DRURY: Percy...Billy Graham had his funeral at Town Hall. We...we had it packed to capacity.
SHUSTER: That was in Philadelphia?
DRURY: Yeah...they...October 1960. They.... Well, maybe...maybe the first week in November, because he died Halloween.
SHUSTER: Hmm.
DRURY: What's that, the 31st?
SHUSTER: 31st.
DRURY: The 31st of October 1960. And Billy...Billy had the...had the...the funeral. It was interesting. We [pauses]...we had tried...tried the headquarters [of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association] out in Minneapolis, and tried here and tried there. And it was cute that we...somehow we got a hold of his parents' home in Charlotte. (They were alive.) And Mr. Graham said [laughs, ice clinks in plastic glass] to his wife, "Do you have any idea where Billy Frank is?" you know. "I...I...I don't know anything about his schedule." And you would think that he was talking about a kid who was playing out in the front yard. "Do...do you know where Billy Frank is?" Well, we got a hold of...I didn't, but one of the other people close to Percy got a hold of him, and he came, and he spoke. And he told about the excitement when he was a student...when Dr. Graham was a student at...at Wheaton. And I've spoken at enough colleges, including Wheaton, to realize that kids come in, and get propped up, and put their textbook on their lap, and are scrutinizing it for the next class. But he said, "Not so with...with..." he said, "with Percy B. Crawford." Now this is Billy Graham talking. He said, "When this man came there was excitement. He was Mr. Excitement. And I would close my books, and I...I would prop up my [pauses] arm and my...my head and my hands and my arms." "And," he...he...he said, "he had magnetism, he had magne...." It was said of the Reverend Dr. Percy B. Crawford that...that...that no other evangelist could preach the gospel crystalized, chronologically God's plan of salvation in twelve minutes and give an invitation. And...but the meetings that I was with Percy Crawford never...never did I ever sit in a meeting where souls were not saved. First-time decisions.
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DRURY: The only invitation he gave was for salvation. Never recommitment, not...not dedication. I...I can....
SHUSTER: Why was that?
DRURY: Because he was an evangelist. He...he was an evangelist. He...he...he didn't call himself a revivalist. He was not there [laughs] to revive people. He said, "They're not saved to begin with! You've got to get them saved." He said, "Maybe you can re...." And I can still see.... And anybody who knew Percy B. Crawford...we jokingly said that his one finger was about eighteen inches long. [Shuster laughs] And he would point that finger at you like a shotgun. And he would go around the audience very quickly. "You, you, right there, yeah, you, you, you, and you and you and you. You're outside of the family of God and you're going to a sinner's hell. That's right, you're going to die and you're going to go to hell. You're going to burn there for.... The Bible says so. There's a lake of fire. There's going to be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. And you're going to go there. And right now what I want you to do, I want you to get up out of your seat and say, 'Jesus, I want you to come in to be my Lord, my Savior, my Master. I want to be cleansed, want to be forgiven, want to be restored, want to receive Jesus.'" And boom. As I said, I never was in a meeting, I don't care how small it was, that somebody didn't get up. Jokingly they said that Percy B. Crawford could sp...could speak to a group of Fundamentalist pastors [laughs] and somebody would get saved, you know.
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DRURY: And Jim Vaus...you...you know the name Jim Vaus? Jim Vaus came to Youtharama. And I...I would get down at Town Hall like two o'clock in the afternoon, and the choir would start to rehearse at three o'clock, and the orchestra and all of that. And he got there early. He got.... Percy...Percy got there at maybe a half hour before the rally. But Jim Vaus said to me, "I've got a terrific message on angels." [Laughs] I...you know, I...like I said, I was a novice. I said, "Jim, angels aren't going to fly [Shuster laughs] in this meeting. I don't think that that's appro...." "Oh, yeah." he said, "Tremendous message." I said, "No, I think...." What Jim Vaus was noted for was his testimony and his sound effects. He didn't have any of his equipment. And we didn't need it, really, because the speaker was only a very small part of the program. And that has to be explained. And it was evangelism, it was evangelism. We were there to see souls saved. So I said, "So be it." And I...I said to the other people, "You see Percy Crawford walk in the front door, let me know." And they...they said, "Percy's out in the lobby talking to some people." And I went around the side of the auditorium, and I said, "Percy, when you have a minute." And he said, "What is it?" I said, "Can you come over here?" [laughs] I said, "Jim Vaus is backstage and he has a message on angels." "He has a message on what?!" [Shuster laughs] I said, "Angels." "Jim Vaus is going to be talking about a...the wiretapping?" I said, "Yeah." "No, he's not going to do that, Bill." I said, "I told him that, but he said he is." "Well, he told you, but he didn't tell Percy," he said. I walked behind him, and I stood off at a distance to see how he operated. He said, "Jim, you're going to be giving your testimony tonight. You ARE going to be giving your testimony tonight." Before.... And Jim said, "But...." "And no buts." He said, "That's why I brought you here, James, to...for you to give your testimony, and then I'll close with the invitation. God bless you." Walked away. That was it. And so he was the decision maker.
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DRURY: A rather quick thing, which is not advisable for young preachers and young evan.... You'd be going to a meeting with Percy, and Percy would have his New Testament on the steering wheel. [Shuster laughs] He was a fast driver, he was a fast driver. He said, "Bill," he said, "you can drive fast, but make sure you've got one eye...one eye in the rearview mirror and the other eye on the road, and occasionally both of them on...on your New Testament." [Shuster laughs.] But he said, "When all of a sudden another light pops into that...from that [Shuster laughs] side road," he said, "you slow down." He said, "It's probably...probably the police." [Shuster laughs] But...but he would be reading his New Testament while he was driving sixty, sixty-five miles an hour. "Bill, look at that, look at that. I don't know that I saw this before. Look, look and see what John says here." And I'm saying [Shuster laughs], "Dear God, please," you know. "Percy, the road!" you know.
