‘Home on the Range’ movie to be shown to Kansas politicians

The “Home on the Range” movie is making its way to Topeka.

On Monday, Kansas legislators and staff members can take in one of three showings of the “Home on the Range” movie at the Capitol. Cowboy singer Michael Martin Murphey will open the showing to the Kansas Senate by singing “Home on the Range.”

The Kansas House opens at 11 a.m. with a call to order and an introduction about the movie. The Senate opens at 1:30 p.m.

The movie, which will be shown at 10 a.m., noon and 2 p.m. in the auditorium of the Capitol, is about how the Kansas state song – “Home on the Range” – came to be such a well-known piece of music.

Ken Spurgeon, the movie’s director, said the film’s hook is the lawsuit of 1934 and how a couple from Arizona sued 30 entities, including NBC and Bing Crosby. In the movie, each of the characters tells the story. The movie is Spurgeon’s fourth film produced by Lone Chimney Films, a nonprofit organization. The group has also produced “The Road to Vallhalla,” “Touched by Fire: Bleeding Kansas” and “Bloody Dawn: The Lawrence Massacre.”

The “Home on the Range” movie was filmed in and around Wichita. Scenes were shot at Old Cowtown Museum, the old Sedgwick County Courthouse and at some private locations in Sedgwick County, as well as at the historic cabin where Brewster Higley wrote the song in 1872 in Smith County.

This story was originally published January 29, 2017 at 8:42 PM with the headline "‘Home on the Range’ movie to be shown to Kansas politicians."