Page 2 from the Chicago Daily News, Saturday February 3, 1945
Biggest sensation in the world of religious revival since the days of Billy Sunday is the Rev. Torrey Johnson, Chicago evangelist, whose success in drawing bobby-sox armies down the sawdust trail is making him nationally famous. Johnson’s methods are the exact opposite of Sunday’s. where the latter’s battle against the Devil was dramatic, athletic, strenuous, screaming, startling, Johnson’s is easy-going, confidential, quiet-voiced, precise, his personality keyed to the microphone, his programs geared to youth. His musicians and singers follow with quiet admonition–“Hymns with a punch.” They stop barely short of “swing.”
A typical scene each Saturday night at Moody Church when the Chicagoland Youth for Christ rallies are in full sway. Evangelist Torrey Johnson calls to the platform recent converts who tell the “unsaved” portion of the audience their experiences with conversion. Above, Joy Nichols, 1901 W. Addison Street, age 17 says: “I am so glad the Lord has saved me and I recommend Him to every young person who wants complete happiness.” Fifteen-year-old Earl Farrell, 2111 S. Drake Avenue, “accepted Christ when I was 12.” NEWS-VIEWS cover shows Lois Richards, 2558 McVickers Avenue, praying for the boys overseas. She is flanked by Sailor Thomas Bingham, Navy Pier, survivor of 11 battles, and by Sgt. Harold S. Lima, Keesler Field, Miss., who, before the war, was studying to be a missionary.