床上和平 Bed Peace

Through stories and photographs, many never widely seen before, Give Peace a Chance will offer a chance to sit on the edge of the Bed-In, Suite 1742 at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal between May 26 and June 2, 1969.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono used their bed as a way to put themselves and their message in the center of a searing spotlight, demonstrating through their vulnerability and openness their unrelenting support for their beliefs. No celebrity couple had ever used their bed as a place of protest, nor had anyone before been so available in person and by telephone to the world.

“We’re going to sell peace the way other people sell soap,” Lennon said to a young, accomplished photographer on assignment for Life magazine, Gerry Deiter. Deiter was our eyes in that hotel room, the only photographer there for the entire eight days of the bed-in. He was determined to capture the essence of the scene--in particular the love between the newlyweds in many intimate moments. He also candidly caught the famous people who dropped in: Timothy Leary, Tommy Smothers, Dick Gregory, Al Capp, Murray the K and others.