are other pleasant things about owning part of a picture. In the Road to Bali there was a beach scene for which tons of beautiful white sand had been trucked in from Pebble Beach. I had just put in a one-hole golf course at my house on Moorpark Street in North Hollywood. I had four sand traps standing empty, with nothing in them in which my friends could leave their hoof prints. When I saw that sand a light switched on in my head. “We own two-thirds of this sand, don’t we?” I asked. “Sure,” Bing said. “Why?” “Well,” I replied, “I’d like some of it for my course at home.” When he said, “Why not?” I called the prop man and said, “Take ten truck-loads of this sand out to my house when we’re done with it.” “No dice,” he said. “This is Paramount’s sand.” Bing and I had another talk with the boys in the front office. As a result, part of the Road to Bali is in my back yard. Reception Paramount hired the Bijou Theatre in New York City on November 14, 1952, to preview the film to exhibitors and critics. Hope was not happy that Paramount only spent $150,000 promoting the film compared to the $300-$400,000 he expected. The film opened in the United States on December 25, 1952, and opened in fourth position at the box-office. The New York premiere of the film took place at the Astor Theatre on January 29, 1953. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times was very enthusiastic in his review of January 30, 1953: "it is apparent that this veteran and camera-scarred team is the neatest, smoothest combo of comics now working the fun side of the screen. Apart, they may be very funny or clever or quaint or what you will, according to where you are sitting and what sort of picture they’re in. But together, and in a 'Road' picture, with the consequent freedom of style and reckless impulse that goes with it, they are pretty nigh nonpareil. At least, that's the word of this reviewer who spent a small part of yesterday falling out of a seat at the Astor while desperately clutching his sides. The reason? Quite simply, Road to Bali is a whoopingly hilarious film, full of pure crazy situations and deliciously discourteous gags, all played with evident relish and split-second timing by