Herbert Leon Cope

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HERBERT LEON COPE HUMORIST


HERBERT LEON COPE
The Sunshine of the Lyceum

AN APPRECIATION (CONTRIBUTED)
THERE are dozens of prosaic titles, any one of which would fit this story like a new glove.  Take your own choice—call it The Awakening if you will.  Or try The Re-Creation of a Down-and-Outer.  Better still, if you must have a name, let it be known as The Man Who Came Back.

Personally I feel that a title to the story of Herbert Cope is quite redundant.  Not that the story isn't worthy of a name, for it is.  It is a wonderful tale in a way—and still it's the old, old theme—the story of a Soul, the story of a Life and a Man's Battle—to live.  Much like other stories it is—and yet so different, too, for no two Lives are alike and no two men ever fight the same battle.  Briefly Herbert Cope's story is that of the man in the Depths who finally hears the call of Conscience, and, with God's help, pulls himself from the mire.  Why give it a name?  Why not think of it as just a little heart-throb—for this it really is.

Like many modern dramas there is a touch of the Great War in the setting,—and the final chapters were written when the fields of France were bloodsoaked.  But this is as it should be—for in Herbert Cope's story, the final touch of Romance comes during the time when English, Americans, Canadians and Frenchmen fought shoulder to shoulder against the Prussian hordes.  In this story the great war is quite an essential element.  Notwithstanding its horrors, notwithstanding its gruesomeness, the great war taught men to know themselves.  Thus it was that events, beginning some twenty years ago, culminated in natural dramatic sequence in 1919—on a background of olive drab.

Let's begin at the beginning.  Fifteen years ago Sam Jones said to Herbert Leon Cope, then a platform star of wide renown: Say, Bud, you sure do get em going!  About that time Champ Clark stated to Cope: You can tell my stories better than I.  Governor Bachelder of New Hampshire proclaimed him far and wide as being funnier than Bill Nye.

The years passed.  Cope's fame as a lecturer grew.  He became one of the best known platform stars of the day.  His work attracted attention everywhere.  He was a tireless worker, a profound thinker, a master of oratory,—and a fighter!  Big men noticed Cope—and universally praised his work.  Elbert Hubbard wrote him after hearing one of his talks: Keep on climbing—you will soon be on top!  Everywhere they wanted Cope—those who had heard him wanted him again.  Those who had not heard him wanted too—just because he was Cope!  And Cope grew—until—

Loose companionships, the free and easy life, prosperity, then idleness, dissipation—and then the Downward Path.  Cope fell—and fell hard—and a host of former admirers mourned him as one departed from this life.  But this isn't a temperance story—it is the tale of the Man Who Came Back!



COPE did come back.  And he came back just as hard as he fell.  Somewhere way down deep in the little corner that had formerly housed his Conscience there burned a little spark of something.  Maybe it was Christianity, maybe it was patriotism—perhaps it was both.  It was a mighty faint little spark when Cope noticed it first,—but it was there.  Cope nourished the little flame until it grew and burned into his very soul.  Then it was that Cope was born again into a new manhood, and like a flash the old fight came back.  And almost before his many friends had realized the awakening, Cope had turned all his big guns on his old arch enemy—John Barleycorn, and had won out—not alone for himself, but unselfishly for thousands in his home state.  The result?  As campaign manager for twelve counties he swung them all in line, and helped swing Michigan into the dry column.

Then came the War, and with it the realization by Cope that there was no place for him in the rank and file of the great Army of Democracy.  The years had sped onward and left their cruel markings, and yet Cope wanted to serve.  He saw the way.



Humorist



Funniest Man Since Bill Nye.
In former years had he not handled the masses with his eloquence?  Had he not moved them from tears to laughter?  Had he not swayed their feelings and played with their emotions—and then driven home his powerful conclusions in an effort to make better men and women?  If there had been a field for this work at home, how much greater the chance for service among the millions of boys in olive drab!  And so it was that one day Cope found himself cheering the boys in khaki, laughing with them at all times, but ever pointing the way.  The boys liked Cope and soon they were calling for him everywhere.  In typical yank fashion they nicknamed him and soon he was known throughout all the great army camps, by a million doughboys and marines, as Kill the Blues Cope.  Here was Service—as Cope had never realized it, and as he spread the gospel of Sunshine his own radiance brought him once and for all out of the Shadows.

