Marjoe Gortner: Huckster or hero?

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Recently I saw the terrific 1972 documentary Marjoe recommended by Christopher Hitchens in God is not Great. It tells the story of Marjoe Gortman, a child preacher who since the age of four was trotted around by his parents at tent revivals to much (lucrative) fanfare. As Hitchens explains,

A decade or so later, Mr. Gortner exacted the best possible revenge for his stolen and empty childhood, and decided to do the general public a favor in order to make up for his conscious fraudulence. He invited a film crew to follow him as he ostensibly “returned” to preach the gospel, and took the trouble to explain how all the tricks are pulled. This is how you induce motherly women (he was a handsome lad) to part with their savings. This is how you time the music to create an ecstatic effect. This is when you speak of how Jesus visited you personally. Here is how you put invisible ink on your forehead, in the shape of a cross, so that it will suddenly show up when you start perspiring. This is when you really move in for the kill. He keeps all his promises, telling the film’s director in advance what he can and will do and then going out into the auditorium to enact it with absolute conviction. People weep and yell, and collapse in spasms and fits, shrieking their savior’s name. Cynical, coarse, brutish old men and women wait for the psychological moment to demand money, and start counting it gleefully before the charade of the “service” is even over. … The film Marjoe won an Academy Award in 1972, and has made absolutely no difference at all. The mills of the TV preachers continue to grind, and the poor continue to finance the rich, just as if the glittering temples and palaces of Las Vegas had been built by the money of those who won rather than those who lost. 

I’m not sure on whom exactly Hitchens thinks Gortman exacted his revenge. I pity his marks as much as I pity him. Related to Hitchens’s point that the film made no difference, I was most interested in the evangelical’s reaction once Gortner’s true self was revealed. Unfortunately that isn’t in the film. The only info on Wikipedia is this: “At the time of the film’s release he generated considerable press, but the movie was never shown in theaters in the Southern United States, based on the fears of the distributor over the outrage it would cause in the Bible Belt.” I can’t find much else, even on Westlaw.

After he left the preaching circuit, he recorded an unsuccessful album and portrayed a series of minor characters in TV and the movies, including stints on Kojak, Fantasy Island, and The A-Team. After the 1995 entry on his IMDB page, the trail goes cold, and one of the top Google results for his name is a page titled “Dead or Alive? - Marjoe Gortner,” which doesn’t have any answers. If anyone has any information, I’d be curious to learn more. Here are some excerpts from the documentary:

Dec 12, 2007 | Comments | Tags: , ,

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9 comments posted

  1. Posted by Bad Guy - 12/12/2007

    here’s a pic of marjoe from Nov 3.2007 (with marcia gay harden in Puerto Vallarta)
    http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/91/marciamarta3.jpg

    what exactly is it you want to know? Everyone in LA knows Marjoe. He throws the biggest parties on the planet. (for philanthopic sponsors). You ain’t nothing in Hollywood if you aren’t on marjoe’s guest list.

    dude, marjoe has about 70,000 google hits. you weren’t researching very hard if you thought that was a “dead end”

  2. Posted by Jerry Brito - 12/13/2007

    Dear Bad (but not Evil, right?) Guy,

    Thanks for the information. You’re absolutely right. I wasn’t researching very hard at all. I should have looked a bit further. But you know, I was just writing a quick blog post. Neither Wikipedia nor first few pages of Google had nothing on Marjoe since the late 90s.

    What I’d like to know is what Marjoe is doing today, and you’ve already answered a bit about that. I’m also curious about the initial reaction by evangelicals to his film and the truth about him.

  3. Posted by david allgood - 12/14/2007

    Wikipedia has one item incorrect: The film was shown in the Southeastern United States. I was a junior in college in 1972 and saw the film - twice - that summer in Atlanta, GA. Atlanta was certainly part of the Bible Belt at the time, prior to becoming the financial and transportation hub of the South and later hosting the Olympics. In 1972, there were barely 1,000,000 people in Atlanta and Southern Baptists still ruled the roost.

  4. Posted by Bad Guy - 12/16/2007

    a whole lotta that wiki stuff is wrong. even the yr of birth.

    as far as the “also curious” query, well its about what you woulda expected from the evangilicals. The whole “strayed sheep, pray for one bad apple” routine. another commom comment was “well at least the people were really saved thru him, cuz THEY had faith.” blah blah.

    and Mr. Brito, I suggest you don’t ask those things of Marjoe himself. that’s the fastest way to get him to clam up (and possibly call security). He doesn’t live in the past or want to talk about it.

  5. Posted by Jerry Brito - 12/17/2007

    Thanks for the information, I appreciate it. I certainly understand not wanting to constantly be asked about the past. I wish Marjoe the very best in his life now and in the future. Take care.

  6. Posted by Joanne - 03/22/2008

    I have a 38 page booklet published in 1948 “Marjoe A Modern Miracle”– lots of pictures and articles supposedly dictated by him (at 3 or 4?) It reeks of exploitation. One can’t read very far without wondering how anyone could fall for this ooie, gooie, sweetness–ad nauseum. Of course they wanted a donation to help Marjoe “blaze the gospel trail”. Apparently at that time, they were proposing a “Gortner Foundation School” to be built in Long Beach, Ca. and were asking for donations. Wonder how many donated and how far the plans got??

  7. Posted by jack - 06/20/2008

    bad, i wonder why marjo clams up? could it be he is ashamed of the fraud he perpetrated upon the innocent? your praise for him is in the same catagory as praise for those who took the enron employees for a ride, or all the other hucksters in and out of the church! I never heard any one blame the enron employees for making these hucksters do what they did. I don’t undrestand your logic, perhaps you could enlighten, since you think your so good at that.

  8. Posted by lawrence Dorado - 07/31/2008

    I pity Mr. goitner, i did not know him until i found documentary video in youtube, due of my curiosity, I make some research about him, my assessment is that he already backslide when he comeback in pulpit and use it to earn money, it is not really new , The Bible tells many story about it, like Prophet balaam was being commission by a king to curse israel, or Judas, one of Jesus disciple, and today the story of this marjoe use by the atheist, mocker and self righteous people to mock some genuine preacher, Hope we know how to read situation. thanks and God Bless

  9. Posted by Bad Guy - 08/12/2008

    Jack - I would guess he clams up because he shouldn’t have to discuss his abusive childhood with total strangers. He made the expose’ documentary, and the biography that went along with it, 36 yrs ago. If people want to know about it, they can watch the movie and and read the book.

    There are still traveling con artist families operating today. They prey on the elderly with false “home improvement” scams, and yes, the small children are often used in the cons. How many of these kids ever take a stand to expose this?

    Gortner was extremely brave to put himself on the line like that. He was raised in the “family biz”; he wanted out, he got out. He moved on and changed his life. He doesn’t need to repeat the story over and over for anyone’s entertainment.

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