Stuart Hamblen

Back in the 50's there was a well known
radio host/comedian/song writer in Hollywood
named Stuart Hamblen who was well 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 (most 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
demanding that the preacher pray for him!

But the preacher refused, saying,
"Brother, this is between you and God,
and I'm not going to get in the middle of it."

But he did invite Stuart in and they talked
until about 5AM 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 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,
a long time friend named John
took him aside and told him,
"All your troubles 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?"

And 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 Stuart 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.

The sad part is that many do not believe in God and they don't know or understand what God can do and has done . . .