PROFILE - MAY PANG Little Queenies
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May Fung Yee Pang (龐鳳儀, 庞凤仪) (born October 24, 1950) is an American former music executive. She worked for John Lennon and Yoko Ono as a personal assistant and production coordinator. When Lennon and Ono separated in 1973, Pang and Lennon began a relationship that lasted more than 18 months. Lennon later referred to this time as his “Lost Weekend”.
Early Years and Education
Pang was born in Manhattan. She is the daughter of Chinese immigrants and grew up in the Spanish Harlem section of New York City with an elder sister and an adopted brother, both of whom were born in China. Pang’s mother owned and operated a laundry business in the area. The Pang family left Spanish Harlem when the tenements where they lived were scheduled to be razed, moving to an apartment near 97th Street and 3rd Avenue in Manhattan.
After graduating from Saint Michael Academy, Pang attended New York City Community College. She aspired to be a model, but modelling agencies reportedly told her she was too “ethnic”.
Pang’s early jobs included being a song-plugger, which meant encouraging artists to record songs written by songwriters. In 1970, she began work in New York as a receptionist at ABKCO Records, Allen Klein’s management office, which at that time represented Apple Records and three former Beatles: Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr.
Relationship with John Lennon and Yoko Ono
Pang was asked to help Lennon and Ono with their avant-garde film projects, Up Your Legs Forever and Fly, in December 1970.
Pang was then asked to be Lennon and Ono’s secretary and factotum (domestic worker) and gofer (employee who specializes in the delivery of special items to their superior(s)) in New York City and Britain, which led to a permanent position as their personal assistant when the Lennons moved from London to Manhattan in 1971.
Pang coordinated an art exhibition in Syracuse, New York, on October 9, 1971, for Ono’s This Is Not Here art show at the Everson Museum. Ono’s show coincided with Lennon’s 31st birthday, and a party was held at the Hotel Syracuse, which was attended by Ringo Starr, Phil Spector, and Elliot Mintz.
“Lost Weekend”
In mid-1973, Pang was working on the recording of Lennon’s Mind Games album. Lennon and Ono were having marital problems, and Ono suggested to Pang that she become Lennon’s companion. Ono explained that she and Lennon were not getting along, they had been arguing and were growing apart, and that Lennon would start seeing other women. She pointed out that Lennon had said he found Pang sexually attractive. Pang replied that she could never start a relationship with Lennon as he was her employer and married. Ono ignored Pang’s protests and said that she would arrange everything. Ono later confirmed this conversation in an interview.
In October 1973, Lennon and Pang left New York for Los Angeles to promote Mind Games, and decided to stay for a while, living at lawyer Harold Seider’s apartment for a couple of days and then Lou Adler’s house. While there, Lennon was inspired to embark on two recording projects: to make an album of the old rock ‘n’ roll songs that inspired him to become a musician, and to produce another artist. In December 1973, Lennon collaborated with Phil Spector to record the oldies album Rock ‘n’ Roll. Lennon’s drinking and Spector’s erratic behavior (which included his firing a gun in the studio control room) caused the sessions to break down. Then Spector, who claimed to have been in a car accident, took the session tapes and became unreachable.
In March 1974, Lennon began producing Harry Nilsson’s Pussy Catsalbum, thus named to counter the “bad boy” image the pair had earned in the media with two drinking incidents at the Troubadour. The first was when Lennon placed a Kotex on his forehead and scuffled with a waitress at a concert given by Ann Peebles, who had released “I Can’t Stand the Rain”, one of Lennon’s current favorite records; and the second, two weeks later when Lennon and Nilsson were ejected from the same club after heckling the Smothers Brothers. Lennon thought it would be a good idea for the musicians to live under one roof to ensure they would get to the studio on time, so Pang rented a beach house in Santa Monica for her, Lennon, Nilsson, Ringo Starr and Keith Moon to live. At this time, Pang encouraged Lennon to reach out to family and friends. He and Paul McCartney mended fences and played together for the first and only time after the breakup of the Beatles. Pang also arranged for Julian Lennon to visit his father for the first time in almost four years.
Julian began to see his father more regularly. Lennon bought Julian a Gibson Les Paul copy guitar and a drum machine for Christmas in 1973, and encouraged Julian’s interest in music by showing him some chords. “Dad and I got on a great deal better then,” recalls Julian. “We had a lot of fun, laughed a lot and had a great time in general when he was with May Pang. My memories of that time with Dad and May are very clear—they were the happiest time I can remember with them” The cover of Julian’s seventh album, Jude, features a childhood photo of him taken by Pang.
In June 1974, Lennon and Pang returned to live in Manhattan. Lennon stopped drinking and concentrated on recording. Lennon previously had cats while he lived at his Aunt Mimi’s house in Liverpool; he and Pang adopted two cats that they named Major and Minor.
In the early summer, Lennon was working on his Walls and Bridgesalbum when the couple moved into a penthouse apartment at 434 East 52nd Street. On August 23, Lennon and Pang claimed to have seen a UFO from their terrace, which had a panoramic view of Queens. To gain access to the deck, Lennon and Pang had to climb out of their kitchen window. On the night in question, a naked Lennon excitedly called Pang to join him on the deck outside and they both watched a circular object silently floating less than 100 feet away. Lennon called Bob Gruen—Lennon’s “official” photographer—and told him what had happened. Gruen suggested Lennon should call the police, but Lennon laughed it off, saying, “I’m not going to call up the newspaper and say ‘This is John Lennon and I saw a flying saucer last night.’” Gruen called the local police precinct which confirmed that three other people had reported a sighting, and the Daily News wrote that five people had reported a sighting in the same area of New York where Lennon and Pang lived. Lennon references the incident in the song “Nobody Told Me”.
