Transcript and audio file of an excerpt from oral history interview with Merrill Dunlop. June 1, 1979. Dunlop was a musician deeply involved in the early days of Youth for Christ. In this excerpt he describes the early YFC rallies in Chicago and the opposition their unorthodox style raised. From the Ephemera of Merrill Dunlop, Collection 50, audio tape T2. Also read the entire transcript of T2 or all three transcripts. Duration = 4:15 minutes.

DUNLOP: And in fact every Saturday night for awhile I remember I had to give auditions to young people who wanted to be heard vocally or instrumentally and Doug Fisher did the same thing. We were constantly putting the spotlight on the best we could find in music, you see. We'd have quartets and ensemble groups and youth choirs and so forth. Talented young instrumentalists, cornetists. Of course our band provided great music. Let me see, I was just going to say something else. [Pauses.] We had an outstanding speaker each week, not necessarily a youth himself, but speakers who were often men of great renown. And we had speakers from all over the country who would be coming through. And I remember there was a number of times when some of these preachers really felt as though they had been very definitely cheated by Youth for Christ. And they had come expecting to preach a full length sermon when what was wanted was about fifteen, eighteen minutes, you see, which would be a direct scriptural presentation, a gospel appeal and an invitation. Not...not a long three point sermon, as a pastor might preach on Sunday morning. Some of these pastors really heavily criticized because when they saw the program, they were programed for maybe eighteen minutes of message, beginning at, I'd say, 8:42 and going to 9:05 or something like that and highly resented that in some cases. And I heard many times that criticism voiced, "Well, these...these Youth for Christ boys, they don't know what they are doing. They're trying to run the message out and just put a lot of music and features in." But you see the...the...the philosophy of it was to appeal to young people with all of these features and get them to hear the message and then hook them with it and, my, the invitations which were given there in Orchestra Hall were tremendously responsive. And you'd see a large group of people being dealt with every Saturday night. Now, we could have Orchestra Hall only in the summer time, after the symphony concerts were over, you see, and they...the concerts...the concerts I think...symphony concert season ended about April and we came in there about that time, probably the first part of May and were able to stay in until about after Labor Day and then of course the concert season started and of course the management was booking the regular concert so then we went to Moody Church and for the entire winter season, every Saturday night we were at Moody Church. Well, they filled up Moody church, you see. Seats four thousand people.

SHUSTER: What about the...did you get coverage in the secular press of the meetings?

DUNLOP: Yes, I think so. I can't remember exac...how much. I know we had much we had some of the big rallies, we had the big Soldier Field rallies on two or three occasions, where Dr...Dr. Fuller was the preacher one time and Percy Crawford was the preacher another time. That's Soldier Field. And we had the Chicago Stadium I think twice. Way back there, I mean that was a tremendous big step, to get that first rally going in the Chicago Stadium, which seated...I think they said seating the main floor along with all those big side bleachers they could seat twenty-five thousand people there. Well, we...we knew that the rent on that, which was five thousand dollars for the...for the...per night, back there was a tremendous thing and some people, you know, [gasps] "Can it be done?" But when the place was so jam full, they had to turn people away you know. I mean it was...it was really something. So we did get some publicity out of that, yes.

Transcript and audio file of excerpt about Rose Arzoomanian, other musicians and the opening night of the Orchestra Hall Rally at which Billy Graham was the first preacher. See a photograph of Arzoomanian. From the Ephemera of Merrill Dunlop, Collection 50, audio tape T2. Also read the entire transcript of T2 or all three transcripts. Duration = 2:09 minutes.

DUNLOP: Dr. Torrey Johnson was the man who pulled this whole thing together and started the Chicagoland Youth for Christ. And associated with him were Bob Cook and Doug Fisher, as I mentioned, was there in music along with me. And he had Beverly Shea then as a singer and we used to have a girl by the of Rose Arzoomanian who was a...quite fine singer. She had been a contest winner...winner in the Chicago Tribune festival deals and...and a very fine Christian girl. So all that group was together and it just seemed that the crowds began to come. Now the very first preacher for the...for that opening Youth for Christ deal in Chi...in Orches...Orchestra Hall, Chicago was Billy Graham. And I remember the...the suspense that we all had, wondering how many people might show up for first meeting in Orchestra Hall. And we were praying about it and there was much prayer that went on preceding that opening rally. And when we arrived at Orchestra Hall that night, we were just simply happily stunned, if I could put it that way. The Orchestra Hall, the main floor and that first big balcony section was just filled. I don't think we used the peanut gallery at the top. But...but that was a tremendous crowd. And the opening rally was...was just a great one. Everything had been perfectly timed and Torrey Johnson had presented Billy Graham for the message and Billy gave an invitation. He was not...he was not known then, you know, Billy Graham. He was just a young preacher. But I mean he had such fire and such exuberance and fidelity to the preaching of the Word of God that, I mean it, it was just electrifying. He gave an invitation. There were many, many people saved that night. And from that rally on, those...Orchestra Hall filled up to the top until finally we had to have two services on a Saturday night.