HISTORICAL TIMELINE OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE "I AM" RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT

LOS ANGELES, California. A series of Ten Historic Public Classes are held across the West Coast of America. Beginning with a ten-day Public Class on Apr 5-15 followed by a second ten-day Public Class on Apr 22 - May 2, both being held in Los Angeles. The Classes quickly outgrew the original Friday Morning Club venue at 940 S. Figueroa Street which began with six hundred people in regular attendance, the overflow of attendees requiring it to be moved to the Trinity Auditorium on 843 S. Grand Avenue - a venue boasting the largest pipe organ in the Western United States. In that first Los Angeles audience, a distinguished artist - Charles Sindelar - was present. The Ballards asked if they could display his portrait of the Ascended Jesus in their Classes and permission was quickly given. The Ballards also requested whether he could paint Beloved Saint Germain's Portrait which he assented to, the Picture being first unveiled in the May 19-28 Public Class in San Francisco. The following year he designed and began publication of the monthly periodical magazine - The Voice of the "I AM." Other notable attendees in the first Los Angeles audiences included Harry Rogers - a prominent early Leader of one of the dozens of study groups that emerged in southern California and who became the editor of the Saint Germain Press and Beatrice "Bee" Rowe - who became the chief writer and director of the "I AM" Come Pageant, the "I AM" Pageant of the Angels and the Deliverer Play. A two-day Public Class on May 4-5 followed in Santa Barbara at the Recreation Center, 100 E. Carrillo where an audience of eighteen hundred awaited them. The Ballards went on to conduct a ten-day Public Class on May 19-28 at the Scottish Rite Auditorium in San Francisco at 1270 Sutter Street. Virgilyn Brown of Oakland recalls, " Since the first meeting of this Class was during the afternoon, my father could not attend due to his employment. He asked my mother to go and "see if it is real." Mother and I went to the Friday afternoon opening meeting in the Scottish Rite Temple on Sutter and Van Ness Streets, the entrance being on Sutter. We met in a small auditorium downstairs. At this meeting Mr. Ballard wore a white suit and Mrs. Ballard, a white dress. Max Gyzi made the introductions. Betty Mundy handled book sales - only Unveiled Mysteries and The Magic Presence (just released) were for sale. "After the meeting people could go up to Mr. and Mrs. Ballard to ask questions. Mother and I went up after the meeting and she asked Mr. Ballard, “Is that the body that the panther guarded"? He threw back his head and laughed. He said, "Yes." Then he added, "AND THESE ARE THE HANDS THAT ASSISTED DAVID LLOYD TO THE ASCENSION." She recollects, "In that small auditorium in the Scottish Rite Temple at my very first Class, the first time I saw the Ballards, Mr. Ballard made two points which I still clearly remember. There was a light bulb burning on the platform near Mr Ballard which he covered with a dark cloth so you could not see the light anymore. He then told us that this is what we have done to the Light in our bodies. Now we must use the Violet Consuming Flame to consume that which we have imposed on the Points of Light in our bodies so the Light will shine through." ** A ten-day Public Class followed in Seattle, Washington at the Chamber of Commerce Hall, 215 Columbia Street on June 4-13. The Ballards returned to Los Angeles at the Trinity Auditorium for a two-day Public Class July 7-8, followed by a ten-day Public Class in Pasadena, July 10-16 at the Shakespeare Club, 230 S. Los Robles Avenue. This was followed by a ten-day Public Class in Long Beach held at the New Masonic Temple, 835 Locust Avenue on July 19-23. A ten-day Public Class was then held in San Diego, July 28 - Aug 4 at the Silver Gate Masonic Temple on 3795 Utah Avenue. Finally another ten-day class was held at the 6,700 seat Shrine Civic Auditorium on 665 W. Jefferson Street on August 16-25. A leaflet distributed the following year at the July 1936 Shrine Class, listed sixty weekly Group meetings being conducted in Los Angeles and twenty-one more in the vicinity. There was not a day in the week in the Los Angeles area without three or four Group Meetings, daytime and evening, being held across dozens of locations - in Wiltshire, Hollywood, Santa Monica, Glendale, Pasadena, Burbank, Fullerton, Laguna Beach, Santa Barbara and Long Beach. - The History of the "I AM" Activity and Saint Germain Foundation [2003] p75. Beloved Beatrice "Bee" Rowe's personal recollections. **Beloved Virgilyn Brown's personal recollections.