See This Now: ‘Give Peace a Chance’

As we’ve noted, this spring marked the 40th anniversary of John and Yoko’s iconic “bed-ins” for peace, first at the Amsterdam Hilton and later (and more famously) at Montreal’s Queen Elizabeth Hotel. The commemorations in those two cities have passed, but a powerful exhibit about the Montreal bed-in has just opened at the Museum at Bethel Woods (aka the Woodstock museum), and it will remain open through the summer.

The exhibit is called “Give Peace a Chance: John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s Bed-In for Peace,” and it revolves around the work of photographer Gerry Deiter. Deiter was on assignment for LIFE when he spent a full eight days—the duration of the bed-in, which ran from May 26 to June 2 in Room 1742—with John and Yoko, but in the end, his photo feature was never published. The display at Bethel Woods marks the North American debut for the collection, a remarkably intimate set of black and white images that show everything from the media frenzy in the room—boom mics, cameramen and others are included in some of the shots—to the rare quiet moments when the couple was able to rest.

Beyond the photos, there’s an odd assortment of ephemera from the event on display: original room service orders, an amusing list of complaints from the hotel’s housekeepers (they were unimpressed by all the flower petals being strewn around), testimonials from visitors and more. Much of it focuses on the impromptu recording of “Give Peace a Chance” right there in the room, and includes some cocktail party-worthy trivia. (Did you know that comedian Tommy Smothers was in on the recording? Or that a visiting group of Hare Krishnas provided most of the musical accompaniment?) A couple of powerful larger-scale installations—a re-creation of Room 1742 and a sculpted wish tree—round out the exhibit.

I’m no diehard Beatlemaniac, but I found John and Yoko’s deliberate mixing of music, humor, activism and celebrity status, as depicted in Deiter’s work, extremely compelling. As museum director Wade Lawrence told me: “They were selling peace like selling soap ... It was a joke, but a joke with a message.”

See it now: “Give Peace a Chance” is open daily from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. through to September 7.

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