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Did Russ Hamblin, a former hard-drinking buddy of John Wayne's, give his life to Christ after a Billy Graham crusade and go on to write Christian songs?

I'm going to present the original message first, then take it apart.  Some parts are true, some are false.

 

Original Message:  

Back in the 50's there was a well known radio host/comedian/song writer in Hollywood named Russ Hamblin 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".

And along came a young preacher holding a tent revival. Hamblin had him on his radio show, presumably to poke fun at him. And to gather more material, Hamblin 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 Hamblin 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 2 am. Demanding that the preacher pray for him. But the preacher refused, saying, "This is between you and God and I'm not going to get in the middle of it." But he did invite Russ in and they talked about 5 am at which point Russ dropped to his knees and with tears, cried out to God.

But that is not the end of the story. Russ quit drinking, quit chasing, quit everything that was "fun". And began to lose favor 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, an old friend named John took him aside and told him all your troubles started when you "got religion" and asked if it was worth it all. Russ answered simply, "Yes". Then his friend said, "You liked your booze so much. Don't you ever miss it?" And the answer was, "No". John then said, "I don't understand how you could give it up so easily." And Russ'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."

As they say, the rest is history. The song Russ 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." etc...

By the way, the friend was John Wayne, and the young preacher who refused to pray for Russ Hamblin was Billy Graham. And now you know "the rest of the story."

(1) The man who wrote the song "It Is No Secret" is named Carl Stuart Hamblin, not Russ Hamblin.

 

(2) Hamblin gave his life to Christ in 1949 after attending a Billy Graham meeting. He was ever refused by Graham.  Here is Cliff Barrows recollection of what happened between Hamblin and Graham:

Barrows went on to say, “What a delight to be back in Los Angeles again. I was recalling this morning with a group of people about Stuart Hamblen who was a legendary figure back in those days. He had a radio program and he invited us to come on the program and he talked about the crusade in a big tent. He said on the air, ‘Go on down and tell them that Stuart Hamblen sent you down.’ Well Bill [Billy Graham] came to be with us on the program one day and Stuart said the same thing, so Billy said, ‘Well, how about you coming Stuart?’ He stopped a moment and then said, ‘All right, I will.’

He came and we were praying for him. He had a Godly wife and Stuart really needed to know the Lord in a personal way. The upside was that he came and heard the message and he didn’t respond to the invitation then, but he went home and he couldn’t sleep that night and he came and met Mr. Graham at the hotel and gave his life to Christ. The news spread quickly and one day he was walking down Hollywood Boulevard with his friend John Wayne, and John Wayne said, ‘Stuart, what’s this I hear about you hitting the sawdust trail?’ Stuart replied, ‘Oh, that’s no secret John, what God has done for me. He can do it for you or anybody else.’ John then said, ‘That sounds like a song, Stuart. Why don’t you write one?’ So he went home and wrote, ‘It is no secret what God can do…” and Bev Shea has since sung it all around the world. That’s the joy that we’ve had.   (by Dan Wooding, Founder of Assist Ministries from ANS news article dated November 16, 2004).

 

(3) Hamblin did not make fun of Dr. Graham on the radio show (even prior to his conversion) but actually urged people to go to the meetings. The radio station and Hamblin actually wanted him on the program and he did indeed appear on the program prior to Hamblin's conversion.

 

(4) John Wayne was at least an acquaintance of Hamblin's from his hard-drinking B-western movie days (both of them). Neither man ever gave this account and no one knows where it started. It didn't start popping up until the late 90's.

 

(5) Hamblin had great success after "It Is No Secret." He wrote a number of well-received songs prior to "This Ole House."

 

(6) Hamblin DID (the one known truth in the message) take a stand against alcohol, which caused him to lose his radio program. Snopes reports the following:

lose his radio show, the Cowboy Church of the Air, over his refusal to do a commercial promoting alcohol, but his principled stand led the Prohibition Party to nominate him as their candidate for President of the United States in 1952. Hamblen racked up nearly 73,000 votes and finished fourth in a field of twelve candidates despite appearing on the ballot in only twenty-one states.

 

This is the first time since this email started that it has been attributed to Paul Harvey. This is not true. The author was anonymous. As always, one should always be wary of anonymous articles and messages.

ARTICLES:  Snopes     Break-The-Chain    

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