Bob Hope, who once starred in the movie "How to Commit a Marriage," may be more of an expert than his fans know.
Erie County Courthouse documents indicate Hope wed vaudeville partner Grace Louise Troxell on Jan. 25, 1933, 13 months before the date Hope says he married Dolores Reade.Hope's publicist acknowledged the entertainer and Troxell obtained a license but says a marriage never took place.
"There's a mystery about it and it's going to remain a mystery," publicist Ward Grant said Friday. Hope declined to comment.
Grant, Hope's publicist for 21 years, said the entertainer didn't give an explanation of why the plans to marry Troxell fell through.
Erie County marriage bureau clerk Yvette Johnson said the 1933 documents would not exist if the ceremony had not occurred. A notarized affidavit signed by Eugene P. Alberstadt, a former Erie alderman, is legal proof he presided over the wedding, she said.
"The kicker is (Hope) has always said he's been married only once," Johnson said. "He said that, we didn't."
The documents came to light in a report in an Erie newspaper earlier this week.
The Hopes' show-business marriage is considered a bedrock of stability in an industry where marital bliss is often measured in months, not years.
Hope recently celebrated his 90th birthday with a three-hour NBC-TV special that included a lengthy tribute to Dolores, the former nightclub singer he says he married Feb. 19, 1934, in Erie.
No record of Hope's marriage to Dolores exists in Erie County, meaning, Johnson said, they never married there.