"Cancel My Reservation" was premiered at Radio City Music Hall as a fill-in before the "Salute To Spring" show. There was a musicians' union strike at the time and only the film and not the famous Rockettes or the Orchestra were allowed to be presented. So the world's largest (at the time) movie theater had 300 people at the premiere, including Bob and Dolores. It was reported that Bob decided that night that he would never appear in a film again... NOT, astoundingly, because Cancel is one of the saddest and dullest films ever made, but because he felt he looked to old to be considered an appealing leading man. The original book by Louis L'Amour- "The Broken Gun" is a dark, brooding film about the mistreatment of the Native American. According to Bob's agent, this was to be a dramatic film initially, a way for Bob to purge himself from the excrement of his previous 7 cinematic failures. When Bob approached United Artists for the funding, they said they would never finance another of his films, however NBC- with whom Hope had a lifetime contract with (did they think he'd make it to 100?), said they would help if he used Carson, Flip Wilson, etc.- also NBC contract folk circa 1971, if he'd squeeze in a few cameos. Hope is known as one of the richest and (unlike the allegedly mean-spirited but very generous B. Crosby) cheapest as they come. Hope did kick in the remaining money and took (Zero-value) production credit. With the cameos in place and George Marshall refusing to further humiliate his name with another phoned-in direction, Paul Bogart walked off the set of "All In The Family" and Hope gave up hope in giving a dignified "serious" performance as he had done so beautifully on his anthology series in the mid-60's and in "The Seven Little Foys" and "Beau James"- both Oscar-worthy turns. "Cancel My Reservation", as in Hope's later career, was another cruel disappointment that served as his cinematic epitaph. In only seven years (1965-72), Hope's films disintegrated from high corn, to low camp, to oppressive gloom. Thanks for the memories, Bob. R.I.P.