Tonight's Arena Special tells the extraordinary story of two of the legendary figures of American 'gospel' -the music whose emotional impact and burning conviction lie at the heart of much of today's popular music.
Thomas A. Dorsey , 'father' and virtual inventor of gospel music, haunted the sinful world of the blues singers as 'Georgia Tom', before turning his music over to God in the early 1920s. In doing so, he remarks, '... I was thrown out of some of the best churches'.
Willie Mae Ford Smith suffered similar setbacks, both as a woman evangelist in a predominantly male world and from those who considered her music too spirited to be truly religious. '... You make us sick with that stuff - you might as well be Bessie Smith or one of those Smith sisters!' Tonight's film features some astonishing scenes of gospel revivalism in 'Mother' Smith's Antioch Baptist Church, while the Massed Gospel Choirs Convention honours 84-year-old 'Doctor' Dorsey who crowns the proceedings with an impassioned reading of his classic song 'Precious Lord take my hand'.
Director GEORGE T. NIERENBERG Arena editor ALAN YENTOB