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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown

Bob Hope Dies; U.S. Soldiers in Iraq Continue Search for Saddam, WMDs; Interview With Ann-Margret

Aired July 28, 2003 - 22:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening again, everyone.
Of all the tributes to Bob Hope today, the most moving to us were written long ago, fan letters from World War II. "Dear Bob" read one "I'll never forget the thoughts I had when you walked out on that stage in Algiers. I could see our living room at home and my mother sitting by the radio laughing at one of your gags."

Said another, "Bob, a sailor laughed so hard during your Thanksgiving show at the canteen that he split his pants. I know, I'm the girl who sewed it back."

"Bob" wrote another "I tuned into one of your programs. It was a godsend. There's not a guy in the squadron who didn't feel safe and relieved just hearing your voice. We laughed until the fear was gone."

Or this one: "Dear Bob, You're made more friends than any man can ever hope to make."

At a time when Americans are still fighting and dying in faraway places, the country and especially its veterans have lost a dear friend and it's where we begin the whip tonight.

Dan Lothian in Toluca Lake, California, where Bob Hope lived for so many years, Dan a headline from you tonight.

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Aaron, people have been coming by the house today leaving flowers, remembering the man who entertained the world -- Aaron.

BROWN: Dan, thank you, get back to you at the top tonight.

To Iraq next and another deadly day in what's been an extremely dangerous period for U.S. troops, Nic Robertson first in Baghdad with that, Nic your headline tonight.

Aaron, another soldier killed her in Baghdad. That's 11 in the last six days since Uday and Qusay were killed that a significant increase in the number of deaths through hostile acts over the last few weeks -- Aaron.

BROWN: Nic, thank you.

More now on the hunt for Saddam Hussein in his hometown of Tikrit, Harris Whitbeck is there for us tonight, Harris a headline from you.

HARRIS WHITBECK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, U.S. soldiers continue looking for weapons and Saddam loyalists and they hope to soon find the man himself.

BROWN: Harris, thank you.

And, a fascinating story from Indiana tonight about a little girl lost years ago in the hope that just maybe, maybe, she has been found, David Mattingly on the story, David the headline.

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, an Indiana family anxiously waiting tonight to find out whether or not the six-year-old girl that they had abducted 16 years ago has indeed grown into a woman who now wants to come home -- Aaron.

BROWN: David, thank you, back to you and the rest shortly.

Also coming up on NEWSNIGHT tonight, someone who helped entertain the troops alongside Bob Hope. We'll talk with Ann-Margret this evening.

A very sad day in Waco, Texas after it was confirmed that Baylor University basketball player Patrick Dennehy is indeed dead. We'll have the latest on the investigation as well as some questions over how the school manages its players.

And, we expect to see Bob Hope's unmistakable profile grace the covers of plenty of morning papers, a look at how they're covering his passing, a few other stories that make it onto the front page, morning papers back tonight, all that and more in the hour ahead.

We begin, of course, with Mr. Hope. He lived to be 100 years old of which he spent 69 years married to the same woman and 80 years in show business. A Bob Hope set-up line if ever there was one but tonight there's no punch line, no comeback, only the memories.

Our remembrance begins with CNN's Dan Lothian.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LOTHIAN (voice-over): At Hollywood's Walk of Fame and outside Bob Hope's Toluca Lake estate, flowers from friends and fans celebrating his long life of entertaining around the world.

Everyone has a memory they're thanking him for. Phyllis Diller remembers Hope's birthday surprise while she was on location.

PHYLLIS DILLER, FRIEND OF BOB HOPE: I didn't know anybody knew it was my birthday and he surprised me with a huge birthday cake and a party on the set and hugged me and said he loved me.

LOTHIAN: Other celebrities are lining up to pay tribute.

SID CAESAR, FRIEND OF BOB HOPE: He represented a clean-cut character that went out and had fun and he made fun. He made fun of himself.

LOTHIAN: From Hollywood to the White House where Hope spent enough time to be considered a resident. He gently poked fun at presidents who took it all in stride. Today, from President Bush came this.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Bob Hope made us laugh and he lifted our spirits. Bob Hope served our nation and when he went to battlefields to entertain thousands of troops from different generations.

LOTHIAN: In a statement, Nancy Reagan said: "Bob gave us a priceless gift by making us smile, by making us laugh, by giving us hope."

At the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in North Hollywood, Hope's daughter Linda thanked the people she said her father loved, the media, and reflected on a man who only had one life.

LINDA HOPE, BOB HOPE'S DAUGHTER: The private Bob Hope was very much like the public Bob Hope. He was warm and full of fun.

LOTHIAN: His long-time publicist Ward Grant says working with Hope was a wonderful ride. You will really miss him, won't you?

WARD GRANT, HOPE'S PUBLICIST: Yes, yes, yes.

LOTHIAN: Will you feel like part of your life is gone?

GRANT: No, because -- no, again the positive nature of it. It's not gone because I had such a rich life for 31 years.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LOTHIAN: The funeral service will be private. There will also be other private tributes but there will be a public memorial service at the end of next month. Now, even at this hour a couple of miles, probably two to four miles away from here, at the Hollywood Walk of Fame, people continue to bring by flowers at one of the four stars that Bob Hope has there, people also telling stories of what Bob Hope meant to them and also leaving signs.

Obviously, the passing of Bob Hope having a big impact on his fans. And, back here at his home in Toluca Lake within the past hour another lady walked by behind me right at the gate to his estate, placed a flower by the gate and that also has been taking place here throughout the day -- Aaron.

BROWN: Had there been out west, out in L.A., had there been talk that he was close to death over the last couple of days because from where we sat we woke up to the news this morning, hadn't heard anything about it the last several days?

LOTHIAN: Right, publicly there was nothing being said about how close he may have been to death but certainly at that age his family says everyone certainly was expecting it and they told us that he was in failing health.

They certainly knew that things were not looking very good over the last few days or so and that's why the entire family had gathered here to say their goodbyes, to kiss their father goodbye.

BROWN: Dan, thank you, Dan Lothian out in Los Angeles tonight.

People imagine Bob Hope lived a storybook American life and he did. Like many Americans he was born elsewhere. Like some he changed his name. Like nearly everyone he wasn't successful at first.

He tried boxing but as a boxer he made a great dancer. He sang better than he danced. He told jokes better than he sang and as a comedian, well, just ask millions of men and women far away from home. They would tell you that Leslie Townes Hope, the fifth son of Harry of Eltham, England, was one hell of an American.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HOPE: We're thrilled to be here at Osan Air Base, Korea. Nice to be here at (unintelligible). Happy to be here. I don't know where the hell we are but I'm happy.

BROWN (voice-over): Bob Hope was an icon to tens of thousands of veterans and he was also a saint. Thanks to him they got music and jokes and beautiful Hollywood starlets and, most of all, they got a break from war.

HOPE: I just want you boys to see what you're fighting for, that's all.

BROWN: Bob Hope led the most eventful century. When he changed his name from Leslie to Bob at 21, it was because he thought Bob would look better on the marquee, the Vaudeville marquee.

From Vaudeville, he went to Broadway where he met his bride Dolores Reed. She was a fellow performer who awed him from the audience.

HOPE: After the show one night he said do you want to hear a pretty girl sing and I said yes and he took me up to the (unintelligible) club and Dolores stepped on the stage and sang. I said yes and it was just about four months later we were married.

BROWN: Hope did radio too. In fact, he had a regular radio broadcast every Tuesday night from 1938 through 1956 and there were also movies.

HOPE: Oh, this is awful.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's the matter?

HOPE: I ain't got room for her.

BROWN: When Hollywood called, Hope responded. His first major feature film was the big broadcast of 1938. It had not only showed the world Bob Hope, it gave us his song.

Bob Hope went on to star with many greats, among them Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour, who did seven road pictures together. Unlike many of his peers, Bob Hope never hosted his own regular TV program, instead he hosted some 300 Bob Hope specials and hosted the Academy Awards 18 times. He won five special awards from the Academy and he never actually won the highly coveted Oscar.

HOPE: Welcome to the Academy Awards or, as it's know at my house, Passover.

BROWN: So, what kept Bob Hope going for 100 years?

DILLER: He didn't work at anything. In other words, you know what I mean, he was enjoying. It wasn't work. He loved it and when you do something with love it keeps you alive forever.

HOPE: I'd like a rabies shot.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Well, when someone lives to be 100 and lives most of those years healthy we don't mourn his death so much as we celebrate his life. Bob Hope lived well and full and his life offers much to celebrate tonight.

Ann-Margret was one of the many entertainers who went on the road with Mr. Hope.

(VIDEO CLIP OF BOB HOPE AND ANN-MARGRET)

BROWN: Ann-Margret joins us tonight from Lake Tahoe. It's nice to have you with us.

ANN-MARGRET: Thank you.

BROWN: How did you find out that you were going on the road during a war, going off to Vietnam with Mr. Hope?

ANN-MARGRET: How id I find out?

BROWN: Yes.

