proprietor with a threat to call the police. "Running for [his] life," the narrator takes the box home to his wife, who also rejects him-- and orders him never to return. Next, the narrator offers the box to a hobo, receiving first his assurance that he'll take "most any old thing," as he is desperate; when the homeless man sees what's in the box, he runs away. The hapless narrator proceeds through the rest of his life unable to rid himself of The Thing, until he dies and arrives at the gates of Heaven, still with the box, only to be ordered by Saint Peter to "take it down below". The song closes with the narrator's warning not to open a tempting box found on the beach as he did, or "you'll never get rid of the [* **], no matter what ya do!" Film The song was broadcast by radio concurrently with a series of teaser advertisements published weekly in Collier's magazine promoting Howard Hawks' science fiction movie The Thing from Another World (released April 6, 1951). Harris performed the song in the movie The Wild Blue Yonder (1951). A portion of the Phil Harris version plays during the indoor swimming pool scene in the Peter Bogdanovich movie The Last Picture Show (1971). Television During the song's time on the Billboard list, it was played many times on the weekly show "Your Hit Parade," in which several of the recurring cast would sing the top current hit songs. At the end of one of the presentations one night, the camera showed a paper in the box with the words "Income Tax." That fits the rhythm, but was no doubt simply an amusing speculation on the show's part. The song was played by Richie's babysitter in the "Dick Van Dyke Show" episode "The Lady and the Babysitter". In science fiction Edward G. Robles Jr. wrote a science fiction short story based partially on the song. It involved several homeless men who find an item like the one described by the song. In the story, the item is discovered to be an alien disguised as something nobody wants. It was originally copyrighted by Galaxy Publishing Corp. in 1954. Pinball Chicago Coin released a pinball game during 1951 named THING with backglass and playfield art, that was inspired by the song "The Thing". Roy Parker was the artist. See also "The Marvelous