Gospel

- C.L.

Franklin understood that what makes a preacher is the size of their congregation, and a building is only so big.

How do you create a bigger building without having a bigger building?

- I called myself a mighty big man.

I was ranking with men of states.

- The idea caught fire.

Starting in the 1950s, Franklin recorded more than seventy albums of sermons, with the help of Joe Von Batter, a local record store owner.

- How did he hook up with C.L.

Franklin?

- Well, Reverend C.L.

Franklin's church was down the street from Joe's record shop, and my father had the idea of recording him because of the extraordinary preaching of C.L.

Franklin, that musicality of his speaking.

- Uh huh.

- You know, this was a new phenomenon.

And so, my father wanted to capture that.

He would go to the church and record him live and record these live sermons, and then he would bring them back to the record shop, and then they would have them pressed and waxed and they would literally put them on trains, put them on buses, and have them dispersed throughout the world.

- Oh.

- And that is what began to establish C.L.

Franklin as a national phenomenon in the African American community.