From the Archives: Looking Back at Billy Graham’s 1949 Los Angeles Crusade
November 12, 2024
Categories: Archive and Research Center, The Archive Collection
The Archive Collection
There is no doubt that the 1949 Crusade in Los Angeles was a watershed event for the young Billy Graham. The chapter about the event in his biography Just As I Am calls it just that. At 30 years-old, Billy Graham was about to see God work in a wonderful way in the hearts of lives of the people in Los Angeles – and from there, to the ends of the earth.
As Billy Graham and his team prayed and planned for the Los Angeles event, Billy Graham wrote to C.C. Jenkins who was heading the planning there. In his letter, Billy Graham expresses his hopes almost prophetically:
If we come to Los Angeles, I want to see the biggest job ever done. I want to see God sweep in. We dream of seeing Hollywood broken wide open for Christ, because if Los Angeles could have a great revival, the ramifications and repercussions would sweep across the entire world. Gentlemen, ours is not a light responsibility. It is a tremendous responsibility! It is not only Los Angeles at stake – it is scores of cities across the world at stake whose eyes will be upon this campaign.
As the campaign launched, attendance averaged only around 3-4,000 people – not filling the large tent that had been constructed on the corner of Washington and Hill Streets. But, Billy Graham sensed that God was moving. As celebrities, including cowboy radio host Stuart Hamblen, began coming to the event, other notable people became aware of the revival that was happening. One such person was the publisher William Randolph Hearst. Hearst told his journalists to “puff Graham,” and they began covering the campaign each day, giving Billy Graham national exposure from New York to San Francisco.
Following the Crusade, Billy Graham wrote to Mr. Hearst to thank him for the news coverage:
Literally millions of church people across the nation are rejoicing and thanking God for your interest and backing of the recent Los Angeles evangelistic campaign.
I sincerely believe the only answer to Communism is a great spiritual revival throughout America. For the first time in forty years I believe we are close to a great spiritual awakening in this nation. Certainly, Los Angeles was stirred as never before in history. The entire city became God-conscious, thousands of people were converted to the teachings of Christ, scores of alcoholics were cured, gangsters renounced their former way of living, and I believe tremendous good was accomplished. Much of the credit must go to the “EXAMINER” and “HERALD EXPRESS.”
Those who attended the event wrote to express their appreciation for what had been done in Los Angeles. In an undated note from actress and singer Connie Haines, who attended the campaign, she recalls:
Being in ‘Billy Graham’s Revival Tent,’ with the smell of sawdust in the air, brought back vividly my first tent meeting, as a little girl, where I realized the joy and beauty of accepting Christ. It has been such a thrill to be at these meetings and see thousands of people turn out night after night to hear the ‘Word of God.’ I’m positive that not a famous name in Hollywood could have consecutively drawn that many people. Billy Graham’s youth and handsomeness are very impressive, but the one thing that really impressed ‘We the People in Show Business’ was his complete surrender and consecration to Christ.
The Billy Graham Archive and Research Center contains papers and correspondence and memorabilia from Billy Graham’s more than 70 years of ministry. To schedule a research appointment, visit the website at www.billygrahamarchivecenter.org.