by In March 1959, US evangelist Billy Graham came to Melbourne and set a record that still stands: the largest ever crowd at the MCG.
The Melbourne Cricket Ground is Australia’s largest venue. Used for sports, gigs and occasional conferences, its seated capacity is around 100 000.
For events where the playing surface can be used for standing room, a few more can be accommodated.
In earlier times, the ground’s capacity was much higher. Older grandstands had standing room and bench seating, with a less specific capacity, spectators at footy finals would often spill onto the ground itself.
This allowed for bigger crowds to be squeezed in.
But the largest ever crowd at the MCG was not caused by a footy match or music concert. Instead, the record goes to a religious revival meeting, held by the most famous evangelist of his era, Billy Graham.
Billy Graham was born William Franklin Graham Jr. in November 1918, on a dairy farm in North Carolina.
The eldest of four children, Graham had a modest upbringing, working on the family farm and attending local schools. His parents were conservative Presbyterians and deeply religious, but Graham not especially so until he was a teenager.
In 1934, when he was 16, a labourer on the family farm convinced Graham to attend a revival meeting in Charlotte, held by evangelist Mordecai Ham. Ham was an independent southern Baptist, whose fiery style had made him popular in rural areas.
Initially indifferent, Graham was eventually won over by Ham’s passion. At the end of the meeting he joined in a public expression, committing himself to the faith.
‘I walked down to the front, feeling as if I had lead weights attached to my feet. No bells went off inside me. No physical palpitations made me tremble. I simply felt at peace. Quiet, not delirious. Happy and peaceful.’
– Billy Graham, recalling his spiritual awakening
Graham returned to see Ham the following night. Afterwards, he became increasingly interested in evangelical ministry, and would go on to study theology at Bob Jones University.
After college, Graham attended the Florida Bible Institute, and began preaching in churches and prisons.
He was ordained as a minister in 1939, and during World War II spent some time as an Army chaplain. After the war he joined Youth for Christ, an activist group that held rallies aimed at converting young people.
Graham appeared at these, where he honed his skills as an orator. He had a straightforward, direct style that endeared him to his audience, and quickly built a following.
In 1949, Graham held his own tent revival in Los Angeles. Originally planned as a short event, this was eventually extended to eight weeks due to popular demand.
The resulting media attention established Graham as an independent preacher, and set a template he would use in future: mass outdoor meetings, centred around himself, encouraging people to pledge themselves to the faith.
Graham would call these events, ‘Crusades’.
Through the 1950s, Graham’s Crusades grew in popularity, and he became the best known evangelist in America.
His celebrity would bring him access to other famous people. Starting with Harry Truman in 1950, Graham would counsel every American president up to Barack Obama; he was particularly close to both Eisenhower and Nixon.
His political views, that of a centralist conservative, would start to appear in his sermons.
In 1954, Graham expanded overseas, holding an event in London at Harringay Arena. This also drew huge crowds, and ran for 12 weeks, far longer than originally planned.
More overseas Crusades would follow.
In 1959, Graham visited the southern hemisphere, undertaking a tour through New Zealand and Australia. Called the ‘Southern Cross Crusades’, this would be a major undertaking: lasting 16 weeks, the tour required 9 000 staff and volunteers to run.
Graham flew into Sydney in early February, then on to Melbourne for the first event. Arriving at Essendon Airport, he was greeted by a sizable crowd of supporters.
Graham’s fame proceeded him: his activities in America were well known locally.
The only venue with enough capacity to accommodate the expected crowds was the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Graham held three Crusades at the MCG, starting on February 15.
These built steadily in size. The final Crusade at the ground, on March 15, would draw the largest ever crowd at the MCG: 143 000.
March 15, 1959 was a clear autumn day, mild and sunny. From early morning, people began to arrive at the MCG, packing into the ground ahead of the event’s start in the afternoon.
The huge numbers caused logistical chaos.
Special trains and busses were scheduled to get attendees into the city, many of them coming from regional Victoria. Extra police were also rostered, to try and cope with the traffic.
They were overwhelmed: the local press reported traffic jams stretching for miles, in the surrounding suburbs.
When the grandstands were full to capacity, the crowd overflowed onto the playing surface.
‘There were people everywhere, even spilling on to the grass. That was unheard of at the time. I was only a kid, but it was great to see so many people together.’
– Ray Spriggs, attendee
In the middle of the ground a large stage had been erected for the speakers. This was flanked by musicians and a 2 800 member choir, who performed Christian music and hymns throughout the day.
The program was opened by Sir Dallas Brooks, the Governor of Victoria, who read a passage from the Bible.
When Graham took the stage, he called for a religious awakening in Australia. His sermon was titled, ‘The Two Lives of Man’.
‘There are two ways to live. One is the selfish, self-centred way that leads to destruction, and the other is the god centred way, in which people serve.’
– Billy Graham, MCG sermon
Graham’s speech encouraged people to serve God, and the Church, for the betterment of society. He also addressed some political topics including the rise of Communism, which he called the ‘greatest threat of the 20th century’.
His sermon ended with a pledge from the crowd to God. According to a press report, about 9 000 people stood up to make the public commitment.
The Crusade finished in the later afternoon, with a mass singalong of the hymn ‘How Great Thou Art’. It took many hours for the enormous crowd to disperse again.
After his success in Melbourne, Graham moved on to Sydney where he appeared at the Showgrounds in front of another huge crowd. In the following two months, he held more Crusades in Australia and New Zealand, zipping back and forth across the Tasman several times.
Due to a tight schedule, Graham did not always appear in person at every event. Many of the Crusades ran for multiple days, Graham often appeared just on the final day for the climax.
More than 3 million people would attend the tour. Graham claimed at its conclusion that nearly three quarters of a million of them pledged themselves to the faith.
While the tour was popular it also drew controversy.
Some local clergy objected to an ‘Americanisation’ of religion, at odds with local practice. Some commentators also pointed out the large sums of money that the Crusades collected through donations.
At the record breaking Melbourne event, 48 000 pounds were donated, equivalent to around $2 million US dollars today. Similar amounts were collected at other Crusades.
Graham’s staff defended the collections in the press, stating that all the money went to Graham’s foundation, used to run his ministry and for charitable works. Graham himself, it was claimed, did not profit directly from any of his appearances.
One Sydney journalist snidely called him, the ‘Cadillac of pastors’.
The impact of Graham’s 1959 tour has been much debated since.
Contemporary accounts highlight the impact it had in the moment: it was the event of the year in Australia, with huge crowds and voluminous press coverage. This did also seem to translate into a boost for local religion: church attendances increased, and a large number of Bible groups were founded.
But these effects did wear off again, fairly quickly. Stuart Piggin, an evangelical historian, said that Graham’s tour did not prevent the decline of Christianity in Australia, merely slowed it down.
Some academics have suggested the impact of the Crusades was as much to do with timing. In 1959, Australia was fascinated with American culture, the aftermath of the many US troops stationed here during the war.
People flocked to the Crusades partly out of curiosity, keen to see this Americanised religion firsthand.
Graham would subsequently tour Australia twice more, in 1968 and 1979. These drew large crowds, without the same numbers or the hype of his first appearance.
His record attendance at the MCG however, seem likely to remain unchallenged.
