Hope's first professional stage appearance was in the Fatty Arbuckle show with George Byrne during the 1920s. The two were a great success, Hope's vaudeville career blossomed and in 1932 he made his first appearance on Broadway. Five years later he performed on a radio show and by 1938 had his own show. He began his film career with a series of comic shorts in the mid 1930s but it was The Big Broadcast of 1938 which helped to catapult him to fame along with his Academy Award-winning theme song Thanks for the Memory.