March 14, 1940: Road to Singapore premieres. It is the 1st in a series of "Road to... " films, or "Road Pictures" starring Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, with secondary star Dorothy Lamour.
(Note: They all begin "Road to... " Never "The Road to... ")
Paramount Pictures first offered the project to Fred MacMurray to Jack Oakie. Both turned it down. So it was offered to the husband & wife comedy team of George Burns & Gracie Allen, but before a 2nd male lead could be chosen to go with Burns, they turned it down. According to Burns, Allen "thought the whole thing was silly."
She was right, but then, that was kind of the point. The plot didn't matter. They never really did. They were precursors to spoof films like Airplane! and the collected works of Mel Brooks with sight gags based on puns, inside jokes, and references to current public figures and pop-culture phenomena that would soon seem terribly dated.
Each film in the series was a parody of a typical genre of films:
* Road to Singapore, March 14, 1940: International-intrigue films.
* Road to Zanzibar, April 11, 1941: Jungle films.
* Road to Morocco, November 10, 1942: "Arabian Nights" films.
* Road to Utopia, made in 1943, but not released until February 27, 1946: Gold Rush films.
* Road to Rio, December 25, 1947: "Latin lover" films. This was the most successful of the series.
* Road to Bali, November 19, 1952: South Seas romance. This was the only film in the series made in color.
* Road to Hong Kong, May 22, 1962: Cold War thrillers. This was a few months before the release of the 1st James Bond film, Dr. No.
In each film, Bob and Der Bingle would play con men, partners that were frequently squabbling. A common trick, debuting in the 1st film, was to get out of a tough situation by distracting their captor by playing Patty Cake and using the end to punch him out. Bob frequently broke the fourth wall, the most notorious example being when he said, "He's gonna sing, folks. Now's the time to go out and get the popcorn."
Bob would also break the fourth wall over-act, often with an upbraiding from Bing. Bob would blame his overacting on his attempt to win an Academy Award. Despite some honorary awards, and hosting their TV broadcast more than any other person, he never won an "Oscar" for his work. He frequently joked about it. He introduced the 1968 ceremony saying, "Welcome to the Academy Awards. Or, as it's known in my house, Passover." He introduced the 1970 ceremony saying, "Welcome to the Academy Awards. Or, as it's known in my house, Mission: Impossible."
In 1946, Bing bought a 25 percent share of baseball's Pittsburgh Pirates, even though he had no connection to Pittsburgh: He was from Spokane, Washington. The same year, Bob, who was born in England but grew up in Cleveland, bought a share of baseball's Cleveland Indians. The Indians won the World Series in 1948; the Pirates in 1960 and 1971.
But for the first few years of Bing's ownership, the Pirates were terrible. In Road to Bali, Lamour asked Bing, "Do they still have pirates in America?" He said, "Yes, but they're usually in the cellar." Meaning last place. He wasn't kidding: That year, they lost 112 games. The year before, he consented to a movie featuring them, in which they were so bad, they required divine intervention: The original version of Angels in the Outfield.
By the time of Road to Hong Kong, both stars, both born in May 1903, were seen as relics of a previous era. Indeed, one time, when Bing was hosting the TV variety show The Hollywood Palace, Bob showed up, and said he found the theater due to Bing's initials being on it: "ABC: Antique Bing Crosby." (Hope was known for his many TV specials on NBC.)
In 1977, with both men turning 74, Bing talked Bob and Dorothy, who was 62, into "getting the gang back together for one more job." It was to be called Road to the Fountain of Youth. But on October 14, after a round of golf in Spain, Bing had a heart attack and died, his last words being, "That was a great game of golf, fellers." Dorothy lived until 1996, and Bob lived until 2003, like George Burns living just long enough to celebrate his 100th birthday.
Tributes to the Road Pictures have included Mel Brooks' History of the World, Part I in 1981, Spies Like Us in 1985, and Ishtar in 1987. I'm a little surprised that Matt Damon and Ben Affleck -- or even Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill -- haven't tried again. Maybe if John Belushi had lived, he and Dan Aykroyd would have done it.
*
March 14, 1940 was a Thursday. Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. There were 3 games in the NHL:
* The New York Rangers beat their arch-rivals of that period, the New York Americans, 4-2 at the old Madison Square Garden.
* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Montreal Canadiens, 5-2 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.
* The Chicago Black Hawks beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 2-1 at the Chicago Stadium.
* And the Boston Bruins were not scheduled.
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