Video: 'UPSCALED & COMPLETE - Brian Epstein 1966 "Beatles More Popular than Jesus" Press Conference'

(Friday, August 5, 1966, 11:00 a.m. EDT) — Brian Epstein, manager of The Beatles, held a news conference this morning at the Americana Hotel at 811 7th Ave (between W. 52nd/53rd St; now known as the Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel) in New York City, hoping to quell a public relations storm following a quote by John Lennon claiming the band was “more popular than Jesus.”

Video: 'NYC Brian Epstein interview NBC News'

Epstein said the Lennon quote in a British newspaper had been “represented entirely out of context” by teen magazine Datebook, and expressed regret on behalf of the group that “people with certain religious beliefs should have been offended in any way.”

Video: 'Brian Epstein Interview 1966'