Jim and Tammy: A Night With Paul Harvey

I wrote this story in August 1989 as the scandals involving television  evangelists throughout the nation exploded. Jim and Tammy Bakker, two young people from Minnesota, were founders of the PTL Television Network in Charlotte, N. C.  On Saturday, July 18,Tammy Faye Bakker Messner died suffering from colon cancer, which had spread to her lungs.

The Bakkers were at the forefront of the burgeoning religious television programming of the 1970s and 80s.  It was their popularity and hard work that changed the face of national Christian television. They gave many well-known church and religious media personalities opportunities to become national figures.

Jim and Tammy began their television careers in Portsmouth, Virginia, at Pat Robertson’s UHF television station Channel 27, forerunner of the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN). They began an entertaining children’s puppet program and became the most popular figures in Tidewater, Virginia television for several years.

I was a young newspaper reporter and columnist at the Newport News (Va.) Daily Press when I met them in the late 1960s.  When the PTL story broke two decades later, I had a different slant on the story, which appeared in numerous daily newspapers.

Here’s my story:
Jim and Tammy didn’t always live high on the hog as famous TV preachers. When I met them, they were poor and willing to work for free.

It was 1971 in Hampton, Virginia. Several local businessmen, fancying themselves as event promoters at the newly opened local coliseum, contracted their first big event. Paul Harvey, the famous Chicago news commentator, was coming. The promoters were counting their erstwhile profits.

Paul's fee for that night was a healthy $7,000. The promoters weren't worried. They had gladly paid in advance. They were convinced. Tidewater Virginia patrons would flock to hear everybody's favorite broadcaster.

Why not, they reasoned? Two Johnny Cash shows had just sold-out in the Hampton Coliseum, grossing more than $200,000. Visions of quick money mesmerized them.

Daily, the touts checked the box office. But, a week before the event, they realized they faced economic ruin. Sales amounted to a few tickets.

When they called me, I could sense panic. Their thoughts of easy dollars had vanished. They came by my newspaper office, pleading for some free news space. They didn't have to remind me what a black eye an empty hall would be for the city.

I asked who else was on the program. Mr. Harvey would be the only speaker, except for some local politicians. I suggested they needed an opening act to sell more tickets.

We thought for a while. And, then I had an idea. My kids watched Jim and Tammy Bakker's puppet show on the UHF station and loved them. It occurred to me that an event drawing children would bring parents, too.

But there was no money left. Not for advertising. Not for Jim and Tammy. Not for anybody. With some trepidation, I called Jim Bakker anyway. He told me not to worry. He and Tammy hoped to begin supplementing the $45 a week that Pat Robertson paid them for their puppet show. Public appearances, Jim figured, may well be the start of a new dimension.

I told Jim if he'd mention the coliseum appearance on TV, I'd publish their picture and story in the paper.

And, Jim happily agreed to appear gratis. Besides, he said, he'd always wanted to meet Paul Harvey.

Well, it was a good night. Jim and Tammy greeted thousands of children with smiles and giggles. Tammy sang her heart out.  Paul Harvey, as always, was entertaining and informative.  And the promoters? They went back to their regular work, no poorer, but much wiser.

After leaving the coliseum, Jim and Tammy came to my office with two friends. They needed seventy-five cents to pay the bridge toll across the James River and $10 gas money for the ride home in their black Coupe Deville Cadillac.

I borrowed the money from the company petty cash. And Jim and Tammy were on their way?

© Copyright 2007 Harry Covert.