RELIGION 1974: Moon in Manhattan

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Moon in Manhattan

How does a preacher with murky credentials draw a crowd in jaded New York City? Simple. You field a corps of 2,000 tireless, polite young buttonholers who spend weeks offering people free tickets. Invest $300,000 on publicity for the one-night stand—far more than Billy Graham has ever spent for an eight-day crusade.

It all worked for the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, 54, South Korea's crypto-Messiah, who packed Madison Square Garden to overflowing last week. The happening, complete with numbers by the Korean Folk Ballet, kicked off an eight-city tour that climaxes his drive to build a base in the U.S. just seven years before the Messianic Age is to begin. Moon, through an interpreter, told the Garden-goers in guttural shouts, "The time of the Second Coming of Christ is near, and America is the landing site!"