Imagine These Premieres

Julian and Cynthia attended the documentary film premiere of Imagine: John Lennon on  October 7, 1988 at the National Theatre in New York. Yoko Ono and Sean also attended as did Cynthia boyfriend Jim Christie and Julian's girlfriend Fiona Flanagan. There was an after party at the Russian Tea Room. This was really the first time Yoko and Cynthia were together since 1970.

"It doesn't exist really. I don't hold any bad feelings towards her. If it hadn't been her, it would have been somebody else. It was something that happened. For the film about John we had tea at the Russian Tea Rooms in New York. There was Yoko and Sean, Julian and  his girlfriend of the time, Jim and me. It was a bit strained, but we don't really have anything in common. All that time isn't really part of my life now. I still keep up with Maureen and Pattie occasionally. But I don't see the others."

Cynthia, 1988 

Cynthia was referring to any kind of rift between her and Yoko... I'll be exploring that soon (it's in the process of writing at this time!). Personally, I really do not like this outfit on Cynthia! She was usually great on fashion style, but this? Blah... Makes her look frumpy. The London premiere 18 days later looked better: 

Cynthia and Jim on October 25, 1988 for the Imagine: John Lennon documentary premiere at Canon Cinema in London. Yoko and Sean were also there, but I don't think Julian attended this one. 

Some Famous Visitors of Kenwood

"We entertain very few. P.J. Proby was there one night and George Martin another. I think those are the only two we've specifically said 'Come to dinner' to, and made preparations. Normally I like people to drop 'round on the off chance. It cuts out all that formal entertaining business. We've just had Ivan and Jean down for a weekend - they're old friends from Liverpool, and Pete Shotton. The fellow who runs my supermarket came round on Saturday."

John, 1966

Obviously there were a number of guest far beyond from what I'll be writing about here. Family, friends, celebrities, hanger-ons, fans, they all went to Kenwood, usually for a meal, listening to music, watching TV, stuff you normally do when entertaining guests. 

Pete Shotton and Cynthia's mother were honorary live-ins. 

Other family visitors include John's sisters Julia and Jackie, his cousins Stanley, Leila, David and Michael, Aunt Mimi, Aunt Elizabeth, Aunt Harrie, Aunt Nanny, Cynthia's brothers Charles and Anthony, John's father Alfred (his girlfriend Pauline was another live in but she didn't last as long as Pete and Lil), long time friends like Ivan Vaughan and Phyllis Mackenzie, list goes on. Of course, Paul McCartney, Jane Asher, Ringo and Maureen Starr, George and Pattie Harrison, George and Judy Martin, Mal and Lil Evans, Neil Aspinall, Peter Brown, Tony Bramwell, Alistair Taylor, Derek and Joan Taylor, Terry Doran, and more from the Beatles circle were also frequent visitors.

I already wrote about Julia and Jackie, Aunt Mimi, and most recently Mike and Phyllis Nesmith visiting Kenwood in the past.

As for celebrities: Bob Dylan, P. J. Proby, Dudley Moore, Peter Cook, Alan Price, Victor Spinetti, Joan Baez, and more. 

I'm not going to go in chronological order but here are some interesting tidbits about some of Kenwood's visitors:

P. J. Proby in 1965 

To be honest with you, out of these celebrities, I know about P. J. Proby the very least, and after reading a bit about him while researching for this post, I'm rather glad I know next to nothing about this guy! Anyway, personal feelings aside, from 1964 until 1966, P. J. and John were buddies while Cynthia was... let's say I don't think P. J. was her favorite person but I don't think she disliked him either. P. J., John, and Cynthia socialized at each other's homes and coming home as the sun was coming up at dawn. 

"In spring of 1964, P.J. Proby, a Texan rocker from a wealthy oil and banking background, who looked and sounded like Elvis, was invited to appear on the first Beatles' TV show, Around the Beatles. Beyond his obvious talent, John was almost hypnotically fascinated by P.J.'s demonic, destructive nature. P.J. was like John's dark twin, a man who quickly found his way into the wilder circles and excesses of London society. He was a Jack Black man, lots of it, but John wasn't. To Cynthia's dismay, John started to hang out with the lean Texan who dressed like a cowboy during the day and in velvets, ruffled pirate shirts and buckled shoes by night......One evening they met up at the Ad Lib. P.J. just cruised through the booze, but John got hammered. P.J. roared with laughter when he told me the details of how the evening went from there, how Cynthia miserably trailed in their wake, begging John to take her home when they went on to a party in a basement apartment of a red brick Victorian mansion block in Bayswater, where I had mybedsit. Cyn was horrified when she realized that many couples- some of them titled- were into voyeuristic sex, while others were watching a blue movie. John was passed a massive reefer and took a deep, chest-convulsing drag. He passed it to Cynthia and she declined, so he took another drag. Poor John. Tough nut and Joe Cool felt waves of nausea sweeping over him and rushed to the bathroom,where he threw up into the large white bathtub."

