The week-long bed-in that saw a pyjama-clad John Lennon and Yoko Ono host a parade of journalists, LSD gurus, counterculture luminaries and hangers-on in their Montreal hotel suite kicked off on May 25, 1969, and culminated in the on-site recording of “Give Peace a Chance.”
The suite now features vintage-style recording equipment, a flower-print tea set and photos of Lennon and Ono in repose, reading Lao Tzu’s “The Way of Life” and smelling flowers.Model Genevieve Borne at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal on May 23, 2019, introducing the Lennon-Ono Bed-In for Peace exhibit.
Outside the French doors of their modest digs at the Queen Elizabeth, the halls resounded for a week with Hare Krishna mantras, teenagers’ giggles and on-air news reports. Footage of Beat poet Allen Ginsberg, actor Tommy Smothers of the Smothers Brothers and psychedelic advocate Timothy Leary — perpetually sporting a blissful grin — lives on as part of the recording session for “Give Peace a Chance.”The love-in was not without conflict or debate.
Lennon’s open acknowledgment of the marketing strategy behind the bed-ins dovetails smoothly with that of the hotel, which promotes a $3,000-per-night package for the fabled suite. “This is called Big Love Ball,” said Wendy Williams Watt, the Vancouver-based artist behind the exhibit, which features gargantuan white balls emblazoned with the word “love” and adorned with signatures from passersby.