ANN-MARGRET: Someone just called. Someone just called the house and I had been there in 1966 with Johnny Rivers and (unintelligible) drummer and I respect and honor the men and women of the military so much that when Bob asked me to come definitely, definitely.

BROWN: Was it...

ANN-MARGRET: And I had worked with him so many times. He was great.

BROWN: Were you nervous? You get up in front of these thousands of young men.

ANN-MARGRET: I loved it.

BROWN: You did, it was fun?

ANN-MARGRET: Oh, yes, and I've never felt like I was in any danger because those American men there and I just felt really safe at all times.

BROWN: Did Mr. Hope ever talk sort of reflectively about what it meant to him to go to the troops so often as he did?

ANN-MARGRET: Oh, yes. He had a great love for all the men and women of the military and he went out of his way to go out in the audience and get to know many, many of the gentlemen and ladies and he would carry through also. If they would tell him like their mother or wife or whatever were really, really sick he would carry through and actually call them.

BROWN: Is that right? Is there a moment or two that you remember more than all the others in those experiences?

ANN-MARGRET: Oh, my goodness. I was trying to think. In 1962 at the Academy Awards I did one of the nominated films and he introduced me and then no one had ever heard my name and he looked after me after I exited and said I thought -- Ann-Margret I thought that was a dancing pony. It was really cute, 1962.

And then '68 was Vietnam, all those places, '73 that's right, '73 I had my own special. It was after I had this big fall and Mr. Burns, Mr. George Burns and Jack Benny were going to be my special guests and then Jack Benny called me.

It was like two days before it was supposed to happen and he said he was so sorry but his doctor, he was very ill then, his doctor had said that he could not perform and Bob Hope came in. He flew into Las Vegas where we were filming it the night before and learned the dancing and all the skits and everything. He was always doing things like that for people.

BROWN: Well, is there something, you know, it's an odd thing those of us at a certain age watched him all of our lives. We watched him on television. We watched the USO shows and all the rest. We all think we know him. What is it that you know or knew about him that would surprise us?

ANN-MARGRET: He was -- he really was extremely sensitive to people's feelings and he had this great love for performing and giving that love and laughter to people and he was vulnerable because he cared so much about people.

BROWN: He was vulnerable?

ANN-MARGRET: Yes, he was.

BROWN: It's hard to think of him as vulnerable.

ANN-MARGRET: I know. I know. I know it is. BROWN: Yes. It's nice to talk to you.

ANN-MARGRET: Same here.

BROWN: It's not an easy day and it's not an easy thing to talk about but we appreciate your time tonight, thanks, good to talk to you again.

ANN-MARGRET: Thank you very, very much.

BROWN: Ann-Margret.

Later in the program we'll have more on Bob Hope, a closer look at his years spent entertaining the troops and some reaction from the troops he spent entertaining.

Up next though, American troops of our time in Iraq on the hunt for Saddam Hussein, are they getting any closer?

And later in the program, the body of a missing basketball players is found, the latest on Patrick Dennehy as NEWSNIGHT continues from New York.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: For American soldiers in Iraq the last eight days have been as deadly as any such period since President Bush declared major combat over back in May. Fifteen soldiers killed, four over the weekend, one today.

The enemy is finding new ways of going about its business but so have the American troops and they are increasingly busy with operations aimed at quashing the resistance and, of course, locating Saddam Hussein but it comes at a cost and that's where CNN's Nic Robertson begins his report tonight.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Carefully removed from a Baghdad roadside, one of the latest U.S. casualties of ongoing guerrilla-style attacks, three soldiers injured and one killed according to coalition officials.

"I was driving behind them in my own car" he says. "A grenade was thrown from the bridge. The driver's head was blown off and the man behind had his brains blown out."

In the shifting tactics of this urban war possibly the third such assault in as many days where attackers rain explosives on troops.

LT. BRIAN RAYN, U.S. ARMY: It's not clear right now. It's unclear. There was a personnel up on top of the bridge that ran from the vehicle. That's all we know at this time.

ROBERTSON: Nearby, U.S. soldiers diffuse what could have been another hostile situation, students angry, the troops moving them out of their dormitory.

"We stood in front of the building" says this student. "The soldiers seized me, ripped my shirt and hit me."

A misunderstanding say the soldiers now at ease with the students, the result of an intelligence tip off alleging the U.S. base, overlooked by the dorm, would be attacked.

MAJ. PAUL KREIS, U.S. ARMY: They thought we were making them leave and weren't going to take their tests, which is not our intent at all. We want them to be safe. We want them to take their tests. We want them to pass their tests and do well.

ROBERTSON: The move according to the troops designed to head off danger for the students. If their base was attacked from the dorm, the soldiers say, they'd return fire possibly causing unintended casualties.

Not so fortunate the three Iraqi citizens shot and killed by U.S. troops as they hunted Saddam Hussein Sunday, the tribal leader whose house was raided in that search voicing concerns of many.

RABIA MOHAMMED AL-HABIB, TRIBAL LEADER: I don't know why the Americans are acting (unintelligible) to get hated or increase the hatred of the Iraqi people.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTSON: As U.S. troops say they are now closing in on Saddam Hussein, many Iraqis are beginning to worry that the good will that has captured could generate, could be squandered by innocent Iraqi casualties caught up, if you will, in the crossfire -- Aaron.

BROWN: Nic, I think maybe the hardest thing for many Americans right now is to get a sense of how tense it is, how much resentment there is, in a sense the balance between the things that have gone badly and the things that have gone well.

ROBERTSON: I think there's a lot of people here, and one man put it to me quite succinctly recently. He said, look, a lot of us would love to stand up and say that we support the Americans, we are very pleased that they came here but they haven't done anything good yet.

They haven't done anything to show for everything that they said they would do before they come. When they do that, he said, yes we can stand up and support them. The anger, the anxieties vary from people to people. There is a deep resentment of some issues of the lack of security.

People expected to have that by now. They are very concerned about the attacks on people. People here are so used to with their previous regime essentially taking these hits lying down not knowing how to fight back. To a degree people are still in that same mode. People get killed, innocent people get killed on the street and there's no uprising. There's no anger shown the next day.

BROWN: Yes.

ROBERTSON: But a lot of concern -- Aaron.

BROWN: Nic, thank you, Nic Robertson who is in Baghdad. Nic mentioned the raid on a Baghdad neighborhood, not the only one and commanders tell us it will not be the last one either.

The talk now is of closing the nets, of tightening nooses where Saddam Hussein is concerned, which of course mean more doors to be kicked in.

Here's CNN's Harris Whitbeck.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WHITBECK (voice-over): The predawn hours in dangerous Tikrit, the homeland of Saddam Hussein. Two platoons from the U.S. Army's 4th Infantry Division race up Route 2, one of the principal and deadliest highways in the region, their mission to raid homes believed to house Saddam's loyalists. Waking a sleeping family, they hustled them all into a walled courtyard. An old man tries to escape.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let him go. There are people back there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where are you going to go? You're 80 years old.

WHITBECK: A young woman bound and gagged after she screams pro- Saddam chants. This family belongs to Saddam's tribe and their loyalty runs deep, deep enough that the soldiers find a large cache of hidden weapons in their house, stacks of pictures showing Saddam sewing medals on a uniformed family member.

As dawn becomes morning, the soldiers fan out into the house's orchard finding more hidden guns and ammunition. Raids like this one are sources of valuable information in the effort to find Iraq's deposed leader and to cut off his network of support.

CAPT. DESMOND BAILEY, U.S. ARMY: It just gives us a common picture, you know. We put it on a big map and look at everything that we found and usually if you're finding significant caches, certain types of weapons, you know, we can use that to track movement maybe.

WHITBECK: The regional U.S. commander says this type of operation will eventually lead to the most wanted man in Iraq.

COL. JAMES HICKEY, U.S. ARMY: We've been given estimates about the location of Saddam Hussein. We have targeted certain areas in the past as a part of our raiding regime. How long will it take? Time will tell but I think it's going to be sooner than later.

WHITBECK: More raids, more weapons, more information.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITBECK: Those raids continue day in day out. One was just concluded very near this former palace belonging to Saddam Hussein. It happened in the town of Al-Uja (ph) which is the home to many former Ba'ath Party leaders who had summer homes there. Again, apparently several people were detained -- Aaron.

BROWN: Harris, how do they think he's living now? How do they think he's surviving now?

WHITBECK: Well, senior military sources tell us that they believe that he is moving around every two to four hours. Some information that I heard yesterday indicated that at one point they thought that he had been on one of three farms belonging to some of his most trusted family members but, again, he's moving around quite often.

He's apparently accompanied by a very small group of his most trusted bodyguards and that seems to indicate to military commanders on the ground that it is really only a matter of time -- Aaron.

BROWN: Harris, thank you very much, Harris Whitbeck.

When last we talked with "Newsweek's" Rod Nordland the war was raging. Perhaps it still is but it's a different war that Mr. Nordland finds himself covering these days. In this week's issue of "Newsweek" he writes about the death of Saddam's sons. Perhaps next week it will be Saddam himself.

