1955

b&w country western religious TV show with Stuart Hamblen - w/ audio preaching - singing - talking heads - singers c/u water rushes over rocks in brook - lone cowboy rides horse through countryside, flowering desert terrain various shots of cowboy rides cowboy, preacher arrives to gathering - people gather under brush arbor c/u preacher talks, talking head choir in period western clothing - c/u preacher sings w/ choir in b/g - sing religious song c/u preacher reads from bible book - e/c/u talking head m/c/u wife of preacher with her two daughters - they sit and watch - c/u wife sings alone, then joined by her two daughters m/c and c/u choir sings Sunday school children sing song about sunshine, darkness, and the devil cute kids in western wear sing song - c/u little girl sings solo part exterior - two cowboys (one is preacher) rides horses down hill to cabin - c/u hound dog on porch cowboys enter cabin - find dead man (not visible) and c/u as they take off their hats in respect cowboys bury man outside cabin, put up homemade wooden cross on grave c/u talking head - c/u preacher - Hamblen - sings This Old House or This Ole House cowboy walks to horse outside, gets on horse and rides away into hills According to Wikipedia as of 2/4/10: Hamblen was supposedly out on a hunting expedition when he and his fellow hunter, actor John Wayne, came across a tumbledown hut in the mountains, many miles from civilization.[1] They went into the hut and there, lying amongst the rubbish and rubble of a crumbling building, was the body of a dead man.[1] This inspired Hamblin to write This Ole House, which Rosemary Clooney and later Shakin' Stevens, treated as a bouncy novelty number, rather than the epitaph for a mountain man that it was meant to be.[1] [edit] Recording success The recorded version of This Ole House by Rosemary Clooney, featuring bass vocals by Thurl Ravenscroft, reached #1 on the Billboard chart in 1954. Clooney's version also topped the UK Singles Chart, although there were other UK hit versions around by Billie Anthony, and Alma Cogan, both recorded in 1954. The recording by Cogan was released by HMV as catalogue number 7M 269. The flip side was Skokiaan. In March 1981, Shakin' Stevens took the song back to number one for three weeks in the United Kingdom. His version was re-released in 2005, after his appearance in the TV show Hit Me Baby One More Time, and reached number 20 in the UK chart. The song was also covered by the Cathedral Quartet and Hovie Lister and the Statesmen as a Southern Gospel song with slightly modified lyrics, using the house as an analogy for an old body about to die and the soul about to go to heaven, usually tying the song in with When the Saints Go Marching In. The song was most recently recorded by Bette Midler on her Jackpot: The Best Bette album in 2008.