Categories
Hollywood, Broadway & More! Memorial Miscellaneous

Keith’s Theatre, 3/14/25

I’ve been spending too much time lately on YouTube and deserve a vacation.  Something different, less controversial.  Hmmm…what shall I write about?

I scoured my magazine archives for a topic.  Religion, perhaps?

A Liberty magazine feature written by Jim Tully, from January 12, 1929, “Aimee Semple McPherson – What’s She All About?”, was just screaming at me! I think the author caught my attention with these words:

“One of the very greatest actresses now alive in the world has an audience under her spell. Her whole-heartedness, coupled with her tremendous verve and dominating will, explains this woman’s phenomenal success.  Only one other career in the world would have allowed her complete expression – the stage.”  Tully also wrote, “Shop girls claim her gowns are finer and more expensive than those sold to movie stars.”

Well, that did it since everyone knows I’m a sucker for an aspiring actress story! Especially true when they have beautiful gowns, a scandal and a tragic ending!

Sister Aimee Semple McPherson
January 12, 1929 version of “Liberty” magazine

Such shenanigans, though, are nothing new in the world of evangelism and far be it from me to throw stones.  The Old Testament has admonished us not to engage in what is called the evil tongue.  In biblical Hebrew the term is לשון הרע (“lashon hara.”)

Upon second thought, perhaps I shall cast a few stones at Aimee Semple McPherson! I’m only human, don’t cha know?

Let’s dive right into the scandal as related by the 1929 Liberty feature where “Sister Aimee,” as she was known to her followers, became embroiled in an alleged kidnapping scheme on May 18, 1926.  According to the evangelist, on the day in question, she had just finished swimming at the beach when she was approached by a weeping woman with a nervous male companion.  The two informed her their baby was dying and wanted her to pray over it. 

Sister Aimee wanted to dress first, but the woman persuaded her otherwise, then threw an overcoat over her dripping shoulders and ran ahead to her car.  By the time Sister Aimee arrived, the woman was holding a bundle tenderly in her arms, seated next to a third man.  When the evangelist leaned over to pray for the baby, she was suddenly pushed into the vehicle and last recalled something sweet-smelling being held over her mouth.

When McPherson awoke, she was in an unknown location and discovered that she was being held for half a million in ransom, Tully wrote and went on to say:

“During this period of her captivity, her captors went to a blind lawyer in Long Beach, California.  They told him the terms of the ransom.  The lawyer went in turn to the district attorney and Federal officers, and recounted what the kidnapers had told him.  The authorities believed the story to be preposterous.” The writer added that “A day or so later, the blind attorney was beaten severely in his own office by the same men!”

No sources were provided for the above statements, nor were any given for the following.  I guess we must accept it on faith:

  • “Ransom notes were received at the temple.  Federal post-office investigators became interested.  Later it was discovered that the stamps on one of the letters had been mysteriously changed.”
  • “At the moment when the Federal men were to seize the typewriter they felt had been used in typing the notes – the machine disappeared!”
  • “In a mysterious midnight journey, the captors, according to Aimee, took her to a shack – somewhere on the Mexican desert, twenty miles in some direction from Agua Prieta.  She spent two days in the shack, and was then left conveniently alone.”

Keep in mind, Sister Aimee was, having been drugged, unconscious during this period.  How could she possibly have known exactly where she was? We’re never told.  The writer continued:

  • “With the edge of a tin can she sawed in twain the cords which bound her wrists together.  Her hands freed, she quickly unbound her ankles.”
  • “She walked through the intense heat of the desert day and late into the night.  At Agua Prieta she found the police.  They took her to Douglas, Arizona.”

Yes, funny the subject of Douglas, Arizona, should come up! That’s where the evangelist’s church received a phone call from, on June 23, 1926, exactly five weeks and one day after her disappearance from the beach.

Aimee Semple McPherson

It seems a little time was lost, wouldn’t you say? Sister Aimee is recalling only a few days of her life, yet over five weeks have passed since she was supposedly abducted!

Having miraculously recovered from her debacle, Sister Aimee announced that it was all the result of a rival church’s underworld plot to unseat her from her evangelist throne.  A grand jury investigated but ultimately decided there wasn’t enough evidence to indict the suspected kidnappers.