Tony Bramwell

"I used to go over to his and Cynthia’s place every Saturday. I introduced him to bourbon. I went over there one day and, as I usually did, I started to pour the bourbon out at the coffee table and John said, 'Not for me.' And I said, 'None for you?' He said, 'No, I’m smoking the peace weed from now on.' And he pulled out this paper and it was very large and he rolls this joint and it wasn’t packed at all. It was all loose. He put it in his mouth and I knew when he lit it what was going to happen, but I kept my mouth shut. He lit the cigarette and it went Whoomph! Nearly burned his eyebrows off. So I said, 'John, I don’t even smoke cigarettes but let me show you how to pack those things. All my friends in California do this.' So I rolled him a joint. But that was the end of his and my boozing days. We drifted apart after that because he didn’t want to go out and raise hell anymore. He wanted to stay at home and get stoned all the time."

P. J. Proby, 2018

"I stayed very very close friends with John Lennon most of all. I’d go over to John’s house and Cynthia would cook me southern fried chicken and all kind of Texas food and everything. John and I would go up to his little room – Cynthia had given him one whole floor at the top of the house for himself and he had painted it all matte black and all matte red. That’s where he did his music and he had one room full of toy cars and a big racetrack and we would just race toy cars all day and play music."

P. J. Proby, 2012

"They were all very nice. Then one I got along with best was John. John was married to Cynthia and I was just going through a divorce, so we had something more in common. John and I were nearer each other's age. I was twenty-five and John was about twenty-four. I understood John's humor. The rest of 'em didn't have any humor, except for Ringo. He kind of sat in the background and didn't say very much. So John invited me out to his home. I'd go out there every weekend. I introduced him to Jack Daniels. So, I'd take about five fifths of Jack out there every weekend. Cynthia would make cornbread and corn on the cob and Southern food for me. Southern fried chicken. John and I just became very close. John and I would play pranks on people like Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones. We'd go over to Brian's house about three sheets in the wind and steal all of Brian's clothes and then go back to my place and wait for the phone to ring. Brian would call; 'Hey guys, please, please bring my clothes back. Your dirty laundry doesn't fit me anyway.' So, we'd just laugh and take all of his clothes back to him."

P. J. Proby

"We didn't really talk all that much. He had a house, this huge, huge mansion with hardly any furnishings in it. Cynthia had let him take the top floor in this three story mansion and that was his floor to do anything he wanted. So, he painted it mat black and mat red. In one huge, huge room he just laid down these tracks, almost like a train track, but it was for cars. He and I would sit up there for hours and hours and race these cars against each other. Then we'd go into a music room and sit down. He had every instrument in the world in there. We'd take turns playing different instruments. He really amazed me when I pulled out a steel guitar and he could play it. He could even play Country And Western on it."

P. J. Proby 

By 1966, the friendship petered out; P. J. moved on and, at this time of writing, is still alive.

Peter Cook and Dudley Moore

Peter Cook and Dudley Moore were a British comedy team, very much like Laurel & Hardy, Martin & Lewis, with comedy sketches and music on their television show, Not Only... But Also. John appeared on the show quite a few times between 1964 and 1966, becoming friends with both men. Peter Cook was married to Wendy since 1963 (until 1971) and they had two children. Wendy was very much like Cynthia, I think, as she was an art student. One time in January of 1965, John and Cynthia were invited to Peter and Wendy's home in London for dinner. Their driver, Les Anthony, got lost and had to call for directions (this was before GPS was invented).

"When John and Cynthia Lennon were coming to dinner I made a special expedition down to the French butcher in Soho in order to do filet de boeuf en croûte — fillet of beef smothered in pâté de foie gras with truffles and wrapped in a jacket of puff pastry. It is the kind of thing that needs a quick blast in the oven and not to sit around after that. The Lennons were invited for 8 PM. The other guests — including Dudley and and his wife Suzy Kendall — were all there on time. Eight-thirty came and went. I retrieved the filet from the oven. Nine PM and we got a phone call from Lennon’s Rolls-Royce. Their driver was lost. It was nearer 10 when they arrived. My special meal eventually appeared, looking rather forlorn, and judging by the expression on John’s face I might as well have opened a can of beans."

Wendy Cook, 2006

Sounds like Beef Wellington that Wendy made. It was also the first time John and Cynthia had garlic.

