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 John, Cynthia, Peter Brown, Pattie, Paul, George, Jane, Mal, and Neil

Listening

 

Reminders of Cynthia

While on tour with The Beatles in Australia during 1964, John encountered a woman named Nancy Harloff. He told her, "You look like my wife, Cynthia." Nancy worked as a telephone operator for a local cordial factory (she's pictured behind George).

Paul holding a kangaroo named Cynthia while The Beatles were on tour in Australia, 1964.

Notice Paul wearing two watches: one is for "local" time and the other is British time so he would know when to call his girlfriend Jane Asher without waking her up.

 

The First Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

Julian, Sean, Billy Joel, Neil Young, Keith Richards, Don Everly, Phil Everly, Chuck Berry, and Ray Charles onstage at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in New York City.

On January 23, 1986, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame held its first induction ceremony at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City. The first class to be inducted were Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Fats Domino, Buddy Holly, the Everly Brothers, Ray Charles, James Brown, Sam Cooke, Jerry Lee Lewis, Sam Phillips, Robert Johnson, Jimmie Rogers, Jimmy Yancey, John Hammond and Alan Freed. Usually a musician inspired by the honored musician does the honors to induct their inspirational hero; for Elvis, it was John's sons, Julian and Sean. It's no secret that John was a big Elvis fan. If he had been alive, I am sure John would've been the one to induct Elvis. But since John is no longer with us, Julian and Sean did the honors. I don't think Yoko attended - I couldn't find any pictures of her at the event so she trusted Julian (who was 22) to care of Sean (who was 10). Sean wore John's Elvis pin. Julian spoke.

"I'd just like to say first of all that I'm very pleased and very proud and very very nervous to be here tonight. I just wanted to say that our father was a big fan of Elvis’s and, of course, Elvis was loved all over the world, and we are all influenced by him. I think a lot of people in the world get a lot of pleasure from listening to him and love him greatly.”

Julian, 1986

Julian then read a direct quote from John:

“Elvis was the thing, whatever people say, he was it. I was not competing against Elvis, rock happened to be the media I was born into – it was the one, that’s all. Those people who picked up paint brushes, like Van Gogh, probably wanted to be Renoir or whomever went before him. I wanted to be Elvis.”

Elvis' daughter Lisa Marie didn't attend but left a short statement read by Jack Soden, who was President and Executive Director of Graceland at the time, and his longtime friend George Klein collected the award. It's currently on display in Graceland - I personally saw it myself in 2004 when visiting Graceland. After the induction ceremony, Julian and Sean participated in the all star jam performances.

Sean and Julian performing onstage

Julian with Priscilla Presley in Cannes, May of 2022

John (along with Paul, George, and Ringo) met Elvis at his rented home in Los Angeles. Julian met Elvis' ex wife Priscilla during Cannes Film Festival in 2022. Julian and Sean eventually got to meet Lisa Marie over the years and expressed their sadness over her death on January 12, 2023. 

"So sad to hear of Lisa Marie’s Passing…. She was so lovely when I met her… My Heart goes out to Priscilla…. I’m so sorry 💔"

Julian, 2023

"Got home late from seeing a show to hear the tragic news about Lisa Marie Presley. I had only met her a few times briefly. But I have to admit I felt a kinship with her. Not many people know what it’s like. I know she was a special person. My heart aches for Priscilla."

Sean, 2023

"Rest in peace, beautiful Lisa Marie. Our love and deepest condolences go out to Priscilla,  Riley, Finley and Harper and all the Presley family - our hearts are with you. love,"

Yoko, 2023

Studio 54

Cynthia with Pete Townshend at Studio 54 in New York City

 

What If: Another Baby?

