John was drinking, but that was overblown in retrospect, says Pang. In the documentary, Julian arises as Pangs greatest ally and witness. I knew, at that moment, if John and I had gone to meet Paul and Linda, there would have been new music. And they are going to lie about it.. It is perhaps one of the most unusual love affairs of all-time, still perplexing Lennon fans around the world after almost 30 years. Life with John Lennon: Pomona's May Pang tells all - The Journal News . She was a schmoozer, and when she began to work for John and Yoko, doing every makeshift task available avant-garde film production assistant, costume designer she had an ebullient smile and an easy-to-be-with vivacity. I lived it. Pang was born in New York, New York to Chinese parents.. Pang was a secretary at ABKCO, a management company started by Allen Klein, in New York City. Quite the arrangement,I dont know what to think? [15][16] "Dad and I got on a great deal better then," recalls Julian. 2023 www.lohud.com. Ono ignored Pang's protests and said that she would arrange everything. In the photos that we saw at the time of her and John, she always had a waifish beauty, and a certain mystery behind those tinted hexagon glasses. Her father, a traditional Chinese man of that era, had no interest in a daughter but her mother provided an assertive role model. Pang replied that she could never start a relationship with Lennon, as he was her employer and married. John Lennon's lover May Pang has revealed the incredibly uncomfortable and 'bizarre' interaction she had with his widow, Yoko Ono, 30 years after the couple's former assistant enjoyed an 18-month . At this time, Pang encouraged Lennon to reach out to family and friends. (In the early 70s, hed become a real political scold; after the drubbing received by 1972s Some Time in New York City, that was part of what he was letting go of.). And, because I was 10 years younger, we were getting to do all the things young couples do., Pang insists that the ex-Beatle only used the term lost weekend to refer to that time because he was tired of the press constantly asking him about two high-profile incidents in 1974 in which he was tossed from an Los Angeles club for being inebriated and verbally abusive. John Lennon is pictured above with May Pang in 1974. Not that everything was bliss in this stretch of time. Yoko Ono Wikipdia I aligned myself with her.. The press keeps repeating the same stories over and over., May does admit she eventually fell for Lennon. [2], While visiting Mick Jagger at Andy Warhol's compound in Montauk, New York, Lennon and Pang saw a Scottish-style cottage for sale close to the Montauk Point Lighthouse. May Pang said John Lennon liked when his partner controlled him Over the course of their relationship, Pang got to know Lennon well. "[17] The cover of Julian's seventh album, Jude, features a childhood photo of him taken by Pang.[18]. 35 Vintage Photos of May Pang and John Lennon During Their Dating Days She worked for John Lennon and Yoko Ono as a personal assistant and production coordinator, and when Lennon and Ono separated in 1973, Pang and Lennon began a relationship that lasted more than 18 months. Pang readily admits that, in that era and afterwards, Ono endured a great degree of sexism and racism from the public, which fueled that cruel view of her. Through him, she declined to comment. These are my memories. Everything to him was barmy Whats wrong with everyone? I miss those conversations.. John Lennon: The Beatles REUNION that never was - 'PLAN' revealed (Photo by Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) In February 1975, Pang and Lennon were together in Long Island when Ono called her husband and asked him to come and see "a therapist who could break his nicotine habit through hypnosis. I just wanted to treat him as a regular person. Im just tired of being pushed around. He wouldve been very vocal about what he was going on in the world. But it's not the whole story. But the film makes clear that she did fall in love, and so did he. So was Lennon's drinking buddy, Harry Nilsson. [1] Pang's mother had a laundry business in the area. People dont understand that the phrase wasnt about our relationship., Regardless, the term became so resonant that a new documentary centered on that period The Lost Weekend: A Love Story devotes half its title to it. In NYC, Lennon could be himself, even riding an MTA bus at the urging of Pang, who'd grown up in Spanish Harlem. The pair headed to Los Angeles for what has become known as The Lost Weekend for the former Beatles drunken escapades with his pals Alice Cooper, Harry Nilsson, Ringo Starr, Keith Moon and Micky Dolenz, collectively known as the Hollywood Vampires, their hangout upstairs at the Rainbow Bar & Grill on Sunset Blvd. But she hasn't ruled out a future run for local office. Born in 1950, the daughter of Chinese immigrants, Pang was raised in Spanish Harlem. But the only way for that to happen was John not being there., The new couples time in LA resurrected Lennons lighter side, she said, both personally and creatively. In that regard, Pang believes that Lennons characterization of his last few years with Ono as a time of domestic bliss was a fabrication he used to promote his reunion album with her, Double Fantasy. I figured, if there was going to be a film about my life, I should be involved. Speaking recently to The Journal News at her Pomona home, Pang showed photos of Lennon, and a gold record for his 1974 album "Walls and Bridges," where Pang can be heard singing backup on "#9 Dream.". Interviewing John Lennon's Lost Weekend Girlfriend. She said: Happy? Regarding her breakup with Lennon, Pang calls it a "gray zone.". She does pretty well with that on the merits of how she presents herself., Still, the image she suggests of Ono dovetails with the character many Beatle fans believed decades ago. It just so happened I was working with a famous rock star. [46], "May Pang is a legend in the Rock n' Roll world", "Gary James' Interview With John Lennon's Girlfriend, May Pang", "Memorabilia: The Julian Lennon Collection", "Julian Lennon gives family peace a chance", "Julian