During a career spanning more than half a century, religious crusader the Rev. Billy Graham urged presidents, gangsters and African lepers to "take Christ into your heart and be saved."
But it was his first crusade, in Los Angeles in 1949, that catapulted him to religious stardom.
He called it the Greater Los Angeles Billy Graham Crusade at the "Canvas Cathedral With the Steeple of Light." Graham, then 30, drew 350,000 people over eight weeks to a huge tent at Washington Boulevard and Hill Street. About 3,000 nonbelievers committed their lives to Christ, according to Times stories then.
On Sept. 25, 1949, the young Southern Baptist preacher from North Carolina launched his L.A. crusade, sponsored by hundreds of Christian leaders in Southern California. The faithful filled the seats each night, with thousands more standing outside or listening in parked cars, as Graham quoted Scripture and discussed his tours of Europe after World War II.
"All across Europe, people know that time is running out," he said. "Now that Russia has the atomic bomb, the world is in an armament race driving us to destruction."
The press called it the greatest revival since the fire and brimstone evangelism of flamboyant early 20th century preacher Billy Sunday.
Among the many who turned out was former teenage delinquent and Olympic track star Lou Zamperini, now 90. Zamperini roomed with Jesse Owens at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, stole a Nazi flag from the German chancellery during the Games and shook the hand of Adolf Hitler.
During World War II, he survived 47 days on a raft in the Pacific, only to be rescued by the Japanese, who put him through horrors as a prisoner of war. But he says Graham saved his life.
"I was a mess," Zamperini said in a recent interview. "I fell apart after the war. I was a drunk. I suffered terrible nightmares and was having marital problems.
"But my wife was a determined woman who dragged me down to see Graham. I walked out mad the first time. I didn't want to hear that I had sinned. Just to shut her up, I went back."
Then something clicked.
"I had a flashback about sitting there on a life raft. I came home alive and never thanked God. I felt terribly ashamed. When I got off my knees, I knew I was through getting drunk," he said. "Billy Graham helped save me."
Word that Hollywood celebrities were "stepping forward to receive Christ" reached publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst, who sent a two-word telegram to every editor in his newspaper chain: "Puff Graham."
