Los Angeles Crusade (1949)

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 194-0798-22, Düsseldorf, Veranstaltung mit Billy Graham.jpg|thumb|175px|[[Billy Graham]] in 1954]]
The '''Los Angeles Crusade''' of 1949 was the first great evangelistic [[revival meeting|campaign]] of [[Billy Graham]]. It was organized by the Christian group Christ for Greater Los Angeles.<ref name = bgc>[http://www2.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/exhibits/LA49/01readmore.html Into the Big Tent: Billy Graham and the 1949 Los Angeles Campaign] Billy Graham Center Archives</ref> The campaign was scheduled for three weeks, but it was extended to eight weeks.<ref name = Aikman66>{{Cite book | last = Aikman | first = David | title = Billy Graham: His Life and Influence | publisher = Thomas Nelson Inc | year = 2007 | page = [https://archive.org/details/billygrahamhisli0000aikm/page/66 66] | isbn = 978-08499-1702-8 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/billygrahamhisli0000aikm/page/66 }}</ref> During the campaign Graham spoke to 350,000 people, by the end,{{r|Bagdikian}} 3,000 of them decided to convert to Christianity.<ref name = High133>{{Cite book | last = High | first = Stanley | title = Billy Graham The Personal Story Of The Man His Message And His Mission | url = https://archive.org/stream/billygrahamthepe007977mbp#page/n147/mode/2up | publisher = McGraw-Hill Book Company | location = New York | year = 1956 | page = 133}}</ref> It was subsequently described as the greatest revival since the time of [[Billy Sunday]].{{r|Rasmussen}} After this crusade Graham became a national figure in the United States.

== Preparation ==
The Christ for Greater Los Angeles' committee scheduled a series of [[revival meeting]]s in [[Los Angeles]] in 1949. The committee had decided to invite Billy Graham as the preacher. The crusade started on September 25, 1949.<ref name="cincinnati post">{{Cite news |title= Billy Graham: A Man With A Mission Impossible.(Special Ssection) |url= http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-87912863.html|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110829105151/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-87912863.html|url-status= dead|archive-date= August 29, 2011|author=Barry M. Horstmann |work=Cincinnati Post |date=June 27, 2002 |access-date=August 18, 2007}}</ref> It was scheduled for three weeks between September 25 and October 17.<ref>{{Cite journal | title = Billy Graham Greater Los Angeles Campaign | url = http://www2.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/exhibits/LA49/03prep11.html | publisher = Christ for Greater Los Angeles | location = Washington at Hill | year = 1949}}</ref>

It was organized with prayer support provided by more than a thousand prayer groups that had been formed in and around Los Angeles. These groups regularly prayed for the crusade's success.<ref name = High148>{{Cite book | last = High | first = Stanley | title = Billy Graham The Personal Story Of The Man His Message And His Mission | url = https://archive.org/stream/billygrahamthepe007977mbp#page/n163/mode/2up | publisher = McGraw-Hill Book Company | location = New York | year = 1956 | page = 148}}</ref>

== Crusade ==
A circus tent that held 6,000 people was erected in a parking lot. The tent was enlarged to 9,000 and was still too small.{{r|High133}} The last meeting took place at 20 November. Graham preached: "I don't believe that any man can solve his problems of life without Jesus Christ" "All across Europe, people know that time is running out," (...) "Now that Russia has the atomic bomb, the world is in an armament race driving us to destruction."<ref name = Rasmussen>{{Cite journal | author = Cecilia Rasmussen | title = Billy Graham's star was born at his 1949 revival in Los Angeles | url = http://articles.latimes.com/2007/sep/02/local/me-then2 | journal = Los Angeles Times | date = September 2, 2007 | access-date = 2013-03-23}}</ref>

The interest of local and national newspapers was piqued when [[Stuart Hamblen]] announced on-air that he had been converted.<ref>[http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fhafq Handbook of Texas Online: "Carl Stuart Hamblen]</ref><ref>[https://archive.today/20120630064817/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout/0,8816,816859,00.html ''Third Parties: It's a Free Country''], Time, Sept. 1, 1952</ref><ref>Hamblen, J.H.: "A Look Into Life," an Evangelical Methodist Church publication (c. 1970)</ref> His conversion was followed by that of former Olympian and [[prisoner of war]] [[Louis Zamperini]] and Jim Vaus, a friend of mobster [[Mickey Cohen]].<ref name = Whitwell>{{Cite journal | author = Cutler B. Whitwell | title = The Great Awakening in Los Angeles | url = http://www2.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/docs/LA49/09.htm | journal = The Sunday School Times | volume = (3) 1127 | date = December 17, 1949 | access-date = 2013-03-23}}</ref>{{r|Aikman66}} Harvey Fritz, an actor, was another celebrity conversion.<ref>{{Cite book | author = Mel Larson | chapter = TASTING REVIVAL — at Los Angeles | title = Revival In Our Time: The Story of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Campaigns including Six of his Sermons | publisher = Van Kampen Press | year = 1950 | pages = 16}}</ref>

