US entertainer Bob Hope turned 100 today with a new one-liner just for the occasion.
"I'm so old, they've cancelled my blood type," Hope is said to have remarked to his family.
Americans today will turn Hope's signature tune around and say "Thanks for the Memory" to the comedian now proclaimed in Hollywood as "Citizen of the Century".
Hope, whose comedic timing over more than 75 years in radio, theatre, television and film made him one of the world's first superstars, is being celebrated in a slew of tributes, TV specials and reissues of his film classics.
Los Angeles officials will dedicate "Bob Hope Square" at the famous intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street, and some 35 US states proclaim it "Bob Hope Day", the comedian will mark the day quietly with family members at his suburban Toluca Lake home.
"Yes, there will be a birthday cake with 100 candles," said Dolores, his wife of 69 years, "with a fireman standing by with a fire extinguisher".
His daughter Linda told Reuters earlier this year that Hope now spends much of his time at either his Toluca Lake or Palm Springs home, watching television and listening to music and to recordings by the late Bing Crosby - his partner in the memorable buddy "Road" movies of the 1940s and 1950s.
Hope, who was born in England but who emigrated with his family to Cleveland, Ohio in 1907, is also being feted in Britain, where the BBC plans a broadcast in his honour.