The article concluded, “The legal battle was waged off and on in the courts for half a year.  At last the case against the evangelist collapsed on January 10, 1927.  Now, nearly two years later, conflicting opinions still flourish.  No trace of the kidnapers has ever been found.”

No, indeed, because there probably never were any.  Furthermore, there was a rumor that she’d been cavorting in a lascivious way with one of her co-workers, in Carmel, California. 

I almost forgot to include the terrible fate that awaited Aimee Semple McPherson on September 27, 1944.  The evangelist suffered a heart attack In Oakland, California, where she’d gone to preach at local revivals.

Sister Aimee’s autopsy report showed that it was precipitated by an overdose of secobarbital, ruled to be accidental, not intentional. 

The distinction is thin, though, when people find they’ve reached that moment in time.

Categories
Memorial Miscellaneous Social Media

Keith’s Theatre, 2/21/25

Wanna know my take on the latest world happenings? Grab a seat & stick around…

Ouch, the present moment is too much to bear! Guess I’m sick of looking at reality.  Wanna bury my head in the sand & no wonder so many from the hippie generation opted to turn on, tune in & drop out.  Congrats, Prof. Tim Leary, for getting it right, or at least that’s how it seemed at that time.

What’s been going on in the wonderful world of social media? A trifle depressing for some & where’s my anti-depressant when needed most?

Heard the latest news concerning DEI/woke? Here’s a perfect example of how good intentions slowly went awry.  Mankind’s inclination to darkness & all that, don’t cha know.  What initially began as a goodwill gesture slowly morphed into something we’d all rather forget, though just wait & anti-DEIs will eventually adopt the same attitude, which was clearly “ram it down their throats at all costs!”

Hopefully, I’ll be long gone by that time, but probably not since I seem doomed to an endless amount of suffering.  As Grandma used to say, “I must have a been a sharmootha!” (Arabic word for whore).  Speaking of my maternal grandmother, the subject of religion just came to mind!

Palm leaves hanging everywhere on Palm Sundays, religious icons caked on Grandma’s walls.  Not just any icons, mind you, real icons from the Eastern Orthodox Church, as Grandma always emphasized. 

Of course there was her mother, my maternal great-grandmother, who’d converted to Catholicism, but that’s a different story entirely.  Some big deal back in Lebanon around 1880 where the Eastern Orthodox Church ordered the death of a family member.  That was the story as related to me, swear to God! One thing I do know, middle eastern folk are a crazy lot.  I should know ‘cause I’m one of ‘em.

Surprised someone even exercised the mental gymnastics required to convert from Eastern Orthodoxy to Catholicism because they’re mortal enemies, don’t cha know? Some existential disagreement about how the Holy Spirit was born.  Go figure…

Yes, Mom’s side was intense, but Dad’s side of the family was often more so, mostly Lutheran, with a dash of Mennonite.  I was surrounded by religion 24/7 as a child, especially at school, where the cornerstone of my education involved the “Golden Rule.”

First order of the morning, students stood at attention to say the pledge of allegiance, with hand dutifully held over heart.  Just before lunch, my 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Brunson, sporting a large goiter she’d never had removed, prompted the class to stand and say the Lord’s Prayer.  The main thing that bothered me (other than the huge goiter no one dared speak of), was the Jewish kid in the class.  Joey might’ve known Kaddish, but certainly not the Lord’s Prayer & so simply bowed his head & lip-synched, trying to appear respectful.  We were just kids, what did we know? Come to think of it, what do kids really know?

Another hot topic on social media now! Plenty of opinions on both sides, some are (regrettably) quite vocal and rant on and on and on and on…

Mrs. Brunson ‘twas about the time of the landmark Murray v. Curlett Supreme Court case (separation of church & state), and I don’t believe the Lord’s Prayer went on for much longer & recall that Mrs. Brunson retired shortly afterward.  God only knows what would ensue in today’s world if such a situation arose.  Probably a shootout with assault weapons! 

No one ever would’ve considered such a thing way back when.  Too much “fear of God” in them, perhaps?

Shan’t we say? Until next time…