Mr. Nordland joins us from Baghdad, good to see you again.

ROD NORDLAND, "NEWSWEEK": Thank you.

BROWN: Do you believe that they are, in fact, closing in, tightening the noose or is it talk?

NORDLAND: Well, I think they are. I mean I think there's lots of reasons to believe that they're getting closer and closer. The most significant thing was not the raid on Uday and Qusay's house in terms of finding Saddam because it doesn't appear that they got much intelligence there towards finding Saddam.

But, last week they raided a house in Tikrit, Saddam's hometown, and picked up several of his bodyguards, perhaps ten of them. That seemed to lead them to his new chief of security and then they raided three farms in Tikrit which your report just mentioned and there's a sense that they're getting closer and closer.

You know the local commander said they missed that security chief by 24 hours and if he's running Saddam's security it's reasonable to think that they weren't far away from Saddam either.

BROWN: When the sons were found they were essentially alone, I mean at least to me surprisingly alone. Does that tell us anything at all, do you think, about how Saddam is moving and how vulnerable he is?

NORDLAND: Yes, I think you're right they were pathetically alone considering, you know, the way they had moved in the past, the kind of soldiers they had at their beck and call, the kind of large convoys that they always moved in.

At the end of the road, they had one somewhat overweight, rather fat security guard and a 13-year-old boy. In fact, the 13-year-old boy was the last one to still return fire at the U.S. troops when they took that house. So, it was a pretty pathetic end for them.

And, we talked to people that saw Saddam leave Baghdad in a convoy of two Mercedes cars if you can call that a convoy even with a handful of bodyguards and it may be that he's hiding in just as pathetic circumstances somewhere and I think it's only a matter of time until they find him. It would be nice if it's this week.

BROWN: If that's the case is he, other than the fact that he is still alive and out there, is he exercising any control over anything that's going on?

NORDLAND: He may be. I think more likely he set into motion a kind of network, a structure that could revert to the Ba'athist Party's roots as an underground party with a lot of dispersed cells and they have been carrying on somewhat in concert but not with necessarily daily direction from the top.

So, the big question is when they get Saddam will that bring this to an end or will that structure become self replicating and carry on? Because there are a lot of people here that hate Saddam and also are very unhappy about the American occupation and I think the important thing to watch will be whether that opposition in the absence of Saddam can feed into that discontent and continue carrying on the war.

BROWN: Care to offer a guess there?

NORDLAND: I think it could go either way. I mean I'm going -- it's something I want to watch very carefully. I don't think it's a given that when they get Saddam the war is over and then certainly there will be some elements that will carry on.

But whether it's just on a low scale and just a kind of terrorist thing that you have to worry about but not worry about, you know, on every street corner and every moment, which is what's happening now, I just think that remains to be seen.

BROWN: And just a final question there's a $25 million reward. Where I live that's a lot of dough. That alone you would think would get somebody chatting.

NORDLAND: Yes, and that seems to have been a factor in Uday and Qusay's capture although not the only factor. They apparently were turned in by the man whose house they were staying in but he also had a personal motive.

The regime had thrown his brother in jail and it's again a measure of how pathetic their end was that they threw -- they went for protection to somebody that they couldn't really count on. Maybe they didn't even realize.

In Saddam's case, OK, $25 million it's quite likely that he has with him, you know, that much or more and I don't think that will be the only factor but certainly it may be a major factor for somebody.

BROWN: Rod, good to talk to you tonight, Rod Nordland of "Newsweek" magazine in Baghdad tonight.

NORDLAND: My pleasure.

BROWN: Coming up still on the program tonight the Waco mystery, the latest as police recover the body finally of missing basketball player Patrick Dennehy. This has gone on for some time now.

And, from Indianapolis, a six-year-old girl kidnapped 16 years ago may have been found alive, that story coming up too.

From New York, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: When the parents of the missing Baylor basketball player, Patrick Dennehy, got word that the body of their missing son had been identified, they were on the road back from picking up his belongings in Waco. "We are going to keep on going," Patrick's father said. "There's nothing left for us now to do right now."

For police in Waco, there is, of course, much to do. They're building a case against Patrick Dennehy's teammate, Carlton Dotson. And for students at Baylor university today, there was much to come to grips with.

Here's CNN's Miguel Marquez.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The murder of one college basketball player, the charge of murder alleged against another. The man who coached them both has a hard time fathoming what went wrong.

DAVE BLISS, BAYLOR BASKETBALL COACH: First, we are grieving the loss in just an unbelievable way of Patrick Dennehy. This is a young man who came to Baylor, was a born-again Christian, and he was resolved to succeed in our basketball program and academically.

MARQUEZ (on camera): Baylor's president was out of town and released a taped statement saying that the grief felt by this murder will stretch into the fall semester.

ROBERT SLOAN, PRESIDENT, BAYLOR PRESIDENT: Early in September, when all of our students, faculty and staff return to campus for the fall semester, we will hold a memorial service for Patrick Dennehy. This will be a time when the Baylor community can come together and remember Patrick, find comfort, and pray for him.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): His badly decomposed body was found last week, his head discovered nearby on Sunday, the murder and its investigation now casting a spotlight on Baylor's basketball program: allegations of player drug use, the school investigating whether NCAA rules on paying players were broken, and allegations that Coach Bliss knew Carlton Dotson was troubled.

BLISS: What you do is, you just do the best you can. The one person who is able to answer all the questions is not with us right now.

MARQUEZ: The McLennan County Sheriff's Department says the investigation is still in an early stage. An autopsy on Patrick Dennehy could take weeks. And Carlton Dotson sits in a Maryland jail, fighting extradition to Texas.

Miguel Marquez, CNN, Waco, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: An update now on the case of a missing girl. And you'll be forgiven if you don't remember much about this 6-year-old. That's because this girl disappeared outside her home north of Indianapolis in 1986.

A few years back, a local paper wrote about her devastated family, the father who still manned a tip line, waiting for the call that never seemed to come. That is until now. A woman, all grown up, thinks she may be Shannon Marie Sherrill. But whether this is a miracle one family has been waiting for is not yet clear.

Reporting for us tonight, CNN's David Mattingly.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For over 16 years, families in Thorntown, Indiana, have been watching their children, mindful of an October day in 1986 when 6-year-old Shannon Marie Sherrill disappeared. But now a possible break in the long cold case raises hopes that Shannon could be found.

DAVID BURSTEN, INDIANA STATE POLICE: If you are a member of the Sherrill family and received a phone call from a person saying she thinks she may be Shannon Sherrill, you would be hoping beyond hope this was your daughter.

MATTINGLY: This photograph, age enhanced to the age of 19, is similar to what Shannon would look like today, nearing 23, important because, just days ago, a woman contacted the family and said: I think I could be Shannon Sherrill. But it's apparently created such a sensitive situation that state police and family are now worried that media attention could make it hard for them to stay in touch with the young woman.

BURSTEN: Until we have factual, concrete information that we can responsibly share with the public, there is nothing else that can be said at this time.

MARQUEZ: Shannon Sherrill was last seen playing outside her mother's trailer in the company of friends.

(on camera): How she managed to be abducted without a trace, however, continues to stump investigators. Several people claimed they were outside in this trailer park the day it happened, but no one saw a thing. It wasn't until police brought in search dogs that they were able to follow her trail, two stop signs away, to a cornfield, where the trail abruptly ended.

(voice-over): Neighbor Don Strong was among the hundreds who joined the search. He still carries the newspaper article printed the day the search was called off.

(on camera): What would you say to her right now, if you could?

DON STRONG, NEIGHBOR: Glad you're home. We missed you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY: But will this be the welcome home that everyone has been waiting for? Police not ready to comment on how credible they think this woman's claims are, until they've had a chance to check everything out -- Aaron.

BROWN: They know who she is, right? It's not a question of, they don't know who she is. They do know who she is.

MATTINGLY: They do know who she is. And they've been in contact with her. The word here is that she contacted the family. And there's another credibility, at least in the family's mind, that they are -- quote -- "on pins and needles right now," waiting for police to get to the bottom of this.

BROWN: How will they go about verifying this, do you know?

MATTINGLY: I asked them that question. They say they have a variety of things at their disposal. They're not going to go into it, but, of course, DNA is one of those options out there. That would be the slam dunk that would definitely say, yes, this is the woman who was abducted from her home when she was just 6 years old. So it's probably safe to assume at this point that DNA will be used, but police are not confirming that.

BROWN: David, thank you -- David Mattingly in Indiana tonight.

Still ahead on NEWSNIGHT, we'll check some the day's other top stories; later, a look at Bob Hope and the USO, what he meant to millions of soldiers that he entertained over five decades.

Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: And still ahead on NEWSNIGHT, more on the life and times of Bob Hope, and morning papers, too.

A break first. This is NEWSNIGHT on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BROWN: Here are some other stories making news around the country, starting with the president in Pittsburgh. He talked up the economy at the Conference of the National Urban League, got a polite reception, which is about as good as a Republican president gets in front of an African-American crowd in a largely Democratic city. But Pittsburgh is in Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh media reaches all of western Pennsylvania. And Pennsylvania is a big electoral prize.

