May Pang Photos Show a Different Side to John Lennon's 'Lost Weekend'

The Keyes Art Gallery on Sag Harbor’s Main Street offered fans of John Lennon a trip back in time last weekend as May Pang, who was the ex-Beatle’s lover during the 18-month period from 1973 to 1975 that famously became known as “The Lost Weekend” for Lennon’s bouts of drunken debauchery during that period, showed a collection of 35 photographs she had taken during their time together that she says help to tell a very different story.

And for those who think every last tale has already been told and retold about Lennon’s life and all-too-early death, Pang is eager to set the record straight about the role she played during a period she said was one of Lennon’s most creative during his post-Beatles years.

Along with the photo exhibit, which Pang has already brought to 45 cities and towns across the United States, a documentary about her time with Lennon, also named “The Lost Weekend,” is currently streaming on a variety of platforms.

Pang, the daughter of Chinese immigrants, was born and raised in Spanish Harlem. She took a job with Apple Records, the Beatles’ label, and later with Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono, serving as their personal assistant, a job that kept her busy doing everything from running errands to booking studio time.

In 1973, Lennon and Ono’s relationship was on the rocks, and Ono famously urged the 23-year-old Pang to run off with her husband and serve as something of a babysitter with benefits.

“I refused,” Pang said, despite several requests that might as well have been orders. While she worked with Lennon, she said she had no intention of becoming involved with him, “until he began to pursue me.”

Pang was with Lennon when he recorded the album “Mind Games” in 1973 and “Walls and Bridges” in 1974. During their time together, he also began work on the “Rock ‘n’ Roll” album of covers of 1950s songs, worked on Ringo Starr’s solo album, “Ringo,” and produced Harry Nilsson’s “Pussy Cats” album.

She points out that “Whatever Gets You Through the Night” from “Walls and Bridges” was Lennon’s only No. 1 post-Beatles single

During that period, and with Pang’s assistance and encouragement, he reestablished ties with his son, Julian, as well as his first wife, Cynthia Powell, and even contemplated joining Paul McCartney in the studio again.

The 18-month period became known as “The Lost Weekend” largely because of a number very public incidents in Los Angeles, in which an out-of-control Lennon was drinking heavily and making a fool of himself at a number of clubs and restaurants.

But Pang said those outbursts were the exception, and she and Lennon spent most of their time living relatively quietly in New York, first at the St. Regis Hotel and later in an apartment on East 52nd Street, while he worked in the recording studio and hung out with friends including Mick Jagger and Elton John.

She said once he set his mind to writing a song or recoding it, Lennon was impatient, working quickly in a way that was counter to the image the Beatles had developed as craftsmen laboring over minor elements of each song.

But she said his gift was obvious. “When he wrote, he could convey a universal message in five words or less,” she said.

What made the weekend’s show different was that Pang was on hand to answer questions and tell stories about her life before, with and after Lennon, to a steady stream of visitors who stopped in during HarborFest weekend to offer their thoughts on Lennon and wish Pang well.

Among the photos in the traveling exhibit are some well known ones: Lennon and McCartney chatting in the sun, outside the Los Angeles house Lennon was living in at the time; Lennon and Julian at Disney World; or Lennon clowning around in photos that were originally planned to be used on the “Walls and Bridges” cover.

But there are others, which until now have not been widely distributed. One photograph shows Lennon on a misty, wooded trail outside Ellenville, New York, turning back to face Pang. It was one of his favorites, she said. Another image shows Lennon floating on his back in Long Island Sound, at peace in the water he loved.

Yet another photo, captured in a dark room in a hotel, where Lennon, Pang, and Julian were staying on a trip to Disney World, shows Lennon, mid-stroke, as he adds the last signature to the papers officially dissolving the Beatles on December 29, 1974.