"John and I also spent many an enjoyable evening in the company of Peter Cook and his first wife dining superbly at their home in Hampstead with such dinner companions as Dudley Moore and that and that great wit Patrick Campbell. It was all very stimulating and exciting being able to converse and socialize with people who only a few short years before had been names in the newspapers and faces on a screen."

Cynthia, 1978 from her book A Twist of Lennon

In her second book, John, Cynthia wrote that Peter and Wendy invited them for lunch. Cynthia was impressed with the style of their home. John joined in on the jokes with Peter and Dudley; at one point, John nudged Cynthia under the table smiling at her - this was great! As they were leaving, John invited Dudley, Peter, and Wendy over to his house for a meal the following week. Cynthia was horrified! At the time, her cooking skills improved since becoming a wife but she felt she couldn't compete with the meal Wendy served. Cynthia was covered with cutlery, dinner table settings, and a wine cellar (despite not knowing what wine goes with what food). As the date got closer, Cynthia settled on prawn cocktails for appetizers, roast lamb as main course, and apple crumple pudding for dessert. At the last minute, Dudley had to cancel due to work; John promised to be home on time from the recording studio by 8 PM. A half hour before the arrival, Cynthia realized no flowers and stumbled in the garden while dark. She changed and was ready when The Cooks came on time, but not John. Cynthia served nuts and crisps (chips) in bowls to nibble on and drinks while waiting for John. Cynthia tried her best to keep the conversations going and Julian played cute while the food was disintegrating in the oven. If only Cynthia knew that Wendy experienced the same thing! John finally came late night, stoned to calm his nerves and lost track of time. John still had joints, Peter and Wendy accepted and when dinner was served they ate it with no problems despite overcooked. The dinner gathering was a success and they socialized often. 

Joan Baez and Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan and Joan Baez were also guests, usually 'I'm in town, can I come over?' type when in town, usually separately. After the Cooks dinner gathering, Cynthia got cookbooks and expanded her social skills and confidence, welcoming people into her home while John would rather not but went along with it. On May 26, 1966, Bob spent the night in Kenwood and the next day, May 27th, John and Bob rode around in a limo while being filmed for Bob's documentary, Eat the Document.

Cynthia and Phyllis Mackenzie in 1964

After John and Cynthia moved to Kenwood in 1964, John was away on tour and Cynthia found the house lonely. She invited Phyllis to visit for a few weeks.

"Down south there didn't seem to be the casual dropping in on friends that I'd known in the north. Visits, however friendly, were by appointment only. Even my old mates seemed to fall away as if they were embarrassed by the wealth and luxury. My best friend Phyl came to stay once but she didn't come back. She couldn't handle it. Besides, she was married now with her own life to lead and these days our paths lay in different directions."

Cynthia, 1994

Cynthia and Phyllis went shopping, did their hair, and talked. By this time A Hard Day's Night was released in cinemas; Phyllis hadn't seen it yet so Cynthia took her to see it. She missed her husband and it was a chance to see him and hear his voice on film. Apparently it was Phyllis' only visit, Cynthia made it sound Phyllis was intimidated by the wealth but I think it was really because Phyllis was having her own life with marriage and eventually a child. 

 

Hey, Hey, With The Monkees

The recent death of Michael Nesmith inspired this blog post. John, Cynthia, and Julian has had quite a few encounters with The Monkees - Davy Jones (RIP 2012), Peter Tork (RIP 2019), Mike Nesmith (RIP 2021), and Micky Dolenz (still with us!) 

As you probably already know, The Monkees were a television show inspired by The Beatles, a fictional band that became a real band. They came to England (Davy's home turf) in 1967. Before I go into 1967, let me give a shout out tidbit that back in February of 1964, The Beatles and Davy were on the same bill on The Ed Sullivan Show; Davy was in the cast Oliver! as the Artful Dodger ... there's a very good chance that Davy and The Beatles crossed paths backstage, iffy on Cynthia as she stayed in the shadows. Okay, back to 1967: In February, Micky, Mike, his wife Phyllis, and Davy arrived in England while The Beatles were recording Sgt. Pepper's. I guess Peter missed this trip, as I don't recall him being around at all for this but came to London later that year. Micky hung out with Paul, and met Samantha Juste (who he later married the following year) while Mike and Phyllis hung out with John and Cynthia.

Cynthia, Phyllis Nesmith, Michael Nesmith, and Ringo Starr at Abbey Road Studios for the orchestra recording sessions for A Day in the Life on February 10, 1967.

