Evangelism's First Modern Media Star: Reverend Bill Stidger

Bill Stidger was the most famous preacher in America in the 1930s and the model for Sinclair Lewis's Elmer Gantry. Norman Vincent Peale and Cardinal Sheehan acknowledged their friend Stidger as the source of many of their ideas. Stidger was the first person to realize the potential of modern media promotional techniques for evangelizing. A fervent preacher with a social conscience, he invented and patented an electric revolving cross to adorn church roofs and attract worshippers. He used advertising and wrote newspaper columns to publicize his services and even supported bowling alleys on church grounds. He brought religion to the radio with his program "Getting the Most Out of Life." His tactics aroused controversy and changed the way we worship in America.