[beeps]
[M.C] It is my pleasure
and privilege
at this very, very
solemn moment
to introduce a young man
and his wife,
who saw fit
to put down in music
and lyrics
so that it will never be
forgotten in our country
by anyone...
the tragedy of Attica State.
There is no more than I say,
ladies and gentlemen,
I would like
to introduce to you,
John and Yoko Lennon.
[cheers and applause]
[indistinct chatter]
[John Lennon]
One, two, three, four.
["Attica State" playing]
[John] What a waste
Of human power
What a waste
Of human lives
sh**t the prisoners
In the towers
Forty-three poor
Widowed wives
Attica state, Attica state
We're all mates
With Attica state
Media blames it
On the prisoners
But the prisoners
Did not k*ll
Rockefeller pulled the trigger
That is what the people feel
[cheers and applause]
[John] Attica state, Attica state
We're all mates with Attica state...
[applause]
[]
Michelle, my belle
These are words that go together well
My Michelle...
[E.V. Di Massa]
You have to understand
where the Mike Douglas Show
sat in culture in 1972.
It was the most popular show
in daytime television,
seen by about 40 million
people a week.
Quite often 60%
of the audience in New York
was watching
the Mike Douglas Show.
I love you, I love you, I love you
That's all I want to say
Until I find a way
I will say the only words I know...
The booking of John and Yoko
was a really unusual story,
because we were both told
that they had contacted us
and we contacted them.
My Michelle
My Michelle
[cheers and applause]
[Di Massa]
We heard that on February 4th,
just 10 days before these
shows were about to air,
Senator Strom Thurmond
went to John Mitchell
and wanted to warn
the Nixon administration
that John and Yoko
were about to take sides.
[]
President Nixon leaves
for Peking on Thursday
he will travel on his
specially equipped
Boeing 707 Air Force One.
[Richard Nixon]
The government of the People's
Republic of China
and the government
of the United States
can have differences
without being enemies in w*r.
[John Chancellor] Attorney
John Mitchell resigned today
to run the Presidents campaign
for reelection.
You gotta live
You gotta love
You gotta be somebody
You gotta shove
But it's so hard...
[John C] A Federal court order
which calls for large
scale busing
went into effect today
in Augusta, Georgia.
[newscaster 1] Although
there were several false
b*mb threats yesterday,
no incidents were
reported today.
[newscaster 2] George Wallace
appears no longer worried
that he might need
to soft pedal busing
for fear it would conjure up
the old one issue image.
You gotta worry
But it's so hard
It's really hard
Sometimes I feel like going down
[Ronald Reagan]
Well, I happen to believe
that the death penalty
is a deterrent
and I think the majority
of people
believe the same thing.
[reporter] Everybody knows
that food prices are going up.
The question is how much
will consumers stand for
in this election year.
Sometimes I feel like going down
Hey
[]
The Nixon administration
announced
that American ground troops
in Vietnam
would no longer be used
offensively in combat,
but they would fight
only on the defense.
We're here to fight dinks
and that's why we're here.
We're gonna go out
and fight them.
[newscaster] Attack bombers
bristling with their
deadly cargo
are screaming skyward
from the deck of the aircraft
carrier, Constellation.
[soldier]
You read in the newspaper
that the w*r is over.
I don't know
if it's Congress, Senate,
but the w*r is not over.
[John] You gotta hide
You gotta keep
Your woman satisfied
But it's so hard
It's really hard
Sometimes I feel like going down
[cheers and applause]
[Mike Douglas]
We'll be right back.
["Imagine" playing]
[interviewer]
The idea of John Lennon
being a mediator.
[woman] Yeah, that's
sort of funny, isn't it?
[man] Okay. B's rolling only.
Why don't you go up to Wes.
What lens do you have now?
[Wes] 28 to 135.
[clears throat]
[Wes] Marker. Marker.
Marker.
[Yellow Pearl]
We are the children
Of the Chinese waiter
Born and raised in the laundry rooms
This is funny. I haven't
seen this whole thing
in all these years.
[interviewer] How on earth
did you get on this?
Out of the blue, uh, one day
I-I'm in my apartment,
in New York City,
and I get a phone call,
and I answer it and it said,
"Hello, this is Yoko."
And Yoko's a Japanese name,
so I said, Yoko who?
And of course
I thought it was a scam.
I thought it couldn't be real.
But, um, I called
this person back.
And much to my amazement,
it really was Yoko Ono.
George Carlin has a question.
I Was going to ask whether or not
biofeedback could help you remember
the question you were going to ask
before the commercial.
