1920s: People, Aimee Semple McPherson

Aimee Semple McPherson
(1890-1944)
U.S. religious leader, evangelist

"Sister Aimee" was one of the most fascinating characters of the 1920s, an iconic figure who has a cult religious following even to this day. She was the first, and certainly the most successful, evangelist to use the accouterments of the modern world to build a church with a massive following. She started out using an auto, her so-called "Gospel Car" to take her "Jesus Saves" message from town to town, and also used the radio liberally to spread the word. After press reports about her alleged powers to heal the sick, her fame was secured. She founded the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel and in 1923 moved it into the new 5,000-seat Angelus Temple in Los Angeles, complete with a revolving illuminated cross on top that could be seen for miles. Although she preached against the sins of entertainment, her own sermons were staged with a theatrical elan worthy of nearby Hollywood. For 20 years, she preached about Jesus for pilgrims at the temple as well as to the radio audience. Her own personal life was less than holy. She left her first husband to pursue her religious career, and eventually married and divorced three times. In 1926, she mysteriously disappeared and five weeks later claimed to have been kidnapped, but speculation was that she had staged the incident herself for either publicity or to be with a lover. She O.D'd on sleeping pills and died in 1944. Her exploits inspired the Sinclair Lewis' novel Elmer Gantry (1927).