The widow of Minnesota Viking Korey Stringer is suing the National Football League. Her husband, you may recall, died of heat stroke during training camp two years back. The lawsuit names the NFL, a medical adviser to the NFL, and a sports equipment maker. A spokesman for the leagues says he has not yet seen the lawsuit and therefore has no comment.

Northeastern Ohio, the floodwaters have returned. Nearly 4 inches of rain fell on Akron yesterday. Totals for the month now top a foot. One Ohioan put it plainly. "This is the worst summer ever," she said.

And a few more items, these from around the world, beginning with the visit to Washington by the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon. Mr. Sharon is set to meet with President Bush tomorrow to talk about how to move ahead with the road map to peace. The White House today welcomed the decision by the Israeli government to release more than 500 Palestinian prisoners. Mr. Bush met with the Palestinian prime minister on Friday.

Fighting continued in Liberia today, rebels taking the country's second largest city, the port city of Buchanan. That was the last major port in the hands of forces loyal to the Liberian president, Charles Taylor. President Bush has ordered American ships to Liberia's coast to support a West African peace force that will try and stop the bloodshed.

Ahead on NEWSNIGHT: more on Bob Hope, a look at his years of entertaining American troops overseas and how some of those soldiers remember him today.

A break first. This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: We don't think it's true, as President Reagan once joked, that Bob Hope entertained the troops at Valley Forge. But it doesn't seem that silly, does it?

Legends have a way of becoming timeless, as if they were always around and always will be. Bob Hope's legend is bound up tight in the wars that America has fought and the troops who sometimes acted as if he were not just their joker, but their savior. In terms of saving their spirit, he surely was.

Remembering an American war hero, here's NEWSNIGHT's Beth Nissen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Millions of Americans knew Bob Hope best as the voice, the heart and the soul of the USO, starting in World War II.

BOB HOPE, ENTERTAINER: I bet when I first started, you thought I was going to be lousy, huh?

(LAUGHTER)

NISSEN: Hope fixed on the classic formula for a successful USO show: Do a little dancing, tell a few jokes, sing a few songs and then bring out the pretty girls.

HOPE: I just want you boys to see what you're fighting for. That's all.

NISSEN: Bob Hope emceed thousands of USO camp shows between 1941 and '47. Hope reenlisted when America went to war again in Korea.

HOPE: This wonderful band, Les (ph) and the boys, Les and (INAUDIBLE) It's kind of cold here. And it's rough on the musicians. No matter what they blow, "White Christmas" comes out.

(LAUGHTER)

NISSEN: And Hope was back with the troops again in Vietnam.

HOPE: Here I am at Danang, better known as Dodge City.

NISSEN: No USO audiences appreciated Bob Hope's wry, often lewd, humor more than those he entertained in Vietnam.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: That was one his great strengths. He makes them laugh. And sometimes, when it's really cold and it's really tough, and you're losing your friends, it's really a wonderful experience to be able to laugh.

NISSEN: Hope continued his USO work through the '70s and '80s, when the U.S. was at peace, but much of the world, especially the Middle East, was not.

HOPE: And I want to tell you, tonight, we are in the part of the world where Santa uses a tail-gunner on his slave.

NISSEN: An elderly Bob Hope made a last USO appearance in 1990 for troops in the last Gulf War.

HOPE: Stealth bomber, that's a big deal. It flies in undetected, bombs in, flies away. Hell, I been doing that all my life.

GEN. JOHN TILELLI, FORMER PRESIDENT & CEO, USO: You can never describe in words the impact that Bob Hope has had, not only on the USO, but, more importantly, on the troops, on the men and women who served, 60 years of service to America, to America's armed forces in faraway places during Hollywood periods. He is the model for today's entertainers. And in the great spectrum of things, he's the model for future entertainers.

HOPE (singing): Thanks from America to all of our men in blue, our boys in khaki, too, our tough Marines, our Coast Guard, our Army nurses true, we thank you so much.

NISSEN: A legion of the grateful thank him, too.

Beth Nissen, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: As we said at the top of the program, an American soldier long ago wrote a fan letter to Bob Hope that said, "You've made more friends than any man could ever hope to make." Today, there was proof of that. The friends he made remembered what he had done for them when they were young and they were homesick and scared.

Here CNN's Bruce Morton.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HOPE: Cu Chi, that's Vietnamese for, you want it, you can have it.

Guantanamo is a Navy term meaning, I hear you knocking, but you can't come in.

BRUCE MORTON, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He went everywhere, and for generations. Veterans -- this is a vets hospital in Miami -- remember.

STEVE WILLIAMS, VETERAN: Bob Hope is awesome, you know? He did it for my uncles in Korea, my uncles in World War II, my brother in Vietnam. And he did it for us in Korea in the '70s.

MORTON: Virginia Fady saw him in the Dominican Republic.

VIRGINIA FADY: And I father took us all, all the little kids. And we saw him play. And he got somebody up. And they were doing the Watusi. And it just -- I had fond memories. And I'm just really saddened.

MORTON: At Washington's Korean War Memorial, Korean vets remembered.

KENNETH CAMEL, VETERAN: He brought not only good-looking women with him, which is always pleasure for young troops. But he also brought a taste, a touch of United States yet and what it meant to us.

RAY WESTPHAL, VETERAN: People looked up to him, I mean, the soldiers and -- the servicemen, rather. And he got our spirits up and everything like that.

JOE BARLIEC, VETERAN: He told some good jokes. He had the nurses blushing. FRANK MCCONVILLE, VETERAN: He was a part of home. You knew that, as long as Bob Hope could come over there, that things back home were going OK.

MORTON: In 1962, Congress awarded and President Kennedy gave Hope a gold medal, inscribed, "Humorist, Humanitarian, Patriot."

HOPE: And I feel very humble, although I think I have the strength of character to fight it.

MORTON: He kept traveling, leaving memories behind: New York's Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum has a Hope exhibit on display. More memories.

NICK RAPPA, VETERAN: I was in Vietnam in 1970 in -- we were the engineer battalion that built the stage and the bleachers, so he could perform. It was a great show, great show.

PERRTY MORSE, VETERAN: He made them all smile. And that's hard to do when you're out there killing one another.

MORTON: At the Bob Hope plaque in the Pentagon, someone, this day, attached a rose and a card: "Many thanks from many vets for many memories."

Bruce Morton, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: We'll check morning papers after the break. We'll take you to break by taking you to Hollywood and the Walk of Fame there and the people who have gathered and have left flowers and notes on the star. And he was, Bob Hope.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(ROOSTER CROWING)

BROWN: Oh, my, how we've missed that the last several days, haven't we?

Morning papers from around the country and truly from around the world, if we get to them all. Look, this is a slam-dunk sort of day for editors of the front page, at least where Mr. Hope is concerned.

"The Oregonian" out in Portland, Oregon: "Thanks for the Memories," a wonderful Hirschfeld sketch of Bob Hope on the front page of "The Oregonian," also. And then down here, this story makes a couple of front pages. This is unbelievable, folks. "Wyden" -- this is Senator Ron Wyden -- "Seeks Pentagon Halt to Terror Bets." There's something going on in the Pentagon when you can make a bet on whether there will be a terrorist attack in Cleveland or something. And if there is, you collect.

OK, "The Cincinnati Enquirer": "Bob Hope Leaves Legacy of Laughter" on the front page. And a couple of nice pictures there. Down at the bottom, last call at Saks bar. The liquor police, whatever they're called in the state of Ohio, raided the Saks Fifth Avenue because they were giving wine to male shoppers. You can't do that in Ohio. Maybe you can't do that other places.

"Bob Hope, Thanks For the Memories," the lead in "The Miami Herald." I would guess thanks for the memories makes it a lot. Think about that. Isn't that cool, 1903 to 2003, 100 years. Most of us are not going to get there, but he did. A very good story that would have got more attention had it not been for Bob Hope, by the way: "Top Democrat Fears Drift to Left May Drive Party From Contention." Some polling that was done. And it's a very interesting poll.

"Bob Hope Dies, Leaving a Century Full of Memories," "The Washington Times." Lead pretty -- straightforward lead. They also put on the front page, "Vatican Issues Guide Against Gay Marriage."

"Pope: Stop Gay Union." That is also on the front page of "The Boston Herald."

How we doing on time?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thirty-four.

BROWN: "Thanks For the Memories, Bob Hope." Nice picture of Mr. Hope there.

I love this picture. I think "The Guardian." "Thanks For the Memories." That's Bob Hope with a golf club, as we should think of him.

And we'll end it on "The Chicago Sun-Times." "Thanks for the memories, Bob." Look at this picture. They found a picture of him holding an old "Sun-Times." Isn't that cool?

And wasn't he cool? Yes, he was.

Good to be back with you. We'll see you tomorrow at 10:00. Well, maybe we won't. I can't find my glasses.

