Records of the BGEA: World Wide Pictures, Inc. - Collection 214

[Note: What follows is a description of the documents in this collection which are available for use at BGC Archives in Wheaton, Illinois, USA. The actual documents are not, in most cases, available online, only this description of them. Nor are they available for sale or rent.]

Table of Contents

Brief Description of This Collection

Title Page and Restrictions

General Historical Background of Billy Graham and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association

Historical Background

An Essay on the Contents of the Collection (Scope and Content)

Other Information Which Will Be Helpful to the User of This Guide

Lists of Films, Microfilm, Oversize Materials, Phonograph Records, Photographs, and Video Tapes in This Collection (Location Records)

Films
Microfilm
Oversize Materials
Phonograph Records
Photographs
Video Tapes

List of the Contents of Boxes of Paper Records in This Collection (Container List)

Collection 214
[December 1, 2004]
Billy Graham Evangelistic Association; 1950-
World Wide Pictures, Inc.; 1951-
Records; 1951-1999, n.d.
16 Boxes (7 RC, 9 DC; 11.3 cubic feet ), Films, Microfilm, Oversize Material, Phonograph Records, Photographs, Video Tapes

Restrictions:

The materials described as "Scrapbook Contents" in the "Location Record: Oversize Materials" of this guide cannot be used due to the fragility of the volumes. Researchers should instead refer to the "Location Record: Microfilm" to gain access to this material.

All materials in this collection are on deposit from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and may not be copied without written permission from the BGEA. Any researcher who wishes to request permission must get the required form from the Archives staff. It is the responsibility of the researcher to fill out the form and send it to the BGEA.

Historical Background

The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) was incorporated in 1950 as William Franklin "Billy" Graham's evangelistic ministry became well known nationwide. The organization planned and coordinated evangelistic meetings and other activities of Graham and his associate evangelists. The Association--which had offices in cities around the world including Sydney, Buenos Aires, Winnipeg, London, Paris, Frankfort, Hong Kong, and Mexico City--was based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Besides its work in evangelism, the BGEA or its subsidiaries, Grason Company and World Wide Pictures, published periodicals (the color tabloid Decision is prepared in six languages and Braille), books, phonograph records, audio tapes, and produced films and radio and television programs.

Billy Graham was introduced to Dick Ross, owner of Great Commission Films, in 1949. During Graham's Portland campaign in 1950, Ross produced a documentary film on the Crusade and its activities. The film's success led to the incorporation in 1951 of World Wide Pictures as a BGEA subsidiary with Ross at the helm. The purpose of the agency was to produce and distribute Billy Graham films.

Mr. Texas was the first World Wide feature film. It was made during the 1951 Fort Worth Crusade and premiered at the conclusion of the Hollywood Bowl Crusade. Other feature films followed, including For Pete's Sake, The Restless Ones, The Hiding Place, and Joni. World Wide acquired a studio and headquarters in Burbank, California. In 1970, William Brown became the company's president. The distribution office for the films was in close to the BGEA's headquarters in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Most of the films were distributed to churches and other religious groups but sometimes also to secular theaters. BGEA offices in other countries often assisted in distributing the films around the world.

[NOTE: In the Scope and Content description, the notation "Folder 2-5" means Box 2, Folder 5.]

Scope and Content

The World Wide Pictures (WWP) collection is a potpourri of films, files, and other materials relating to several aspects of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, including the production and distribution of evangelistic feature films, the production of Graham crusade films, and publicity for Graham crusades. This collection consists two parts: seven boxes of files dealing with the production and promotion of WWP films and nine boxes of files of correspondence, which deals with the distribution o the films outside of the United States.

I. Film Files.

This series contains only fragmentary amounts of the paper documentation which WWP has generated and some of the actual films. The best overview of what materials are in this collection can be gained from a careful reading of the Location Records and the Container List. Folder titles as given in the Container List are an accurate reflection of folder contents.

