#music history
John Lennon’s British Leyland Austin Maxi car, which he crashed in Scotland in July 1969 with Julian, Kyoko, and Yoko riding with him. This caused injury to Yoko’s back and required stiches for Yoko, Kyoko, and John (Julian escaped unharmed). The wrecked car was later brought to John and Yoko’s Tittenhurst Park estate where it was sat in the gardens.
“I didn’t know what to do, so I just let go of the steering wheel.” - John Lennon in The Beatles: The Biography by Bob Spitz
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What is possibly the last pictures of John Lennon with Kyoko Chan Cox, Yoko Ono’s daughter from her second marriage with Tony Cox. This would’ve been April 1971 in Majorca, Spain.
After Yoko and Tony’s divorce, neither won sole custody. Yet Cox became increasingly reluctant to let Yoko and her new husband spend time with Kyoko, and finally refused to permit it at all. For a year before the Lennons came to America, they had been chasing Mr. Cox and Kyoko around Europe. In Majorca, Spain, the Lennons caught up with them and spirited Kyoko off to their hotel; but Mr. Cox called the police, and a Spanish court gave the child back to him. The incident added to his fear that the Lennons wanted to take her away from him for good. After their failed visit to Majorca, Yoko was awarded permanent custody by the United States Virgin Islands court. But, the legal battle would go on as Tony joined a religious cult known as The Walk and refused to reveal Kyoko’s location or allow Yoko and John to visit. Kyoko was also taught by Tony that she was rescued from her mother, who “was involved in drugs and the occult” and “stood for corruption”. Yoko and John continued searching for Kyoko for much of the 1970s. Kyoko wouldn’t reunite with her mother until 1998.
[From the 1980 Playboy Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono:]
ONO: “I lost Kyoko when she was about five…”
PLAYBOY:"What happened when she was five?”
ONO: “John and I got together and I separated from my ex-husband.” (Tony Cox) “He took Kyoko away. It became a case of parent kidnapping and we tried to get her back…"
LENNON:”…We chased him all over the world. God knows where he went. So if you’re reading this, Tony, let’s grow up about it. It’s gone. We don’t want to chase you anymore, because we’ve done enough damage… It was like we were after an escaped convict…“
ONO: ”…She is totally frightened. There was a time in Spain when a lawyer and John thought that we should kidnap her.“
LENNON: (sighing) "I was just going to commit hara-kiri first.”
ONO: “And we did kidnap her and went to court. The court did a very sensible thing… the judge took her into a room and asked her which one of us she wanted to go with. Of course, she said Tony. We had scared her to death.”
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Jimmy Page “Number One"
1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard: On display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art - Jimmy Page purchased this instrument in 1969 from Joe Walsh. When Page received it, the neck had already been shaved down to a thinner profile. It has been Page’s main guitar throughout his career, used in every Led Zeppelin performance and recording ( other than Led 1 ) from Led 2 ( oct 22 1969 to the 2007 reunion and in his post-Zeppelin work with the Firm and others. It remains in active use today as his primary guitar.
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30 Days of Pride Day 12- Alberta Hunter
Alberta Hunter was an American jazz and blues singer and songwriter from the early 1920s to the late 1950s. Hunter was a lesbian and mixed in the famously liberal and accepting circles of LGBTQ jazz singers during what became known as the “Harlem Renaissance.” In the 1920s, Hunter met Lottie Tyler, niece of comedian Bert Williams, in Chicago in the late 1910s and the two were in an on-again, off-again relationship for many years until Tyler’s death.
During World War II, Hunter took charge of a U.S.O. singing troupe, whom she took to Casablanca and entertained troops both during and after the war. They also performed for President Eisenhower, who invited them to a reception for British senior officer Bernard Montgomery. Her mother’s death soon after sparked a change in career choice, and she became a nurse.
Hunter resumed her singing career 20 years later in 1977, at the age of 82, and continued to perform until her death seven years later.
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30 Days of Pride Day 10- Natalie Clifford Barney
Natalie Clifford Barney was an American writer who hosted a literary salon at her home in Paris for more than 60 years, bringing together writers and artists from around the world. Her own works were often thematically tied to her lesbianism and feminism, and attendees of various sexualities expressed themselves and mingled comfortably at the weekly Salon gatherings. Barney later said she knew she was a lesbian by age twelve, and she was determined to “live openly, without hiding anything.”
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30 Days of Pride Day 5- Sylvester
Sylvester was an American singer-songwriter, known for his falsetto singing voice, and hit disco singles in the 70s and 80s. Sylvester developed a love of singing through the gospel choir of his Pentecostal church.
Leaving the church after the congregation expressed disapproval of his homosexuality, he found friendship among a group of black cross-dressers and transgender women who called themselves the Disquotays. Sylvester was an activist who campaigned against the spread of HIV/AIDS. Upon his death, he left future royalties from his work to San Francisco-based HIV/AIDS charities.
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