CABL Forum - A True Story

I knew he had written the song, but I didn't know the rest of the story.

Back in the 50's there was a well known radio
host/comedian/song writer in Hollywood named
Carl Stuart Hamblen who was noted for his drinking,
womanizing, partying, etc.

One of his bigger hits at the time was
"I won't go hunting with you Jake,
but I'll go chasing women.."

One day, along came a young preacher
holding a tent revival.
Hamblen had him on his radio show
presumably to poke fun at him.
In order to gather more material for his show,
Hamblen showed up at one of the revival meetings.

Early in the service the preacher announced,
"There is one man in this audience who is a big fake."
There were probably others

who thought the same thing,
but Hamblen was convinced that he
was the one the preacher was talking about
(some would call that

conviction)
but he was having none of that.

Still the words continued to haunt him
until a couple of nights
later he showed up drunk at
the preacher's hotel door around 2AM d
emanding that the preacher pray for him!
But the preacher refused, saying,
"This is between you and God and
and I'm not going to get in the middle of it."
But he did invite Stuart in and they talked until
about 5 AM at which point
Stuart dropped to his knees and with tears,
cried out to God.

But that is not the end of the story.
Stuart quit drinking,
quit chasing women,
quit everything that was 'fun.'
Soon he began to lose favour
with the Hollywood crowd.
He was ultimately fired by the radio station
when he refused to accept
a beer company as a sponsor.
Hard times were upon him.
He tried writing a couple of "Christian" songs
but the only one that had
much success was "This Old House",
written for his friend Rosemary Clooney.

As he continued to struggle,
a long time friend named John
took him aside and told him,
"All your truoubles started when you 'got religion,'
was it worth it all?"
Stuart answered simply, "Yes."

Then his friend asked,
"You liked your booze so much,
don't you ever miss it?"
His answer was, "No."John
then said,
"I don't understand how you could
give it up so easily..."

And Stuart's response was,
"It's no big secret.
All things are possible with God."
To this John said, "That's a catchy phrase.
You should write a song about it."
And as they say,
"The rest is history."

The song Carl Stuart Hamblen wrote was
"It Is No Secret."

"It is no secret what God can do.
What He's done for others, He'll do for you.
With arms wide open, He'll welcome you.
It is no secret, what God can do...."

By the way... the friend was John Wayne.
And the young preacher who refused to pray
for Stuart Hamblen?
....That was Billy Graham.

Share this with your friends ... I did

http://www.snopes.com/religion/hamblen.asp

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A True Story