Step right up to hear a tale both wondrous and true
Showman. Preacher. Charlatan. Healer. Aimee Semple McPherson is tough to define. Today, most Angelenos have never heard her name, but it was quite a different story in the 1920s. Her popularity at one point was so great that 10 percent of Los Angeles belonged to her Angelus Temple, which she designed with her mother in 1923.
Widowed at age 19, McPherson remarried at 22. Her call to preach was so strong, she got her start broadcasting sermons through a loudspeaker from the back of her “gospel car,” touring up and down the Eastern seaboard with her two children as passengers and her mother at the wheel. Outrageous behavior for a woman in those days. Like any good showman, she traveled, set up tents, held boisterous sermons, and inspired “speaking in tongues.” As her fame grew, so did her bank account, and she soon made her way to Los Angeles. Her philosophy focused on the rapture that comes from serving God rather than the torment suffered for forsaking Him. When preaching, she told relatable anecdotes with a permanent smile, a girlish giggle, and down-to-earth humor. Sometimes she spiced up her sermons with theatrics – like when she rode a motorcycle down the church aisle. Apparently she spent bank on Parisian gowns and kept her dyed-blond hair fashionably styled.
Info
Address 1100 Glendale Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90026, +1 213.816.1109 www.angelustemple.org, info@angelustemple.org | Getting there Metered and unmetered street parking | Hours Sermons: Sun 9:30 & 11:30; Thu 7pm. Be advised that some proselytizing will likely take place.| Tip Keeping up the religious theme, cruise over to the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels (555 W Temple Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012) and absorb the airy interior featuring fresco-like tapestries depicting saints standing with anonymous people from around the world.
After she purportedly healed a wheelchair-bound woman, word of her faith-healing powers spread exponentially. She was the first woman granted a broadcast license from the FCC and the first to preach on the radio. She purchased the radio station KFSG and aired sermons and programs directly from the temple, leveraging the then-modern medium to reach millions.
But along the rise to stardom were also scandals: a kidnapping; a disappearance; and a walk, Jesus-style, through a Mexican desert. There were nervous breakdowns, a falling-out with her daughter and mother, and finally an accidental fatal overdose, in 1944.
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