Florida golf museum has Bob Hope’s key to the city
Memento from Saskatoon among hundreds donated to hall of fame
When entertainment legend Bob Hope performed in Saskatoon in 1955, he left with a unique memento that eventually found its way to a Florida golf museum.
Hope, who was in Saskatoon in February 1955 to perform for the city’s Golden Jubilee, received a large key to the City of Saskatoon from mayor John McAskill. Recently, the World Golf Hall of Fame and Museum in St. Augustine, Fla., acquired the key along with thousands more mementos Hope collected during a long career.
The hall of fame is home to the Bob Hope: Shanks for the Memories permanent exhibit. Hope was inducted into the hall for helping popularize the sport and for his golf-related philanthropy. Several years ago, the Bob and Dolores Hope estate gave the hall of fame two semi truckloads worth of items, such as clothes, trophies and other memorabilia, said curator Travis Puterbaugh.
“For the last year, I’ve been working on organizing all these artifacts that probably have not seen the light of day in decades, including the vast collection of keys to cities across the United States and now at least one from Canada,” Puterbaugh said.
“He was treated like a hero wherever he went and was given a lot of keys — in the hundreds. It seems like he kept everything he received. It’s not like he threw away these items when he got home.”
The Saskatoon key is about half a metre long and weighs five to seven kilograms, which is possibly the heaviest found in the collection to date, Puterbaugh said. It appears to be made of brass.
The Saskatoon key won’t be found in any public exhibit, but Puterbaugh said the organization wants the public to know it has a lot of these one-of-a-kind items. He and museum intern Jessica Black are organizing the collection and sending messages to relevant parties.
“We started a Twitter account so we can reach out to groups and places.
“We want the public to know we have these kinds of things and to reach people directly,” Puterbaugh said.
Hope, who died in 2003, was a regular on USO tours, performed across the world and was regularly invited to speak to groups across North America.
“He was very gracious with his time. There was no organization or place too small for him to visit,” Puterbaugh said.