Walter Henry "Hy" Heath (July 9, 1890 – April 3, 1965) was an American entertainer, songwriter, composer and writer. Born in

Oakville, Tennessee Oakville was a community in Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the List of U.S. states and ...

, he received his education in public schools and then became a comedian in musical comedy,

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

minstrel A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in medieval Europe. It originally described any type of entertainer such as a musician, juggler, acrobat, singer or fool; later, from the sixteenth century, it came to mean a specialist entertainer who ...

and

burlesque A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects.

shows. His chief musical collaborators included Johnny Lange and Fred Rose. His most successful composition was "

Mule Train "Mule Train" is a popular song written by Johnny Lange, Hy Heath, Ramblin' Tommy Scott and Fred Glickman. It is a cowboy song, with the singer filling the role of an Old West wagon driver, spurring on his team of mules pulling a delivery wagon. ...

" which earned him an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

nomination (it was featured in the 1950 film ''

Singing Guns ''Singing Guns'' is a 1950 American Trucolor Western film directed by R. G. Springsteen and starring Vaughn Monroe. The film features three songs by Monroe. " Mule Train", one of the songs featured in this 1950 Republic Western and sung by ...

''). Another of his many popular songs which he composed was "The Hills of Utah" which was sung by

Ken Curtis Ken Curtis (born Curtis Wain Gates; July 2, 1916 – April 28, 1991) was an American singer and actor best known for his role as Festus Haggen on the CBS western television series ''Gunsmoke''. Although he appeared on ''Gunsmoke'' earlie ...

in the Hollywood western ''

Stallion Canyon ''Stallion Canyon'' is a 1949 American Western film directed by Harry L. Fraser and written by Hy Heath Walter Henry "Hy" Heath (July 9, 1890 – April 3, 1965) was an American entertainer, songwriter, composer and writer. Born in Oakville, T ...

'' starring Ken Curtis and

Carolina Cotton Carolina Cotton (October 20, 1925 – June 10, 1997) was an American singer and actress known as the "Yodeling Blonde Bombshell", the "Girl of the Golden West", and the "Queen of the Range." Early life Cotton was born Helen Hagstrom October 20, ...

References

1890 births 1965 deaths people from Memphis, Tennessee Vaudeville performers American composers 20th-century American comedians {{US-comedian-stub