St. Regis Hotel 1971

 

October 17, 1971

St. Regis Hotel

By Barbara

McCartney Lovers and Friends

March 1973

    John and Yoko came bopping out of the hotel, and Linda strolled over to him and told him to watch himself on TV that night. It was a repeat of an early Sullivan Show. Well, you could just tell that John was thrilled to death and said something like, "Oh, is it that roobish with us on again?" And Linda said, "It's not roobish."

     As John was getting into the car before we went in, he smiled at us and noticed Emma was filming, so he did a little dance like he did in A Hard Day's Night. There was a Columbus Day parade going on Fifth Avenue, so the traffic was tied up in front of the hotel, so we all went over to talk to him.

     Suddenly, a crowd assembled in the middle of the street. "Look, it's that Beatle with that Yoyo woman!"  "I remember when they first came here 20 years ago, and the park was filled with those screaming teenagers." "Wasn't that at the Plaza darling?"

    

     This cute little old lady came running up to John and said, "Oh my god, I can't believe it's really you, John! Dear, I'm so happy to see you. How are you, darling?"  John gave another act from A Hard Day's Night and started talking to her like he did that dancer. You know the "you don't look a bit like him." Remember?  He said, "Is it really you? Oh my god, I can't believe it.! It's really her! I'm so happy to see you, too. Que pasa, que pasa. " That was really cute. 

    

    Some guys came along and asked John to sign some autographs, and one handed him $1 bill. So John started to put it in his pocket,  making eyebrows at everyone. Linda said, "Give it to me." The guy said, "No, no sign on it!"  He had a thick Spanish accent. John was smiling and winking at everyone and carrying on with the usual nonsense chatter. Linda started harping on about how sorry she was that she couldn't make it to Syracuse. John looked at her like, "Well?" Then she started to say she was watching them on Channel 13 the other night, and when Yoko started her screaming and howling, she fell off the bed. I couldn't believe she said that!

     John asked why the traffic was so tied up, and we told him it was because of a parade. So he said, "Why don't we turn around then?" So we advised him that since it was a one way street and there were 100 cars behind him, that couldn't be done. Eventually, they were able to go on their way, and he waved goodbye to everyone. 

    In the meantime, Barbara and a few others were waiting in a taxi to follow him. Here is what Barbara had to say:

     Well, at the time, they were fooling around with him in the car. Lyn, Sagi, Debbie, and I got into a taxi to tail them. Well, after 10 minutes of the parade, we took off. As soon as he got on a really busy city street, he saw someone he knew, and had the car stop right in the middle of the road with us behind him. So he sticks his entire body out of the window and yells "Freeman!" over and over in an attempt to get Freeman's attention. Then Yoko opens the door and yells, "Freeman!"  And finally, the driver starts doing it too. Picture this:  two cars in the middle of a busy city street with John Lennon hanging out of the window. The funny thing is that nobody really paid attention, except for the honking cars trying to pass us.

     Two girls, as soon as they saw John, grabbed each other and yelled, "John Lennon!" After about 15 minutes, they got back into the car and turned a few corners. Then, when we lost sight of them. We kept on going down the street. When we saw the car parked outside a theater (The New York City Center, where Jane had played in Romeo and Juliet in 1967). We sat outside a while, and the driver told us that he was just inside for a few minutes. Debbie left to find George, and Jamie came. 

    About half an hour later, John came out. Yoko wanted a pretzel from a pretzel cart, and John reached into his pocket for some money, but couldn't find any! He tells Yoko, "No, we'll have to get one later." He came toward us, noticed us standing there near the carts, and pointed at us and yelled, "Get a cab!" and laughed. 

    We do get a cab and follow him to a run-down tenement in the village. He came back out after a bit, looked at us, and said, "Stupid birds", and then said to Yoko, "No, it's only two blocks we can walk". So they go on with us a half a block behind them, Jamie was whistling "Rock Around the Clock", and John kept looking back smiling. 

    One man stopped Jamie on the corner and said, "Do you know who that was?" Jamie said, "No. Who?"  The man said, "That was Yoko Ono-- that Japanese woman." And Jamie said, "No!
 The man said, "Yes, it was." And Jamie said, "Oh, my God!"  It was a fairly quiet area in the village. and John heard all of this. He looked back and kept smiling.

     He walked into another dirty, rundown building. We sat on the ledge of the door and waited. He came back out, and I looked up, and he smiled. He went down the steps and checked everything out, and did the taxi bit again. "Taxi! Hurry, get a taxi!"  He was holding his finger in the air, looking down the deserted street. Lyn said, "You've got to be kidding, a cab around here?"  He was obviously enjoying himself, yelling, "Taxi!"

     They rode back the two blocks to the original broken-down building. Jonas Meekas went back into the building, while John and Yoko were pecking in the back seat. We waited across the street, debating whether or not we should go over to the car and start a conversation. But before long, Jonas came back out with the driver and they left. Since we were out of money and there were no cabs in sight, anyway, this was the end.