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Bob Hope; Anita Ekberg

2 of 3 portraits of Bob Hope

© The Jane Bown Literary Estate / National Portrait Gallery, London

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Bob Hope; Anita Ekberg

by Jane Bown
gelatin silver print, 1962
15 1/4 in. x 14 7/8 in. (387 mm x 377 mm) image size
Purchased, 2009
Photographs Collection
NPG x133109

Sittersback to top

  • Anita Ekberg (1931-2015), Actress. Sitter in 2 portraits.
  • Bob Hope (1903-2003), Actor. Sitter in 3 portraits.

Artistback to top

  • Jane Bown (1925-2014), Photographer. Artist or producer associated with 73 portraits, Sitter in 7 portraits.

This portraitback to top

In 1962, Bown accompanied journalist John Gale to Pinewood Studios, where the actor and comedian Hope and actress Ekberg were filming Call Me Bwana. During this shoot, Hope was also busy rehearsing with actress Edie Adams, with whom he performed at the Royal Variety Performance on 29 April 1962. In Gale's final article, Rendezvous with a rogue elephant (28
October 1962), the Observer published a photograph by Bown of the film director Monte Brice, who acted as Hope's career advisor. Later published in the Observer, 1 November 2009

Linked publicationsback to top

Placesback to top

Linked displays and exhibitionsback to top

Events of 1962back to top

Current affairs

After a series of by-election defeats, the prime minister, Harold MacMillan organises a drastic cabinet reshuffle, dismissing one third of his cabinet. Liberal MP Jeremy Thorpe's wry comment summed up the desperate action: 'greater love hath no man than this, than to lay down his friends for his life.'
Britain suffers the 'Big Freeze' with no frost-free nights between 22nd December 1962 and 5th March 1963.

Art and science

The Beatles have their first hit with Love Me Do and release their first album Please Please Me.
The new Coventry Cathedral is consecrated and creates a showcase for British artistic talent with the first performance of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem, a wall hanging by Graham Sutherland, stained glass by John Piper, and sculptures by Jacob Epstein and Elizabeth Frink.

International

The world comes to the brink of nuclear war with the Cuban Missile Crisis. In response to the USA's nuclear advantage, the USSR sent missiles to Cuba. The crisis lasted for 12 days before a deal was finally stuck between Khrushchev and Kennedy in which the Cuban missile bases were dismantled in return for the secret removal of US missiles from Turkey.

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