When Billy was Maine attraction
35,000 FLOCKED TO SEE US PREACHER GRAHAM
USUALLY the stands thronged with scarf-waving City fans.
But in May 1961, after the football season had ended, the Blues’ Maine Road ground became home to American TV evangelist Billy Graham, who preached to crowds of up to 35,000 a time in the city.
The image above, from Manchester council’s Local Image archive, depict the Mancunians who turned out to hear the Rev Graham, whose death, at the age of 99, was announced this week.
Mr Graham, who had been suffering from cancer, pneumonia and a number of other illnesses, was a counsellor to American presidents and travelled the globe to become perhaps the best known Christian evangelist in history with a number of successful appearances in the UK. Spokesman Mark DeMoss said Mr Graham died at his home in North Carolina on Wednesday morning.
US president Donald Trump tweeted: “The GREAT Billy Graham is dead. There was nobody like him! He will be missed by Christians and all religions. A very special man.”
Former American presidents also paid tribute to the preacher. Barack Obama said: “Billy Graham was a humble servant who prayed for so many - and who, with wisdom and grace, gave hope and guidance to generations of Americans.”
Mr Graham reached more than 200m people through his appearances and millions more through his pioneering use of television and radio. Unlike many traditional evangelists, he engaged broader society. His leadership summits and crusades in more than 185 countries and territories forged powerful global links among conservative Christians, and threw a lifeline to believers in the communist-controlled Eastern bloc.
Dubbed ‘America’s pastor,’ he was a confidant to US presidents from Dwight Eisenhower to George W Bush. In 1983, Ronald Reagan gave Mr Graham the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honour.
Beyond Mr Graham’s public appearances, he reached untold millions through his pioneering use of prime-time telecasts, network radio, daily newspaper columns, evangelistic feature films and satellite TV broadcasts. By his final crusade in 2005 in New York City, he had preached in person to more than 210 million people worldwide.
“William Franklin Graham Jr can safely be regarded as the best who ever lived at what he did,” said William Martin, author of the biography A Prophet With Honour.
In his early days as a preacher, he stood out for his loud ties and suits, as well as a rapid delivery and swinging arms that won him the nickname ‘the Preaching Windmill.’
A 1949 Los Angeles revival turned Mr Graham into evangelism’s rising star. The publicity gave him a national profile. Over the next decade, his massive crusades in the UK and New York catapulted him to international celebrity. His 12-week London campaign in 1954 defied expectations, drawing two million people.
He ended racially segregated seating at his Southern crusades in 1953, a year before the US supreme court’s school integration ruling, and long refused to visit South Africa during the apartheid era.
His wife, Ruth, died in 2007 aged 87. They have five children.