Billy Graham, Part One

Being Christian was an important part of my great-grandmother’s existence. In her later years, she converted to Roman Catholicism. This was because she was in a senior residence managed by the Little Sisters of the Poor, a Roman Catholic order, and wanted not only to worship, but also partake in the worship. During this time (the 1970s), ecumenism was nowhere near as prevalent as it is today, so she basically had no other choice.

However, she watched with great attention the television broadcasts of the “Billy Graham Crusades.” Like many people and over several decades, the preacher’s dynamic nature, clarity and charisma enraptured her.

According to Wikipedia, Graham was born in 1918, raised as a Presbyterian and became a Southern Baptist as a teenager during a series of revival meetings. After graduating from high school in 1936, he went to Bob Jones College (yes, the one that is now the infamous Bob Jones University), but for only one semester. It was too formally strict for him. Graham then transferred to the Florida Bible Institute (now Trinity College of Florida), but eventually graduated from Wheaton College in Illinois, with a degree in Anthropology.

All during this time, however, he was preaching wherever he had the opportunity. While at Wheaton, for example, he became the preacher at a nearby United Gospel Tabernacle and also had other preaching engagements. Upon graduation, he focused on his preaching

While serving as the pastor of a small church in Illinois, Graham took over a failing radio broadcast program, officially re-launching Songs in the Night in January 1944. But he left the show after only a year.

During the late 1940s, he started his evangelism crusade as a traveling preacher for the new Youth for Christ International (YFCI). In 1949, he put up some circus tents in a parking lot and presented a series of revival meetings in Los Angeles. This revival introduced Graham to the nation, particularly because he caught the attention of media mogul William Randolph Hearst. Although the two never met, Hearst was attracted to Graham’s combination of patriotism and conservative values, which aligned closely to his own anti-communist viewpoint. In 1954, Graham was on the cover of Time.

In 1950, he launched his radio program, “The Hour of Decision” which ran weekly (for 30 minutes) until (50 years).

According to the Museum of Broadcast Communications, Graham’s successful use of television began on Saturday, June 1, 1957, while leading his annual summer crusade at Madison Square Garden. The first live broadcast posted an 8.1 Trendex rating, which translated into approximately 6.4 million viewers.

Those first telecasts were quite simple. A sizable chorus sang familiar hymns, George Beverly Shea sang "How Great Thou Art," a celebrity or two gave a testimony of the power of Christ in his or her life, Rev. Graham preached and hundreds of people streamed toward him when he offered the invitation at the conclusion of his sermon, “Just As I Am” serenading them. Remarkably, Graham has stuck to that same basic formula for nearly forty years. Sometimes his shows were not live, however, and he never broadcast on Sunday mornings. Usually, he was on Saturday nights, right after “The Lawrence Welk Show,” making it a full night of television for my great-grandmother, and anyone she was babysitting.

But I digress.

To Be Continued.

Television

Grandma Eckman didn't watch much television, or at least I never saw her and she rarely talked about it, which pretty much leads to the same conclusion. She had one in her duplex, and of course, the television in the lounges of the nursing home were on constantly. She sometimes had a television in her room there, which I suspect belonged to her current roommate. (As she lived there a long time and all rooms were double-occupancy, she had many roommates.) I can’t imagine that she watched these televisions all that much either, as the design of the rooms had occupants across from—and not next to—each other.

But she could definitely hear the television, and I recall that sometimes this irritated her. She liked her quiet.

After she moved into the nursing home, she spent a lot more time at her daughter-my grandmother’s home. When my grandfather was there and not engaged in mowing the lawn, working on the car or fiddling with some electronic device in his basement workshop, the large living room television was on. Like most men, and particularly men of his generation, he primarily watched baseball, football, basketball, “The Wide World of Sports” and Walter Cronkite. If the television was on during her time there, Grandma Eckman was usually in the kitchen with her daughter. Now that I think about it, as her son-in-law was not very fond of her, he generally was in his workshop or the yard when she was there, leaving a quiet living room for her and my grandmother to talk and do crafts.

One of the great ironies of this—at least to me—is that as an electronics wizard, my grandfather transformed their standard black and white television to color in the late 1950s, long before most people in our working class town. Furthermore, his television was always in good repair and his antenna always highly functioning. Basically, if something went awry, he could fix it.

So not only did she have access to television at my grandparents’, but Grandma Eckman also had access to clear, highly functional television. Still, she rarely watched. Television was not her kind of entertainment with three notable exceptions.

First, Grandma Eckman enjoyed The Lawrence Welk Show (1951-1982), and while she didn’t watch religiously, she watched regularly.

Second, she loved the Detroit Tigers baseball team, but she rarely watched them on television; she preferred radio. She had two radios in her duplex—one in her bedroom and another in her kitchen. After she moved into the nursing home, she had one on her nightstand. Whenever either was on, it was usually for a game.

While she never broadcast her fervor for the team, never shared statistics or argued the merits of plays or players, she listened to the games religiously. (Here is another family irony: while I did grow up in a Midwestern family of sports enthusiasts, the only other relative who came close to her baseball passion was my grandfather who was himself a Cleveland Indians fan.) In 1968, she was absorbed particularly in the World Series battle between her beloved Tigers and the previous champions and favored St. Louis Cardinals. While it looked like a secure Cardinals win, the Tigers came from behind by winning (narrowly) games five, six and seven.

Again, she mostly didn’t watch any of the games on television, which she pointed out to my grandmother and mother whenever she thought either was letting my siblings and me watch too much. She listened to them on the radio. Television was to her either nonessential or distracting.

Then there were the televised Billy Graham Crusades. Whenever these were on, she was glued to the television, and so was everyone in her proximity. Since she didn’t go to church very much, this was her worship. And, of course, Rev. Graham was magnetic.

The Novel

After a short break to focus my time and energy on Mercy Buckets, a solo play that premiered at the San Francisco Fringe Festival in September, the work on Scandalous & Remarkable has resumed.

Now, it is time concentrate on the novel itself. Over the first many months, I pursued research, musing and reflection in tandem with the construction of the novel. That was well and good in the early stages. In the mid-stages, when the story started to gain momentum, little snippets of ideas and new bits of information to be studied were still acceptable to strengthen the concept and style.

At this time, however, the approach is taking a turn. While the entire focus throughout was on the creation of the novel, the focus now is specifically to write it—long patches of narrative and storytelling not necessarily appropriate to the blog format. Nevertheless, the blog will continue. But rather than producing two entries per week (on Tuesdays and Thursdays, as in the past), the format will be one per week—on Wednesdays.

Returning my creative attention (or at least a large part of it) to the novel has required a reflection on what I’ve accomplished so far, where I am and what I would like to do…and yes, I am working on a tentative timeline. I do want to publish the book! While I have enjoyed writing the 100 blog entries (since September 1, 2010), and each—well, most—of the entries have or will be incorporated into the first draft of the book, my concern is that writing the blog will take precedence over writing the novel. (I know of others who have been trapped in this way.)

You see, the blog writing is, in a way, easier. While there are inherent connections, particularly since I have a specific subject—my great-grandmother Leta Eckman—like making a batch of cookies, I can whip up a blog entry in a couple of hours and then be finished. A novel, however, requires continuous front-of-brain thinking.  What has been written and considered needs to be omnipresent in order for the work to maintain its consistency and flow.

Time is of the essence. And I am a part-time writer with a full-time other job (that is also important to me), friends, activities and several theater projects. While I consider myself a fairly successful juggler, I realize that one can throw only so many rings into the air.

So that’s the plan.