Old Fashioned Revival Hour and Joyful Sound Audio Collection

Title: Old Fashioned Revival Hour and Joyful Sound Audio Collection

Dates: 1935-1981

Collection Number: CFT00200

Creator/Collector: Fuller, Charles Edward, 1887-1968 Fuller, Daniel P. Hubbard, David Allan Fuller Evangelistic Association Global Broadcasting Association

Extent: 167 Boxes, 119.66 linear feet

Repository: Fuller Theological Seminary-David Allan Hubbard Library Archives

Abstract: The Old Fashioned Revival Hour and Joyful Sound Audio Collection contains the broadcast recordings of Charles E Fuller (1887-1968), one of the leading Christian radio evangelists of the 20th century and co-founder of Fuller Theological Seminary. The collection contains an almost full-run of Old Fashioned Revival Hour (OFRH, 1121 programs) and the Joyful Sound (JS, 586 programs) radio broadcasts. The collection also contains some related episodes from the pre-cursor program, the Pilgrims’ Hour and music by the OFRH choir and quartet. It also contains early recordings of Fuller Seminary events and founding faculty, including the Seminary’s first Convocation from October 1, 1947 and Billy Graham spot announcements for the Rose Bowl Crusade.

Language of Material: English

Access copies of the audio recordings are available online via the Digital Commons@Fuller (http://digitalcommons.fuller.edu/ofrh/). Reels and Electrical Transcriptions are unavailable for research use.

Scholarly use of access copies of audio reproductions permitted with parameters of copyright law.

Old Fashioned Revival Hour and Joyful Sound Audio Collection. Fuller Theological Seminary-David Allan Hubbard Library Archives

Materials were gathered from multiple sources, including the Fuller Evangelistic Association; Daniel Payton Fuller and family; Fuller Seminary librarians 1948-1990s; donors and alumni of Fuller Theological Seminary; members of the Old Fashioned Revival Hour Choir & Quartet, including Richard Brown; and by purchase. The collection entered Fuller Seminary’s Archives as early as the 1950s, but the exact date is unknown. Contributions have been added as recently as July 2017.

Dr. Fuller preached occasionally on the radio from 1924-1930, starting with Bible lessons taught over Biola's station KJS (later KTBI). He counted his number of years on the radio from August 1925, when he brought musicians from his church in Placentia to Los Angeles to broadcast a program over KJS. In early 1930, Charles Fuller succeeded in establishing a regular broadcast. He created the Gospel Broadcasting Association as a non-profit organization to manage incoming listener donations and pay for programming in 1933. On March 11, 1934, the first program of "The Heart to Heart Hour" aired over KNX Hollywood, on Sunday evenings from 6:30pm-7:00pm. In August 1934, the phrase "old fashioned revival" appeared for the first time, and Fuller renamed the program "The Radio Revival Hour." The first hour long presentation of the broadcast occurred in October. CBS purchased Hollywood’s KNX (the network then hosting Fuller’s program) in 1936, prompting Fuller to seek a new network that allowed paid-for religious programs. "The Old Fashioned Revival Hour" (OFRH) became the official name of the Sunday evening program in June 1937 with the single aim the dissemination of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It went coast-to-coast for the first time via the Mutual Broadcasting System on October 3, 1937. OFRH expanded with the network, eventually spreading coast-to-coast and internationally. By 1941, OFRH was heard every Sunday across the North America as well as in Europe, Africa and Asia. By 1944, the show ran on 575 stations and short-wave bands around the world. The program estimated an audience of over twenty million listeners, and required an annual budget of more than $1.7 million. From 1941 to January 1958, the Old Fashioned Revival Hour was broadcast each Sunday afternoon from the Municipal Auditorium in Long Beach, California. Charles Fuller also traveled throughout North America, holding city-wide evangelistic rallies, preaching in the largest auditoriums available, such as Carnegie Hall and Madison Square Garden, to sell-out crowds. Old Fashioned Revival Hour changed its name to the Joyful Sound on October 12, 1969. David Allan Hubbard became the featured speaker on March 2, 1969. Joyful Sound ran from 1969 until at least 1981.

The Old Fashioned Revival Hour and Joyful Sound Audio Collection contains the broadcast recordings of Charles E Fuller (1887-1968), one of the leading Christian radio evangelists of the 20th century and co-founder of Fuller Theological Seminary. The collection contains an almost full-run of Old Fashioned Revival Hour (OFRH, 1121 programs) and the Joyful Sound (JS, 586 programs) radio broadcasts. The collection has been organized according to format, year, and program number. Series 1: Electrical Transcriptions (Boxes 1-39); Series 2: Reels (Boxes 40-97); Series 3: Audio Cassette Conversions (Boxes 98-110); Series 4: CDs (Boxes 111-157; Series 5: MP3/WAV Conversions (Box 158); Series 6: OFRH Films (Boxes 159-167)