We'll see you tomorrow. Good night for all of us at NEWSNIGHT.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com





Saddam, WMDs; Interview With Ann-Margret>


Aired July 28, 2003 - 22:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening again, everyone.
Of all the tributes to Bob Hope today, the most moving to us were written long ago, fan letters from World War II. "Dear Bob" read one "I'll never forget the thoughts I had when you walked out on that stage in Algiers. I could see our living room at home and my mother sitting by the radio laughing at one of your gags."

Said another, "Bob, a sailor laughed so hard during your Thanksgiving show at the canteen that he split his pants. I know, I'm the girl who sewed it back."

"Bob" wrote another "I tuned into one of your programs. It was a godsend. There's not a guy in the squadron who didn't feel safe and relieved just hearing your voice. We laughed until the fear was gone."

Or this one: "Dear Bob, You're made more friends than any man can ever hope to make."

At a time when Americans are still fighting and dying in faraway places, the country and especially its veterans have lost a dear friend and it's where we begin the whip tonight.

Dan Lothian in Toluca Lake, California, where Bob Hope lived for so many years, Dan a headline from you tonight.

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Aaron, people have been coming by the house today leaving flowers, remembering the man who entertained the world -- Aaron.

BROWN: Dan, thank you, get back to you at the top tonight.

To Iraq next and another deadly day in what's been an extremely dangerous period for U.S. troops, Nic Robertson first in Baghdad with that, Nic your headline tonight.

Aaron, another soldier killed her in Baghdad. That's 11 in the last six days since Uday and Qusay were killed that a significant increase in the number of deaths through hostile acts over the last few weeks -- Aaron.

BROWN: Nic, thank you.

More now on the hunt for Saddam Hussein in his hometown of Tikrit, Harris Whitbeck is there for us tonight, Harris a headline from you.

HARRIS WHITBECK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, U.S. soldiers continue looking for weapons and Saddam loyalists and they hope to soon find the man himself.

BROWN: Harris, thank you.

And, a fascinating story from Indiana tonight about a little girl lost years ago in the hope that just maybe, maybe, she has been found, David Mattingly on the story, David the headline.

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, an Indiana family anxiously waiting tonight to find out whether or not the six-year-old girl that they had abducted 16 years ago has indeed grown into a woman who now wants to come home -- Aaron.

BROWN: David, thank you, back to you and the rest shortly.

Also coming up on NEWSNIGHT tonight, someone who helped entertain the troops alongside Bob Hope. We'll talk with Ann-Margret this evening.

A very sad day in Waco, Texas after it was confirmed that Baylor University basketball player Patrick Dennehy is indeed dead. We'll have the latest on the investigation as well as some questions over how the school manages its players.

And, we expect to see Bob Hope's unmistakable profile grace the covers of plenty of morning papers, a look at how they're covering his passing, a few other stories that make it onto the front page, morning papers back tonight, all that and more in the hour ahead.

We begin, of course, with Mr. Hope. He lived to be 100 years old of which he spent 69 years married to the same woman and 80 years in show business. A Bob Hope set-up line if ever there was one but tonight there's no punch line, no comeback, only the memories.

Our remembrance begins with CNN's Dan Lothian.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LOTHIAN (voice-over): At Hollywood's Walk of Fame and outside Bob Hope's Toluca Lake estate, flowers from friends and fans celebrating his long life of entertaining around the world.

Everyone has a memory they're thanking him for. Phyllis Diller remembers Hope's birthday surprise while she was on location.

PHYLLIS DILLER, FRIEND OF BOB HOPE: I didn't know anybody knew it was my birthday and he surprised me with a huge birthday cake and a party on the set and hugged me and said he loved me.

LOTHIAN: Other celebrities are lining up to pay tribute.

SID CAESAR, FRIEND OF BOB HOPE: He represented a clean-cut character that went out and had fun and he made fun. He made fun of himself.

LOTHIAN: From Hollywood to the White House where Hope spent enough time to be considered a resident. He gently poked fun at presidents who took it all in stride. Today, from President Bush came this.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Bob Hope made us laugh and he lifted our spirits. Bob Hope served our nation and when he went to battlefields to entertain thousands of troops from different generations.

LOTHIAN: In a statement, Nancy Reagan said: "Bob gave us a priceless gift by making us smile, by making us laugh, by giving us hope."

At the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in North Hollywood, Hope's daughter Linda thanked the people she said her father loved, the media, and reflected on a man who only had one life.

LINDA HOPE, BOB HOPE'S DAUGHTER: The private Bob Hope was very much like the public Bob Hope. He was warm and full of fun.

LOTHIAN: His long-time publicist Ward Grant says working with Hope was a wonderful ride. You will really miss him, won't you?

WARD GRANT, HOPE'S PUBLICIST: Yes, yes, yes.

LOTHIAN: Will you feel like part of your life is gone?

GRANT: No, because -- no, again the positive nature of it. It's not gone because I had such a rich life for 31 years.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LOTHIAN: The funeral service will be private. There will also be other private tributes but there will be a public memorial service at the end of next month. Now, even at this hour a couple of miles, probably two to four miles away from here, at the Hollywood Walk of Fame, people continue to bring by flowers at one of the four stars that Bob Hope has there, people also telling stories of what Bob Hope meant to them and also leaving signs.

Obviously, the passing of Bob Hope having a big impact on his fans. And, back here at his home in Toluca Lake within the past hour another lady walked by behind me right at the gate to his estate, placed a flower by the gate and that also has been taking place here throughout the day -- Aaron.

BROWN: Had there been out west, out in L.A., had there been talk that he was close to death over the last couple of days because from where we sat we woke up to the news this morning, hadn't heard anything about it the last several days?

LOTHIAN: Right, publicly there was nothing being said about how close he may have been to death but certainly at that age his family says everyone certainly was expecting it and they told us that he was in failing health.

They certainly knew that things were not looking very good over the last few days or so and that's why the entire family had gathered here to say their goodbyes, to kiss their father goodbye.

BROWN: Dan, thank you, Dan Lothian out in Los Angeles tonight.

People imagine Bob Hope lived a storybook American life and he did. Like many Americans he was born elsewhere. Like some he changed his name. Like nearly everyone he wasn't successful at first.

He tried boxing but as a boxer he made a great dancer. He sang better than he danced. He told jokes better than he sang and as a comedian, well, just ask millions of men and women far away from home. They would tell you that Leslie Townes Hope, the fifth son of Harry of Eltham, England, was one hell of an American.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HOPE: We're thrilled to be here at Osan Air Base, Korea. Nice to be here at (unintelligible). Happy to be here. I don't know where the hell we are but I'm happy.

BROWN (voice-over): Bob Hope was an icon to tens of thousands of veterans and he was also a saint. Thanks to him they got music and jokes and beautiful Hollywood starlets and, most of all, they got a break from war.

HOPE: I just want you boys to see what you're fighting for, that's all.

BROWN: Bob Hope led the most eventful century. When he changed his name from Leslie to Bob at 21, it was because he thought Bob would look better on the marquee, the Vaudeville marquee.

From Vaudeville, he went to Broadway where he met his bride Dolores Reed. She was a fellow performer who awed him from the audience.

HOPE: After the show one night he said do you want to hear a pretty girl sing and I said yes and he took me up to the (unintelligible) club and Dolores stepped on the stage and sang. I said yes and it was just about four months later we were married.

BROWN: Hope did radio too. In fact, he had a regular radio broadcast every Tuesday night from 1938 through 1956 and there were also movies.

HOPE: Oh, this is awful.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's the matter?

HOPE: I ain't got room for her.

BROWN: When Hollywood called, Hope responded. His first major feature film was the big broadcast of 1938. It had not only showed the world Bob Hope, it gave us his song.

Bob Hope went on to star with many greats, among them Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour, who did seven road pictures together. Unlike many of his peers, Bob Hope never hosted his own regular TV program, instead he hosted some 300 Bob Hope specials and hosted the Academy Awards 18 times. He won five special awards from the Academy and he never actually won the highly coveted Oscar.

HOPE: Welcome to the Academy Awards or, as it's know at my house, Passover.

BROWN: So, what kept Bob Hope going for 100 years?

DILLER: He didn't work at anything. In other words, you know what I mean, he was enjoying. It wasn't work. He loved it and when you do something with love it keeps you alive forever.

HOPE: I'd like a rabies shot.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Well, when someone lives to be 100 and lives most of those years healthy we don't mourn his death so much as we celebrate his life. Bob Hope lived well and full and his life offers much to celebrate tonight.

Ann-Margret was one of the many entertainers who went on the road with Mr. Hope.

(VIDEO CLIP OF BOB HOPE AND ANN-MARGRET)

BROWN: Ann-Margret joins us tonight from Lake Tahoe. It's nice to have you with us.

ANN-MARGRET: Thank you.

BROWN: How did you find out that you were going on the road during a war, going off to Vietnam with Mr. Hope?

ANN-MARGRET: How id I find out?

BROWN: Yes.

