In the summer of '66, Danny Fields (the subject of the upcoming documentary "Danny Says") was managing editor at Datebook magazine. Danny was responsible for reprinting the London Evening Standard interview by Maureen Cleave in which John Lennon made the controversial "We're more popular than Jesus now" statement.
Two days after Datebook hit the stands with another quote from the interview (" I don't know which will go first - rock 'n' roll or Christianity.") on its cover, a furor erupted in the southern U.S. states and quickly escalated into bonfires of Beatles records, radio station bannings of their music, death threats, and Klu Klux Klan appearances at rallies outside of their concert venues. Under pressure, John Lennon apologized at a press conference, but the Beatles were so shaken that after their August 29 concert in San Francisco they never toured again.
Gloria immediately came to John's defense (and didn't miss an opportunity to take a swing at her competitors!) Ironically, she later hired Danny Fields as her assistant in 1972, and he went on to become co-editor in chief (with Randi Reisfeld) when Gloria left 16 in 1975.
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