[laughs]
Some food isn't even food.
It's just all chemicals.
The voice said, Hi.
This is John and Yoko.
And I'm thinking, "Okay,
this is a prank phone call,
but I'll listen."
John, rock and roll,
rock and roll.
There you go.
Into the cabbage!
Yoko said we're doing
this show on Mike Douglas,
you know, this a--
afternoon show
and we're bringing on people
like in the movement
to talk about the movement.
And on the show
that we're having you on,
we're having Bobby Seale
and Jerry Rubin.
And I'm like, what? [chuckles]
[John] We're Mike's co-hosts
this week
and with us on today's show
will be my hero,
Chuck Berry.
[Yoko Ono] David Rosenboom.
[David Rosenboom] As I recall,
they did have an agenda
and they did discuss
the agenda, uh, with me
and the agenda had to do
with making the world better.
[Di Massa] The booking
was terrific for the show
because it got us
great ratings,
but it also fit their agenda
which was to get their message
to middle America.
Here is Ralph Nader.
[cheers and applause]
[man] Okay.
...running for president?
No.
Well, the Mike Douglas week
of shows was memorable
in a 50-year span.
It was memorable because
it couldn't happen today
on network or cable,
daytime television shows.
But it was also
memorable then.
It was a real
breakthrough then.
[cheers and applause]
Everybody's talkin' at me...
Ooh. Look at that dress! Hmm.
And we not gonna talk
about that hair.
Only the shadows of their eyes
When I got to the studio,
I got a glimpse of John Lennon
and Yoko Ono.
I said, "Oh, my goodness.
This is exciting!"
Hanoi charged
that American jets today
bombed and strafed populated
areas of North Vietnam.
[reporter] It happened
on a Sunday morning.
They said about 9:35 a.m.,
planes dove through
the cloud--
the cloud cover at that time,
and attacked the hospital,
dropping eight
demolition bombs
and four anti-personnel bombs.
[cheers and applause]
[man laughs]
[]
[John] Welcome to
the Mike Douglas Show.
- This is John Lennon.
- And Yoko Ono.
Now, here's Mike.
[Mike] Hey, I'm really excited
about this week.
I was in Boston last night
and, uh, I had what they call
a press conference.
And when I mentioned the fact
that I was about
to begin a week
with the two people
I'm going to introduce,
pencils were dropping.
And--and it turned into
about an hour session
on just talking about
these people.
They're not only superstars,
but they're really two
very warm human beings.
And I know that you're going
to enjoy meeting them
and getting to know them
a little bit better.
So, ladies and gentlemen,
welcome with us--
ah, by the way,
the song I just sang
is--is written
by this gentleman
who's coming out right now.
I wanted to tell you that.
Here is John Lennon
and Yoko Ono.
[cheers and applause]
[]
Good afternoon.
You sang it very well.
Thank you.
I wrote the middle
eight actually.
- Did you?
- Yeah.
At least you didn't sing, uh--
Normally they sing "Yesterday"
which is Paul's song, and then
saying, "Here, he wrote it."
But I wrote the middle eight
of "Michelle" so we're okay.
[Mike]
You wrote the middle eight?
Yeah, but sometimes you write
different bits, you know?
That's usually the toughest
part of a song, actually,
what they call the release,
the middle eight.
Well, yeah, 'cause once
you get the first inspiration,
then you get stuck.
I think we pinched it
from a Nina Simone song,
I'm not sure though.
Some people only remember
middle eight, you know, songs.
[Mike] That's true.
I know that you both have
some very sincere thoughts
about life and people,
and that people mean
a great deal to you.
That's perfectly obvious.
What would you like to talk
about this week, John?
Love, peace, communication,
women's lib.
- Racism.
- Racism.
- w*r. Prisons.
- And about prison conditions.
- And Drugs? Drugs.
- And life in general.
- Drugs. Anything.
- Talk about--
You know--whatever--what--
that's what's going
on now, right?
And also to show the future
direction, you know?
Because the future direction
is actually beautiful,
you know,
because people getting
very pessimistic these days.
But actually it's gonna be--
be very beautiful,
and we want to show
that to people.
John and Yoko had really
conceived a five-show arc.
So over a period of about
five and a half weeks,
we taped those shows.
This is the first show,
and you can see them
trying to find their
comfort level with Mike,
and Mike trying to be a gentle
and warming host.
I know we have a man on
later today
whom you both respect
a great deal.
- Yeah.
- In fact, all of us do.
- It's Ralph Nader.