== Result ==
[[File:WilliamRandolphHearst.jpg|thumb|175px|[[William Randolph Hearst|William Hearst]] ]]
After Hamblen's conversion, [[William Randolph Hearst]] sent a [[telegraphy|telegram]] to all his newspaper editors: "[[Promotion (marketing)|Puff]] Graham."<ref name = Bagdikian>Ben Bagdikian, ''The Media Monopoly'', Boston, Mass: Beacon Press, 2000 6th ed., p. 39 ff.</ref> As a result, within five days Graham gained national coverage.<ref name="worldscollide"/><ref name="Bagdikan 2000 p. 39">Bagdikan (2000), ''Media Monopoly'', p. 39</ref> With such media attention, the crusade event ran for eight weeks—five weeks longer than planned. Graham became a national figure.<ref name="time100">[https://web.archive.org/web/20000408201219/http://www.time.com/time/time100/heroes/profile/graham01.html The 2010 TIME 100] ''Time'', ''Billy Graham'', June 14, 1999.</ref> [[Henry Luce]] also promoted Graham with coverage at this time, and by 1954 featured him on the cover of his magazine ''[[Time (magazine)|TIME]]''.<ref name="Bagdikan 2000 p. 39"/> According to Bothwell, Hearst and Luce supported Graham because of his anticommunist message.<ref>{{Cite book | last = Bothwell | first = Cecil | title = The Prince of War: Billy Graham's Crusade for a Wholly Christian Empire | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=YbjPlW5j8bIC | publisher = Brave Ulysses Books | location = Asheviile, N.C. | year = 2007 | isbn = 978-0-6151-6272-0}}</ref>

Due to the Los Angeles crusade [[Evangelicalism]] was introduced as an influential force in American culture.{{r|bgc}}

According to some scholars such as [[Ben Bagdikian]], Hearst liked Graham's patriotism and appeals to youth; he thought the evangelist would help promote Hearst's conservative anti-communist views.{{r|Bagdikian}} The scholar Randall E. King notes that Hearst and Graham never met.<ref name="worldscollide">{{cite journal |title= When worlds collide: politics, religion, and media at the 1970 East Tennessee Billy Graham Crusade |url= http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-19592304.html |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110517015119/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-19592304.html |url-status= dead |archive-date= May 17, 2011 |author=Randall E. King |journal=Journal of Church and State |date=March 22, 1997 |access-date=August 18, 2007 }}</ref>

== See also ==
* [[List of Billy Graham's crusades]]
* [[New York Crusade (1957)]]
* ''[[Wiretapper]]''

== References ==
{{Reflist|2}}

== Further reading ==
* {{Cite book | author = Mel Larson | chapter = TASTING REVIVAL — at Los Angeles | title = Revival In Our Time: The Story of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Campaigns including Six of his Sermons | publisher = Van Kampen Press | year = 1950 | pages = 11–27}}
* {{Cite journal | author = Uta Andrea Balbier | title = Billy Graham's Crusades In the 1950s: Neo-Evangelicalism Between Civil Religion, Media, and Consumerism | url = http://www.ghi-dc.org/files/publications/bulletin/bu044/bu44_071.pdf | journal = Bulletin of the GHI | publisher = German Historical Institute | volume = 44 | date = Spring 2009 | access-date = 2015-01-18}}
* {{Cite journal | author = Cecilia Rasmussen | title = Billy Graham's star was born at his 1949 revival in Los Angeles | url = http://articles.latimes.com/2007/sep/02/local/me-then2 | journal = Los Angeles Times | date = September 2, 2007 | access-date = 2013-03-23}}
* {{Cite book | last = Pollock | first = John | chapter = Los Angeles '49 | title = The Billy Graham Story: The Authorized Biography | publisher = Hodder and Stoughton | location = London | year = 1966 | pages = 84–91}}

== External links ==
* {{Cite web | title = Into The Big Tent: Billy Graham & the 1949 Christ for Greater Los Angeles Campaign | url = http://www2.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/la49.html | work = [[Billy Graham Center]] |publisher = [[Wheaton College, Illinois|Wheaton College]] | year = 2009 | access-date = 2013-03-23}}
* [http://www2.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/exhibits/LA49/14statistics.html ''Statistics: Billy Graham & the 1949 Christ for Greater Los Angeles Campaign''] [[Wheaton College (Illinois)|Wheaton College]] (2009) [access date 2012-01-05]

{{Billy Graham}}
{{Evangelical Protestantism in the United States}}


[[Category:Evangelicalism in the United States]]
[[Category:Religion in Los Angeles]]
[[Category:1949 in Christianity]]
[[Category:Billy Graham]]
[[Category:1949 in Los Angeles]]
[[Category:Evangelicalism in California]]
[[Category:Christian events]]
[[Category:September 1949 events in the United States]]
[[Category:October 1949 events in the United States]]