Elmer Gantry · Chapter
Chapter XIII explained
Elmer Gantry joins Sharon Falconer's evangelistic team as her assistant, taking over the management of her revival meetings.
What happens
Elmer Gantry joins Sharon Falconer's evangelistic team as her assistant, taking over the management of her revival meetings. He develops sermons, leads singing, and invents the 'Hallelujah Yell' to stir audiences. The chapter details the manipulative tactics used to generate conversions, including hiring fake converts and paying off troublemakers. Sharon and Elmer expand into larger cities, and Elmer remains faithful to Sharon despite her mercurial moods.
Themes in this chapter
Manipulation and Showmanship in Evangelism
Elmer invents the 'Hallelujah Yell' and hires fake converts; the crew uses psychological tactics to generate emotional responses and conversions.
Hypocrisy and Corruption in Religion
Elmer pays people to convert and pays others to stay away; the evangelists view converts as objects rather than humans.
Ambition and the Pursuit of Power
Elmer and Sharon expand into larger cities; Elmer takes control of management and sermon content, seeking greater influence.
Characters to notice
- Elmer Gantry
Joins Sharon Falconer's team as assistant; invents the 'Hallelujah Yell'; manages meetings, hires fake converts, and develops sermons.
- Sharon Falconer
Takes Elmer as assistant; expands into larger cities; experiences religious ecstasy and manipulates audiences; relies on Elmer for management.
- Adelbert Shoop
Musical director; plans hymns and costumes; invents audience participation techniques; often gets drunk and is fired and rehired.
- Cecil Aylston
Former assistant to Sharon; dismissed by Sharon; later dies in a gambling den in Juarez.
- Art Nichols
Helps Elmer eject hired converts who become troublesome.
- Judson Roberts
Mentioned as a model for Elmer's bullying hero role in the audience.
Key passages
“He learned to pick out letters on the typewriter with two fingers, and he answered Sharon’s mail—all of it that she let him see. He kept books for her, in a ragged sufficient manner, on checkbook stubs. He wrote the nightly story of her sermons, which the newspapers cut down and tucked in among stories of remarkable conversions.”
Elmer handled Sharon's correspondence, bookkeeping, and wrote press releases about her sermons.
Shows Elmer's practical role in managing Sharon's ministry.
“Nevertheless, it was Elmer, not Adelbert, who invented the 'Hallelujah Yell.' Remembering his college cheers, remembering how greatly it had encouraged him in kneeing the opposing tackle or jabbing the rival center’s knee, Elmer observed to himself, 'Why shouldn’t we have yells in this game, too?'”
Elmer created a religious cheer based on his college football experience.
Highlights the blending of sports and evangelism as a manipulation tactic.
“Elmer had to go out and hire half a dozen convincing converts. He found them in a mission near the river, and explained that by giving a good example to the slothful, they would be doing the work of God, and that if the example was good enough, he would give them five dollars apiece.”
Elmer paid people to pretend to convert in order to encourage real conversions.
Illustrates the corruption and showmanship in the revival meetings.