Scribbles and Bits

Gail Renard was 16 when she heard that John Lennon was going to be staying over in Montreal.  She crashed his party with a friend via a fire escape at Montreal’s Queen Elizabeth Hotel.  Ringing the doorbell during a change of security, Yoko answered the door and let her in for an interview.

Gail stayed for the week of the famous bed in and the recording of “Give Peace a Chance.”  Lennon is recalled as speaking with Gail’s mother on the telephone and gaining her approval; every night Gail went to her own home and bed to sleep.  During the day she acted as Lennon’s liaison to the press, played with Kyoko Lennon in the nearby park, made arrangements for tambourines for the recording session, and hobnobbed with the celebs including Tommy Smothers, Timothy Leary, and Allan Ginsberg.

She felt secure in her surroundings and recalls how when an amorous member of the press attempted to kiss her, John intervened and chased him off.  Among the several mementos that he gave her was the song board to Give Peace a Chance which was recently, almost 40 years later, auctioned off at Christies for almost $850,000.  He’d told her, “hang on to it, it will be worth something one day.”  They had originally guessed that the piece would fetch between 200 and 300,00 pounds.  Renard, an award winning radio and TV writer, commented, saying, “It’s all monopoly money to me.”

Read an interview with Gail Renard here.