L.A. Then and Now
The young preacher's crusade in a giant tent drew 350,000 people over eight weeks.
By Cecilia Rasmussen
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 2, 2007

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. the rest image