 I've always been curious what if John and Cynthia had another child? What would they have named it? There was always an intention of having another child - which I will get to that momentarily. What if John and Cynthia had a daughter? Cynthia did say if Julian had been a girl then he would've been named Julia. Julian has middle names: Charles John. All three names were after family members. Would Julia have a middle name? Probably not. Cynthia didn't have a middle name (yet according to the internet, her middle name "is" Lillian. However I haven't seen any official documents that says so. Her marriage certificate to John Winston Lennon doesn't have a middle name for Cynthia Powell. Her art school documents like attendance records, reports, etc. doesn't provide Cynthia a middle name as it did for John Winston Lennon. So, until I see definite proof like a birth certificate that her middle name is Lillian, I won't believe it.) Although her mother Lillian did have a middle name (John's mother Julia did not) as did a number of other relatives on both sides of the family, I wound say 50/50%. If so, I'd think Lillian, Mary (Mimi), Elizabeth (John's Aunt Mater), Dorothy (Jarlett and Rhone), and Astrid (Kirchherr) would be top contenders. 

What if another boy? Possibly George (after Mimi's husband), Stuart (after Sutcliffe), Brian (Epstein), and Anthony (Cynthia's brother).

Or maybe it would have its own independent name .... those ideas died with John and Cynthia. 

Well, anyway, back to reality: both John and Cynthia were willing to have more children, but it didn't happen. John was away a lot and when touring was over, he immersed into drugs. Because of that, their sex life went down the toilet. 

Question: With that much experiences behind you now, would you like to have more children? (Interview, 1965)

"Yeah, as many as they come. Let them roll out. I like large families, the idea of it."

"I now take notice of other kids, and compare them to Julian. I think to myself,'That's clever, I don't think mine can do that' or vice versa. A lot of people like having children for their old age. I just want them because I like them."

John

I have heard one of the drugs John was taking slowed down his sperm count but I don't know if that's accurate as Yoko quickly got pregnant when they first slept together. There were rumors of Cynthia having another baby though, probably around the time when their home was being renovated and there was a room set aside for another addition to the family. Whenever John heard about this, he went nuts! John did say it wasn't a lousy rumor, but he was annoyed that it was getting out of hand. He had spent a good year trying the shoot down that rumor. Fans usually sent gifts for Julian, and would give gifts for the next child (that wasn't to be).

"I'm even getting them for a new baby I haven't even got. But I'm keeping it anyway because I'm bound to have one one day."

John, 1964

Question: What do you think of the rumors that got spread about you in gossip magazines? (Interview, 1964)

"I don't give it much thought other than the one about my wife having more children than I can account for."

"Me leaving the group... and my wife being pregnant."

John, 1964

"Luella Parsons writes a whole article about all the rumors, spreading them all again ... I'm getting another baby, which I'm not. Which isn't even a lousy rumor."

John, 1964

"It's just ridiculous, you know, if anything does happen, we'll tell people, you know? We're not going to hide it. John's not ashamed if he has another baby, now why should he sort of keep it secret?"

Ringo Starr, 1964

"Oh, well, you see, you seem to have no libel laws over here, seeing as magazines write anything. One magazine called Truth - I won't name it but it's called Truth, T-R-U-T-H, wrote a big pack of lies about how my wife broke the news to me about me baby and how she cried, and I went off, and Ringo said, 'John, you must share your wife.' It was a pack of lies, she's not having a baby!"

John, 1964

"I know it's in a magazine called Truth about us having another baby. It's a lie! Dirty lie! I don't know what the slander laws are over here, but I'm certainly going to investigate them."

John, 1964

"My wife having a baby, and the tagline to the page was, 'Ringo asks John to share wife,' you know."

John, 1964

"I have only one child and none on the way."

John, 1965

"Well, I just think it's potty, you know. Sort of mental - the people who write them. Unless they get it off somebody who convinced them that these things are true, otherwise they must be a bit mental, you know."