- Right? Yeah, and he's great.
We'll he's--he's a kind of guy
that sets an example.
He does something.
I mean, that, that's--
[Mike]
I wish he'd run for office.
Well, I asked him today,
when are you gonna
run for president?
- [Mike] Did you?
- You know?
She could minister of peace,
and I'll be minister of music.
That would be marvelous.
[applause]
And we have people
like Bobby Seale
and Jerry Rubin and, you know,
just very interesting people.
[Di Massa] You can see
that Yoko is a bit nervous.
John is trying
to feel his way.
They obviously had an agenda
and ideas of things
they wanted to get out
on the show.
I really do fall for images.
Like when I first met
Jerry Rubin. I was terrified.
I thought I'm gonna meet
a b*mb-throwing freak.
Even when I first met the guy
called Frank Zappa,
I was terrified.
I really thought he--
- They were terrified of us.
- And they were terrified too,
- so we're all sitting there--
- They were terrified of you?
Oh, yeah.
So we're all sitting there,
and then I say, "Well, uh,
you seem quite all right."
And they said,
"Well, you're not bad."
So we relaxed, you know?
And we believe in images
that we should know
better about,
that have built up for us.
We thought we'd give him
a chance to sort of,
to show what they're
actually doing
and what they actually
think now,
not two years ago
or three years ago,
but now and what their hopes
are for the future.
[Di Massa] One of Mike's
greatest attributes
was he was never terrified
to be around celebrities
or to be talking
to celebrities.
He felt right at home
and he made them feel
at home with him.
[Mike] We have a canvas here.
I'd like to point out
what the purpose of this is.
Oh, yes. Yes, you see,
we were thinking that
we would have
something like this
that people can draw on--
all of us would draw on
- so that--yes.
- And the guests, right?
So it's a painting that
goes on growing.
And in the end of the show...
- End of five days.
- ...we can auction it,
- and give that money--
- [Mike] Oh, to charity.
Donate that money to charity.
- To charity.
- We'd have a--a canvas
that had not only
real people on,
but show biz people as well,
and all the--whoever the stars
or the performers
that come on each day,
we ask them all to sign,
and you and the producer,
I'm gonna have the names or--
[Mike] Is it--is it
necessary to draw?
- Or can you just sign your--
- You can draw a name,
- or draw a circle.
- Well--yes.
Signing name is an art,
too, isn't it?
- [Mike] Sure.
- So you can do that too.
- Draw a circle is enough.
- Yeah.
- All right, fine. That's--
- So when, when we doing it?
Well, shall we do
that quickly?
Now are we gonna do it?
Shall we start it then?
What color do you want?
I don't know
what I'm gonna draw.
[Yoko] Well, um, I--
oh, any color.
You have to choose
your own color.
Who's gonna break it in then?
- Can you see this?
- Let's--let's Yoko start.
Okay, you start it,
it's your idea, right.
Oh, okay.
- Okay.
- [John] Oh, that's--
You gonna do the next one?
Yeah, can I take
a different color?
[Yoko] Sure, sure.
I'll take green, all right?
Everybody's an artist.
Who told everybody
that they weren't an artist?
Some teacher
when you're about 12,
somebody says to you,
"Oh, you're an artist.
"You're not. You're a chemist
and you're a scientist."
[Yoko] So this show
would just be a--
a show of all of us, you know?
You're gonna be participating
a lot--a lot of things too,
so you have to be
prepared for that.
You wanna put
your name on, Yoko.
- [Yoko] Oh, okay.
- Make it more--
worth a dime more...
when we sell it.
Do we pass it around
the audience or--or what?
[Mike] Yeah.
Why don't we find out
if anybody really
has artistic ability?
- [audience member] Yes.
- Everybody does.
- Please.
- You wanna take it out, John?
[John] Anybody is an artist.
Artist is a frame of mind.
Please pass it on.
[Yoko]
While you're passing this on,
would you please
touch each other?
- [John] Come on, don't be shy.
- [Yoko] Don't be shy!
[John]
Touch a stranger, it's great!
[indistinct chatter]
[Mike] Okay, this is great.
[Di Massa]
The show was actually taped
in a basement studio,
1619 Walnut Street
in Philadelphia.
And walking John down for
one of the evening tapings,
he said to me, you know,
this is so comfortable for me
because it reminds me
of the Cavern Club
where we as the Beatles
had started out in Liverpool.
Were people
terribly surprised,
because you are hip,
contemporary people,
- and, that you--
- [snaps fingers]
- [laughter]
- John.
