“BED-IN” Yoko Ono / 小野 洋子 (Japanese, 1933) & John Lennon (English, 1940 - 1980) Hilton Amsterdam & Queen Elizabeth Hotel // March 25–31, 1969 & May 26 – June 1, 1969 Gerry Deiter. © Joan Athey // 1969, Montreal
The Bed-ins for Peace were two week-long nonviolent protests against the Vietnam War, the idea derived from sit-ins. Yoko Ono and her new husband John Lennon held their first bed-in at the Hilton Hotel in Amsterdam during their honeymoon. Originally planned for New York City, the couple’s second bed-in was eventually moved to Montreal after John Lennon was denied entry into the United States due to a November 1968 conviction for cannabis possession. On the last day of their Montreal bed-in, Lennon and friends including Timothy Leary, Tommy Smothers, Dick Gregory, Murray the K, and Allen Ginsberg recorded the anti-war song Give Peace a Chance.
Yoko and I, when we got together, we knew whatever we did was going to be in the papers, you know? Whether it’s Richard or Liz, or so and so gets married, or whatever people like us do, it’s going to be in the papers. So, we decided to utilise the space we would occupy anyway by getting married with a commercial for peace, and also a theatrical event. And the theatrical event we came up with, which utilised the least energy with the maximum effect, was to work from bed. And what we virtually had was a seven-day press conference in bed.
The first day they fought at the door to get in thinking that there was something, you know, sexy going on, and they found two people talking about peace. And reporters always have five minutes with you, ten minutes with you. We let them ask anything for as long as they wanted for seven days, and all the time we just kept plugging peace, and the story became "John and Yoko do bed-in for peace." And we were just promoting peace like you promote any product. They promote war, "join the marines, join this." We were promoting peace.
John Lennon on The Tomorrow Show (April 8, 1975)
You know, the more I think about it, how lucky we were, you know, because I didn't know anybody in Liverpool or anything – I didn't think about him as a Liverpudlian. And I was sure that he didn't think, "Oh, she comes from Tokyo," you know, at all. But as far distant that we were, we were so much alike. No argument. "Let's do it." "Okay, this way, that way," and that's it. It's almost like we didn't think about it, and we were given from the sky or something.
John and I thought after Bed-In, "The war is going to end." How naive we were, you know? But the thing is, things take time. I think it's going to happen. I mean, that I think we're going to have a peaceful world. But it's just taking a little bit more time than we thought then.
Yoko Ono to The Museum of Modern Art (c. 2015)
