You're all familiar with David Cassidy's bio, aren't you? Among his long list of accomplishments, this rarely-skipped boast about the height of his fame always makes me smile: "membership in his fan club exceeded those of Elvis Presley and The Beatles". Honest to goodness, first time I read that, I thought: by how many? One? One hundred?
Seriously, it's a vacuous claim. Sounds impressive but no context is given. Are the three fan clubs compared in the early seventies? If so, well, Elvis was no longer at HIS peak and The Beatles had broken up. If the three clubs are compared at everyone's peak of fame, is the marketing factor taken into account? The David Cassidy fan club - with Laufer publications at the helm - was probably better publicized than either one of the other two (sort of like taking into account inflation when comparing movie box office revenues).
I have a vague recollection of seeing the statement quantified once - with 200,000 fans - but I've never been able to find that number again. Was it online or in a TV bio? Don't recall. Speaking of source, the boast would have come to light when David Cassidy's wife overheard it on the TV game show "Hollywood Squares". Apparently the audience was surprised at the answer to "Who had the biggest fan club? Elvis Presley, The Beatles or David Cassidy?". Unfortunately, I don't recall where that tidbit of info comes from either (his books?).
Anyone out there have hard numbers for us? (Is that giggling I hear? Sheesh. You're just a bunch of twelve year olds, aren't you?)
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I have no idea of actual figures, but I would presume the claim would have compared all three at the height of their fame.
I would guess that David's fanclub was huge as the age demograph was young and our generation were given more money by our parents. The 70's were a time when kids bought magazines and had pocket money to spend. David was the first real marketable idol with merchandise and everything. Kids in America, Canada, Europe, Britain and Australia would have bought the mags and joined the fanclub. Hell, I joined David's fanclub as did many at my school(I have never joined another). It was a phenomenon like no other and I don't doubt that the official number of fanclub members was huge.
I have read somewhere that this does not mean David was more popular or had more fans than Elvis or the Beatles, just that David's fans were younger and therefore more likely to join a fanclub.
Oh yeah, forgot to say tweens and teenagers are the most likely group to join a fanclub.
I see you can join David's current fan club on his website (for a price). No offence, but I'd just feel plain daft joining that at my age. He'd have to pay me!!!!
I must be in naive mode today as I missed your subtle references to David's anatomy. Funny!! I guess that's one part of David's aura that wasn't exaggerated!
I sure there are a certain few of us that especially came to mind when she wrote that, BF. LOL!!!
I remember reading in multiple places that he had 2 million members in his fan club, which is more than Elvis or the Beatles ever did. Can't take that away from him. He was very, very big. But (always a caveat!) he had MUCH more sophisticated marketing. The fanzines were much better at exploiting artists for $ at that point. And he also existed at the intersection of print, music, and television, which is also something the Beatles and Elvis didn't have.
The fact that he keeps trumpeting the fan club and concert attendance numbers is just a reflection of his insecurities, IMO. That and the fact that he hasn't done anything new in a generation---there's nothing new to brag about.
Thanks for explaining all that about the fan clubs, BF.
I had completely forgotten about the fan club you can join now. Can you imagine walking around with that keychain? LOL!!!!!! I know for me, people would initially think that was my child until they recognized him. Then they'd be like, wth??? You're a middle-aged woman walking around with a then picture of a teen idol. Maybe the only thing worse would be if I was walking around with a picture of Zac Efron. I can see some of these younger kids joining though, like mrsdavidbrucecassidy on YouTube.
Maybe it wouldn't be so bad walking around with that keychain. If I saw an older woman walking around with a picture of Elvis, I probably would think that was cool.
It does bug me a little that the 'biggest fan club' and 40,000 fans at concerts are always prominent in his advertising, it certainly comes across as bragging (and there weren't always 40-50,000 at every concert, some were around 20,000). To me that is bringing the attention back to the teen idol status which is something David is always trying to get away from!
Better if his advertising blurb started with something like 'seasoned stage performer and actor' and put the teen idol reference at the end (if at all), maybe the audiences may be more varied. The perpetual teen idol reference is just going to keep the middle aged devotees coming back time and again, not new fans or those who might know David from his stage shows/Ruby. It seems they (his people) keep targeting the same audience. Oh, here I go again with the career advice. Enough already! LOL!
Eveytime we get a dose of this flotsam it's so frustrating, BF, when we think it could be so much better, could have been so much better. The marketing that is done for him leaves so much to be desired.
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