“Anita is a standout, even in Hollywood where beautiful girls are one of the leading crops. To put it mildly, Anita is a spectacle by herself. On the tour I introduced her by saying, ‘Here’s the greatest thing to come out of Sweden since smorgasbord! The GIs really went wild over her. Nature had certainly endowed her. When Anita walked on the stage, I’d say, ‘Her parents got the Nobel prize for architecture’…

After my monologue, we went into a sketch in which a couple of GIs write to the States for a mail-order bride. Anita Ekberg was the girl in the skit. When luscious Anita walked out on the stage, pandemonium broke loose. The men stood up and applauded and cheered and whistled as they feasted their eyes on this formidable Swedish beauty. The fact that she was wearing a very revealing gown that looked as though it were sprayed on didn’t exactly act as a sedative on the excited GIs. Anita spoke her lines, but they couldn’t be heard. The men were appreciating her other lines too much. Anita’s 40-22-36 had stopped the show!

We finally had Anita go back to her dressing room and change into something more restful. I mean, for the audience. I can’t say that the change did much good. Anita is so richly endowed, she’d get whistles wearing a laundry bag.”

(Bob Hope, from his book “I Owe Russia $1200”)

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