Lennon on Covering "Imagine" for the First Time in Support of Ukraine: It Was "The Right Occasion", "There's UFOs Over New York and John Lennon Wasn't Too Surprised", "Pang reveals her side of affair with John Lennon", "Beatles: Lennon planned to meet McCartney in 1974", "The ballad of John and Yoko's secretary", "When John Lennon's Signature Officially Dissolved the Beatles", "Last Known Photos of John Lennon and Paul McCartney Together in 1974", "The Lost Weekend: A Love Story | 2022 Tribeca Festival", "John Lennon's Ex May Pang Recalls Yoko Ono Asking Her to Date the Beatle in 'The Lost Weekend' Trailer", "Life with John Lennon: Pomona's May Pang tells all", "May Pang Reflects on Her Lasting "Weekend" With John Lennon", "Lennon Planned to Visit McCartney In 1974", "Getting Fifi to pay for abandoned mutts' care", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=May_Pang&oldid=1148631996, Professional and personal relationship with, This page was last edited on 7 April 2023, at 10:56. Pang pulled out her Nikkormat and captured the moment. The last time she said she saw him was during the winter of 1978-79. That became impossible starting one day in 1973 when Ono came to Pang and told her she and Lennon werent getting along and that she believed he was going to start seeing other women. May Pang - Wikipedia The Beatles almost reunited in Syracuse, and it started on John Lennon A love story that took 50 years to tell, "The Lost Weekend: A Love Story" explores the 18-month romantic relationship between John Lennon and his Chinese-American assistant May Pang, See production, box office & company info. Its been covered by everything from E! He couldnt stop. They lived together in Los Angeles and New York from 1973 to early 1975, before the ex-Beatle reunited with wife Yoko Ono. May Pang The album Walls And Bridges was recorded in July and August 1974. About two years after she was first employed there, Ono came to the young assistant with a startling proposal. In 1971, Lennon and Yoko Ono hired Pang as their personal assistant. Loving John by May Pang | Goodreads But according to Pang, the fabled tales of Lennons misbehavior, as when he and Harry Nilsson, after too many Brandy Alexanders, got kicked out of the Troubadour nightclub for heckling the Smothers Brothers, were more the exception than the rule. In March 1974, Lennon began producing Harry Nilsson's Pussy Cats album,[13] thus named to counter the "bad boy" image the pair had earned in the media with two drinking incidents at The Troubadour. It also included postcards that Lennon had written to Pang during his travels throughout the world in the late 1970s. I knew that John and Yoko, after marrying in 1969 and seeming like inseparable soulmates in art and life, began to have problems as a couple. [1], After graduating from Saint Michael Academy, Pang attended New York City Community College. '", The documentary features interview with Lennon's son Julian Lennon, plus old footage of the former Beatle, including an interview in which he calls his time with Pang "ridiculous. [4][7] Ono explained that she and Lennon were not getting along, had been arguing and were growing apart, and said that Lennon would start seeing other women. RIP John. Pang's is the voice whispering Lennon's name on "#9 Dream". John Lennon, who was shot and killed Dec. 8, 1980, would have turned 75 this year. John had also begun visiting Yoko, for "business matters" and to possibly arrange a divorce. He reconnected with Julian Lennon, his son by his first wife, Cynthia, and his fellow ex-Beatles, at one point living with Ringo Starr in a Santa Monica beach house. May Pang was born in 1950, the daughter of Chinese immigrants, she grew up in New York's Spanish Harlem. For another Ono film, Pang had to ask both everyday people and celebrities to show their legs for the camera for peace. [4][8] Ono explained that she and Lennon were not getting along, had been arguing and were growing apart, and said that Lennon would start seeing other women. May Pang, who dated Lennon during a separation from Ono, confirmed to The Post-Standard in 2010 that Lennon had talked about getting the band back together in Syracuse. John Lennon (1940 - 1980) with Yoko Ono, December 1968. If attaching a video or photo, terms of use apply. Theyve read about it by other people. It was later updated and renamed John Lennon: The Lost Weekend. [20][21] In the early summer, Lennon was working on his Walls and Bridges album when the couple moved into a penthouse apartment at 434 East 52nd Street. Its your life. Pang said she and Lennon remained romantically involved for several years afterward. After John, seemingly out of nowhere, goes back to Yoko, and Pang confronts him about it, he says, quite simply: Shes letting me come back. The former assistant was a part of rock history, but she also was very kind to John Lennon and helped him re-connect with his son. Eventually, Lennon found out about Onos alleged affair and, Pang said, instead of being jealous, he said: Oh, good!. Ono was in Iceland to unveil a sculpture in Reykjavk and was staying in the same hotel. She was 10 years younger than Lennon (and 17 years younger than Yoko), who was her boss and a Beatle. 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May Pang tells her version of what happened in "The Lost Weekend," which is billed as a love story with John Lennon. It wasnt Yokos idea that the two of them move to L.A.; that was Johns impulsive decision. [35], The Tribeca Film Festival announced the 2022 premiere of The Lost Weekend: A Love Story, a 97-minute documentary about Pang's life and relationship with Lennon, on June 10th via virtual home viewing. With May's help, Lennon reunited with his son Julian and had his most artistically and commercially productive period post . I took him to parks., She also helped him re-connect to his life before Ono entered the picture. While he was married to Yoko. Kenyon ended their conversation by asking May if she'd ever found a man whose qualities added up to John Lennon's. [10], Pang still resides in New York City. And she said, 'I think it's time. What do you think I said?.