[Mike] That you accepted
the convention of marriage.
Do you think that yours
is an aesthetic marriage
as well as physical?
- Oh, sure, yeah.
- Yes.
It was a mind marriage.
Our minds met
before our bodies did.
- I mean, that's for sure.
- Hmm.
For those of you who don't--
don't know this story.
Yoko was having an art show
in London,
at a gallery called
Indica Gallery.
I heard about this, was gonna
be this Japanese chick
in black bags down
at the art gallery.
It's gonna be a happening.
And everything--
when I got there,
everything was white--
white canvases,
white this, white that.
And there was this board
with hammer and a nail.
So I said,
"Can I hammer a nail in?"
She says "No."
And then the owner says,
"Come on, come on, you know,
he might buy something."
[Mike] So the owner--
the owner knew who you were?
Yeah, the owner of the gallery, knew--
he knew me, yeah.
She did not know who you were
at that meeting.
No, no.
But I had a nice
feeling about him.
I thought,
"Oh, rather nice," you know?
Anyway, they--
the guy says to me,
John says to me, uh--
or she says, "Okay,
well give me five shillings
then, to hammer a nail in."
That's about a dollar,
you know, more than a dollar.
It's five dollars
or something.
I just had to charge,
you know?
So I said, "Listen,
I'll give you an imaginary
five shillings
and hammer
an imaginary nail in.
Is that okay?"
And that was the--
her--her whole trip
is this "Imagine this,
imagine that."
It was imagining, imagining.
So I was thinking,
"Oh, here's a guy
"who's playing the same
game I'm playing."
And I was really shocked.
You know?
I thought,
who is it, you know?
Also, the first thing
that was in the gallery
as you went in, there was a--
a white stepladder,
and a painting on the ceiling,
or...
A ceiling painting.
...a framed piece of white,
something.
And a spyglass hanging down.
So, most of the art those days
was art that
put everybody down, you know,
- like make people upset.
- [Yoko] Uh-huh.
- [Mike] Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
- So I was anti-art,
because I'd been five years
in art school,
and they're all phonies,
you know?
And I really was against it.
But--I'd become interested
again
by looking around galleries,
and was there--
I walked up this ladder,
and I picked up the spyglass.
You're balancing there, and
it's in teeny little writing,
it just said "Yes."
- [Mike] It said "Yes?"
- And that made my--
- it said "Yes."
- Yes.
It made my decision to go
and see the rest of the show.
If it had said "No,"
or you know, uh-huh--
- [Yoko] Something sarcastic.
- Something nasty,
like you know,
rip off or whatever,
I would have left
the gallery then.
Because it was positive,
it said "Yes," I thought,
okay, it's the first show I've
been to that said something,
you know, warm to me.
So I--then I decided to see
the rest of the show,
and that's when we met.
- What was your--
- [John] If it had said "No,"
I would have walked out.
What was your impression
of Yoko at that meeting, John?
Well, she was very serious,
and not at all impressed
by who I was, you know,
which I didn't mind,
because it was a change
not to be known, you know?
Does that--is that a welcome
thing for you,
when somebody is not
terribly impressed by you
and just accepts you.
I don't want people to just,
uh, react to me and it--
people, some--
I guess you have the same.
People think that--that you
want them to--to do something
or say something special.
You don't--you want them
to be themselves.
And therefore
you can be yourself.
And don't you find that
when people meet you,
and they want so to say
the right thing,
and almost always it comes out
backwards, doesn't it?
- Oh, yeah.
- What are some
of the incredible things
people have said to you
- upon first meetings?
- I don't know, the--
our main problems are things
like getting in the taxi,
and the taxi driver
is so frantic
that he's driving
on the sidewalk.
[laughter]
Which is a very dangerous
driver.
It's very hard
to get anywhere,
and I think that's all this--
And the waiters be--bring,
you know, something wrong,
because they weren't you--
listening to the orders--
[John] The waiters don't hear
what you're ordering,
I'm talking, and I know
they're not listening,
because they're only saying,
"Oh that's him? Is that him?
"Is that him?"
And they're looking at me
right in the eye, and I'm
saying I'd like a, you know,
a--a medium-rare steak
and some French fries
and an elephant's leg,
and a policeman's hat, please.
And they say, "Yes, sir, yes, sir!"
Because they're not hearing me.
[laughter]
A policeman's hat and--
We'll be right back.
[cheers and applause]
[interviewer] We're really
focusing on that February
of 1972 because if you don't
understand what 1972 is like,
you don't understand why these
shows were so transgressional.
