Youth for Christ rallies were first held in New York City in 1940, organized by Jack Wyrtzen, a young ex-insurance salesman who had also played the trombone in a cavalry band. The Youth for Christ campaign idea spread to Washington, D.C., Detroit, Indianapolis and St. Louis. In 1944 Torrey Johnson, a Baptist minister and pastor of Chicago's Midwest Bible Church, staged "Chicagoland for Christ" and became the most successful advocate of this type of campaign. Johnson was elected Youth for Christ's first president, with Billy Graham as its first full-time evangelist.