Bing Crosby the 1930s, Crosby starred with Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour in seven "Road to" musical comedies between 1940 and 1962, cementing Crosby and Hope as an on-and-off duo, despite never officially declaring themselves a "team" in the sense that Laurel and Hardy or Martin and Lewis (Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis) were teams. The series consists of "Road to Singapore" (1940), "Road to Zanzibar" (1941), "Road to Morocco" (1942), "Road to Utopia" (1946), "Road to Rio" (1947), "Road to Bali" (1952), and "The Road to Hong Kong" (1962). When they appeared solo, Crosby and Hope frequently made note of the
Road to ... to Hong Kong". There are also frequent instances in which Bob Hope breaks the fourth wall to address the audience directly, such as in "Road to Bali", in which he says, "[Crosby]'s gonna sing, folks. Now's the time to go out and get the popcorn." Hope and Crosby would usually play some form of confidence men trying to make a lot of money, with Bing coming up with the ideas and Bob usually doing most of the dirty work. When confronted by the villain, Hope and Crosby would use a "patty cake" routine before throwing punches, though this would sometimes