The files in the collection center on production files and scripts for upwards of thirty films either actually produced by WWP or considered for production. A read-through of the Container List, below in this guide, will give a comprehensive listing of these films. A few notes concerning some of the titles are as follows:

Cradle of Violence (folder 1-37) was a Great Commission Films production.

The Crescent and the Cross (folder 1-38) was produced by Great Commission Films for Winona Lake School of Theology.

Dead Men on Furlough (folder 1-39) was produced by Great Commission Films for World Vision.

Japan: Source of the Son (folder 5-2) concerned the Billy Graham Japan Crusade of 1980.

No Longer Alone (folders 6-11 to 6-15) is a biography of Joan Winmill Brown.

Shiokari Pass (folders 6-21 and 6-22) was also titled Love Stopped The Runaway Train.

Showdown (folder 6-23) and Trouble in the Territory (folder 7-8) are different titles for the same script.

Wire Tapper (folder 7-13) is a biography of James Vaus.

World of Billy Graham (folder 7-15) was a commercial production of NBC Studios. WWP supplied footage from various Graham crusades.

"Production files" include correspondence, technical specifications, and sometimes scripts or script excerpts. The production file for the London crusades (folder 5-18) includes publicity materials as well as texts of Graham's sermons delivered at the crusade meetings. Sermon transcripts (or sections of transcripts) are also found in files for Time to Run (folder 7-13) and Billy Graham in Alabama (folder 1-29). Folder 7-18 has a transcript of Akbar Haqq's sermon from film F37.

By far the best-documented film in Collection 214 is The Hiding Place (folders 2-6 through 4-15). The series of files marked "Distribution" (folders 2-10 through 3-3) reflect the many angles from which WWP sought to advertise the film. The series of The Hiding Place fund-raising materials (folders 3-5 through 4-11) reflect the creation by WWP of a grass-roots funding source for the film which was known as the Hiding Place Family. The twenty-five folders preserved here are a sample comprising approximately one-sixtieth of the original bulk of this series. Because of the immense bulk of the complete files and the repetitive nature of the individual pieces, it was decided that retention of all files would be a detriment rather than an asset to research. The eighty-seven boxes of material from which these twenty-five folders were distilled contained but one type of document--printed mailers which private citizens across North America returned to WWP headquarters in Minneapolis with cash donations to cover the cost of the film's production. Often, personal letters of encouragement accompanied the money. These envelopes were bundled into packets daily (with more than one packet for most days, and the number of pieces and amount of money were noted on the front of the packets. Letters were stapled to their proper envelopes. See note in Provenance, below in this guide, concerning the methodology used in sampling this material.

The seating plan drawing for the 1967 London Crusade (OS 19, from folder 5-17) is a particularly handsome piece. Many architectural specification drawings are included in the collection (see Location Record: Oversize Material) but most are of a highly technical nature.

The material in the BGEA series (folders 1-3 through 1-26) has nothing to do per se with WWP. It is involved with local arrangements and publicity efforts done to establish a solid spiritual foundation on which to build successful crusades. Its presence in the WWP collection is explained by a note from a WWP staff member, accompanying the material's transfer to the Graham Center; "...some material left in our offices since the B.G. Anniversary Celebration," presumably of 1975.

The five folders labeled "Scrapbook Contents" (see Location Record: Oversize Material) need a further note of explanation. Only the fifth scrapbook documents WWP specifically; it includes posters, brochures, and other publicity for various WWP productions. The first four scrapbooks contain newspaper clippings from BGEA crusades, specifically:

1. BGEA; 1954-1962 - Greater London Crusade, 1954, European Tour, 1955, India Tour, 1956,

New York Crusade, 1957, San Francisco Bay Cities Crusade, 1958, Australia and New Zealand Crusade, 1958-59, African Tour, 1960

2. BGEA; 1963-1965 - Southern California Crusade, 1963, San Diego County Crusade, 1964, Greater Denver Crusade, 1965

3. BGEA; 1963-1969 - Southern California Crusade, 1963, San Diego County Crusade, 1964, Central Ohio (Columbus) Crusade, 1964, Greater London Crusade, 1966, Southern California Crusade, 1969

4. Los Angeles; 1963 - Southern California Crusade, 1963

Other bits of non-WWP material include a program for a dinner honoring Dr. L. Nelson Bell in 1965 (folder 1-2) and letters to Graham from the mayors of Las Vegas and Indianapolis (folder 1-34).