Well, 1972 was the Nixon era.
Richard Nixon, the pits, uh,
he was a very vengeful,
uh, president.
And he was afraid of what
he called the liberal media.
And he was afraid of a young
generation uprising.
It was, uh, a time
of considerable fracturing.
I mean, uh, we--we were--
we had made it out of the '60s
by the time that--that,
uh, I was on the shows.
But the aftermath
was still quite, uh, quite...
disturbing.
This was the context
in which the '60s,
we--in which we lived.
Aside from the news
which everybody saw at night,
bringing these ideas,
I think more the ideas
and the conversations, uh,
into the living rooms of--
of women was really--
it was really important.
I remember overhearing
one of the producers say
to John and Yoko backstage,
do you have any friends
that aren't political?
Yeah. It was something they
were trying to get away with.
[laughs]
And it was basically
housewives
or people who were at home
who wanted to be entertained.
It was an entertainment
variety kind of thing.
So I really didn't even have
a clue that they were having
all these almost
countercultural figures.
I mean,
it was really interesting
to see Ralph Nader so young.
[piano plays]
It's been almost a year since
we've seen this next gentleman
on our show, and in that time
he's gotten his fingers
into a lot of new pies.
He's an attorney.
He's from the nation's
capital.
And recently he's been called
"The man who makes waves."
Here is Ralph Nader.
[cheers and applause]
[Nader] Mike Douglas
watched the evening news.
He probably said to himself,
I think I want this guy
on the show.
And he doesn't over talk
and he smiles once in a while
and he's concise enough
for daytime TV.
It helped that he had a staff
member, Erni Di Massa,
on the show
who was very, uh, persuasive
in getting citizen group
voices on the show.
I might say you also
had Roger Ailes. [laughs]
[Di Massa] Roger Ailes,
who started
as a public relations man
on the Mike Douglas Show
met Richard Nixon
on the Mike Douglas Show.
Went to work for him,
got him elected president.
Then later in his career,
started Fox News,
which is a pretty
incredible transition
when you think about it
from the Mike Douglas Show
to Fox News.
One of the stories
is that Roger Ailes
was actually behind the scenes
trying to get John
and Yoko booked
on the Mike Douglas Show
with the hope
of convincing them
to become Republican backers
of Richard Nixon.
I remember being on the stage
and I watched this young guy
in the back.
He was going like this,
constantly absorbing
the details
of the television experience.
I could just see him
saying to himself
someday I'm gonna make sure
that television
is a major tool
of right-wing politicians.
- [applause]
- []
- [whistles] Stop him!
- Stop him.
Would you do us
the honor, uh, Ralph?
Yes. Indeed. Yes, yes, yes.
This is gonna go--
be auctioned off
at the end of the week.
And all the money
will go to charity.
- That's beautiful.
- Oh, look at that!
- Yes.
- That's the yin yang sign.
- Yeah.
- Actually--
[John] Yin and yang is like
positive-negative,
- black-white, right.
- [Ralph] Going back to--
[Mike] R. Nader.
The nat--natural balance
of things.
[John] Can I ask you something?
You know, the small book
you gave us before the show,
that--that book was to, um,
help people--students
organize, right?
[Ralph] That's right.
Action, Action for a Change.
It's to show them how they
could do it themselves, like--
- Exactly.
- [John] Right?
So what kind of thing
do you tell them?
I know something about tax
and all, well--
Well, first, it makes a very
important distinction.
- [John] Yeah.
- Everybody--
most everybody wants peace
and justice and equity.
However, the most important
first step is to develop
the instruments that will
lead, uh, to these objectives.
So the first part
of the book is, uh, devoted
to showing exactly, step by
step, how they can organize.
Well, it's one of the reasons
I went on the Mike Douglas Show
so enthusiastically.
We were beginning the drive
to organize students
in large numbers to contribute
through their student dues,
a few bucks each year
into a non-profit group
that they would run.
And this book came out,
it was a manual.
It was very detailed by
Donald Ross, bless his soul.
He showed the students
how to do it.
For example that, uh,
they spend on the average
about $250 a year
on soft drinks, cigarettes,
uh, and candies.
Now if they just spend 3%,
or 2% of that, two, three,
four dollars a year,
they could develop
the strongest democratic force
in the state.
- [John] Yeah.
- And they could also work
with people
who aren't students.
- [John] Yeah.
- Retired people
who have a lot of time
and a lot of talent
on their hands.
- It's a great resource.
- You tell 'em to register
to vote, as well?
- [Ralph] Register to vote.
