In 1973, John Lennon began what would be a more than 18-month relationship with his former assistant, May Pang, during what would later be referred to as his “Lost Weekend,” a time that is thought to be one of the most chaotic and creative periods of his life.
May Pang is exhibiting personal photography documenting her relationship with Lennon and showing fans a whole new side of the iconic rock star from this time period at an event titled The Lost Weekend: The Photography of May Pang at Arizona Picture & Frame on Nov. 12 through Nov. 14.
Attending the three-day event will be Pang herself as well as Chris O’Dell, who was a former Apple Records associate during the time of The Beatles’ rise to fame and who lived so much of rock’s history firsthand. Today she has a podcast where she talks about her experiences working in the music industry. Together at the event, they will tell stories and reminisce about the Lost Weekend era surrounded by a selection of Pang’s photos from that period.
The exhibit features completely candid photography that was never intended to be made public, documenting their time in LA.
“I just wanted to take photographs that looked different. That you know was a side of John that he didn’t even see in himself, “ Pang said. “I really didn’t think anybody wanted to see them or cared to see them. So they were just sitting under my bed.”
For Pang, the decision to make them public was difficult and took time. When she wrote her book “Loving John: The Untold Story,” which was published in 1983, she said that including those photographs was off the table for her.
“I guess it took so many years for me to come to grips. I didn’t do anything with the book, as it were; you know, people wanted to option that, and I wouldn’t allow it. I wasn’t ready for any of it,” Pang said.
As time went on, myths circulated about that time period and her and John’s relationship, so eventually she decided to make a documentary about the time and begin telling her own story.
“I see my life being told by other people, and I finally said, ‘I’ve got to take my life back,” Pang said.
It was around the same time as she began production of her documentary that the questions surrounding releasing the photos came back up.
“Every once in a while somebody would ask, ‘Any photographs to show?‘ And I would show a couple, but never did a real proper exhibition, and it took six years to chase me down to doing it till I finally agreed,” Pang said.
Together, she and Scott Segelbaum, her business partner, selected photos for the exhibit. Three years ago, when the exhibition first began, it featured 26 photos, and today that number is 38.
“May carries a lot of history with her and with all her photos,” O’Dell said. “The one that stands out, of course, is the last photo taken of John and Paul together. That’s a pretty historical thing. She’s got beautiful, intimate pictures of John that, you know, only she could have gotten.”
Pang and O’Dell met during the period of the lost weekend and became fast friends.
“May was there with him in Los Angeles. I just thought she was number one, so beautiful. She had really, really long, beautiful hair, and she was really nice. And you could talk to her, you know, and establish a friendship with her, which was not possible before,” O’Dell said. “Through that, I got to know John better.”
Pang at the time was happy to have a genuine friendship with someone who understood the world of the music business.
“It’s always difficult to have friendships in those types of circles. You’re talking about all these people, Ringo, you know, John, Keith Moon. You’re talking about people with these big names,” Pang said.
“Chris understood that she’d been around, so it was great. We just had fun. I loved to go shopping with her. That was the fun part,” Pang said. “What can I say? She was just a fun person.”
O’Dell, a Tucson resident, saw the opportunity to meet at the exhibit as a chance to share more with the public about that time while getting to see her friend.
“I think it shows another side of John that people hadn’t seen before. He was, you know, up until that point, he was doing all kinds of arty things with Yoko, and he was more removed, I would say,” O’Dell said. “For me, I found that, but when she was with him, he just was very natural.”
Together at the event, they will answer questions and tell stories together, which is unique to the other cities the exhibit has been in.
“There was so much happening in our lives then. I mean, each day was something new, and I could only remember so much, and she remembers so much, and then when we put it together, it just gives you the overall, bigger picture and how much fun and how much we enjoy each other’s company, too,” Pang said.
Some of the pictures in the exhibit document important moments in music history, while others are casual candid photos.
“You know the dissolution papers where John is signing the breakdown of the Beatles, and I didn’t even know what I had. And in fact, it was John who convinced me to take the photos. I wasn’t even going to do that, and I was the only person in the room with two other lawyers besides John,” Pang said. “There are no other photographs of that, and I happened to capture him signing his signature mid-signature, which was amazing.”
The exhibit also features the last photo ever taken of Paul McCartney and John Lennon together.
For both Pang and O’Dell, the pictures they remember most are not the major historical moments, but instead moments where Lennon was most at peace.
“I’ve seen the pictures, but it was several years ago, so I’ve kind of lost track of everything,” O’Dell said. “There was one, and it was one that May took of John, just walking, very relaxed, kind of like in the countryside. That one is really nice.”
Pang doesn’t have any specific favorite pictures from the exhibit.
“I don’t because they’re all my babies, as I would say,” Pang said. “But you know what I find is some photographs are just very serene for him, and I guess I lean more towards when he’s swimming or in the water or just been out of the boat.”
“Those moments, because I know that those are moments for him. He’s just himself, and he’s enjoying every minute of it, soaking in the sun, playing in the water.”
The exhibit also features two photographs from when Pang was working at Apple Records before the period of the Lost Weekend.
“One, the first photograph I had taken was of George Harrison, and that was done in 1970. He was walking through the office in New York, and I was standing and talking. He knew I wanted to take a photograph, and he finally said, ‘Come on, let’s take it.’” Pang said.
“The second I was just sitting, and I thought, ‘Oh, what an opportunity!’ And I thought, ‘ I’ll take a picture of John. I should have asked him, but I didn’t,” Pang said. “I just sort of picked up my camera, and he turned over, and he looked at me, and he smiled, and he’s holding this can of Dr. Pepper.”
She said that those photos were taken just weeks apart.
“I never thought of myself as a professional photographer,” Pang said. “It’s been amazing from back then that all these photographs that I took happened to be iconic photographs now and are hanging in galleries that people can see.”
At these exhibits, one of the best parts for Pang is getting to talk to people about her memories and perspective of that time.
She says that each city brings up new memories and stories based on the people she talks to.
“We do have the same question that comes up all the time: What was John like? And I always say to everyone, ‘That is a loaded question,’” Pang said. “He’s everything.”
