Rentaghost were later recovered by the BBC Archives. The "Rentaghost" theme song, originally composed by Michael Staniforth who also played Timothy Claypole, was performed as part of the "George's song" skit in Shooting Stars (TV series) where it was one of the very few songs performed unmodified; it attracted cheers and applause as soon as the first line was finished. The well-known version of the theme is from the later series; the first series had the lyrics "ghosts and ghouls and poltergeists" (later changed to ".. and freaks and fools"), and "what you see is not ESP.." (as ESP was highly
Jester Hairston go to Hollywood to sing for the film "The Green Pastures". At that time, a Russian composer, Dimitri Tiomkin, heard Jester and invited him to collaborate with him. This led to a thirty-year collaboration during which time Jester arranged and collected music for the movies. In 1939, Hairston married Margaret Swanigan. He also wrote and arranged spirituals for Hollywood films as well as for high school and college choirs around the country. Hairston wrote the song "Mary's Boy Child" in 1956. He also arranged the song "Amen", which he dubbed for the Sidney Poitier film "Lilies of the Field", and