A special edition of “American Masters” this fall showcases an Englishman, John Lennon.
But Susan Lacy, who produced “Lennon: New York City,” says the film on his life and work there late in his life “establishes John as an American artist.”
A New Yorker is how his widow Yoko Ono thought of him.
“Even after John’s passing, when I think about New York, even when I’m in Europe,” Ono said. “I think of John in New York because he loved New York. He loved New York so much.
“He said, ‘Well, I wish I was born here.’ I don’t know why. But you see, the other thing is that he used to say that, ‘You know that New York has a docks and all that. It’s very Liverpool.’ And the taxi drivers are not speaking normal English, so he thought, ‘Well, it’s very, very Liverpool.’
On the other hand, she told reporters at the TV critics press tour this week, “it’s a very strange city. It was his love, and it was his death.”
This year marks not only the 70th anniversary of his birthday in October, but the 30th anniversary of his death.
“This is one of the things that’s very important for me because it is about New York, the city that he was in love with, and strangely, the city that he loved so much, but it killed him.
In speaking against the assassin’s parole this month, Ono said, “I think I’m being practical. I don’t know if I am, but that is what I think I am being, to ask that he not be released, maybe, because he can be a danger to other people, too, especially to us, to me, Julian and Sean, but I think that maybe he would be a danger to other people too. But also he may be a danger to himself. I don’t know. But I just don’t want to be responsible for all that.”