Transcript and audio file of an excerpt from an oral history interview of Torrey Johnson by Paul Hollinger in 1993 for radio station WDAC of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Johnson talks about his part in the origins of the Chicagoland Youth for Christ. From the Papers of Torrey Johnson, Collection 285, audio tape T41. Duration = 6:04 minutes.

JOHNSON: On Pearl Harbor Day, December 6th, 1941, two young men in my church were killed in Pearl Harbor. Afterward, there were four more killed. I had a church with about two hundred servicemen in my congregation.

HOLLINGER: Was that Midwest Bible Church?

JOHNSON: Midwest Bible Church. So I had great burden for those young people. And I thought about those two boys, and I thanked God that I had witnessed to both of them. So far as I know, I had the assurance that both of them had decided for Christ.

HOLLINGER: Yes.

JOHNSON: So that began that kind of a burden for the servicemen. Then in addition to that, Beverly Shea had come from New York City where he worked with Will Holton in the Calvary Church. And a young man by the name of Lacy Hall from Orlando Florida. They called me up day by day over the telephone from the Moody Bible Institute. They said, “Torrey, you’ve got to do it. Torrey, you’ve got to do it.” Particularly Beverly Shea said, “Jack Wyrtzen has done it in Chica...New York, you can do it in Chicago.” I said, “I’m too busy. I’ve got all kinds of meetings. Too occupied. Can’t do it.” But he kept after me. Nagged on me...nagged on me. Finally it got through to me. I said, “Good night, I can’t get him off my back.”

HOLLINGER: Bev Shea...

JOHNSON: Bev Shea.

HOLLINGER: Doesn’t strike me as that kind of a persistent man.

JOHNSON: That’s what he did. He was persistent. So, I started to pray, and as I prayed servicemen began to come into Chicago because war was going on. There were 500,000 servicemen in training in the Chicago area. And there was 500,000 people with their friends, came into the city for the burlesque shows, for the night clubs, for the theaters, for all the activities. The streets were screaming with servicemen...no place to go, nothing to do. The devil was busy. So I said, “Now if the devil can get a crowd on Saturday night why can’t we get a crowd?” So we started out and we rented Orchestra Hall.

HOLLINGER: Beautiful place. Still is.

JOHNSON: God...God was good to us. On Saturday night during the summer there was no orchestras going on, so it was open. So you could get it for seventeen Saturday nights for five thousand dollars.

HOLLINGER: My goodness.

JOHNSON: Five thousand dollars was a lot money.

HOLLINGER: Right.

JOHNSON: But the location was wonderful. I said, “We’re gonna take it, sign up." So we signed up and we took it. I wanted the best speaker I knew to come. The best speaker was Billy Graham.

HOLLINGER: Even then.

JOHNSON: We had made acquaintance with him during those years.

HOLLINGER: Okay.

JOHNSON: I said, “I want Billy Graham for the first Saturday night. So Billy Graham was there for the first Saturday night. He preached on weighing the balances and found wanting. He gave the invitation. We didn’t know if anyone was gonna come. We had no constituency.

HOLLINGER: Right.

JOHNSON: Passed out a little pamphlet on the street, asked people to come in. The place was full. Over forty people responded the first Saturday night. I’ll tell you, we were in heaven’s glory. So we continued for seventeen weeks. Then I talked to Mr. Wadsworth of the Great Commission Prayer Meeting - wise saint of God. I said, “Now we finished our seventeen weeks. What do you think we ought to do?” He said, “You’re a group of race horses, and [?] you turn the race horses out in the pasture. I think you ought to close up now and start again in the spring.” But we were too ambitious I guess, and too on fire. We said, “No, we can’t do that.” But we couldn’t find another auditorium and we didn’t want to go to Moody Church.

HOLLINGER: Why?

JOHNSON: We didn’t want to go because it was a church. We thought people would come into a hall or a theater, but that was the only place that was open for us. And they were very careful. Banners, sticky paper, promotion, everything had to be quite proper.

HOLLINGER: Yes.

JOHNSON: So we had a little difficulty that way, but after a while they sweetened up and Tom Smith and other elders of the church, they were with us. So I went to Moody Church.

HOLLINGER: Who would have been the pastor of that era?

JOHNSON: At that time it was...

HOLLINGER: Evelun, do you know?

JOHNSON: Who was the pastor at that time? Ironside!

HOLLINGER: Oh, Harry Ironside.

JOHNSON: And he was one of my best boosters.

HOLLINGER: Oh, that’s good.

JOHNSON: His office was on the fourth floor, way back in the corner. That’s where his office was. And every Saturday night that he was home he’d sit up on the balcony back in that corner, praying for us. And then afterward he came down one Saturday night. He said, “We’re getting a lot of heat, a lot of criticism. It's difficult.” But he said, “Remember this, every revival that ever was started by young people. You’re doing a good job. Carry on.”

HOLLINGER: Bless him.

JOHNSON: And he was a booster.

HOLLINGER: Why were you getting heat?

JOHNSON: Well, because we did some novelties. Had a telephone on the platform where servicemen could call home for free. Those kind of things. Maybe we had a...

HOLLINGER: Didn’t seem spiritual enough?

JOHNSON: ...ventriloquist with a little dog, you know. And then we had...we had Louie Talbot. Louie Talbot was a magician, president of Biola University.

HOLLINGER: Yeah, Louis Talbot.

JOHNSON: And he would use...

HOLLINGER: Seminary named for it.

JOHNSON: His magic.

HOLLINGER: Okay.

JOHNSON: And Warren Philkin used his magic. Those kind of things that were not typical Sunday services.

HOLLINGER: What was the...

JOHNSON: Not wholesome.

HOLLINGER: What was the music like at Youth for Christ then compared with the church on Sunday morning then?

JOHNSON: More choruses. More choruses, more of the music that Percy Crawford had.

HOLLINGER: More instruments?

JOHNSON: Yes, we had instruments. We had a band. We had a band often times. A good...good gospel band that played good ole fashion gospel music.

HOLLINGER: Whereas in Midwest Bible Church you’d of had what on Sunday morning? An organ and a piano?

JOHNSON: Yes.

HOLLINGER: And a choir?

JOHNSON: Yes.