From the Independent Producer Project of KCRW, I'm Bob Carlson and this is Unfictional.

Unfictional is a program of true stories, personal documentaries, and radio movies.

And Los Angeles, where this program is produced, has always been a city of dreams, myths,

and scandal. Those could practically be the words written in Latin on the official

seal of the city. Somnea fabulus at Scandale. I looked it up. Part of what makes L.A. stories so mythological and dreamlike is that a lot of the physical

evidence has been swept away by time.

Buildings torn down, neighborhoods transformed.

But if you know where to look, you can still see the signs,

a downtown radio tower with call letters of a station that doesn't exist anymore. An imposing and dramatic round

church on a corner in the ever-changing neighborhood of Echo Park or a spot on

the beach just south of the wooden carousel horses of the Santa Monica Pier. on the disappeared. It's a Tuesday. It's May 18th, 1926, around 3 in the afternoon, and Amy likes to go down to the shore.

That's Kim Cooper, who's an author and LA historian.

Amy Semple McPherson was at the time

one of the most famous preachers in America.

She was known for her very entertaining sermons

and radio broadcasts.

As many of the Lord Our God shall call,

and if ever the church needed the Holy Ghost today,

oh, don't be like Miss Muffet,

and let the spider the old devil frighten you away. Dig deep, take hold of God's fullness for you.

Praise Lord.

She wore feminine eye-catching costumes and delivered her sermons to thousands of followers.

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