Hamblen came up with the lyrics to the song while riding horseback down the mountain, and composed the melody within a week. The two men came upon what looked like an abandoned shack, wherein they found the body of an elderly man, apparently dead of natural causes. "This Ole House" was inspired while on a hunting trip in the High Sierras with a friend. John Wayne offered him a drink shortly thereafter, Hamblen refused saying "It is no secret what the Lord can do." John Wayne said, "You should write a song by that title." The song would go on to be sung by popular singers Rosemary Clooney, Kate Smith, Jim Reeves, Wayne Newton, Leslie Uggams, Jo Stafford & Gordon MacRae (duet), Anne Murray, Tom Netherton, Eddy Arnold, Pat Boone, Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Hank Snow and Ernest Tubb. After accepting the Lord, Hamblen was fired from his position as disc jockey because he refused to do alcohol commercials. "It Is No Secret" was written following his acceptance of Christ and a spiritual conversation with John Wayne. Some of his post- conversion songs depict a rather wrathful version of the gospel, sung with such good-natured high spirits that they have an ironic appeal to the non-religious. Other songs include "Hell Train", " It Is No Secret (What God Can Do)" and "Blood on Your Hands". Hamblen wrote the popular songs " This Ole House" (1954) (popularized by Rosemary Clooney, among others) and " Open Up Your Heart (And Let the Sunshine In)" (not to be confused with the song from the Broadway musical Hair). It was this song that Patsy Montana reworked into her million seller hit " I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart" (1935). In his early career as a singing cowboy he composed his song "Texas Plains". Stuart Hamblen died March 8, 1989, in Santa Monica, California of brain cancer. Graham attributed Hamblen's hunting skills as instrumental in capturing a wild panther in the Los Angeles area prior to the crusade. That evening, also Graham's first coast-to-coast television broadcast, Hamblen shared about his faith and sang/spoke his signature hymn " It Is No Secret (What God Can Do)". 1 radio personality in Los Angeles, which drew in crowds. Personal life ĭuring a 1963 crusade in Los Angeles, Graham called Hamblen's conversion "the turning point" in the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association's ministry, where before Hamblen accepted Christ the crowds were rather small.
He subsequently gave up gambling and horse racing, and entered Christian broadcasting with his radio show The Cowboy Church of the Air, which ran until 1952.
In 1949 after years of struggle with alcohol, Hamblen underwent a religious conversion at a Billy Graham crusade in Los Angeles, and was soon fired from his radio program after refusing to do beer commercials. Inevitably, Hamblen's drinking and gambling problems severely affected his life and career. For a while, he ventured into horse-racing as an owner. The Texas State Historical Association reports that Hamblen identified himself as the "original juvenile delinquent." Because Hamblen was hugely popular, his radio sponsors regularly bailed him out of jail and smoothed things over. Many times his drinking landed him in jail for public brawling and other destructive behavior. Hamblen did not cope well with the pressures of his high-profile career and sought relief in alcohol. In 1934, he became the first artist signed by the American subsidiary of Decca Records. He also composed music and acted in motion pictures with cowboy stars including Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, and John Wayne. Hamblen, a minister in the Methodist Church in Texas, who in 1946 founded the Evangelical Methodist Church denomination in Abilene, Texas.įrom 1931, Hamblen began hosting the popular radio program Family Album in California. He married Suzy Daniels and fathered two children with her. Hamblen was born to the family of an itinerant Methodist preacher on October 20, 1908, in Kellyville, Texas, United States.
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