Stellar Preacher Billy Graham to Get Walk of Fame Star : Evangelism: Clergyman’s visit to city in which he launched his career 40 years ago will raise money for the homeless.

The Rev. Billy Graham, catapulted to religious stardom 40 years ago by a crusade that packed a huge tent in downtown Los Angeles for six weeks, returned to the City of the Angels this week to claim another star--this one on a sidewalk.

The world’s best-known evangelist on Sunday will have his name and the likeness of an old-fashioned radio microphone engraved on the 1,900th star along the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The 2 p.m. ceremony will be in front of Mann’s Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard.

Graham, who will be 71 next month, also was in town to boost the Salvation Army’s programs for the homeless and to receive a special salute at a $500-a-plate black-tie banquet in Beverly Hills on Thursday night.

Graham is the first clergyman to be given a star for his work as a minister. (The Rev. James Cleveland, the black recording artist, received a star for his music in 1981.)

“I’m not sure a clergyman belongs in that group of entertainers,” Graham said sheepishly, noting that his star will be near those honoring Wayne Newton, Buster Crabbe, John Travolta, Judy Holliday, Julie Andrews, Olivia Newton-John and Greta Garbo.

“A star was offered to me 30 years ago,” he said, “and I said, ‘no,’ then. But I’ve changed my views. Some parents walking along there someday in the future might be asked by their child, ‘Who was Billy Graham?’ And they could say, ‘He preached the Gospel.’ ”

Indeed, the farm-reared, one-time Fuller brush salesman has personally preached the message of salvation to more people than anyone else in history--more than 100 million people face to face, and hundreds of millions more through television, radio, print and film.

After his “sin-smashing” revival meetings in the “canvas cathedral” on the corner of Washington Boulevard and Hill Street in 1949 caught the attention of the international media, the flashy, young evangelist went on to preach in every state and 84 countries.

“I doubt there is anyone in Hollywood who has been seen, heard or enjoyed by more people than Billy Graham,” said Johnny Grant, Hollywood’s honorary mayor and chairman of the Walk of Fame Committee.

Grant said the committee voted unanimously to give Graham the honor after he was nominated last year by friends who paid the $4,800 fee. About 20 stars are approved annually, Grant said, but Graham’s will fill the last coveted space in front of Mann’s Theater.

On Wednesday, Graham launched a $400,000 fund-raising effort to benefit the homeless and hungry in Los Angeles County, holding a press conference in the Salvation Army’s West Los Angeles Transitional Village.

Fourteen homeless families are sheltered in the village in trailers, provided without charge by government agencies and supervised by the Salvation Army, for as long as six months while they try to obtain their own housing and jobs.

“We’re trying to find a solution for homelessness, rather than just turn them back out on the street,” said Lt. Col. David P. Riley, the army’s divisional commander.

Riley said he did not see any contradiction in the Salvation Army’s posh tribute dinner Thursday for Graham at the Beverly Hilton Hotel to raise money for the needy and homeless.

“We’re not bothered by the black-tie affair. . . . There is no money lost by their wearing their tuxedos . . . since this has been completely underwritten by an anonymous donor,” Riley explained.

“The prestige of having Mr. Graham with us calls for a kind of dinner that is in keeping with such an occasion. . . . In a sense we are honoring our donors as well. Every cent paid for the dinner, $500 a plate, or the alternate $250, is going into our programs for the homeless.”

Graham, who received the William Booth Award commending his 40-year ministry, noted that the Salvation Army founder had admonished on his deathbed: “Remember the homeless.”

“The Salvation Army was always there,” the evangelist said at the press conference. “We’ve stood shoulder to shoulder in ministering the Gospel worldwide through the years.”

Graham also commented on political pro-reform activities in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union and said he believes that “spiritual hunger in the world is greater than ever before because we have seen the failure of materialism and secularism.”

“Certain ideologies, such as communism,” have failed “the whole human need,” Graham added, noting that Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev had acknowledged to him that “ perestroika and glasnost need some moral foundation upon which to rest.”

Graham, virulently anti-Communist in the early days of his ministry, said Americans “should do everything we can to encourage him (Gorbachev) and even pray for him.

“Do I think he will last? I think personally that he will, and I hope that he does, and I’m praying that he will.”