Today Cope is his old self.  He is the Herbert Leon Cope of twelve years ago, mellowed and enriched by the bitter-sweet of human experience.  Today he is the same old fighter.  His friends are legion once again and those of us who know this little inside story cannot help but feel that if ever a man was entitled to material success—with interest—that man is Herbert Leon Cope, The Sunshine of the Lyceum.



ANNOUNCEMENT
MR. COPE has a style that is peculiarly his own.  He has torn apart the old-style elocutionary entertainment and in his original way built up a connected evening's entertainment of intellectual amusement that all can enjoy, combining, as it does, the literary quality we look for in the best lecturers with that something we all mean when we say: We go out to be amused, not to be instructed.

A critic has said: Mr. Cope has the rare faculty of being extremely funny without insinuation or vulgarity or descending to the province of the buffoon.  With a delightful contrast of the sublime and the ludicrous he develops rare entertainment out of the absurdities, inconsistencies and excesses of human nature, taking his models from life.  He conforms to no rule that prescribes he should appear just so for one character or some other exact way for another.  He simply buttons or unbuttons his coat, turns up his collar, fumbles his hair and becomes the person he represents.



A MORALE ARCHITECT
Cope's talk to men in uniform wrought miracles in morale-building.  His fame spread beyond the military lines and some frantic Cable for Cope were coming from all lines of industry—factory, mill and shipyard.

Industrial executives everywhere were quick to realize the value of Kill the Blues Cope.  His talks are of especial value to working organizations of all kinds.



ORGANIZED ARMY AND NAVY PLAYERS
Mr. Cope originated and was president of the Army and Navy Players.  This was one of the big, constructive organizations designed to keep up morale among service men.  Its success was a splendid tribute to the abilities of Herbert Leon Cope.



100 PER CENT RECORD
It is of more than passing interest to know that both the Lyceum Magazine and The Billboard talent reports for the season, gave Cope the highest marking of any entertainer or lecturer.  These reports come from the field.



SUBJECTS:

The Religion of Laughter
Family Remedies
The Smile That Won't Come Off
Wrinkles




An Unparalleled Record

Herbert Leon Cope came back in more ways than one.  In the old home state—Michigan—Mr. Cope has appeared 211 times in twenty towns—an average of over ten times to a town!
He has appeared 36 times in Detroit, Mich., and 12 times in Cleveland, Ohio.
He has addressed the people of Albion, Mich., an even sixty times.
He has spoken 11 times in Bay City, and 8 times in Lansing, Mich.
Selected by Government as official speaker Fifth Liberty Loan train.



TALKS TO MORE SOLDIERS THAN ANY OTHER SPEAKER
Fifty-three of the big United States cantonments called Cope to cure the blues.  In every one of these 53 camps he spoke from two to five times.  He talked to more soldiers and sailors than any other speaker during the war.

Here is what J. Leon Williams, an old time Lyceum man, wrote about Cope's appearance at Camp Wadsworth:

When Cope mounted the platform the building was packed.  I have heard soldiers laugh, but I have never heard a bunch of men laugh as they did when Cope 'got going.'  He spoke for over an hour and not one man left his seat.  That is a remarkable statement, as anyone who has spoken to a crowd of soldiers can testify, for the average soldier feels that he is under no obligation to stay and listen when he is not interested, and he gets up and walks out.  They hung on his words and he could have easily held them a half hour longer.  I have been associated with the Chautauqua movement for a number of years, but I have never heard a man who could stand before an audience for a solid hour, hold their attention and keep them in an uproar of laughter like Cope can.



Big Men and Big Organizations Comment:
Secretary Lane:

Take the poetry of Cooke, the philosophy of Hapgood, and the humor of Cope and we have the very Spirit of Democracy and America.

Vilhjalmur Stefansson:

Herbert Cope and Ellis Parker Butler are to my mind humorists of the highest type, for there is a background of wisdom to their fun.  I have never heard a speaker who captures an audience more promptly or holds them better than Cope.

Canton, Ohio, Ad Club

Not only is the lecture a scream, but all the way through there is preached a sermon which stays with us and makes us feel better.  That really is the secret of this humorist's wonderful success.

