Aimee Semple McPherson was a religious leader with a broad following.
She built the Angelus Temple in Los Angeles to hold her theatrical services and was one of the the first women to buy a broadcast license.
This was a typical service with Aimee officiating:
This is the parsonage she built behind the temple, note the radio tower:
This is the retreat she built in Lake Elsinore:
Her life was punctuated by scandal, land swindles, failed movie deals and legal suits… and a cooked up kidnapping charge to cover what many suspected was a several month long tryst with a married man. The court case was dismissed. This is a fingerprint expert examining evidence in the “kidnapping”:
On September 26, 1944, McPherson went to Oakland, California, for a series of revivals, planning to preach her popular “Story of My Life” sermon. When McPherson’s son went to her hotel room at 10:00 the next morning, he found her unconscious with pills and a half-empty bottle of capsules nearby. She was dead by 11:15.
The autopsy did not conclusively determine the cause of McPherson’s death. She had been taking sleeping pills following numerous health problems—including “tropical fever”. Among the pills found in the hotel room was the drug Seconal, a strong sedative which had not been prescribed for her. It was unknown how she obtained them. VIA WIKIPEDIA
My grandparents went to the Angelus Temple a couple of times. Grandpa didn’t like Aimee so they stopped going and went back to the old Southern Baptist church in South Central L.A. Funny, I haven’t thought of her in years. That just brought up another memeory. When I was 5 we used to go to tent revivals in Lakewood. They scared the heck out of me! All that wailing and carrying on. When ever I catch “Elmer Gantry” on T.V. it takes me right back there.
Loved the post Miss Lester.
I’ve only witnessed speaking in tongues once – what struck me about it was the ardent wish of the people gathered to experience the spirit – they all seemed to be riding the same euphoric wave. That was kind of uplifting, what was odd was when it was over they all went back to talking about Costco. Ah, the mystery…
I have witnessed people speaking in tongues also.I was quite fascinated although consider it a psychlogical phenomena.In my case I saw also people who claimed to be able to translate this language into modern English.Those who believe in it claim that the phenomena is identical to the tongues that Jesus disciples are reported to have displayed in The New Testament.I dont know about you Vickie ,but the several times I witnessed the phenomena, the people had to whip themselves up a bit before the voices appeared.Strange body movements were employed and a lot of over breathing which can produce trance states.
The people who I saw doing it were very churchy (I don’t think that’s a word) and composed, but they’d also been employing tongues for about thirty years – so maybe an ecstatic state was something they easily slipped into. There was someone among them that had the gift of translation… A very, very, strange phenomenon. They think it’s real, and I guess if they get comfort from it…? To me it seemed like some form of denial with a big dose of magical thinking.
Maybe we can have something more about various LA cults and perhaps any buildings still extant.
I’m laughing because the novel I wrote is a satiric take (in part) of an LA cult
Yes I guess they do I cannot say they dont.Yes maybe they slipped into some state without the theatrics.I was amused a while back by something called The Toronto Blessing where people could not stop laughing and rolling on the floor.
Well your part of the world has its fair share of cults and we have a few also to be fair.Was yout cult based on an existant cult group or just built around featured from a few real ones?