- Because that's been a great
- change in the whole...
- [Ralph] Exactly.
...movement people,
a lot of people were saying,
uh, voting's irrelevant
and--a few years ago.
And, uh, a lot of movement
people have decided
that voting is relevant,
'cause it's the only chance
they're gonna get.
- [Mike] Of course.
- Like if you want to beat
the Establishment,
you got to know how it works.
Well, you'll be more
likely to want to vote,
particularly at a younger age,
if you know
what the issues are,
and if you can push
for a real choice
between different candidates.
At least if you,
if you're registered to vote,
it doesn't say
you have to vote.
At least you have it,
and then if somebody comes,
if there's somebody around
that you can believe in,
you've got that vote
but if you don't register,
and it comes and you want
to do something, it's--
you've missed it.
And somebody put it
very succinctly,
Richard Neville of--of OZ,
which is an underground
scene in London.
He said, "Well,
we all made a mistake.
We should have voted.
We should have registered.
Because there's--
there's one inch
in which we breathe difference
between the two parties".
And everybody's saying,
"They're all the same."
They are all the same!
But there's that one inch
in which they let you breathe.
And if you vote,
you broaden out the difference
between the parties
in the right way
for the next election
and the next election.
I mean, that was a very
astute comment.
Democracy means,
in a word, self-government.
And anytime we delegate
our responsibilities,
- it's for convenience.
- [John] Yeah.
How about the organizing
housewives?
You know, they're just sort
of, very vast amount
of silent majority there,
you know?
And they're sort of--
they don't have
the direct communication
society.
They're sort of isolated
people.
[Mike] I've never thought
of housewives
as a silent majority.
- [laughter]
- Well, maybe at home
they might say a lot,
but they don't have a chance
to say it in the society
and also, they don't have
a direct sort of horizontal
contact, you know?
- [Mike] Yes.
- They're in the house.
They're isolated.
If you can get a housewife's
manual or something
to help the cause,
what could they do
for pollution, you know?
Well, actually,
we're just working on that.
What you have to do is
step back and start by trying
to help organize people
and trying to get them to see
citizenship as a profession,
as an expertise.
And this could be
a great country,
and it can contribute to
the world in magnificent ways,
because we've got
the affluence
and we've got the intelligence
and the know-how,
but we're not in effect
letting people
control their destinies.
I was just thinking,
does Ralph Nader
make a New Year's resolution?
- [chuckles]
- Do you do such things?
Yeah, actually.
What--what were yours,
or what was yours?
Try to find a 36-hour day.
[chuckles]
I'm looking for a 48-hour day.
As the Romans used to say,
tempus fugit.
Time flies.
Ralph, you must get an awful
lot of mail.
Where, where can
people write you?
Well, you can go to Nader.org,
and by the way,
sign up to receive free,
electronically every week,
my weekly column,
which started in 1971.
- And that's it?
- Just like that.
Thank you, Ralph Nader.
And stay with us.
We'll be right back.
[]
Yoko, you have some,
some great ideas
- in your book Grapefruit.
- Thank you.
And one of them involves
a--a teacup.
- Yes, well see--
- Tell, tell us about it.
[Yoko] This is a cup.
And it's broken.
Through the five days,
we want to mend it,
and all of us participate
in mending it.
By the end of the five days,
this cup would be
a whole cup, I hope.
It's not as easy
as you thought, right?
It's not that easy
as you think.
[Mike] What is the point
behind this, Yoko? Is it...
Yeah, I'll hold them. You
tell-- you explain yourself.
- Hold it like this.
- I'll hold it like that.
And are we out of time?
That's fine. Um, we'll go
through the next day.
Okay, we have four more shows
in which to complete it.
I would like to take this
opportunity to thank
my co-host and my co-hostess,
John Lennon and Yoko Ono,
Ralph Nader.
- We'll see you tomorrow.
- [cheers and applause]
[]
[interviewer] People tend
to think Woodstock
three years earlier
was a big deal.
But this was the best minds
of the counterculture.
Yoko had a lot of confidence
bringing these radical people
into this very, uh,
middle class Amer--
middle America space,
putting that and seeing
let's see what happens
when we do this.
In the environment where there
weren't very many choices,
uh, in TV,
to get the opportunity,
that John and Yoko had,
the Mike Douglas Show and
then to use it as a platform
to bring the counterculture
to-- people
in a way that was actually
quite friendly.
It was approachable.
Well, I think John and Yoko
reflected the importance
of what you call the ephemeral
and what I call,
say, the spiritual
and philosophical
aspect of living.