ANN-MARGRET: Someone just called. Someone just called the house and I had been there in 1966 with Johnny Rivers and (unintelligible) drummer and I respect and honor the men and women of the military so much that when Bob asked me to come definitely, definitely.

BROWN: Was it...

ANN-MARGRET: And I had worked with him so many times. He was great.

BROWN: Were you nervous? You get up in front of these thousands of young men.

ANN-MARGRET: I loved it.

BROWN: You did, it was fun?

ANN-MARGRET: Oh, yes, and I've never felt like I was in any danger because those American men there and I just felt really safe at all times.

BROWN: Did Mr. Hope ever talk sort of reflectively about what it meant to him to go to the troops so often as he did?

ANN-MARGRET: Oh, yes. He had a great love for all the men and women of the military and he went out of his way to go out in the audience and get to know many, many of the gentlemen and ladies and he would carry through also. If they would tell him like their mother or wife or whatever were really, really sick he would carry through and actually call them.

BROWN: Is that right? Is there a moment or two that you remember more than all the others in those experiences?

ANN-MARGRET: Oh, my goodness. I was trying to think. In 1962 at the Academy Awards I did one of the nominated films and he introduced me and then no one had ever heard my name and he looked after me after I exited and said I thought -- Ann-Margret I thought that was a dancing pony. It was really cute, 1962.

And then '68 was Vietnam, all those places, '73 that's right, '73 I had my own special. It was after I had this big fall and Mr. Burns, Mr. George Burns and Jack Benny were going to be my special guests and then Jack Benny called me.

It was like two days before it was supposed to happen and he said he was so sorry but his doctor, he was very ill then, his doctor had said that he could not perform and Bob Hope came in. He flew into Las Vegas where we were filming it the night before and learned the dancing and all the skits and everything. He was always doing things like that for people.

BROWN: Well, is there something, you know, it's an odd thing those of us at a certain age watched him all of our lives. We watched him on television. We watched the USO shows and all the rest. We all think we know him. What is it that you know or knew about him that would surprise us?

ANN-MARGRET: He was -- he really was extremely sensitive to people's feelings and he had this great love for performing and giving that love and laughter to people and he was vulnerable because he cared so much about people.

BROWN: He was vulnerable?

ANN-MARGRET: Yes, he was.

BROWN: It's hard to think of him as vulnerable.

ANN-MARGRET: I know. I know. I know it is. BROWN: Yes. It's nice to talk to you.

ANN-MARGRET: Same here.

BROWN: It's not an easy day and it's not an easy thing to talk about but we appreciate your time tonight, thanks, good to talk to you again.

ANN-MARGRET: Thank you very, very much.

BROWN: Ann-Margret.

Later in the program we'll have more on Bob Hope, a closer look at his years spent entertaining the troops and some reaction from the troops he spent entertaining.

Up next though, American troops of our time in Iraq on the hunt for Saddam Hussein, are they getting any closer?

And later in the program, the body of a missing basketball players is found, the latest on Patrick Dennehy as NEWSNIGHT continues from New York.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: For American soldiers in Iraq the last eight days have been as deadly as any such period since President Bush declared major combat over back in May. Fifteen soldiers killed, four over the weekend, one today.

The enemy is finding new ways of going about its business but so have the American troops and they are increasingly busy with operations aimed at quashing the resistance and, of course, locating Saddam Hussein but it comes at a cost and that's where CNN's Nic Robertson begins his report tonight.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Carefully removed from a Baghdad roadside, one of the latest U.S. casualties of ongoing guerrilla-style attacks, three soldiers injured and one killed according to coalition officials.

"I was driving behind them in my own car" he says. "A grenade was thrown from the bridge. The driver's head was blown off and the man behind had his brains blown out."

In the shifting tactics of this urban war possibly the third such assault in as many days where attackers rain explosives on troops.

LT. BRIAN RAYN, U.S. ARMY: It's not clear right now. It's unclear. There was a personnel up on top of the bridge that ran from the vehicle. That's all we know at this time.

ROBERTSON: Nearby, U.S. soldiers diffuse what could have been another hostile situation, students angry, the troops moving them out of their dormitory.

"We stood in front of the building" says this student. "The soldiers seized me, ripped my shirt and hit me."

A misunderstanding say the soldiers now at ease with the students, the result of an intelligence tip off alleging the U.S. base, overlooked by the dorm, would be attacked.

MAJ. PAUL KREIS, U.S. ARMY: They thought we were making them leave and weren't going to take their tests, which is not our intent at all. We want them to be safe. We want them to take their tests. We want them to pass their tests and do well.

ROBERTSON: The move according to the troops designed to head off danger for the students. If their base was attacked from the dorm, the soldiers say, they'd return fire possibly causing unintended casualties.

Not so fortunate the three Iraqi citizens shot and killed by U.S. troops as they hunted Saddam Hussein Sunday, the tribal leader whose house was raided in that search voicing concerns of many.

RABIA MOHAMMED AL-HABIB, TRIBAL LEADER: I don't know why the Americans are acting (unintelligible) to get hated or increase the hatred of the Iraqi people.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTSON: As U.S. troops say they are now closing in on Saddam Hussein, many Iraqis are beginning to worry that the good will that has captured could generate, could be squandered by innocent Iraqi casualties caught up, if you will, in the crossfire -- Aaron.

BROWN: Nic, I think maybe the hardest thing for many Americans right now is to get a sense of how tense it is, how much resentment there is, in a sense the balance between the things that have gone badly and the things that have gone well.

ROBERTSON: I think there's a lot of people here, and one man put it to me quite succinctly recently. He said, look, a lot of us would love to stand up and say that we support the Americans, we are very pleased that they came here but they haven't done anything good yet.

They haven't done anything to show for everything that they said they would do before they come. When they do that, he said, yes we can stand up and support them. The anger, the anxieties vary from people to people. There is a deep resentment of some issues of the lack of security.

People expected to have that by now. They are very concerned about the attacks on people. People here are so used to with their previous regime essentially taking these hits lying down not knowing how to fight back. To a degree people are still in that same mode. People get killed, innocent people get killed on the street and there's no uprising. There's no anger shown the next day.

BROWN: Yes.

ROBERTSON: But a lot of concern -- Aaron.

BROWN: Nic, thank you, Nic Robertson who is in Baghdad. Nic mentioned the raid on a Baghdad neighborhood, not the only one and commanders tell us it will not be the last one either.

The talk now is of closing the nets, of tightening nooses where Saddam Hussein is concerned, which of course mean more doors to be kicked in.

Here's CNN's Harris Whitbeck.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WHITBECK (voice-over): The predawn hours in dangerous Tikrit, the homeland of Saddam Hussein. Two platoons from the U.S. Army's 4th Infantry Division race up Route 2, one of the principal and deadliest highways in the region, their mission to raid homes believed to house Saddam's loyalists. Waking a sleeping family, they hustled them all into a walled courtyard. An old man tries to escape.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let him go. There are people back there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where are you going to go? You're 80 years old.

WHITBECK: A young woman bound and gagged after she screams pro- Saddam chants. This family belongs to Saddam's tribe and their loyalty runs deep, deep enough that the soldiers find a large cache of hidden weapons in their house, stacks of pictures showing Saddam sewing medals on a uniformed family member.

As dawn becomes morning, the soldiers fan out into the house's orchard finding more hidden guns and ammunition. Raids like this one are sources of valuable information in the effort to find Iraq's deposed leader and to cut off his network of support.

CAPT. DESMOND BAILEY, U.S. ARMY: It just gives us a common picture, you know. We put it on a big map and look at everything that we found and usually if you're finding significant caches, certain types of weapons, you know, we can use that to track movement maybe.

WHITBECK: The regional U.S. commander says this type of operation will eventually lead to the most wanted man in Iraq.

COL. JAMES HICKEY, U.S. ARMY: We've been given estimates about the location of Saddam Hussein. We have targeted certain areas in the past as a part of our raiding regime. How long will it take? Time will tell but I think it's going to be sooner than later.

WHITBECK: More raids, more weapons, more information.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITBECK: Those raids continue day in day out. One was just concluded very near this former palace belonging to Saddam Hussein. It happened in the town of Al-Uja (ph) which is the home to many former Ba'ath Party leaders who had summer homes there. Again, apparently several people were detained -- Aaron.

BROWN: Harris, how do they think he's living now? How do they think he's surviving now?

WHITBECK: Well, senior military sources tell us that they believe that he is moving around every two to four hours. Some information that I heard yesterday indicated that at one point they thought that he had been on one of three farms belonging to some of his most trusted family members but, again, he's moving around quite often.

He's apparently accompanied by a very small group of his most trusted bodyguards and that seems to indicate to military commanders on the ground that it is really only a matter of time -- Aaron.

BROWN: Harris, thank you very much, Harris Whitbeck.

When last we talked with "Newsweek's" Rod Nordland the war was raging. Perhaps it still is but it's a different war that Mr. Nordland finds himself covering these days. In this week's issue of "Newsweek" he writes about the death of Saddam's sons. Perhaps next week it will be Saddam himself.

