Aimee Elizabeth Semple McPherson, also known as Sister Aimee or Sister, was a Canadian Pentecostal evangelist and media celebrity in the 1920s and 1930s, famous for founding the Foursquare Church. McPherson pioneered the use of broadcast mass media for wider dissemination of both religious services and appeals for donations, using radio to draw in both additional audience and revenue with the growing appeal of popular entertainment and incorporating stage techniques into her weekly sermons at Angelus Temple, an early megachurch.
The term Full Gospel or Fourfold Gospel is a theological doctrine used by some evangelical denominations that summarizes the Gospel in four aspects, namely salvation, sanctification, divine healing and second coming of Christ.
The Foursquare Church is an Evangelical Pentecostal Christian denomination founded in 1923 by preacher Aimee Semple McPherson. The headquarters are in Los Angeles, California, United States.
Angelus Temple is a Pentecostal megachurch in the Echo Park district of Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded by Aimee Semple McPherson in 1923, it is affiliated with the Foursquare Church. The senior pastor is Matthew Barnett. In 2015, the weekly attendance is 8,975 persons.
Maria Beulah Woodworth-Etter was an American healing evangelist. Her ministry style was a model for Pentecostalism.
Richard Rossi is an American filmmaker, actor, writer, talk radio host, musician, and former evangelical minister.
The Disappearance of Aimee is a 1976 American made-for-television biographical drama film directed by Anthony Harvey and starring Faye Dunaway as the evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson, co-starring Bette Davis, James Sloyan and James Woods. The film originally premiered as a presentation of Hallmark Hall of Fame on NBC on November 17, 1976.
The Miracle Woman is a 1931 American pre-Code romance film directed by Frank Capra and starring Barbara Stanwyck, David Manners, and Sam Hardy. Based on the play Bless You Sister by John Meehan and Robert Riskin, the film is about a preacher's daughter who becomes disillusioned by the mistreatment of her dying father by his church. Having grown cynical about religion, she teams up with a con man and performs fake miracles for profit. The love and trust of a blind man, however, restores her faith in God and her fellow man. The Miracle Woman was the second of five film collaborations between Capra and Stanwyck. Produced and distributed by Columbia Pictures, the film was reportedly inspired by the life of Aimee Semple McPherson.
Roberta Semple Salter was the daughter of evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson and half-sister to Aimee's other child, Rolf McPherson. Roberta was the original heir to her mother's ministry, which was later taken over by Rolf.
Sister Aimee is a 2019 American biographical film written and directed by Samantha Buck and Marie Schlingmann and starring Anna Margaret Hollyman as Aimee Semple McPherson. It is a fictionalized account of McPherson's 1926 disappearance.
Scandalous: The Life and Trials of Aimee Semple McPherson is a musical with a book and lyrics by Kathie Lee Gifford and music by David Pomeranz and David Friedman. The musical has had productions in 2005 at the White Plains, New York Performing Arts Center, at the Signature Theatre in 2007, in 2011 at the 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle and in 2012 on Broadway. The musical is based on the life of Aimee Semple McPherson.
William Taylor Dixon (1879-1959) was an independent faith missionary to China and minister in the United States.
Francisco Olazábal (1886–1937) was a Pentecostal evangelist, who conducted an evangelistic healing ministry and founded the Interdenominational Mexican Council of Christian Churches in 1923, later renamed as Latin American Council of Christian Churches or Concilio Latino Americano de Iglesias Cristianas (CLADIC). Francisco Olazábal committed 30 years to his evangelistic healing ministry. Olazábal held healing campaigns across the United States, Puerto Rico, and Mexico.
Emma Cotton was an evangelist and preacher born of Creole descent in the U.S. state of Louisiana. She first appeared in history in 1906 during the Azusa Street Revival. She was the founder of the Azusa Temple as well as other Pentecostal churches across the United States. Cotton's preaching and involvement in the Pentecostal circuit, as well as her friendship with famous evangelist, Aimee Semple McPherson, paved the way for women in church leadership in the 1900s.
Aimee Semple McPherson, also known as Sister Aimee or Sister, was a Canadian Pentecostal evangelist and media celebrity. Early in the itinerant phase of her career, she discovered that if she prayed over sick people, many of them stated they got well. Consequently, she began holding what she termed as "divine healing" revival sessions. These outdoor, open-air demonstrations drew many thousands of people. As a result, she not only became known by the news media and the public as a dynamic revivalist, but also a sought after faith healer. Those who have been converted and healed saw nothing dubious in their curative experience. Critics, on the other hand, said healings were mesmerism or hypnotism and even "crimes committed in the name of religion." Reporters attended the revival services and wrote of her seeming ability to heal the sick and infirm; and some news articles included even names and addresses of those who stated healing.
On May 18, 1926, Christian evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson disappeared from Venice Beach, California, after going for a swim. She reappeared in Mexico five weeks later, stating she had escaped from kidnappers there. Her disappearance, reappearance, and subsequent court inquiries regarding the allegation that the kidnapping story was a hoax carried out to conceal a tryst with a lover precipitated a media frenzy that changed the course of McPherson's career.
Edith Lydia Waldvogel Blumhofer was a Harvard educated historian whose teaching and publications gave the study of American Pentecostalism a respected place in the history of religion and scholarly research.
Samantha Buck and Marie Schlingmann are film writers and directors who have made five films together. Buck is also an actress and has directed the documentary Best Kept Secret solo. They are best known for the 2019 film Sister Aimee.
Irene Rebecca "Rheba" Crawford, known as "the Angel of Broadway", was an American Christian religious figure and social worker. She was associate pastor of the Angelus Temple in Los Angeles. Her romances and her bitter rivalry with head pastor Aimee Semple McPherson were covered in newspapers nationwide. "Publicity pursued her," commented a 1948 profile, "and she never ran away from it very fast."
