the desert is going to Palm Springs.”

During the dedication ceremony, Hope poked fun at military spending and the radar-evading B-2 stealth bomber.

“The U.S. government paid $70 billion for something that flies in, bombs undetected and flies out. I’ve been doing that for years,” Hope quipped.