His now - famous 1949 Los Angeles crusade, where William Randolph Hearst supposedly «discovered» and presented him to the nation like
an evangelical debutante, was in fact a meticulously orchestrated event, accompanied by a storm of handbills, billboards and full - page newspaper ads heralding «America's Sensational Young Evangelist» — accompanied of course by a «Dazzling Array of Gospel Talent.»