II. International Distribution Files

The files in this series (boxes 8 through 15) consist of the correspondence of David Barr, who was responsible for the international distribution of WWP films from 1968 until 1989. These records arrived at the Archives in a very disordered condition and not separated into folders. The arrangement was supplied by the Archives staff, based on what could be determined of the original order of the material. The files are arranged alphabetically by the name of the country where the films are being used. There are also files for the Amsterdam '86 conference of itinerant evangelists, several files of general correspondence, and files for Ira Schipper, Walter Smyth, and South America. Because the correspondence was routine and often repetitive in nature, only a sample of the original files was preserved, consisting of about a third of the original accession.

The correspondence in the series deals with the renting and distribution of WWP films, usually for some kind of evangelistic outreach. Letters were exchanged with BGEA offices in other countries and with BGEA staff especially charged with handling film distribution in various regions, as well as individual renters and distributors. Correspondence (including invoices, shipping notices as well as letters) usually deals with what was needed when and in what language, etc., although there are also sometimes reports on the response to the films and the general situation for evangelistic outreach in a particular city, country or region. There are also reports, memos, and statistics on the internal function of the WWP's international film distribution, especially in the files labeled "General" (folders 10-2 to 10-4). Some folders also contain reports and other information about independent film ministries in other countries, ministries that also served as distributors for WWP films, such as Galilean Films and Television Service of Israel (folder 12-2), Gospel Film Team of Norway (14-8) and Religious Film Services of Zimbabwe (16-10). Among the countries or regions for which there is correspondence are Argentina, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Colombia, Costa Rica, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, Ivory Coast, Japan, Kenya, Lebanon, Liberia, Malaysia, Mexico, military, Netherlands, New Zealand, Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Puerto Rico, Sierra Leone, South Africa, South America, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Uganda, Venezuela, Zambia, Zimbabwe. There is also a great deal of correspondence, found in folders 13-2 to 14-1, with chaplains of U. S. military forces about the use of films.

Provenance

The materials in this collection were received from the BGEA, including World Wide Pictures, between 1976 and 1996. As mentioned above, only a sample was preserved of The Hiding Place family records (boxes 2 through 4) and the international film distribution files (boxes 8 to 16).

Accession 76-12, 77-4, 78-4, 78-8, 81-34, 81-42, 81-63, 81-72, 81-77, 82-118, 82-170, 83-22, 84-6, 84-118, 87-29, 87-66, 89-23, 89-24, 89-133, 91-61, 92-109, 96-71

October 14, 1982
Galen R. Wilson
J. Nasgowitz

Revised August 12, 1983
Robert Shuster
J. Nasgowitz

Revised December 9, 1987
Robert Shuster
J. Nasgowitz

Revised December 9, 1992
M. L. Wohlschlegel

Revised January 27, 1993
M. L. Wohlschlegel

Revised June 16, 1993
M. L. Larson

Updated March 18, 1998
Robert Shuster
M. Drobnick

Updated, June 17, 1998
Robert Shuster

Accession #91-43, 95-117, 99-58
Updated, November 16, 2004
Christian Sawyer
E. Kuehn

LOCATION RECORD
Accession: 81-77, 82-118, 82-170, 83-22, 87-29, 89-23, 89-24, 91-61
Type of Material: Films
The following items are located in the FILM FILE: