DEAD MEN DO TELL TALES

Radio Record, 8 July 1938, Page 12

DEAD MEN DO TELL TALES

Radio Still Gives the Quaint Stories of Hollywood’s Countty Church Parson

By

WILTON

BAIRD

_@ * HERE is a saying that dead men tell no tales. _ | To-day they do. The saying was invented ft before radio. There is one man who still tells his tales, quaintly original,, spoken in the slow Will Rogers drawl of West America, yet sharply pointed to drive home the precepts of religion. . His tales do this so. well, with such remarkable simplicity and effectiveness, that to-day in New Zealand you will often hear men Sav:

"Tm -not what you would call religions, but. all the same: I listen every. morning to the Country:.. Church of Hollywood." 7 . _ The man. who tells. these ~ Parson Josiah Hopkins, has died. _ YET, through the ether, the ‘old horse Dan. still clipclops along the white road to "meeting" ; Parson Josiah still chats along the way with his. wife Sarah. She’ ‘fells him of what the Widow . Walton said that morning-"If you,.brood over. your -troubles you'll have a perfect hatch!’-and -he fast-_ ens. on to that. It’s. an idea for his talk at "meeting," he. will tell ‘the "folks" about it. They go on chatting for a tine about'the hen setting os some eggs -in the barns Did you see: if she’ was batehing,.Josiah?’ Or ‘about Grandpa Whortle; avo: says: te is rich ~-~becuuse no ove can take the

suisets away from him. This is the key to their simple philosophy. THE parson says "Gittup" to the horse Dan, and they clop along the road again until the church bells sound in the distance, the "folks" greet Josiah and Sarah, and they go in to the service, where listeners-‘‘and, mind you," some

of them say, "I’m not what youd call a tellgious man"-hastily follow them. And. vow Parson Hopkins has died as the "result of complications which set in following two major operations." NEWS of his death reached New Zealand in a roundabout way. "Tbe Country Church of Holly wood" sesgion has an extremely large following of listeners in New Zealand hospitals. Every Sunday morning they listen to the sessions at 11 o’clock from 1ZB, 2ZB, 8ZB and 42). Tt means, as Parson Josiah Hopkins would have said, "a whole heap to them." @ perpgy

Une ot these ROSpital sist©ii~ ers to the 2ZB session, at The Shelters," Narian Hospital, Blenheim, bad listened to these services for a long time. Parson Josiah and his wife Sarah became very real and close to her.. She wrote to Parson Josiah. She received this reply :-- We did greatly appreciate your letter recently received. Parson Josiah Hopkins passed away last January as the result of. complications which set in following two major operations. ‘The broadcasts which you have been hearing are transcriptions which. were sold shortly before his death We were unable to recall these after his passing. May God wonderfully and richly bless you.-Sincerely, Sarah Hopkins, — OR, as the "Record" pointed out some mouths ago. Parson Josinh, his wife. Sarah and the Country Church of {Continued on page 38.) a A

Dead Man’s Tales ’ HIS CHURCH EXISTED (Continued from page 12). Hollywood, were real people, and no fancies of a clever script-writer’s brain. The church actually exists in the centre of the movie colony’s "makebelieve" land, a small, white-spired church, with easy-chairg in front for elderly people. OiL lamps, hanging in brackets from the walls, shed the only light in the small chureh. A large picnicground makeg a meeting-place at noontime for the parishioners, with whom Parson Hopkins and Sarah used to, talk, and. there really is the creek by which the parson loved to stop while { on his way to meeting. Parson Hopkins, once an army chaplain with the American Expeditionary Foree, wounded in France in the early years of the war, founded his simple church himself amid all the glitter and heartbreak, the Oriental sumptuousness and the poverty of America’s erazy film city. "THE church grew into the affections of millions of listeners, and was soon accorded first place on the nation-wide radio schedule in America. Parson Hopking used to write and broadeast fourteen 15-minute programmes weekly, preach to several thousand people three times on Sunday. At the same time his doors were always open to the simple followers of the Christian faith wanting guidance in their perplexities. LMOST from the beginning of the Commercial service in New Zealand, the "Country Church" sessions . have been heard on the air. The present series is now concluded. ' "Listeners who follow the services, however, need not be. dismayed. There is another series available of 39 episodes, recorded hefore the death of Parson Hopkins. ‘These are now on the water on their way to New Zealand. Meanwhile, according to the wish of a huge body of listeners, the service is filling in the interval by replaying some of the earlier episodes already heard. ‘ I HEARD one of them again last week at the headquarters of the service. The parson and hig’ wife Sarah were‘driving to "meeting" just as usual, and you could hear the clip- ‘ clop of the hoofs of the faithful Dan. The parson and his wife stopped ou a hill to look down below at the view; "When you get away up, things look mighty small below," said Sarah. _ "Ts that way with troubles," the parson drawled. "They get mighty small, too, when you look at them from high up." No doubt they look small enough toe him now. He gave a small piece of verse as well. It wag about the little a. man can keep of all that he hag got when he dies. And all you can hold in your cold, dead hands, Is what you have given away. If comfort and heartsease to millions of listeners comes in that ecategory, the parson’s hands must be pretty . full now.