Local history: Famous friends attended Rex Humbard festivities in August 1973

Tens of thousands of worshippers filled the Cathedral of Tomorrow in August 1973 to celebrate the life’s work of the Rev. Rex Humbard.

Five of them were famous celebrities.

The television evangelist invited close friends to be guest speakers during Sunday services as he marked 40 years in the ministry. The monthlong celebration included his 31st wedding anniversary Aug. 2 with wife Maude Aimee and 54th birthday Aug. 13.

A former tent revival preacher, Humbard began his TV ministry in Akron in 1952. He moved from the Copley Theater in Akron to the Ohio Theater in Cuyahoga Falls before building the $4 million Cathedral of Tomorrow in 1958.

Broadcasting from the 5,000-seat auditorium at 2700 State Road in what is now Cuyahoga Falls, Humbard’s syndicated TV program aired on nearly 400 TV stations in North America. At the show’s peak, 20 million people tuned in each week to hear Humbard’s refrain: “What America needs is an old-fashioned, Holy Ghost, God-sent, soul-savin’, devil-hatin’ revival!”

But the ministry had suffered financial difficulties, making questionable investments, pursuing ill-fated plans for a restaurant-topped tower, and selling off assets to remain solvent.

Humbard got by with a little help from his friends.

Pat Boone

Singer Pat Boone, 39, was the special guest at the 10:45 a.m. and 7 p.m. services Aug. 5, 1973. Humbard’s morning services were recorded for telecast two weeks later.

“Rex has helped me reach this stage in my life,” Boone said, praising the minister for teaching “a simple, Bible-based, profound message.”

“I see him as a modern Moses,” Boone said. “I really believe he’s helping to lead people through the wilderness of really chaotic times.

“I’m sure with all my heart that he’s on the verge of an even greater ministry than he’s had.”

The singer said he prayed before every show, asking God “to bless the people who come to see us and give them something extra.”

He quoted Acts 2:38 to the congregation: “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”

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Boone said repenting takes care of the future, baptism takes care of the past and the Holy Spirit takes care of day-to-day life.

“I feel that if you offer what God offers, he’ll see to it people get what he wants them to have,” Boone said.

“Religion is not the answer. Relationships are the answer — a one-to-one relationship with God.”

Oral Roberts

Evangelist Oral Roberts, 55, president of Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma, traveled to Ohio at the request of his fellow televangelist.

Hundreds of people had to be turned away at both services. About 7,000 people packed each one.

“I’ve always believed in Rex and Maude Aimee’s sincerity and dedication and I’m very, very pleased to come,” Roberts said. “I think Rex has a great feeling about Akron and he has mentioned it to me many times. I also feel that Akron probably has tremendous pride and feeling about him.”

The Humbards had taken their son Rex Jr. to see Roberts in 1949 at a crusade in Mobile, Alabama. Through the power of prayer, they believed their son had been cured of a lung ailment.

Roberts said Humbard had played a key role in getting him launched in his television ministry. In 1954, he brought a tent to Akron Municipal Airport for a crusade, and that tent was where he first televised a service.

“Rex was very instrumental in suggesting that I do this, and I owe him a lot for it,” Roberts said.

Television was a powerful force in spreading the Gospel, he said.

“It has tripled my audience in four years because that’s where the people are,” Roberts said. “It’s sort of a paradox in a way that the membership in churches keeps creeping up every year but the attendance decreases.

“So the people are at home and if we don’t get in the home, we’re not reaching them.”

Speaking to the congregation, Roberts said: “Give God your best, and then ask God for his best.”

“Do you know what the most important thing is in your life?” he asked. “Who is my source … the source of all the good that will ever come?

“God is your source. You think you have trouble believing in God? Think about the trouble he has believing in you.”

During an altar call, about 400 people stepped forward to make a spiritual commitment to Jesus.

He urged the audience “to have faith and expect miracles.”

“Something good is going to happen.”

Dale Evans

Actress and singer Dale Evans, 60, the wife of cowboy star Roy Rogers, appeared before standing-room-only crowds at the morning and evening services Aug. 19.

She played piano, sang and shared her faith.

“This song is my testimony,” she told the audience before singing “I Found What I Wanted When I Found the Lord.”

At age 10, she recalled, she made a religious decision, but it was not fulfilled.