Rochester, N. Y., Ad Club:

We want to say to Cope, and we feel we are expressing the sentiments of every man in the Ad Club, that we are WITH HIM and FOR HIM.  It is seldom that we hear a man who leaves us with the feeling that we owe him something more than money can repay.  He got right under our hides with his homely philosophy.

Camp Shelby, Miss.:

He is the best we have had.  There is medicine for the head, the heart and the liver in what he has to say.—O. E. Haley, Gen'l Camp Secretary.

General Ballington Booth—You have the right ideas.  Presented in that manner, your work cannot help but do good and be good.

General Fitzhugh Lee—You are fine.

Fra Elbertus (Elbert Hubbard)—Keep on climbing!  You will soon be on top.

Edmund Vance Cook—Cope is indeed fine.

Clara Morris—I want to hear you again.

Capt. Richmond Pearson Hobson—Let me congratulate you.

Congressman J. Adam Bede of Minnesota—I like your fun because of the serious purpose back of it.

Speaker Champ Clark—Tell any of my stories, for you can tell them better than I.

Hon. Leslie M. Shaw—You certainly know how to tell a good story.  I more than enjoyed you.

Governor Pennypacker of Pennsylvania—Next to Bill Nye, Mr. Cope is the funniest man I ever heard.

Hazen S. Pingree, ex-Governor of Michigan—Young fellow, you caught em coming and going.  I enjoyed it.

Colonel Bingham, Assistant Secretary of Agriculture—It is your entirely original style that brings your success.

Governor N. J. Bachelder of New Hampshire—I consider Mr. Cope's entertainment the best thing in its line to which I have ever had the pleasure of listening.

Senator Burrows—Good!  Good!!  Good!!!  Good!!!!

Bishop C. C. McCabe (Chaplain McCabe)—I heard Mr. Cope several times and was delighted with him.

Sam. P. Jones—Say, Bud, you sure do get 'em goin'!




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AFFILIATED LYCEUM & CHAUTAUQUA ASSOCIATION INCORPORATED
Serving the English-Speaking Peoples of the World
LONDON-BOSTON-ATLANTA-TORONTO-PITTSBURG-CLEVELAND
CHICAGO-DALLAS-BOISE-CALGARY-PORTLAND-AUCKLAND-SYDNEY


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DESIGNED AND PRINTED BY W. M. KING SERVICE, CHICAGO




HERBERT LEON COPE
The Humorous Philosopher
(Contributed)
IT WAS on the Chautauqua platform that I first heard Herbert Leon Cope.  That was some years ago.  I have heard him many times since, and the impression has been always the same—that here is one of the greatest humorists of the day.  And not only a humorist but a kindly philosopher as well, a philosopher who has come to his conclusions about life and people from an experience which has not always been rosy, but has been always helpful, because he has learned and has not been soured when things looked dark and gloomy.

I wish those who say they don't like lectures could hear Herbert Leon Cope.  He mixes fact with fiction, humor with philosophy, and fun with laughter.  You listen to him and you laugh uproariously at the funny quirks and turns of his verbal pictures, and you settle down to enjoy an uproariously good time of smiles and laughter; and then just as you are all set, he comes up from behind and hits you with some serious idea from his philosophy of life that makes you straighten up and think and, mayhap, brings a fugitive tear to your eyes.  When you think you have Cope you don't have him.  He is as elusive as the famous Irishman's flea, but he always knows where he's going.

He's an inspiration for good, is Cope—and if you don't believe it just ask some of the two million Yanks who laughed—and cried—with him during the great war when he was an entertainer with our boys.  Kill-the-Blues Cope they called him, and the name still sticks in peace time.

Herbert Leon Cope, humorist, is one of the most interesting speakers and most interesting characters now before the American public.  He reflects the sunshine of life.  There is a sermon in his every sentence—yet no one suspects him of preaching.  He just gets hold of you—that's all.  And you go back home with a better feeling toward mankind in general.  Mr. Cope has a style peculiarly his own.  He has torn apart the old style lecture and entertainment and in his original way has built up an evening of rollicking intellectual amusement and heartfelt truths.



