Showbiz was in Bob Hope's genes through his mother Avis, a concert singer from Barry.
She married stonemason William Hope in April 1891 and the couple set up home at 12 Greenwood Street in the town.
They later moved to Eltham, south east London, where the child they christened Leslie was born in May 1903.
When he was three the family moved to Bristol as his father searched for work.
They emigrated to the USA a year later where Bob's uncles had settled and prospered in Cleveland, Ohio.
The comedian never forgot his Welsh roots, briefly visiting an air base at Sully during the war to entertain the troops.
Hope later returned to Barry in October 1984 to unveil a plaque outside his parents' former home in the town.
He died in July 2003 at the grand old age of 100.
your comments
Kelvyn Inch
Both my granmother and mother told me when I was young that Bob Hope's parents once lived in the older part of Treharne Road, Cadoxton. They lived in No.7 and I think it was No.5 Bob's parents lived. Perhaps as happened in Barry and Cadoxton in those days there was an abundance of housing and they were not there for long?
Paul Jones in Barry
How you all forget just before Bob Hope entered the house in Greenwood street he put a cloth up to his noise. That action brought anger in the croud I was standing in. Some said "get home if you dont like the smell". I wonder if anyone else seen him do that, and was in that section on the croud I was in. Some forget where they come from when famous.
Lee, Barry
One of my best friends' parents live in that house in Greenwood Street with the plaque outside. He told me when he was 8 years old he came home from school to find Bob Hope in his front room and a load of cameras outside! He was so young he obviously didn't know how famous Bob Hope was but a good claim to fame none the less!
Stan Stennett in Cardiff
There was a US base at Sully during the war. I used to play there two or three times a week with my little jazz quintet, playing guitar.
One night we went there one of the sergeants told us they only wanted us to do an hour as a warm up for 'the main show'. None of us knew anything about this in advance - presumably for security reasons.
It turned out to be Bob Hope presenting a USO show featuring singer Jerry Calona and actress Marilyn Maxwell. Bob was a very magnanimous man. He would say hello to you if you were musicians on the show.
I got to perform with him again later at the London Palladium in 1953 - I've got a write-up from the London Evening Standard which gave me top billing - Local Boy Outgags the Master!
Andrew Lloyd in Eastbourne
When Bob Hope visited Barry in 1984, he also unveiled a plaque at Brynhill Golf Club.
My father, Digby Lloyd was club secretary at that time. The club, which had recently rebuilt its clubhouse, was looking for someone to perform the opening ceremony.
My mother had seen in the local paper that Bob Hope was coming to Barry, to visit his parents' home and she suggested to my father that maybe he could try and contact Bob Hope to do the opening. It was her idea and it went from there.
Bob Hope did perform the opening, on what I recall was a sunny day in 1984. Quite a coup really.