“I asked Jesus to be my savior, but not my lord,” she said.

She finally found fulfillment 25 years later.

“I said, ‘Lord, take me,’ and I was a most unlikely subject,” Evans said. “When I asked him to come into my life, I asked that he make my life — or break it, if necessary. My life was changed instantly.”

Three months later, her husband, Roy, also accepted Jesus.

“We’ve been married 25 years,” she said. “Isn’t that pretty good for Hollywood?”

She gave a $40 check to Humbard in honor of his 40 years of ministry, noting he “has meant so much.”

“Bless his heart, we love this man,” she told the crowd.

“The state of the world is chaos. There’s lots wrong. But there are also a lot of blessings in the world.”

Kathryn Kuhlman

Evangelist Kathryn Kuhlman, 66, had known Humbard from the early days of his ministry. Millions of people listened to her faith-healing services on radio and television.

More than 7,000 attended the morning service Aug. 26. Hundreds more listened in the parking lot.

“I have no healing power,” she said. “I have no healing virtue. Call it what it is — the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Worshippers lined up at the altar. Kuhlman touched their faces or shoulders and they fell backwards into the arms of waiting ushers. During the service, many claimed to have been healed of heart conditions, hearing troubles, asthma, and leg and back problems.

“Someone in the back has received a cancer healing,” Kuhlman announced. “Five of you in a group have been healed. There’s a bursitis healing of the arm. There’s no pain in the arm. Everyone with a spinal condition stand up. Do not come to the stage until you are healed.

“Remember Kathryn Kuhlman had nothing to do with this.”

The evangelist acknowledged that not all would find a remedy that morning.

“I’ll live and die never knowing why everybody isn’t healed,” she said. “One thing I do know: Not one person attending one of these services cannot have salvation.”

Johnny Cash

Country music star Johnny Cash, 41, spoke to a crowd of 6,000 at the evening service Aug. 26.

A 30-minute power failure delayed the event. The crowd sang hymns in the dark until the electricity was restored during “How Great Thou Art.”

Cash’s appearance was 20 minutes. He sang, played guitar and prayed with Humbard.

“I was converted when I was 14,” he told the crowd.

Cash said some of his first records were gospel music, although record executives rejected many of them.

“But there was a fever that burned in me that I couldn’t quench,” he said.

He introduced “Glory Road,” a 90-minute film that he made in the Holy Land. Cash called the movie “a mark of my life.”  A crew had filmed Cash on a mountain in Israel as he recited The Lord’s Prayer.

Cash said it was a joy to follow in Jesus’ footsteps, and “walk the places where he had walked.”

Tragedy strikes cathedral

A terrible tragedy struck that evening. Chester Roffe, 18, of Cleveland Heights, had crawled through a service door beneath the stage to get a better view.

When the movie ended, the youth was crushed between a rising stage floor and the back of the permanent stage.

Most of the audience didn’t know what had happened. Ushers applied first aid until an ambulance arrived. Roffe was pronounced dead at St. Thomas Hospital.

The Summit County coroner ruled the death accidental. It was a sad end to the celebration.

Winning souls to the end

In the fall, Humbard announced that his ministry had overcome its financial setbacks. More than $3.5 million in donations had been collected since spring.

“The organization as far as I’m concerned is in the best shape we’ve ever been in — spiritually, nationally, locally and financially,” he said. “People are searching. We’re just doing the simple thing of presenting Christ.”

He expressed a renewed optimism about the future. “I think our greatest ministry is ahead of us,” he said.

Supporters donated over $1 million a month in the 1970s, but viewership gradually declined. In 1983, he resigned as pastor of the Cathedral of Tomorrow and moved full time to Florida.

Ernest Angley Ministries bought the State Road television complex in 1984. A decade later, Humbard sold the cathedral for $2.5 million to Angley.

Humbard died in 2007 at age 88 after fulfilling his greatest dream.

“I don’t want to come to the end of my life’s journey and find that in spite of having built a beautiful church, having traveled across this continent holding rallies and having expanded our television outreach, that I haven’t won souls for the Lord,” Humbard noted.

Mark J. Price can be reached at mprice@thebeaconjournal.com

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Johnny Cash, Oral Roberts among VIPs at Rex Humbard fest in 1973