Walls and Bridges rose to the top spot on the album charts. Lennon achieved his only number-one solo US single in his lifetime with “Whatever Gets You thru the Night”. Pang’s is the voice whispering Lennon’s name on “#9 Dream”. “Surprise, Surprise (Sweet Bird of Paradox)” was written about her. Julian played drums on the album’s last track, “Ya Ya”. While recording Walls and Bridges, Al Coury, vice president of promotion for Capitol Records, got possession of the chaotic Spector session tapes and brought them to New York. Lennon completed his oldies album, which was titled Rock ‘n’ Roll, with the same musicians he used on Walls and Bridges. Pang received an RIAA gold record award for her work on Walls and Bridges and continued her work as production coordinator of Lennon’s Rock 'n’ Roll album, where she was credited as “Mother Superior”. Pang also worked on albums by Nilsson, Starr, Elton John and David Bowie.
While visiting Mick Jagger at Andy Warhol’s compound in Montauk, New York, Lennon and Pang saw a Scottish-style cottage for sale close to the Montauk Point Lighthouse. Lennon asked a real estate broker to put in an offer for it in February 1975.
In the same month, Lennon and Pang were also planning on visiting Paul and Linda McCartney in New Orleans, where their band Wings were recording the Venus and Mars album, but Lennon reconciled with Ono the day before the planned visit, after Ono said she had a new cure for Lennon’s smoking habit. After the meeting, he failed to return home or call Pang. When Pang telephoned the next day, Ono told her that Lennon was unavailable because he was exhausted after a hypnotherapy session. Two days later, Lennon reappeared at a joint dental appointment; he was stupefied and confused to such an extent that Pang believed he had been brainwashed. Lennon told Pang he had reconciled with Ono and their relationship was over. Over the coming years, Pang quietly met Lennon a few times but their relationship was never rekindled.
Lennon lamented this period publicly but not in private. Journalist Larry Kane, who befriended Lennon in 1964, wrote a comprehensive biography of Lennon which detailed the “Lost Weekend” period. In the interview with Kane, Lennon explained his feelings about his time with Pang; “You know Larry, I may have been the happiest I’ve ever been… I loved this woman (Pang), I made some beautiful music and I got so fucked up with booze and shit and whatever.”
At the time Lennon had his 18-month relationship with Pang, he was in a period of his life that he later referred to as his “Lost Weekend”, in reference to Charles R. Jackson’s 1944 novel with the same title.
The 1980s and Beyond
After Lennon returned to Ono, Pang started working for United Artists Records and Island Records as a public relations manager, working on albums by Bob Marley and Robert Palmer.
Pang published her memoir Loving John in 1983. The original 500-page book focused mainly on Pang’s role on Lennon’s albums and sessions. It was updated and renamed John Lennon: The Lost Weekend and was edited down to 300 pages, concentrating mostly on the sensational aspects of their relationship. It also included postcards that Lennon had written to Pang during his travels throughout the world in the late 1970s. Pang claims that she and Lennon remained lovers until 1977, and stayed in contact until his death.
Pang married record producer Tony Visconti in 1989; the couple divorced in 2000. They had two children, Sebastian and Lara.
Pang remains in touch with some of the people from her time with Lennon, and Paul McCartney invited her to Linda McCartney’s memorial service after she died in 1998. She was an invited guest at The Concert for George in 2002 and remained close to Cynthia Lennon and Lennon’s first son, Julian.
Although having had no contact for 30 years, on October 9, 2006, Pang accidentally met Ono in Iceland, on what would have been Lennon’s 66th birthday. Ono was in Iceland to unveil a sculpture in Reykjavík and was staying in the same hotel.
Pang’s book of photographs Instamatic Karma was published in 2008. Besides the candid personal portraits, the book contains some historically important photographs, such as Lennon signing the official dissolution of the Beatles’ partnership, and one of the last known photographs of Lennon and Paul McCartney together. John’s first wife Cynthia Lennon also provided a back cover endorsement, acknowledging Pang’s role in reuniting Lennon with his estranged first son, Julian.
Around 2010, Pang started her own jewelry business. She designs stainless-steel feng shui jewelry.
May with George
Recent Years
Around 2020, Pang started her own jewelry business. She designs stainless-steel feng shui jewelry.
The Tribeca Film Festival announced the 2022 premiere of The Lost Weekend: A Love Story, a 97-minute documentary about Pang’s life and relationship with Lennon, on June 10 via virtual home viewing. The film was produced and directed by Eve Brandstein, Richard Kaufman and Stuart Samuels. The Lost Weekendappeared in theaters internationally for a limited run April 13th and 14th 2023 and became available via streaming and on BluRay in October 2023.
Coinciding with the release of the 2022 documentary, Pang published a collection of her photographs of Lennon which were made available for sale in an touring exhibition called The Lost Weekend: The Photography of May Pang.
Pang still resides in New York City. She volunteers with an animal shelter called Animal Haven in New York and owned a dog that was rescued after Hurricane Katrina. She also co-hosts an Internet talk radio show, Dinner Specials with Cynthia and May Pang, at blogtalkradio.com, with on-air partner Cynthia Neilson.
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