San Franciscans for the Preservation of John Lennon's Signature
Recent comments
- Fair enough. I still advise
3 hours 4 min ago - It bears mentioning that
5 hours 2 min ago - *looks like dress not tank
6 hours 7 min ago - "Because the finance people
6 hours 55 min ago - Thoughts on "It also will
9 hours 17 min ago - Right, it is already
9 hours 31 min ago - Johnny's comment provides a
10 hours 7 min ago - You're a necessary voice,
20 hours 6 min ago - What neighborhood residents
20 hours 23 min ago - A few people touched on it
20 hours 59 min ago
Categories
- 'mnstrm media' (109)
- Activism (164)
- Art - The Canvas (255)
- Art - The Streets (574)
- Back in the Day (121)
- Being Cool (228)
- Being Green (69)
- Bernal (43)
- Bicycles (302)
- Capitalism (232)
- Castro (46)
- Crime (252)
- Dance (67)
- Dolores Park (258)
- Douchebaggery (208)
- Downtown (79)
- Drugs (120)
- East Bay (96)
- Eats and Beers (524)
- Events, Happenings & Scenes (244)
- Fashion (233)
- Fillmore (10)
- Haight (75)
- Haters (56)
- Hayes Valley (16)
- Humor (207)
- Life (266)
- Marin (15)
- Marina (34)
- Mission District (1257)
- Movies (65)
- Muni, BART & Getting the Fuck Around (152)
- Music (248)
- Nob Hill (10)
- Noe Valley (20)
- North Beach / Chinatown (15)
- Oaktown Almanac (14)
- People (207)
- Pets & Animals (251)
- Photography (151)
- Politics (140)
- Potrero (37)
- Richmond (21)
- Romance & Sex (148)
- Scary Larry (124)
- SOMA (93)
- Sports (162)
- Sunset District (18)
- tchnlgy (135)
- Tenderloin / Civic Center (113)
- The Great Outdoors (101)
- The Memenets (73)
- Travels and Tales (83)
- Video (218)
- West of Twin Peaks (14)
- Western Addition / NOPA (33)
- Whimsical Bullshit (241)
Comments
So where is it?
I think it's in Cole Valley
It's on the corner of Fell & Stanyan
Do those coordinates include a mallet and a chisel?
This is amazing, I can't believe I'd never heard of it! Definitely gonna have to go check it out this weekend.
Someone should cover that section with clear acrylic or something to preserve it.
Take a rubbing of it before it is gone
No need to. The city has been systematically preserving this patch of sidewalk since 1967 or whatever it says. Every time they rip up and repave this corner, they save that square.
Looks like it says 69 to me. Is there any documentation on this confirming its authenticity?
Yea definitely. After scratching his name in wet cement, John Lennon went straight down to city hall to file the necessary paperwork so that this entire municipality would know that he'd immortalized his shitty signature on an otherwise boring street corner near the park. I mean, at least I assume that's what he did, since all vandals usually alert the city authorities after leaving their mark. The certifying documents are part of the public records, available at City Hall M-F between 9:30 am - 4:30 pm.
He means a witness, photo, articles from the period ect.
The signature is dated 12/5/1969--the day before Altamont (which Lennon did not perform at, but interesting nevertheless).
I've always wondered about the date though. Don't the British usually do day/month/year instead? That would make it 12 May 1969 instead of December 5, 1969.
Here on May 8th, 1969 we can see Lennon gave an interview in London for BBC radio:
http://www.beatlesbible.com/1969/05/08/radio-john-lennon-yoko-ono-interv...
Then there's a gap in time where he's not accounted for, until May 24th when he flew from London to Barbados:
http://www.beatlesbible.com/1969/05/24/john-lennon-yoko-ono-fly-to-barba...
I'm not saying it's impossible, but he certainly would have racked up the frequent flyer miles if he flew from London to SF to London to Barbados in a period of three weeks.
Good work- I repeated your research and then posted a duplicate below, sorry for missing this, props.
Lewisohn's Complete Beatles Chronicle gives the additional detail that Lennon went to Barbados because he was refused a visa by the United States because of a drug conviction. So I think it is unlikely he was in San Francisco on May 12th.
Lennon and Yoko were in England on that date:
http://www.beatlesbible.com/1969/12/06/television-24-hours-the-world-of-...
That's for December 5th. Where were they on May 12th? Seems natural that a British person would use their system of writing the date, not the American one.
Hmm. He was in London on May 8th (http://homepage.ntlworld.com/carousel/pob03.html), so it seems unlikely, though not impossible, that he was in San Francisco by May 12th.
Yup, just looked that up and posted my findings above.
That is May 12, 1969. He's English, so it's 12th/May/1969.
Contrary to what people think, John Lennon did NOT make the signature in the cement at Fell and Stanyon in San Francisco. He could not ENTER the United States then because he was refused a visa, barred from entering for a "drug" (pot) offense previously in New York. That was very public..
Denied a U.S. visa due to that drug conviction, he went to Montreal, where he and Ono took a room at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel on May 26 to stage a week-long "bed-in for peace."
"Alissa" has stated above that he went to City Hall and filed documentation on his cement signature, which is utter crap.
That is utter BS. He was barred from entering the US due to being arrested for pot in New York. He and Yoko tried to enter the US around that time but could not get a visa so they went to Toronto instead and the famous "bed-in" took place May 26th, 1969.
I've pissed on it before.
John Lennon is a common enough name, could be any JL.
So if it's bullshit,why does the city pave around this? with out some documentation its just dumb.
Well, before the web, it was much much more difficult to research this sort of thing. What took a few of us each a few minutes last night would have taken researchers god-only-knows-how-long in the days before all this information was on the web.
ok,well lets go take a look and call 311 and say it's bullshit.
Because of Lennon's British Drug bust, he wasn't allowed into the US in 1969. That's why he did his Bed-In in Toronto that year.
Lennon could not have been in SF in May or December 1969. The drugs bust immigration issue is key, but also bear in mind what he was doing, and how well recorded the Beatles movements were at the time. Note also there were no direct flights to SF from London at the time, so he would have had to fly via (say) New York, which would have been further reported.
Lennon was at a party in London on the night of May 4th 1969, to celebrate Ringo's film Magic Christian (http://www.beatlesbible.com/1969/05/04/ringo-starr-john-lennon-paul-mcca...)
He and Ono bought Tittenhurst Park on the 4th of May, and he was in London on the 8th of May for a BBC taping, and his next reported activity was flying from London to Barbados on the 24th of May. He couldn't possibly have flown to San Francisco in the interim unnoticed.
http://www.beatlesbible.com/1969/05/24/john-lennon-yoko-ono-fly-to-barba...
On December 5th, the BBC were filming Lennon and Ono in England.
http://www.beatlesbible.com/1969/12/05/television-24-hours-the-world-of-...
Post new comment