Mr. Nordland joins us from Baghdad, good to see you again.

ROD NORDLAND, "NEWSWEEK": Thank you.

BROWN: Do you believe that they are, in fact, closing in, tightening the noose or is it talk?

NORDLAND: Well, I think they are. I mean I think there's lots of reasons to believe that they're getting closer and closer. The most significant thing was not the raid on Uday and Qusay's house in terms of finding Saddam because it doesn't appear that they got much intelligence there towards finding Saddam.

But, last week they raided a house in Tikrit, Saddam's hometown, and picked up several of his bodyguards, perhaps ten of them. That seemed to lead them to his new chief of security and then they raided three farms in Tikrit which your report just mentioned and there's a sense that they're getting closer and closer.

You know the local commander said they missed that security chief by 24 hours and if he's running Saddam's security it's reasonable to think that they weren't far away from Saddam either.

BROWN: When the sons were found they were essentially alone, I mean at least to me surprisingly alone. Does that tell us anything at all, do you think, about how Saddam is moving and how vulnerable he is?

NORDLAND: Yes, I think you're right they were pathetically alone considering, you know, the way they had moved in the past, the kind of soldiers they had at their beck and call, the kind of large convoys that they always moved in.

At the end of the road, they had one somewhat overweight, rather fat security guard and a 13-year-old boy. In fact, the 13-year-old boy was the last one to still return fire at the U.S. troops when they took that house. So, it was a pretty pathetic end for them.

And, we talked to people that saw Saddam leave Baghdad in a convoy of two Mercedes cars if you can call that a convoy even with a handful of bodyguards and it may be that he's hiding in just as pathetic circumstances somewhere and I think it's only a matter of time until they find him. It would be nice if it's this week.

BROWN: If that's the case is he, other than the fact that he is still alive and out there, is he exercising any control over anything that's going on?

NORDLAND: He may be. I think more likely he set into motion a kind of network, a structure that could revert to the Ba'athist Party's roots as an underground party with a lot of dispersed cells and they have been carrying on somewhat in concert but not with necessarily daily direction from the top.

So, the big question is when they get Saddam will that bring this to an end or will that structure become self replicating and carry on? Because there are a lot of people here that hate Saddam and also are very unhappy about the American occupation and I think the important thing to watch will be whether that opposition in the absence of Saddam can feed into that discontent and continue carrying on the war.

BROWN: Care to offer a guess there?

NORDLAND: I think it could go either way. I mean I'm going -- it's something I want to watch very carefully. I don't think it's a given that when they get Saddam the war is over and then certainly there will be some elements that will carry on.

But whether it's just on a low scale and just a kind of terrorist thing that you have to worry about but not worry about, you know, on every street corner and every moment, which is what's happening now, I just think that remains to be seen.

BROWN: And just a final question there's a $25 million reward. Where I live that's a lot of dough. That alone you would think would get somebody chatting.

NORDLAND: Yes, and that seems to have been a factor in Uday and Qusay's capture although not the only factor. They apparently were turned in by the man whose house they were staying in but he also had a personal motive.

The regime had thrown his brother in jail and it's again a measure of how pathetic their end was that they threw -- they went for protection to somebody that they couldn't really count on. Maybe they didn't even realize.

In Saddam's case, OK, $25 million it's quite likely that he has with him, you know, that much or more and I don't think that will be the only factor but certainly it may be a major factor for somebody.

BROWN: Rod, good to talk to you tonight, Rod Nordland of "Newsweek" magazine in Baghdad tonight.

NORDLAND: My pleasure.

BROWN: Coming up still on the program tonight the Waco mystery, the latest as police recover the body finally of missing basketball player Patrick Dennehy. This has gone on for some time now.

And, from Indianapolis, a six-year-old girl kidnapped 16 years ago may have been found alive, that story coming up too.

From New York, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: When the parents of the missing Baylor basketball player, Patrick Dennehy, got word that the body of their missing son had been identified, they were on the road back from picking up his belongings in Waco. "We are going to keep on going," Patrick's father said. "There's nothing left for us now to do right now."

For police in Waco, there is, of course, much to do. They're building a case against Patrick Dennehy's teammate, Carlton Dotson. And for students at Baylor university today, there was much to come to grips with.

Here's CNN's Miguel Marquez.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The murder of one college basketball player, the charge of murder alleged against another. The man who coached them both has a hard time fathoming what went wrong.

DAVE BLISS, BAYLOR BASKETBALL COACH: First, we are grieving the loss in just an unbelievable way of Patrick Dennehy. This is a young man who came to Baylor, was a born-again Christian, and he was resolved to succeed in our basketball program and academically.

MARQUEZ (on camera): Baylor's president was out of town and released a taped statement saying that the grief felt by this murder will stretch into the fall semester.

ROBERT SLOAN, PRESIDENT, BAYLOR PRESIDENT: Early in September, when all of our students, faculty and staff return to campus for the fall semester, we will hold a memorial service for Patrick Dennehy. This will be a time when the Baylor community can come together and remember Patrick, find comfort, and pray for him.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): His badly decomposed body was found last week, his head discovered nearby on Sunday, the murder and its investigation now casting a spotlight on Baylor's basketball program: allegations of player drug use, the school investigating whether NCAA rules on paying players were broken, and allegations that Coach Bliss knew Carlton Dotson was troubled.

BLISS: What you do is, you just do the best you can. The one person who is able to answer all the questions is not with us right now.

MARQUEZ: The McLennan County Sheriff's Department says the investigation is still in an early stage. An autopsy on Patrick Dennehy could take weeks. And Carlton Dotson sits in a Maryland jail, fighting extradition to Texas.

Miguel Marquez, CNN, Waco, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: An update now on the case of a missing girl. And you'll be forgiven if you don't remember much about this 6-year-old. That's because this girl disappeared outside her home north of Indianapolis in 1986.

A few years back, a local paper wrote about her devastated family, the father who still manned a tip line, waiting for the call that never seemed to come. That is until now. A woman, all grown up, thinks she may be Shannon Marie Sherrill. But whether this is a miracle one family has been waiting for is not yet clear.

Reporting for us tonight, CNN's David Mattingly.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For over 16 years, families in Thorntown, Indiana, have been watching their children, mindful of an October day in 1986 when 6-year-old Shannon Marie Sherrill disappeared. But now a possible break in the long cold case raises hopes that Shannon could be found.

DAVID BURSTEN, INDIANA STATE POLICE: If you are a member of the Sherrill family and received a phone call from a person saying she thinks she may be Shannon Sherrill, you would be hoping beyond hope this was your daughter.

MATTINGLY: This photograph, age enhanced to the age of 19, is similar to what Shannon would look like today, nearing 23, important because, just days ago, a woman contacted the family and said: I think I could be Shannon Sherrill. But it's apparently created such a sensitive situation that state police and family are now worried that media attention could make it hard for them to stay in touch with the young woman.

BURSTEN: Until we have factual, concrete information that we can responsibly share with the public, there is nothing else that can be said at this time.

MARQUEZ: Shannon Sherrill was last seen playing outside her mother's trailer in the company of friends.

(on camera): How she managed to be abducted without a trace, however, continues to stump investigators. Several people claimed they were outside in this trailer park the day it happened, but no one saw a thing. It wasn't until police brought in search dogs that they were able to follow her trail, two stop signs away, to a cornfield, where the trail abruptly ended.

(voice-over): Neighbor Don Strong was among the hundreds who joined the search. He still carries the newspaper article printed the day the search was called off.

(on camera): What would you say to her right now, if you could?

DON STRONG, NEIGHBOR: Glad you're home. We missed you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY: But will this be the welcome home that everyone has been waiting for? Police not ready to comment on how credible they think this woman's claims are, until they've had a chance to check everything out -- Aaron.

BROWN: They know who she is, right? It's not a question of, they don't know who she is. They do know who she is.

MATTINGLY: They do know who she is. And they've been in contact with her. The word here is that she contacted the family. And there's another credibility, at least in the family's mind, that they are -- quote -- "on pins and needles right now," waiting for police to get to the bottom of this.

BROWN: How will they go about verifying this, do you know?

MATTINGLY: I asked them that question. They say they have a variety of things at their disposal. They're not going to go into it, but, of course, DNA is one of those options out there. That would be the slam dunk that would definitely say, yes, this is the woman who was abducted from her home when she was just 6 years old. So it's probably safe to assume at this point that DNA will be used, but police are not confirming that.

BROWN: David, thank you -- David Mattingly in Indiana tonight.

Still ahead on NEWSNIGHT, we'll check some the day's other top stories; later, a look at Bob Hope and the USO, what he meant to millions of soldiers that he entertained over five decades.

Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: And still ahead on NEWSNIGHT, more on the life and times of Bob Hope, and morning papers, too.

A break first. This is NEWSNIGHT on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BROWN: Here are some other stories making news around the country, starting with the president in Pittsburgh. He talked up the economy at the Conference of the National Urban League, got a polite reception, which is about as good as a Republican president gets in front of an African-American crowd in a largely Democratic city. But Pittsburgh is in Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh media reaches all of western Pennsylvania. And Pennsylvania is a big electoral prize.