"When Mike and I left for our first vacation in England I had some wild ideas about what I wanted to see and do, but I never dreamed we would spend an entire weekend with John and Cynthia Lennon! When we first arrived in London, we wanted to call John Lennon, even though we’d never met him. We wanted very much to take them to dinner so we sent a telegram. John never responded to our telegram, but the next night we received an invitation to the Beatles’ recording session. John met us there and told us he got our telegram and he thought it was lovely. He knew it would be hard to get together, so he waited to invite us to the session. At the end of the session John and Cyn invited us to spend the weekend with them! The session, itself, was the wildest thing I’ve seen in my whole life. First of all, it was a very private thing—everyone was there by invitation only. The Stones were there, Marianne Faithful, Patti Harrison. The only wife who wasn’t there was Maureen because she wasn’t feeling well. I was so nervous because it seemed like such a freaky scene because I didn’t know what went on. The four Beatles were so cordial, I can’t begin to tell you! We walked in and sat by the door on two little chairs and Paul came over and said 'Hello, how are you, its good to see you.' We had met Paul at a club the night before. When we first came in, everyone else was seated at one end of the studio and they were laughing and talking and the orchestra was tuning up. And you should have seen the orchestra! They wore white ties and tails and they all had false noses and weird glasses! Paul was doing most of the work with the orchestra, so George came over to us and he was so outgoing and nice. Finally John came over and thanked us for the telegram and said, 'Come on down and meet Cyn", and he made us feel so at ease. We all went down and John introduced me to Cynthia and I sat down and said, 'I’m so nervous.' She said, 'Hold on, this isn’t really my scene, you know, I’m nervous too.' She said that John had told her to put on something wild, so she wore these wild purple pajama pants. Everyone else was really dressed freaky. When we sat down, the idea of the session was to record everyone talking and laughing. All the girls except Cynthia and I were walking around the orchestra with sparklers. Cynthia and I talked and we found that our reactions to our husbands and their fame were so much alike we really hit it off. We agreed that it was important to our family and our husbands to maintain a sense of proportion throughout the whole thing. It wasn’t so much expressed in words, I knew she felt the same way. We said that it was hard to be married to a person who was affected by so many outside things. You really have to be on your toes and you have to really love in order for that not to make any difference. You have to be able to sort out the hang-ups that come from the outside and affect your husband—what really pertains to your own relationship and really keep a sense of proportion about that, then you’re going to have a groovy relationship no matter what it looks like to the outside world. I think John acts toward Cyn very much like Mike acts towards me—he sort of keeps her in good humor. She has a tendency, like I do, to be overly sensitive. Like John teases her and she starts to take offense and then he says, 'Oh, Cyn, don’t do that.' Then she can laugh and she knows it doesn’t have anything to do with her. Cynthia is very thoughtful and very quiet. She’s very sensitive because she had an awful lot to go through. I never traveled on tour with Mike, so I don’t go through the airport scenes. I don’t go to any press interviews or anything like that. And I don’t feel left out because I understand that when Mike is going through all of that, it’s very hard on him. There is a lot of loneliness and inactivity being on tour—sitting in a hotel room, getting all excited about the performance, being let down when it’s over. You go through changes and I know if I were with Mike for more than two or three days on tour there would be tension between us. John was telling us that Cynthia never goes with him because he treats her so crumby and he feels bad about taking it out on her. I’m sure that Cynthia loves her husband and I don’t think she’s unhappy at all. I think living with John Lennon forces her to grow, expand her life and outlook—people are like weather vanes, they change. She may wish for peaceful moments and they may not come to her too often, but that’s not unhappiness. She is as vital to John as his right arm and I’m sure she knows that. I haven’t always been perfectly content, I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to say I’m fulfilled because that seems like such a nothing state of being to me. There is something more than that sense of accomplishment, it’s progress and growing, never standing still. Sometimes you think that it’s unhappiness, but it isn’t, it’s learning. The Lennons live in a big old brick house with lots of high ceilings and staircases that wind up three floors. Mike and I sort of wandered through the house during our weekend there. I remember the dining room—there’s a huge banquet table and the walls are covered in purple velvet. It’s very rich and very comfortable; it’s great. John has a lot of freaky psychedelic art, just little objects that are hard to explain. There was so much stuff all over. In the breakfast room John has wildly colored shelves. He’s on a kick of wildly colored things, so he had a friend paint a piano with flowers and designs and every key is a different color. It goes through all the shades from light to the darkest. The wildest thing of all is his Rolls Royce car. It’s yellow with all the flowers on the side. It really blew our minds; it’s beautiful. The Rolls is really fantastic. It has a record player, a TV, a tape recorder and a telephone. We didn’t go many places, except that Cyn took me to Maureen Starr’s house. I never did meet Ringo’s little boy—he was out for a walk. But we had tea with Maureen and talked. We enjoyed that. Julian Lennon is a very withdrawn child. He may be going through one of those stages where he’s very shy, but he didn’t want to talk to us. A record was on and he was dancing. He amuses himself nicely. He’s very quiet. The whole weekend was so relaxing. Cyn and I cooked a big Sunday dinner. She made a roast and some great potatoes. The potatoes are really the best thing about English cooking I watched how she made them to learn how. She peeled them, cut them into pieces, boiled them for awhile, then about 20 minutes before the roast was done she put them all together to cook. The outside of the potatoes were all brown and the inside was almost as soft as mashed potatoes. They were the best potatoes I’ve ever put in my mouth. John showed us some movies the first night we were there. They were really weird films—like art films. Then we talked for awhile and went to bed. The next day we just sat around and had tea and talked. John played the unfinished tracks to Sgt. Pepper (it wasn’t out then) and that was so exciting to us. I’ll never forget the weekend, it was great just to relax and get to know such wonderful people. They mentioned to us they loved fresh grapefruit, but couldn’t get it in London; when we got home I went to Farmers’ Market and had a whole crate sent to them. I hope they liked it."

