The BGC Archives has in Collection 357 a typescript of a biography of Percy Crawford, written around 1955, that was apparently never finished. Below are links to three laudatory newspaper and magazine comments quoted in the typescript. Except for a few necessary changes for clarity, they are quoted as they appear in the typescript, with the typescript's punctuation. The dates suggested are guesses, based on the contents of reviews.
Youth on the March was a success from the first telecast. One of the best appraisals of the program was the following written by Carl F. Odhner, feature writer for the Allentown (Pennsylvania) Beacon who said:
"Undoubtedly the most inspiring television show to date is WFIL-TV's "Youth on the March", which is seen every Sunday over the full ABC Network. Under the sponsorship of Percy Crawford, one of the leading evangelists of our times, the program has done more to raise the quality of TV than any other. The program is "pure" television with the visual effects arising entirely from the personalities and the participants.
"The old and beautiful gospel hymns pour from the lips of young singers with more sincerity and belief than any of our wise and pious elderlies [sic] can assume. There is an unprepared and unrehearsed warmth that appeals to the viewer immediately. The most cocky and self assured of people can but smile in appreciation of a....[show without the] stuffiness that developes from most radio or televison religious presentations.
"The typical off-key trios that turns gospel songs into heart-rending wails are finally performed with the beautiful harmony they deserve. There is no false piety about it. "Youth on the March" is truly a weekly gospel meeting as you might have in your ‘Christian Endeavor' or ‘Luther League' or Brotherhood.
"The program shows the real American youth, relieved of the psychological wraps of toughness modern environments have garbed them in. The young people do not perform with over-sentimental expression; in their eyes are the good, clean expressions of the young. To them their program is one of the finer experiences of their lives. Yet it is religion. "Youth on the March" is going to great expense to prove one thing beyond all others – that young America can have religious tendencies without being termed "ickies" or "sissies" by their friends. Young people have a natural desire for social life. Their association with one another can bring forth results according to the nature of their activities. Misguided association has its results on the pages of our newspapers – crime and more crime. This is an old cry though. Everyone knows where juvenile delinquency breeds.
"Dr. Crawford is a fiery preacher, direct and to the point. He doesn't hold with a lot of learned adjectives. THAT is what makes him appeal to kids. Crawford looks right into the camera, and looks at no one but you. Folks get all red in the face and look out of the corner of their eyes to make sure no one else can see their embarrassment. Why does the network let him talk to the public as if they were all a bunch of chronic criminals? They do it because three fourths of the television audience turn to him to be told off. At first you think, "So who is he to tell me I am going to hell, already??" After listening to him you think, "Who is the character who that told this guy about me?" Crawford isn't necessarily talking to you although he aims it right at you. He deals with faults that are common to all people, everyone. You can't get perturbed at him because deep down you know it is true. Frankly he is hauling you over the coals for something that is nobody's business but your own. If he said it to you alone you would have a great urge to powder him one in the kisser, but he is merely preaching a sermon that is downright frank and to the point, with a deep understanding of the basic troubles of today's world. He is preaching to a congregation he can't see, which sees him. His sincerity, however, is so great that no matter what you believe you know that what he saying is aimed at a common fault that can be overcome with a little work on our part.
"The "Youth on the March" program is the best thing that could have happened to TV. It is simple in design but packed with visual impact that serves its purpose fully. It could have no greater time spot than it does. Sunday night is video's time. There is no evening finer. There is more quality programming this one evening than all the other six days combined. To close the evening's entertainment with such a program is Sunday's that will never be offered [sic] – with inspiration, and songs of the gospel. It is the 20th Century's answer to the pump-organ hymn sings of Gran'maw's days, a tradition that is nothing more than a mockery in this hydrogen age."
Another testimonial to the high quality of YOTH appeared in Printer's Ink which said, in part:
"There is nothing wishy-washy about Crawford, whose show, Youth on the March, has been on radio for many years and TV for two-and-a-half; you don't catch HIM sprinkling milk and water over HIS channel. Get their attention, get their confidence, give them the conviction of sin and bring them to their knees by the console– that's Crawford's formula. He allows himself 7 minutes for this at the end of each program, and 30 hours a week preparation. He sees nothing against respectable commercial sponsorship but doubts that manufacturers would want their customers to be told off as sinners. His program has been supported by gifts from listeners ever since it began, and he is willing to go off the air any time his message no longer brings expense money."
How TV is helping Percy to reach an even greater audience was revealed in the Pittsburgh Sunday Sun-Telegraph published the day after he held a huge television rally in that city. [The rally was ca. 1952] The editorial reported:
"Four thousand were reported outside a Pittsburgh auditorium and 3,000 inside it, when Percy Crawford, the television-radio preacher, and his associates presented a program of preaching and religious music last Saturday night.
"People began arriving hours before the program time and waited patiently while the seats filled, a second auditorium room was opened and filled and as the crowd began milling outside the doors. [sic]
"The Rev. Dr. Percy Crawford had his family with him – the youngsters who sing in harmony and the three-year-old Donna Lee swinging her arms as conductor and Mrs. Crawford, who plays the piano and occasionally sings herself – in the pleasing voice of a church choir soprano.
"Whether the Crawfords could have drawn this attention in a city as outwardly materialistic as Pittsburgh before the age of television is questionable. Nevertheless, they did draw the crowd with little advance promotion, and it was one of the biggest crowds ever to attend such an indoor affair in the steel city.
"We believe the Crawfords' experience in Pittsburgh and their remarkable success with the Sunday night programs, which are financed by mailed contributions of appreciative listeners, are among the most wonderful developments at this stage of the American experience.
"We couple it with the sensational triumph of Bishop Fulton J. Sheen and his religious talks on TV on Tuesday nights, a program which has drawn the top audience rating against the once formidable competition of Milton Berle and his popular comedy hour.
"The Crawford and Sheen programs have confounded those who sit in the seats of the TV mighty and attempt to diagnose the intelligence and receptivity of the American public. Both have been accidental successes in the so-called entertainment world, starting out as incidental presentations and making the top on their merits.
"Now the experts are asking themselves if they had the popular tastes rated too low. We think they did it because, with habitual resort to banality, they overlooked the fine character of our people – a character compounded of deep and spiritual instincts.
"Despite the cruelty and nihilism of this war-ridden age, we Americans have changed little in our hearts. The same old impulses govern us and the same humility marks us no matter how surface appearances have been altered by the impact of modern problems and progress. It took the Crawfords and Bishop Sheen, with their exercise of the opportunity of television, to prove this point."