John Lennon and Yoko Ono
didn't want us
to talk about their music.
That spoke for itself.
I think for your...
your general audience,
those audiences that watched
Mike Douglas.
And to see...
Yoko, in particular,
speaking up or even--
in a sense, answering, uh,
a question that had been put
to--to John Lennon,
I don't think
it was a turnoff to--
in particular to women.
Now some men might have
got turned off!
The government's top mental
health officials said today
that marijuana laws
are too strict.
The report cites studies
however
that indicate motorists have
their driving ability impaired
by marijuana use.
[study supervisor]
You'll drag for two seconds,
then you'll hold
for 15 seconds,
then you'll exhale
- and relax for 20 seconds.
- [man] Okay.
[anchor] The smoking
is carefully supervised
by medics and psychiatrists.
Marijuana, the study
has found, dulls the senses.
Many drivers drift
across the center line,
their ability
to react impaired.
The central nervous system's
processing centers
are affected...
[applause]
[Mike] I--I thoroughly--
I thoroughly enjoyed
yesterday's show.
- Oh, we did too.
- Did you?
We did too.
And we'd just like to say,
you know, we--
we sometimes get very nervous
doing these things, and, uh,
it's a very relaxing show.
[Yoko]
Yes. You made us very relaxed.
- Thank you. Thank you.
- And that's so nice.
[Mike] We've got such
an interesting thing going.
- The teacup...
- Yes, oh, where is it? Oh!
- It was interesting.
- Oh, there it is, yeah.
Am I supposed to--
- Oh, it stayed a bit.
- Yes.
Well, it stayed together
anyway.
Well, I have to explain it.
Oh, it did stay together.
She has a lot of funny ideas,
you know?
Now, this is, uh, a sculpture
and also, this is, uh,
a sculpture called mend piece.
and we're all going
to mend it together.
[Mike] One piece every day?
[Yoko]
Yes, one piece every day.
And in the end, probably
we'll have a nice cup.
[John] Do you want me to...
Yes, you can--
And also, meanwhile,
while John is doing that,
uh, we're going to the next
audience piece, um,
which is, um--yesterday,
we did this touch piece,
- remember?
- Oh, yeah, this, this was--
[Yoko]
Everybody touching each other?
And you called this--
they called this an--an event.
- Yes.
- You want to try--
what are we gonna do today?
Now, the minute, uh,
when I raise my hand...
- Listen to this.
- ...please start to shout,
right away, start shouting the
first word that came to you.
- Until--
- And don't be shy now,
- don't be shy.
- Wait a minute--
- Keep on shouting.
- Now, wait a minute--
- [indistinct chatter]
- Keep on shouting--
You're on television,
coast to coast.
Well, yes, I'm sure
truly beautiful people...
- You'll never hear it.
- ...so it'll be all right.
[Yoko] One, two, three!
[man] Mama!
[audience shouting]
[man 1] Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey.
[man 2] Hey, hey, hey!
- Okay. Clears the air.
- Exactly.
I think--yes, it did
clear the air, didn't it?
- Who said "Fatso?"
- [chuckles]
- [Mike] No, no.
- No, it wasn't you, was it?
What--what--why do you call
'em "events" and--and,
- I want to start with her.
- Oh, because, uh...
it's a--it's--
it's a kind of thing--
a "happening" is a bit
more theatrical,
but this is something
that includes people in it,
that's not--
has no calculation,
it's just that people
who follow their own instinct
and it has freedom in it,
you know?
Yeah. Whenever we have
co-hosts on the show,
we always explore
their interests,
and also book the show, uh,
to make them happy,
Jerry Rubin, who's an out--
[John gasps]
[Yoko] Oh!
[Mike] Ain't it funny?
You did that
and the audience didn't react.
I know.
[Di Massa] Mike developed a
very interesting relationship
with John over the course
of the week.
You can see in the first show,
there's a little bit
of tenseness.
And it starts to warm up
and warm up.
We're gonna spend the day
talking, one of the shows,
talking about the Beatles,
but, uh, will the Beatles
ever, for any reason,
- for a charity reason...
- Yeah.
...or anything ever perform
together again?
Let's say this.
There's no reason why
they never should do it again,
but there's also no reason
why they should.
And like, anything's possible.
And, uh, just to get it
straight, once and for all,
we're not all
at each other's throats.
When those court cases--
it gets, you know,
when lawyers get involved,
it looks vicious
and it gets in the paper.
But, uh, I talk to Paul
about once a week.
