Charles Coughlin in The Great Depression
Father Charles Coughlin (1891–1979) was a Roman Catholic priest who became a national celebrity during the 1930s by hosting a popular radio broadcast.
By the middle of the 1930s, Coughlin attracted between 30 and 45 million listeners a week, making him one of America's most influential opinion-makers.
Coughlin started as a zealous supporter of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, going so far as to call the New Deal, "Christ's Deal." Later, however, Coughlin became disenchanted with Roosevelt's leadership and began to espouse extreme right-wing views. By the late 1930s, he'd become an outright fascist sympathizer.