TV stars who tune in to God
QUESTION Who was the first televangelist?
BROADCAST evangelism began on U.s. radio in 1920. Network preachers attracted large sunday audiences: Baptist minister charles E. Fuller’s old Fashioned revival Hour had 20 million weekly listeners.
Lutheran Walter Maier aired the first TV religious programme on New Year’s day 1948 in st Louis.
a year later, Presbyterian Percy crawford’s Youth on the March on the ABC network was the first weekly religious TV show. It was presented by the Young People’s church of the air and included religious songs and instruction for children and teens.
In 1950, Fuller began old Fashioned Meeting, a weekly half-hour TV broadcast on ABC.
these programmes were short-lived. relatively few american cities had TV stations and few households owned sets, so viewer donations could not cover the production costs.
Bishop Fulton J. sheen had appeared on the radio show the catholic Hour from 1928 to 1952. He then launched the inspirational Life Is Worth Living on TV.
His hypnotic gaze, disarming smile and dramatic delivery proved popular. the charismatic preacher won an Emmy award for Most outstanding television Personality in 1952 and time magazine dubbed him ‘the first televangelist’.
the earliest significant independent TV ministry was that of rex Humbard. He was an itinerant Pentecostal minister who settled in akron, ohio, after a successful revival there in 1952.
He began to broadcast the sunday service at his calvary temple on a local TV station in 1953 with the intention of reaching out to the sick and elderly.
Humbard pioneered the religious spectacle format synonymous with U.s. televangelism. He built a 5,000-seat church in 1958 with state-of-the-art cameras, lighting and sound equipment as well as a huge stage that could accommodate an orchestra and choir.
By 1971, Humbard’s cathedral of tomorrow broadcasts aired on 650 TV and 700 radio stations in North america. His ministry paved the way for household names such as oral roberts, Jimmy swaggart, Jim and tammy Faye Bakker, Jerry Falwell and Pat robertson, who developed their own media networks, news exposure and political influence.
Tricia Collins, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warks.
QUESTION What was the first movie trailer?
FRENCH film pioneer Georges Melies recorded a promotional reel outside the theatre robert-Houdin in Paris in 1898 that might be considered to be a trailer. However, most historians point to a series of promotional reels in the U.s. in 1913.
Broadway producer and movie theatre advertising manager Nils t. Granlund had the idea of advertising forthcoming plays in between the films at Marcus Loew’s East coast theatre chain.
He put together a short promotional film for the 1913 play the Pleasure seekers using rehearsal footage. this was shown after the main feature, hence the name trailer.
Granlund claims to have used the technique to promote early charlie chaplin shorts at Loew’s seventh avenue theatre in Harlem in 1914.
In late 1913, producer William selig brought the popular serial format from the newspapers to the big screen with the adventures of Kathlyn, an action adventure delivered in instalments that ended on a cliffhanger.
to encourage audiences to return, selig showed a teaser for the following episode after the main feature.
these trailers had a brief amount of footage accompanied by text that asked the audience: ‘does she escape the lion’s pit? see next week’s thrilling chapter!’ selig’s trailers were hugely influential and other movie studios soon began making their own. In 1919, the National screen service was set up to make and promote trailers.
Dan Short, Birmingham.
QUESTION Does the Full Moon affect seismic activity?
AS EARLY as 1897, scientists postulated a relationship between seismic events and the Earth’s tides. during Full and New Moons, the sun, Moon and Earth align, meaning gravity tugs more strongly on the planet’s crustal plate, leading to extreme, or spring, tides.
It has been suggested these might trigger faults, but the effect is too weak in itself to cause an earthquake.
susan Hough, a seismologist at the U.s. Geological survey, scrutinised 204 earthquakes of magnitude 8.0 or greater over the past four centuries. she matched them to the lunar calendar and found no more occurred during a Full or New Moon than on any other day of the lunar cycle.
Earthquakes occur when the stress on a fault exceeds a critical threshold for rupture. applying additional stress to a fault that is close to failure may initiate rupture and produce an earthquake — the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
a study by satoshi Ide and his team at the University of tokyo suggests this may happen.
they analysed the size of tidal stresses in the two weeks before large earthquakes with a magnitude of 5.5 or greater over the past two decades.
Looking at the 12 largest earthquakes, Ide’s team found nine occurred on days near New or Full Moons when the tidal pull caused high stress across the fault. However, this should be viewed with caution as it’s such a small sample size.
In another study, a U.s. team focused on 81,000 low-frequency earthquakes along california’s san andreas Fault between 2008 and 2015.
they found these did not spike at the strongest point of the fortnightly cycle. Instead, they peaked as the tide was waxing, or strengthening. Minor quakes were most likely to happen on days when there was the greatest difference between successive tides. Dr Ken Bristow, Glasgow.
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