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Fans of John Lennon and gossipy Beatles history might want to head to Lake Oswego next month.
After seven years of marriage, Lennon and Yoko Ono split up for an 18-month spell between 1973 and 1975. At Ono’s encouragement, Lennon began dating the couple’s personal assistant, May Pang.
Pang documented her year and a half with Lennon living in Los Angeles through candids and portraits. She’s spread them across a number of projects in the intervening half century, including three books and the 2022 documentary The Lost Weekend: A Love Story. After festival screenings and a dvd release, the doc is now available to stream online, and Pang is hanging a photo show to mark the occasion Aug. 14–16 at Lawrence Gallery in Lake Oswego.
Lennon called the period “The Lost Weekend,” pointing to the 1945 Billy Wilder film about a bender. Ironically, his real-life bender was an extremely prolific time. Lennon put out three solo albums in a year and a half and Pang was there to capture it. Several shots in the upcoming show are at a Santa Monica beach house they shared with Ringo Starr, Keith Moon of The Who and Harry Nilsson.
Of the albums Lennon recorded during The Lost Weekend, 1974’s Walls and Bridges had the most to do with Pang. On the song “#9 Dream,” you can hear her whisper John’s name, and the track “Surprise, Surprise (Sweet Bird of Paradox)” was reportedly written about Pang.
Pang worked behind the scenes in Lennon’s life, encouraging him to reconnect with his son Julian Lennon for the first time in three years, and contributed to Lennon and Paul McCartney’s reunion. Many of the photos in this collection have never been displayed in public. Among them is the only photo of Lennon signing the contract that broke up the Beatles, the last known picture of Lennon and McCartney together, and a sweet shot of John and Julian, who would have been about 11 years old at the time.
Pang will be at the show through the weekend, presumably waiting for any curious fans to ply her with endless John questions.
SEE IT: The Lost Weekend: The Photography of May Pang at the Lawrence Gallery, 540 N State St., Lake Oswego, 503-843-3633, lawrencegallery.com. 4–7 pm Friday, noon–6 pm Saturday, noon–4 pm Sunday, Aug. 14–16. Free.
