Leslie Townes “Bob” Hope was born on May 29, 1903, in Eltham, London, England. Hope was the most honored entertainer in history, but his greatest legacy was the gift of laughter he brought to millions of American service men and women stationed far from home. Hope was born to an English father and a Welsh mother and was the fifth of seven brothers. In 1908, four-year-old Hope and his family immigrated to the United States on the SS Philadelphia. Hope’s mother had dressed him and his brothers in three layers of clothes so they wouldn’t have as much to carry. The family wasn’t well-off, so they had to travel across the Atlantic in steerage – the lowest quality accommodations on the ship.