"Get On The Telephone!"

On the heels of the death of Hunter S. Thompson, another larger-than-life character has died: Eccentric L.A.-based televangelist Dr. Gene Scott.

The frizzy-haired, stogie-puffing Scott for a time ran Los Angeles' Channel 30, which broadcasted his televangelism around the clock, and ran the King's House of Faith congregation -- located right across the street from the Forest Lawn cemetery in Glendale.

The FCC eventually revoked the station's license, but Scott started beaming his ministry via satellite and cable across the globe. According to the Associated Press, His University Network eventually aired a nightly talk show and Sunday morning church services on radio and television stations in about 180 countries. Scott's church, a Protestant congregation of more than 15,000 members, raised millions of dollars through round-the-clock Internet and satellite TV broadcasts, where he would demand of viewers: "Get on the telephone!" to donate.

Locally, his wacked-out broadcasts are still seen nightly on KDOC-TV, Channel 56.

Website rotten.com shares more on the televangelist -- who hated the title, and once sued Time magazine when it lumped him in the Jerry Falwell and Jim Bakker: These days, with a Costa Rican cigar wedged in his mouth and a necktie bandana wrapped 'round his head, Dr, Scott looks a bit more like Kenny Rogers. Only instead of singing about knowing when to fold, he plays the saxophone, taking time out to call lesser musicians like Bill Clinton "honkers."

Dr. Scott wants you to get on the telephone and hand over ten percent of your weekly income. The average member's contribution is reportedly $350.00 a month. "I want 300 people to give $1,000 by June 30 to humiliate Satan's efforts to destroy us," Dr. Scott commanded in a Web site missive. "I also want 700 to commit to $10,000 by Christmas. I've been trying to lighten the staff load for five years! I won't take responsibility for things I have no assurance I'll ever see!"

The price of membership is steep, and measured in what he calls first fruits: returns on any form of income (an investment, a pay raise, a second job, a tax refund, Lotto winnings). If you're out of work, you give the first week's unemployment check. For non-givers, Dr. Scott warns: "If you get too smart with God, he might let you live this next year without him so you can see the difference."

The L.A. Times caught up with Scott in 1994, who by then had moved his ministry to downtown L.A.: Every Sunday he attracts hundreds of worshipers from all over Southern California to hear his message in the historic United Artists Theater at Broadway and Olympic. His church spent $2 million to renovate the classic Spanish Gothic theater, established in 1927 by Hollywood luminaries Mary Pickford, Charles Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks, and today, the cathedral rooftop carries the same neon red "Jesus Saves" signs that for decades towered over the city's skyline a few blocks away on Hope Street.