Subjects

The Religion of Laughter
Family Remedies
The Smile that Won't Come Off
Smilin' Through



The Proof of the Pudding
FOR people who want to know what Mr. Cope has done and is doing, although 'most everyone knows this already, we present on this and the following pages an almost embarrassing richness of comment, from the press, from individuals and from organizations.  When you have read these, it's hard indeed to see how you can keep from putting Cope on your next year's Lyceum course.  He's the sauce piquant which your course needs.  If you don't think so, put him on anyway, and then you'll know that he's just what you've been looking for.




Mr. Cope was engaged by the army to chase 'the blues' from army training camps during the war, and several hundred understood why when he made a general attack on chronic grouches at McCauley's theatre.  Mr. Cope was engaged for a return date.—
Herald, Louisville, Ky.


Cope has won thousands of admirers here.—
Mobile (Ala.) Register.


Herbert Leon Cope put the skids under the cares and worries of two thousand Portland people at the Auditorium last night.  He made a hit decidedly.  Underneath the fun there was a fine inspirational appeal.—
Portland (Ore.) Daily Journal.

No one can get lazy hearing Cope, for you have to exercise in laughing.—Courier, Grant's Pass, Ore.


He kept his audience rocking with laughter.—
Herald, Yakima, Wash.

Cope smiled at us, and we smiled at Cope.  Everybody laughed and then laughed more to hear how the rest laughed.  It is impossible to do justice to the happy manner in which the speaker drove the grouch from us while emphasizing the greatest truths in life.—Oregon Statesman, Salem, Ore.


He is an inspiration for good.  He will make you laugh a big laugh, but while you are doing it he sinks in some deep philosophy that this is a pretty good world after all.—
Telegram, Clarksburg, W. Va.


Cope is everything that's needed, witty, humorous and sensible.  It's his great sense that makes him witty and humorous.—
News Item, Mobile, Ala.


Cope is not only a humorist, he is a great preacher.  Not an ordained preacher, but a man who preaches through inspiration and through the grasp he gets on his hearers by means of his wonderful humor.—
Daily News, Cumberland, Md.


There is one Cope and he is unclassified.  An attempt to analyze his melange of fun, fancy and fact would make a writer a fit subject for the sanitarium or asylum.  He created more real mirth to the square inch than any man who has visited Sewickley in years.—
Herald, Sewickley, Pa.


Everyone was kept in a constant state of laughter by Mr. Herbert Leon Cope, who gave details of his philosophy of laughter.—
Ottawa (Can.) Journal.


Moundsville laughed as it never laughed before.  Herbert Leon Cope, 'the sunshine of the Lyceum,' held sway for two short hours, and the audience would have been glad for two hours more.—
Journal, Moundsville, W. Va.

Mr. Cope, while emphasizing the great truths of life, drove them home clothed in words of understanding and sympathy.  He is a firm believer in laughter as a tonic, and administered his 'family remedies' in great doses last night.—Intelligencer, Tacoma, Wash.


Was the best entertainment ever put over by the 'Y.'—
Daily Nugget, Cobalt, Ont.


We can readily see how Cope is 'the man who made an army laugh,' for he kept his audience in an uproar, backing all the so-called fun factories carried by carnival companies off the boards by a mile.  As a humorist he is the topnotcher—yet he put in pathos that silenced us.  He is brilliant in his wit.—
Daily World, Wenatchee, Wash.


The audience was kept in continual laughter but went home inspired to the best things in life.—
Philadelphia North American.


Never has a person appeared here who had the faculty of keeping an audience laughing so continuously.  But he made us think and realize what a good old world this is.—
Nashua (N. H.) Telegraph.


Cope filled us with love, laughter and the spirit of forgiveness, and we went home determined to buy our wife an extra pound of chocolates.—
Gazette, Barre, Mass.




HERBERT LEON COPE

A Morale Architect
COPE'S talk to men in uniform wrought miracles in morale-building.  His fame spread beyond the military lines and some frantic Cables for Cope were coming from all lines of industry—factory, mill and shipyard.  Industrial executives everywhere were quick to realize the value of Kill-the-Blues Cope.  His talks are of especial value to working organizations of all kinds.



Organized Army and Navy Players
Mr. Cope originated and was president of the Army and Navy Players.  This was one of the big constructive organizations designed to keep up morale among service men.  Its success was a splendid tribute to the abilities of Herbert Leon Cope.



