[Note: What follows is a description of the documents in this collection which are available for use at BGC Archives in Wheaton, Illinois, USA. The actual documents are not, in most cases, available online, only this description of them. Nor are they available for sale or rent. The recording of the oral history interview in this collection may be borrowed through interlibrary loan. ] |
In cases where an individual document (paper record, photo, audio
recording, moving image recording, etc.) is online at the Archives’
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Collection
602 [July
29, 2009]
Filkin,
Esther L. (Wyzenbeek); 1911-2007
Interview;
2004
Audio recording (.002
cubic feet)
Restrictions:
None
Brief
Description. Oral history interview in which Filkin describes memories
from her girlhood of Paul Rader and the Chicago Gospel Tabernacle, especially
its music program and of her father, Andrew Wyzenbeek.
Biography
Full name |
Esther L. (Wyzenbeek) Filkin |
|
Birth |
May 19, 1911, in Ottumwa, Iowa |
|
Death |
Oct. 12, 2007at Windsor Manor in Carol Stream, Illinois |
|
Family |
||
|
Parents |
Andrew and Sarah (Holabranch[?]) Wyzenbeek |
|
Siblings |
Blanche, Laura; Ruth, Andrew Jr. |
|
Marital Status |
Married to W. Warren Filkin, Jr. in 1982 |
|
Children |
Daughter Priscilla White; five step-children, June Filkin Taylor, Walter W. (Kaye) Filkin, David L. (Nancy) Filkin, Phyllis Filkin (Scott) Lorenz, Kathryn Filkin (Charles) Cardwell |
Career |
||
|
1921-1932 |
Very active as a girl in the programs of the Chicago Gospel Tabernacle, particularly its music program. She played the piccolo in many of the Tabernacle’s radio broadcasts. |
|
1932 |
Moved to Hollywood, California; owned and operated her own dress shop. |
|
Early 1980s |
Moved back to Chicago to care for her father, who died in 1984. She rejoined Moody Church of Chicago, which she had belonged to as a girl |
Esther
L. Filkin was interviewed by Bob Shuster on May 21, 2004, at her apartment in
Wheaton, Illinois. The events described in the interview cover the time period
1921-1932, with a few words about the early 1980s.
T1
( 93 minutes). Her
family’s involvement with the Chicago Gospel Tabernacle; exodus of musicians
from Moody Church to the Tabernacle; playing piccolo solos as the age of nine;
emphasis at the Tabernacle on missions as opposed to an impressive building;
the enclosed nursery; Paul Rader easily distracted during his preaching; physical
layout of the Tabernacle; the sound systems and recording systems; offices,
studios and other rooms off the main auditorium; twelve hour weekly broadcasts
on Sundays; how people traveled to the Tabernacle; crowds drawn by the radio
program; Rader’s preaching style; her father Andrew’s conversion
under Billy Sunday; Mel Trotter; Rader preaching on the story of Naaman; emphasis
on missions at the Tabernacle; Clarence Jones and HCJB; Peter Deyneka; independent
missionaries supported by the Tabernacle; A. M. Johnson; the Sunday School;
two completely different services at the Tabernacle every Sunday; different
attitudes at the Moody Church and the Tabernacle about instrumental music; the
music program at the Tabernacle [brief break in the recording]; no jazz; a typical
service; the evangelistic invitation; the origins of the Tabernacle’s
radio ministry using the city radio station; the hard work of the volunteer
Tabernacle broadcasts; the summer camp in Michigan; listening to the radio on
a hand-made crystal set; reason for Rader leaving the Tabernacle; becoming a
dressmaker in Hollywood; black people at the Tabernacle; W. B. Hogg; Gerald
B. Winrod; other Tabernacle activities; street preaching; personality of Clarence
Jones; Lance Latham; Ralph Rader; Luke Rader; memories of the Tabernacle; Torrey
M. Johnson; Andrew Wyzenbeek; other members of the Wyzenbeek family; Rader’s
prayers for the family; family devotions in three languages; her father as a
music teacher; working in her father’s engineering office; taking care
of her father in his nineties
Provenance
The
materials in this collection were given to the Archives of the Billy Graham
Center by Esther L. Filkin in May 2004.
Accession: 04-27
July 21, 2009
Bob Shuster
# |
R/C |
speed |
length |
Sides |
Contents |
Dates |
C |
-- |
93 |
2 |
May 21, 2004 |