Billy Graham team nearly 50 years on

Posted on June 17, 2008 
Filed under News

Billy Graham team interviewsMany Sydney Anglicans remember with thankfulness the 1959 Bill Graham Crusade. It had a profound impact on Australia. We thought you would find this press release of interest –

An Australian and American film crew have just completed US filming for a television and DVD special on the 1959 visit to Australia of Billy Graham.

Host Karl Faase interviewed Crusade soloist George Beverly Shea and song leader and compere Cliff Barrows at ‘The Cove’, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association’s conference centre in Ashfield, North Carolina.

“It was a real privilege to meet Cliff and Bev (as he likes to be called) and for them to agree to be interviewed about their four month long visit to Australia, fifty years ago,” said Karl. “Cliff told us a story about the MCG committee’s estimation of the crowd on their final day in Melbourne,” he said.

“We were sitting with the chairman of the MCG committee just before the final Crusade meeting in March, 1959 in Melbourne,” said Cliff Barrows. “His estimation of the crowd that we could expect that day was only 50,000,” Mr Barrows said.

“As he (the MCG chairman) spoke to us, the internal phone rang – it was the head usher to say that the ground was completely full and that more people were outside, wanting to come in. Praise God that the chairman then gave permission for people to enter the ground area itself and sit on the actual playing surface. The final count was a record crowd of 147,000 people – one that still stands today,” said Mr Barrows.

The one-hour documentary will be completed at the end of 2008, ready for television airing and a DVD release in early 2009.

“We’re doing most of the shooting in Australia,” said Producer/Director Martin Johnson. “However we wanted to record the memories of team members who came with Dr Graham to Australia and with Dr Graham too ill to be interviewed, we were delighted to be able to organize to interview Cliff and Bev,” he said.

“The documentary will also include interviews with those who made a commitment to Christ in Australia in 1959,” said Karl. “Some have gone on to become significant leaders in Christian ministry, whilst others have used their Christian faith to positively influence their families and community,” he said.

The production team would like to hear from those who were impacted by the 1959 Crusade. “Whilst we will probably only have enough time for eight to ten people to tell their stories, we’d be delighted to hear from friends or families of those who made a decision at the Crusade meetings,” said Karl.

Filming also took place at the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte where the Graham family’s original house has been relocated, together with a recently opened building that features audio visual and static displays from Dr Graham’s ministry.

“We also were filmed in front of a re-created tent from the 1949 Los Angeles Crusade,” said Johnson. “Whilst it is not the real one, the creative team at the Library have done a great job in making the display as realistic as possible even down to including a spelling mistake made on the original tent banner,” he said.

Despite record near century temperatures across the south eastern USA, the team were able to finish filming in the early morning and stay out of the heat.

“We would like to thank the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association offices in both Sydney and Charlotte who helped organize this first part of the filming,” said Johnson.

For more information: Karl Faase at Gymea Baptist Church 02 9521 4611.

(Photo by the Bible Society’s Martin Johnson: Janine Johnson, Production Assistant and Host Karl Faase with Cliff Barrows and George Beverly Shea.)