The widow of Minnesota Viking Korey Stringer is suing the National Football League. Her husband, you may recall, died of heat stroke during training camp two years back. The lawsuit names the NFL, a medical adviser to the NFL, and a sports equipment maker. A spokesman for the leagues says he has not yet seen the lawsuit and therefore has no comment.

Northeastern Ohio, the floodwaters have returned. Nearly 4 inches of rain fell on Akron yesterday. Totals for the month now top a foot. One Ohioan put it plainly. "This is the worst summer ever," she said.

And a few more items, these from around the world, beginning with the visit to Washington by the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon. Mr. Sharon is set to meet with President Bush tomorrow to talk about how to move ahead with the road map to peace. The White House today welcomed the decision by the Israeli government to release more than 500 Palestinian prisoners. Mr. Bush met with the Palestinian prime minister on Friday.

Fighting continued in Liberia today, rebels taking the country's second largest city, the port city of Buchanan. That was the last major port in the hands of forces loyal to the Liberian president, Charles Taylor. President Bush has ordered American ships to Liberia's coast to support a West African peace force that will try and stop the bloodshed.

Ahead on NEWSNIGHT: more on Bob Hope, a look at his years of entertaining American troops overseas and how some of those soldiers remember him today.

A break first. This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: We don't think it's true, as President Reagan once joked, that Bob Hope entertained the troops at Valley Forge. But it doesn't seem that silly, does it?

Legends have a way of becoming timeless, as if they were always around and always will be. Bob Hope's legend is bound up tight in the wars that America has fought and the troops who sometimes acted as if he were not just their joker, but their savior. In terms of saving their spirit, he surely was.

Remembering an American war hero, here's NEWSNIGHT's Beth Nissen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Millions of Americans knew Bob Hope best as the voice, the heart and the soul of the USO, starting in World War II.

BOB HOPE, ENTERTAINER: I bet when I first started, you thought I was going to be lousy, huh?

(LAUGHTER)

NISSEN: Hope fixed on the classic formula for a successful USO show: Do a little dancing, tell a few jokes, sing a few songs and then bring out the pretty girls.

HOPE: I just want you boys to see what you're fighting for. That's all.

NISSEN: Bob Hope emceed thousands of USO camp shows between 1941 and '47. Hope reenlisted when America went to war again in Korea.

HOPE: This wonderful band, Les (ph) and the boys, Les and (INAUDIBLE) It's kind of cold here. And it's rough on the musicians. No matter what they blow, "White Christmas" comes out.

(LAUGHTER)

NISSEN: And Hope was back with the troops again in Vietnam.

HOPE: Here I am at Danang, better known as Dodge City.

NISSEN: No USO audiences appreciated Bob Hope's wry, often lewd, humor more than those he entertained in Vietnam.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: That was one his great strengths. He makes them laugh. And sometimes, when it's really cold and it's really tough, and you're losing your friends, it's really a wonderful experience to be able to laugh.

NISSEN: Hope continued his USO work through the '70s and '80s, when the U.S. was at peace, but much of the world, especially the Middle East, was not.

HOPE: And I want to tell you, tonight, we are in the part of the world where Santa uses a tail-gunner on his slave.

NISSEN: An elderly Bob Hope made a last USO appearance in 1990 for troops in the last Gulf War.

HOPE: Stealth bomber, that's a big deal. It flies in undetected, bombs in, flies away. Hell, I been doing that all my life.

GEN. JOHN TILELLI, FORMER PRESIDENT & CEO, USO: You can never describe in words the impact that Bob Hope has had, not only on the USO, but, more importantly, on the troops, on the men and women who served, 60 years of service to America, to America's armed forces in faraway places during Hollywood periods. He is the model for today's entertainers. And in the great spectrum of things, he's the model for future entertainers.

HOPE (singing): Thanks from America to all of our men in blue, our boys in khaki, too, our tough Marines, our Coast Guard, our Army nurses true, we thank you so much.

NISSEN: A legion of the grateful thank him, too.

Beth Nissen, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: As we said at the top of the program, an American soldier long ago wrote a fan letter to Bob Hope that said, "You've made more friends than any man could ever hope to make." Today, there was proof of that. The friends he made remembered what he had done for them when they were young and they were homesick and scared.

Here CNN's Bruce Morton.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HOPE: Cu Chi, that's Vietnamese for, you want it, you can have it.

Guantanamo is a Navy term meaning, I hear you knocking, but you can't come in.

BRUCE MORTON, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He went everywhere, and for generations. Veterans -- this is a vets hospital in Miami -- remember.

STEVE WILLIAMS, VETERAN: Bob Hope is awesome, you know? He did it for my uncles in Korea, my uncles in World War II, my brother in Vietnam. And he did it for us in Korea in the '70s.

MORTON: Virginia Fady saw him in the Dominican Republic.

VIRGINIA FADY: And I father took us all, all the little kids. And we saw him play. And he got somebody up. And they were doing the Watusi. And it just -- I had fond memories. And I'm just really saddened.

MORTON: At Washington's Korean War Memorial, Korean vets remembered.

KENNETH CAMEL, VETERAN: He brought not only good-looking women with him, which is always pleasure for young troops. But he also brought a taste, a touch of United States yet and what it meant to us.

RAY WESTPHAL, VETERAN: People looked up to him, I mean, the soldiers and -- the servicemen, rather. And he got our spirits up and everything like that.

JOE BARLIEC, VETERAN: He told some good jokes. He had the nurses blushing. FRANK MCCONVILLE, VETERAN: He was a part of home. You knew that, as long as Bob Hope could come over there, that things back home were going OK.

MORTON: In 1962, Congress awarded and President Kennedy gave Hope a gold medal, inscribed, "Humorist, Humanitarian, Patriot."

HOPE: And I feel very humble, although I think I have the strength of character to fight it.

MORTON: He kept traveling, leaving memories behind: New York's Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum has a Hope exhibit on display. More memories.

NICK RAPPA, VETERAN: I was in Vietnam in 1970 in -- we were the engineer battalion that built the stage and the bleachers, so he could perform. It was a great show, great show.

PERRTY MORSE, VETERAN: He made them all smile. And that's hard to do when you're out there killing one another.

MORTON: At the Bob Hope plaque in the Pentagon, someone, this day, attached a rose and a card: "Many thanks from many vets for many memories."

Bruce Morton, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: We'll check morning papers after the break. We'll take you to break by taking you to Hollywood and the Walk of Fame there and the people who have gathered and have left flowers and notes on the star. And he was, Bob Hope.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(ROOSTER CROWING)

BROWN: Oh, my, how we've missed that the last several days, haven't we?

Morning papers from around the country and truly from around the world, if we get to them all. Look, this is a slam-dunk sort of day for editors of the front page, at least where Mr. Hope is concerned.

"The Oregonian" out in Portland, Oregon: "Thanks for the Memories," a wonderful Hirschfeld sketch of Bob Hope on the front page of "The Oregonian," also. And then down here, this story makes a couple of front pages. This is unbelievable, folks. "Wyden" -- this is Senator Ron Wyden -- "Seeks Pentagon Halt to Terror Bets." There's something going on in the Pentagon when you can make a bet on whether there will be a terrorist attack in Cleveland or something. And if there is, you collect.

OK, "The Cincinnati Enquirer": "Bob Hope Leaves Legacy of Laughter" on the front page. And a couple of nice pictures there. Down at the bottom, last call at Saks bar. The liquor police, whatever they're called in the state of Ohio, raided the Saks Fifth Avenue because they were giving wine to male shoppers. You can't do that in Ohio. Maybe you can't do that other places.

"Bob Hope, Thanks For the Memories," the lead in "The Miami Herald." I would guess thanks for the memories makes it a lot. Think about that. Isn't that cool, 1903 to 2003, 100 years. Most of us are not going to get there, but he did. A very good story that would have got more attention had it not been for Bob Hope, by the way: "Top Democrat Fears Drift to Left May Drive Party From Contention." Some polling that was done. And it's a very interesting poll.

"Bob Hope Dies, Leaving a Century Full of Memories," "The Washington Times." Lead pretty -- straightforward lead. They also put on the front page, "Vatican Issues Guide Against Gay Marriage."

"Pope: Stop Gay Union." That is also on the front page of "The Boston Herald."

How we doing on time?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thirty-four.

BROWN: "Thanks For the Memories, Bob Hope." Nice picture of Mr. Hope there.

I love this picture. I think "The Guardian." "Thanks For the Memories." That's Bob Hope with a golf club, as we should think of him.

And we'll end it on "The Chicago Sun-Times." "Thanks for the memories, Bob." Look at this picture. They found a picture of him holding an old "Sun-Times." Isn't that cool?

And wasn't he cool? Yes, he was.

Good to be back with you. We'll see you tomorrow at 10:00. Well, maybe we won't. I can't find my glasses.

We'll see you tomorrow. Good night for all of us at NEWSNIGHT.

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