Imagine you’re 23 and your first boyfriend is one of the most famous men in the world.
Imagine he’s married.
Imagine his wife setting you two up.
May Pang doesn’t have to dream it. She lived it and has photo proof.
Beatles fanatics and Lennonites might remember Pang, whose 18-month relationship with John Lennon was dubbed “The Lost Weekend.” The retired music executive, now 75, will visit Virginia Beach this weekend to share her collection of unfiltered snapshots from her time as Lennon’s companion, roughly the summer of 1973 to early 1975.
Pang will be at the Stravitz Sculpture & Fine Art Gallery during working hours from Friday through Sunday. She will only autograph purchased photos.
“There was a part of John that was very fragile, and I knew that side,” said Pang, an easy conversationalist with precise recall. “Musically, he understood everything, but emotionally, he was fragile.”
Pang has spent several years touring with the exhibition that coincided with the release of the independent film “The Lost Weekend: A Love Story,” which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2022.
“I wanted to tell my story,” she said.
Pang talked her way into a job for Lennon’s record label, which led to her becoming an assistant and later production coordinator to Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono. Lennon and Ono’s intense love story started before he divorced his first wife, Cynthia. He and Ono married in 1969; their Amsterdam honeymoon included a “bed-in” protest, when they lay in bed for five days asking the world to give peace a chance.
Pang was in her office one morning in 1973 when Ono walked in and announced, “John and I are not getting along. I want you to go out with him.”
Pang wasn’t sure what that meant. “I can't do that. He's my employer. He's my boss. He's your husband,” she responded.
But for 1½ years, she became Lennon’s constant companion with benefits.
When asked in the documentary why she agreed to Ono's unorthodox ask, Pang answered, "John, in the end, pursued me."
She added, "He looked me in the eye, he whispered in my ear and then he kissed me, and before I knew it, John Lennon charmed the pants off me."
And so it began, a lifestyle Pang could have never imagined growing up in Spanish Harlem. Pang accompanied Lennon when he jammed with Mick Jagger, Elton John and David Bowie, along with former Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. She reunited Lennon with his older son, Julian, whose call, she said, was never allowed to go through per Ono’s instructions when they worked together.
Though at no time in her life did she consider herself a photographer, Pang was rarely without her Nikkormat camera. Lennon sent out the film to have it professionally developed.
“John was very encouraging,” she said. “He said, ‘I like the way you see things.’ ”
Pang’s photos reflect a candid and comfortable Lennon. Among them: a heartwarming portrait of him and Julian; a profile angle of him wearing a beret and smoking a cigarette; and a giddy headshot sticking out his tongue. She took the only photo of Lennon signing the papers that dissolved the Beatles, snapped in Disney World on Dec. 29, 1974.
Another of Pang’s photos is on the cover of Julian Lennon’s album “Jude.”
Lennon, creatively prolific during their time together, produced three albums and recorded his first No. 1 solo single, “Whatever Gets You Through the Night.”
Pang favors “Surprise, Surprise (Sweet Bird of Paradox),” which he wrote for her. The 1974 song notes, “She gets me through this godawful loneliness.”
Pang’s is the voice whispering Lennon’s name on “#9 Dream”; she’s credited as a background vocalist. Many assumed it was Ono, yet “if it was Yoko, she would have been screaming,” Pang said with a laugh.
Ono, 93 and out of the public eye, hasn’t confirmed or denied Pang’s story, which has taken multiple forms, including a memoir, “Loving John,” published in 1983, and a book of photos in 2008.
When the story of Lennon’s life is recounted, Pang’s role has often been overlooked. When included, Pang said, it is often riddled with mistakes. “They weren’t there,” she said of the many who were dismissive of her role.
No, she said, Ono didn’t tell them to leave New York and move to Los Angeles in the fall of 1973. That was Lennon's idea.
“It was spur of the moment,” Pang said.
No, Pang was not paid once her romantic relationship began. Yes, she took the last photo of Lennon and McCartney, which she only recently made available for purchase.
Lennon and Pang returned to New York the following summer and settled into a 900-square-foot apartment facing the East River with their cats, Major and Minor. She said they talked of buying a house in Montauk, New York, when he abruptly returned to Ono, whom he had always referred to as his soulmate.
“I got past it. You have to. Life goes up and down every day,” Pang said. “I didn’t have any closure, and then the universe took care of that.”
They last spoke on the phone in May 1980 when Lennon was visiting Cape Town, South Africa. Seven months later, Pang was dining out in New York when the news broke that Mark David Chapman shot Lennon four times in the archway of The Dakota, Lennon’s residence.
Pang recalls Starr’s executive secretary calling her, asking for the number to Roosevelt Hospital, where Lennon was pronounced dead on arrival.
Pang could only say, “He’s gone.”
“What’s wrong with your bloody country?” the secretary screamed into the phone.
Today, she finds solace in an old hobby.
“I take landscape photos now because they’re so beautiful,” Pang said. “The world is beautiful, and you want to take photos of things you won’t see again.”
Visit Stravitz Sculpture & Fine Art Gallery for more information.
