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A Joyful Noise

Pentecostal Preacher

Thankful Thursday: Digital Archivists and Classified Ads

April 6, 2017 by Melodye Shore

Before Twitter, Instagram and Facebook existed, faith-healing evangelists used to announce their comings and goings in the local newspapers. And now, thanks to the digital archivists who preserved those records, I’m able to retrace my father’s footsteps along the Sawdust Trail.

Newspapers were king at the time–king-makers, too, as my father’s college classmate, Billy Graham, would later attest. Via the Los Angeles Times:

Evangelist Billy Graham recalls in his new book the pivotal point in his young ministry when, during a 1949 Los Angeles crusade, a two-word directive from publisher William Randolph Hearst to “puff Graham” made him an instant celebrity nationwide.

The sudden front-page coverage showered on Graham by Hearst newspapers in mid-October (after three weeks of little notice) was quickly matched by other newspapers and newsmagazines–literally a media circus descending on his rallies under a big tent.

My father never achieved Graham’s status, of course, but his promo pieces were printed alongside the greats. It’s like scrolling through a social media feed, but more meaningful, somehow.

 

Posted in: Billy Graham, classified ads, Digital Archives, family archives, LA Times, Los Angeles Times, newspaper, Pentecostal Preacher, Pentecostal Tent Revivals, revival meetings, sawdust trail, tent revival, Thankful Thursday, writing Tagged: billy graham, can i get a witness, classified ads, family archives, memoir writing, tent revival, thankful thursday

#TBT: Bomb Shelter in Eden City, circa 1946

July 28, 2016 by Melodye Shore

The preacher’s wife rose from her pew one Sunday, said God revealed to her in a dream that an invading “army from the North” would soon overtake America. Russian soldiers would slaughter all the Christians, she warned.

“Come, build with me a ‘city of refuge.'”  That’s what my Nana’s pastor said. (For more about Eden City, follow this link.)

ActonCA 2010-05-18 149 copy

Posted in: 1946, Acton, Bomb Shelter, CAN I GET A WITNESS, city of refuge, eden city, Pentecostal Preacher, Russia, Throwback Thursday Tagged: Acton, Bomb Shelter, city of refuge, eden city, High Desert, memoir, throwback thursday

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