I found an interesting article by Cecilia Rasmussen from the L.A. Times commemorating Billy Graham’s 1949 crusades in Los Angeles. It’s an excellent read, I highly recommend it.
William Randolph Hearst’s legacy is in stark contrast to Graham’s. When my friends Paul and Laurie came back from their honeymoon, they had a lot to say about their visit to the Hearst castle. But one of the things that was interesting about this L.A. Times piece was that Hearst reportedly visited to hear Graham preach, and was so impressed that he subsequently instructed all of the editors of his conglomeration of newspapers to promote Graham’s crusade with “puff” pieces, and the media exposure is one of the things that resulted in the crusade continuing for 8 weeks due to all the people who kept showing up. What if that bastard Hearst actually got saved two years before he died? I suppose there would have been visible fruit, that he would have put his house in order if this were the case. Then again, maybe he was sick in a wheelchair and couldn’t do much about it while his empire and estate were perpetuated by the inertia set in prior years? Hmm… Guess we’ll find out one day.