An Unparalleled Record
In his old home state—Michigan—Mr. Cope has appeared 221 times in 20 towns, an average of over 10 times to a town!  He has appeared 40 times in Detroit, Mich., and 22 times in Cleveland, Ohio.  He has addressed the people of Albion, Mich., 16 times.  He has spoken 11 times in Bay City, Mich., and 8 times in Lansing, Mich.  Among other return date records are the following: Rochester, N. Y., 7 times; Chicago, 18 times; Mayville, Mich., 22 times; Pittsburgh, 18 times; Portland, Ore., 3 times; Seattle, Wash., 5 times; Moundsville, W. Va., 5 times; Buffalo, N. Y., 4 times; Wilkes-Barre, Pa., 5 times; Mobile, Ala., 5 times; East Tawas, Mich., 8 times; Port Huron, Mich., 12 times; Coatesville, Pa., 5 times; Atlantic City, 6 times; Wheeling, W. Va., 6 times; Philadelphia, 7 times; Montgomery, Ala., 10 times; Atlanta, Ga., 6 times.



Big Men and Big Organizations Comment:
Former Gov. W. L. Harding of Iowa:

I came to laugh and did, but—you made me cry.  Whenever there is a chance you will find me in your audience.

Hon. Frank Mulholland, Former President International Rotary Clubs of World:

You are making good in a very large way.  Everyone speaks in the highest terms of your ability.  Your great humor is spice for your good advice.

Canton, Ohio, Ad. Club:

Not only is the lecture a scream, but all the way through there is preached a sermon which stays with us and makes us feel better.  That really is the secret of this humorist's wonderful success.

General Ballington Booth:

You have the right ideas.  Presented in that manner, your work cannot help but do good and be good.

Rochester, N. Y., Ad. Club:

We want to say to Cope, and we feel we are expressing the sentiments of every man in the Ad. Club, that we are WITH HIM and FOR HIM.  It is seldom that we hear a man who leaves us with the feeling that we owe him something more than money can repay.  He got right under our hides with his homely philosophy.

Capt. Richmond Pearson Hobson:

Let me congratulate you.  You are leaving a record.

Hon. J. Adam Bede:

I like your fun because of the serious purpose back of it.

Hon. Leslie M. Shaw:

You certainly know how to tell a good story.  I more than enjoyed you.

Cleveland, Ohio, Ad. Club:

In fifteen minutes everyone was glad that he had come, in a half hour Cope had to wait for them to catch up to him, and when he had finished the staid meeting of quiet business men had been converted into a sight that resembled a schoolroom after an unexpected announcement had been made of a three weeks' vacation.

Board of Commerce, Portland, Ore.:

He put two hours of talk into forty minutes.

Fra Elbertus, Elbert Hubbard:

Great praise for your work.

Former Gov. Bachelder of New Hampshire:

I consider it the best thing in its line to which I've ever had the pleasure of listening.

Knife and Fork Club, South Bend, Ind.:

We appreciate Cope so much we have hired him for our next annual banquet.

Ad-Sell League, Omaha, Neb.:

It is impossible to give a verbatim report of Mr. Cope's speech—the report would lack the inimitable touch of mimicry, of gesture, feature and voice with which he gives his rapid-fire humor, of which Mr. Cope is easily the greatest living master.

New York Bankers Association:

Mr. Cope presented under his religion of laughter what may be called the religion of sincerity, and the homely, humble truths that tug at the heartstrings, even though we laugh while it happens.

Chamber of Commerce, West Branch, Mich.:

He put new life into our organization.  We have only one regret and that is that our families were not there for the community tonic.  One business man remarked that he had his membership fee value, if the Chamber never did another thing.  We are broader and bigger and better.

Spencer B. Hord, Eastman Kodak Company:

The monthly meetings of our Kodak Foremen's Club are attended by not only our foremen but our higher executives as well, and being all highly trained men, the group forms a decidedly sophisticated and critical audience.  Kill-the-Blues Cope has appeared before this audience on two different occasions, and he went over big.  I want to recommend him to organizations desiring refined and delightful entertainment.

P. M. Neigh, President, Traffic Club, Wheeling, W. Va.:

We shall always remember your address with gratitude.  Our fellows never enjoyed anyone more than you, and I am sure never laughed so heartily.  You are entertaining and inspiring.  Your wit and humor is of the spontaneous kind and makes men laugh as well as think.  You have an unusual and excellent message and you put it over.