The headline in the Times Union was intriguing: May Pang shares ‘her’ John Lennon at Guilderland, Hudson exhibit spaces.
The so-called Lost Weekend, “which was actually 18 months long, is the subject of Pang’s new traveling photography exhibition, coming to ArtForms in Guilderland on June 25 and 26 and The Park Theatre in Hudson on June 28 through 30. The show comes on the heels of the documentary ‘The Lost Weekend: A Love Story,’ which debuted at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival and stars Pang and Lennon’s son Julian.”
As Pang tells it in the story, “The 23-year-old Pang was approached by Ono, one of her bosses, to date Lennon when the two started having marital problems in 1973. By this point, Pang had been an assistant to the musical pair for three years, following her work on their film projects… and bluffing her way to a receptionist job at Apple Records. Pang refused. Ono asked again and again…
“Yet despite Pang’s resistance, she and Lennon found their own way together without Ono. Pang stopped working for the musicians, and she and Lennon, in a snap decision, flew across the country to Los Angeles without Ono knowing. There, Pang and Lennon built a life.”
Here’s a story from WNTY-TV.
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So my friend Mark and I had to go. First off, where is it? 2050 Western Avenue, as it turns out, is somewhere in the middle of the 20 Mall. It’s a fairly tiny location, certainly far less square footage than the first two floors of my house.
By the time we went in, shortly after the opening at 3 p.m., it was quite crowded and warm, and it would only get worse. There were some very nice photos, but it wasn’t easy to read the captions under the pictures without being in someone’s way.
“In addition to portraits of life with Lennon, Pang captured milestones in music. She shot the last known photograph of Lennon and McCartney together… When Lennon reunited with Julian [John’s first son, with Cynthia], Pang was there with her camera. When he added his signature below McCartney, Starr, and Harrison to officially dissolve the Beatles while in Disneyland, Pang was there, too.” There was a picture of John in Ellenville; I explained to someone where it was.
Ultimately, Mark succumbed and bought a poster, which May Pang signed. She encouraged everyone to see The Lost Weekend: A Love Story on Amazon. As she notes, it really was a love story. And as May Pang had said, the pictures she took may be the closest most people will get to John Lennon.
The tour continues on the East Coast in 2024.