Phyllis Nesmith, 1967

Ringo Starr, George Harrison, Pattie Boyd Harrison, John, Michael and Phyllis Nesmith at Abbey Road Studios for the orchestra recording sessions for A Day in the Life on February 10, 1967.

In both Cynthia's books, she wrote that Phyllis seemed to live for Mike and would hover over her as she was cooking, saying, "Mike doesn't like it like that, he likes the way I do this," while taking over the cooking! It drove Cynthia nuts and had no idea how she managed not to thump Phyllis. In Mike's autobiography, Infinite Tuesday: An Autobiographical Riff, he wrote:

"I don't know what part of the message worked, but he called a few hours after I sent it and invited me and Phyllis to stay with him and his wife, Cynthia, at his house. He sent his big black Rolls Royce to pick us up. ... John then asked if I wanted a drink, and without thinking I said I would love a glass of milk. There was a breath of a pause as he looked at Cynthia and said, 'Well, we're in for a good time, aren't we?' At first I was embarrassed, because I thought he thought I had refused to drink with him. Then I made the connection between the offer and the Safe As Milk LP he was holding and it dawned on me that he thought I had been cleverly iconic. I laughed and said, 'I'd loved a drink of something in a moment. I really would like a glass of milk now to settle my stomach from the ride out.' John smiled, and Cynthia got me a glass of milk. ... My times with John and Cynthia were pleasant nights out at clubs to watch someone perform, a good meal to talk things over, after-dinner drinks, and lying on the floor of cabs to get back to my hotel through the paparazzi."

Michael Nesmith, 2017

Mike and Phyllis were married in 1964 and had three children before divorcing by 1972. Phyllis died in 2010.

John, Anne Murray, Alice Cooper, and Micky Dolenz in Hollywood, 1974.

Fast forward several years later by 1974, this time with Micky, who was going through his own separation from his wife Samantha and became part of John's Lost Weekend (while separated from Yoko Ono and living with May Pang) gang with Harry Nilsson and  Ringo (divorcing Maureen). I must admit that I'm not entirely sure of Micky encountered Julian while he was visiting John and May, but there's a chance that they have. Many years later, Micky and Julian crossed paths quite a bit. 

Julian and Micky Dolenz at The Morrison Hotel Gallery opening at The Sunset Marquis in Hollywood, California on February 7, 2013. 

Micky Dolenz, Pattie Boyd, and Julian at her Newly Discovered Photo Exhibition at Morrison Hotel Gallery on June 28, 2013 in Hollywood, California.

Micky Dolenz and May Pang at Rockers On Broadway on November 11, 2013 at Poisson Rouge in New York City.

Cynthia and Peter Tork at her Lennon's restaurant in London, around 1988 

In November of 1967, Peter spent a few days in London with Davy Jones when they encountered Cynthia at a recording session in while George was recording the soundtrack of Wonderwall, which is very interesting to me that Cynthia came to visit on a Beatle (that's not her husband) on his solo project. I don't know the circumstances at all other than this was published in a teen magazine about the brief encounter: Peter ran into Davy Jones, among others; and then spent quite a while talking with Cynthia Lennon who had met at the recording session earlier. Cyn was dressed in a fabulous outfit of satin blouse, satin skirt and satin boots! Peter was really knocked out by Cynthia, whom he considers 'a lovely lady.'  

Cynthia and Peter crossed paths again at her Lennon's restaurant years later.