John

By 1966, the pregnancy rumor died down. However, the desire to have another child didn't. Around 1967, early 1968, John spent the weekend with The Beatles press officer Derek Taylor, his wife Joan, and their 6 children, Timothy, Dominic, Gerard, Abigail, Vanessa and Annabel (at the time, they had five). Derek had just returned back from living in California for a few years. John stayed at their Ascot home, taking LSD, putting a few tokes of marijuana, and Derek stroking John's ego. Cynthia, for some reason other than her dislike for LSD, didn't go. When John came home, he was happy, telling Cynthia they should have more children. Cynthia knew John had tripped out - his previously idea was to buy an island to live on. 

"Impossible hopes. John said to me just before we went to India that he wanted us to have more children. Well that came out of the blue, I can tell you. I was really surprised, as he'd never said a word about that before. Then again, why not? I wasn't averse to the idea. It wasn't as if we were too old to have any more. I was not yet 29, after all, while John would turn 28 that October. We still had more than enough time. I suppose what concerned me was Julian. A 5 or 6 year gap between siblings is quite wide, isn't it?"

Cynthia, 1989

I am sorry, I have to interrupt here. While the gap was wide, sure, but did Cynthia forget the age gap between her and her brothers? They were almost 10 by the time Cynthia arrived! Anyway, let's proceed....

"I would have loved to have 3 or 4 children, actually and to have had them all close together. It just hadn't happened. But maybe I was apparently distracting his meditation. It was all my fault, and John was a bear about it. He started grumping all over the place, snapping at me, insisting that we sort our useless accommodation out and that we were going to have to sleep in separate rooms from now on, before he went round the bend. It was humiliating and hurtful. I'm sure the others all knew what was going on, not that anyone even said anything to me. Even then I was convinced that I could bring him back to me, if you know what I mean. How stupid and blinkered I was. I know now that this was John up to his old tricks again, saying one thing but meaning another. Just like when he was on the road and he'd write to me all the time, telling me how deeply he loved me and how desperately he missed me. Just the way he used to when we were at art school. But when he was at home and actually with me, under the same roof, he was either asleep, ignoring me or picking pointless fights. He'd much rather read a book than talk to me. He always wanted what he couldn't have, did John. Never what was under his nose. When he had me, he didn't want me. God help me, I was clutching at straws. It got me wondering whether I been enough for him. I searched my soul in the ashram and it was the only conclusion I could come to. "

Cynthia, 1989

Obviously, wanting to have another child desire was short lived. Meanwhile Pete Shotgun proceeded to stay in the guest bedroom that was intended to be another child's room.

I don't know why Cynthia didn't have any more children, including her two other marriages (by the time Cynthia got to her fourth marriage, she was already long dried up, menopausal). Maybe there was a miscarriage, or, simply, it just never happened. 

"I think I'm past it now."

Cynthia, 1980

"55 and menopausal."

Cynthia, 1995

Kenwood At First Sight

 

Kenwood as Cynthia first saw it while house hunting in 1964.

Old Friends

 

Cynthia and Lulu 

In Mourning

John and Cynthia in Bangor, Wales after receiving word that Brian Epstein died on August 27, 1967.

Theatre Night

Cynthia with Pattie Boyd Harrison and singer Lulu at the opening night premiere of a play by Norman Bogner, The Waiters, at the Palace Theatre in London on November 21, 1967.

Meet His Father

”Mum said to me on the way to see the film that tonight I was going to meet my dad. I was blown away by it.”

Julian, 1994

 Cynthia and Julian at the Backbeat premiere in March of 1994, London. Astrid Kirchherr and Pattie Boyd also attended. The film starred Stephen Dorff, Ian Hart, and Sheryl Lee as Stuart Sutcliffe, John Lennon, and Astrid. Jennifer Ehle appeared in the film as Cynthia. Cynthia brought along Julian so he could "meet" his father. I'll dive more deeper in Backbeat in the near future, but for now enjoy these pictures from the premiere.

Beam Balance

 

Light Her Cigarette

According to the photo, it's said to be Pattie Boyd with John and Cynthia while in Austria to film Help! However, I have my doubts that it's Pattie - maybe Sonny Freeman. The mysterious woman is not giving me "Pattie" vibes.