Stories about meeting John outside of the Dakota just fill me with happiness. I hope this one makes you happy as well.
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| Photo by Vinnie Zuffante |
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| Photo by Vinnie Zuffante |
John Lennon
By Barb Clark
With a Little Help from my friends issue #17 (January 1977)
November 7, 1976 --NYC
Outside of John’s apartment building early that morning, we
(Tempy S., Kay P, and I) met up with George Tebbens, Sharon U., and Carol and
Nancy. We all happened to be in NYC to
see John and maybe George in court, for the settlement of “My Sweet Lord” vs.
“He’s so Fine.”
Too cold outside to stand, we sat in our cars. George’s car was parked in front of
John’s. We were parked across the
street, wondering if he’d come out at all, it being Sunday and the weather
looking down. I kept an eye glued to the
front of his house. People came and
went. Then, there he was! I yelled, “There’s
John!” We ripped open the car doors, and
not looking at the on-coming traffic, raced across the street, which explains
the look on John’s face --- a bit worried that one of us would get run
over. The Chicago gang was then out of
the car – John stood and signed autographs.
He looked as good as ever – dressed in jeans and a denim jacket with fur
trim. His hair was cut a bit like “Walls
& Bridges” time and he was so nice.
He asked where we were all from.
I uttered “Cincinnati” under my breath.
As someone else said “Chicago,” he said “Why are you all here?” No one answered. Finally Kay said, “too see you.” Yoko stood there quietly—looking a bit
scared. They posed for pictures. John said, “Wait here, we’ll be back, you
wait here, don’t follow us.” He and Yoko
turned and walked down 72nd Street.
We watched them walk down the street.
A car had pulled out and left a parking spot almost behind George’s car,
so we all spread out and stood in the space until Kay got her car. The nanny brought Sean out for a stroll –
cute as ever a getting big. They weren’t
out very long. She took Sean back
in. We sat in our cars. A cab pulled up alongside of us. It was John and Yoko. As John got out so did everyone else! He signed autographs again. As cameras went clicking and questions were
asked, he laughed and said, “This is like a press conference!” He wanted to know why we weren’t in
school. He was in a great mood. A cop walked by and said, “Was that Paul
McCartney?”
He came out later.
Yoko was dressed up. They hurried
and got into a cab. We waited for them
to come back. A couple hours later they
returned. As he got out, he uttered,
“You’re all crazy!” He laughed a bit and
looked up at us and repeated again, “You’re all crazy!” As they started into the apartment he said
something like, “You all go and get some rest.
We won’t be out any more tonight.”
I said “Okay John. Goodnight.”
And patted him on the shoulder. After
that we all went out and celebrated!
About 2 am we called it a night and went back to our hotel, the Holiday
Inn. About 4am this alarm went off. I thought it was an alarm clock in the next
room. Then I woke Kay and Tempy up
thinking maybe it’s a fire alarm. I went
to the door, being stopped by Tempy who wouldn’t let me open the door for
anything, thinking it was a trick and someone wanted to ransack the rooms. So we went out the patio doors. No sign of fire. Someone called on the phone finally and said,
“get out, the place is on fire!” A
fireman came through the patio door helping us get out. We grabbed camera first and then whatever
else we could. We went out in our
pajamas and stood outside. About 6am
they sent us back to our rooms. The fire
happened to be 3 doors down from us! We
went to bed for about an hour, got up and got to the courthouse by 8a.m. But we found out they didn’t have the trial
until that afternoon. And that George
didn’t have to be there. So we all went
back to John’s. The afternoon came. The Chicago gang stayed at John’s while Kay,
Tempy and I got a cab and went back to the courthouse only to find that George wasn’t
going to show up. The courtroom was the
same one used in the promo film for “This Song.” We got the subway back to John’s and about an
hour later John arrived in a gray limo.
He signed a couple autographs and said he was tired and that he’d been at
this all day. And that was the last time
we saw him.
Later we met up with Michael Stankowitz and talked a
bit. His friends and he left, and then
we all went down and had pizza. The
Chicago gang then left for home. We left
the next morning.
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