He called me two days ago
to say he'd just been
to dinner with Ringo
and he was just going
to dinner with George.
And I said,
"Well, you better catch George
'cause he's on his way
over here,
and then he's going
to Bangladesh." You know?
We're having a quite
normal relationship.
And you know what
each other is up to.
But musically, we're, we're--
musically we feel as though
we can express ourselves
better as individuals,
that's all, you know?
And it came to a head.
And we're all friends,
you know?
But we just--you never know
what's gonna happen
in the future, but, uh--
When you were
with the Beatles,
you--you didn't express
yourself
politically at all, did you?
Well, let's say, uh,
it was a slow development.
But, uh, on our first tour,
there was a--
a sort of unspoken thing
that, uh, Mr. Epstein
was preventing us talking
about the Vietnam w*r.
And, um, before we came back
the second time to America,
George and I said to him,
"We don't go unless
we answer that question,
what we feel about the w*r."
'Cause you were being
asked about it.
Because we were being asked
about it all the time.
It was just silly,
and we had to pretend
to be like, you know,
in the old days when artists
weren't meant to say anything
about anything.
But we spoke our minds
after that, you know?
And also,
the Beatles were really
a social event, you know?
It was a fantastic thing
that we changed
the society in a way.
In that sense
it was political, I think.
I think something like that
comes along
once about every 20
or 30 years.
Well, I thought it was 10,
because there was 10 years
between us and Elvis.
And there's 10 between
him and Johnnie Ray.
I'm not doing--saying
anything demeaning
- about El--Elvis, but--
- Yeah.
But, I don't--
I haven't seen anything
as big as the Beatles.
I mean...
[John] Well, I don't know.
Well, maybe
I'm still an Elvis fan.
[laughs] I think he's pretty
damn big, you know?
- Yes.
- I suppose the Beatles
- are like that in a way, too.
- And he has surprised
everyone because I remember
when he happened, uh,
all the critics were saying it
would be an overnight thing,
that in a year,
nobody would ever hear of him.
And he's certainly fooled
a lot of people.
[John] You know, the reviews
of our second record
was below par Beatles.
This was in England
before we'd even made it here.
They were already saying,
you're on your way out.
This is on our second record.
So, I mean, any--they've been
saying rock and roll was dead
since it began.
You know? It'll never die.
Like jazz, it's like
the people who said jazz
is immoral, or jazz is dead.
You know, that it's a--
it's a certain form of music
that'll go on and on forever.
- I don't see any reason--
- [Yoko] Is it fair to say,
John, that you have
become very political
and even radical
in your thinking?
- Is that your next question?
- Well, I don't know, Mike.
[Mike] Yes, it is.
How do you expect me
to remember all that?
- I've got to write it down.
- [Yoko] I just want--
No, but see the thing is,
because the world's,
uh, you know, be--
become a bit more mature too,
but we were interested
in, um, you know, the aspect
of say female liberation,
things like that,
that people are not
too interested in the times,
in the days of Beatles,
let's say, you know?
- And we are grateful so--
- Also it was a develop--
- a personal development.
- It's a development.
I mean, I was 20--let's say
I was 25 or something,
and we were busy
in our own lives,
'cause it's a lot of pressure
that we have--
hardly had to time to think,
never mind be political.
But we were conscious
of our connection with youth
and the fact that we were
changing people's hairstyles
and their dress styles.
And that was the revolution
we were into at the time.
You're responsible
for bringing
these two people to us,
so why don't you handle
their first introduction
to nationwide television?
Chris and Joanna,
and, uh, beautiful singers
and, uh, they have
a story to tell,
and they're gonna come on now
and do it.
Here they are, Yellow Pearl.
[applause]
But the real story happened
before this. [laughs]
That's what got us in trouble.
[laughs]
Usually, people know
very little about...
Asians...
and this is a song
about our movement,
about our people's plight
in America.
We are the children
Of the migrant worker
We are the offspring
Of the concentration camp
Sons and daughters
Of the railroad builder
Who leave their stamp
On America
We are the children
Of the Chinese waiter
Born and raised
In the laundry rooms
We are the offspring
Of the Japanese gardener
Who leave their stamp on America
[Nobuko] Chris Ijima
was an exceptional person,
both politically.
He went
to Columbia University,
but he also loved music.
I had never seen an
Asian American sing like him
or play like him.
Sing a song for ourselves
What have we got to lose?
Sing a song for ourselves
We got the right to choose
We got the right to choose
We got the right to choose
We had a long drive
from New York to Philadelphia.
John and Yoko were sitting
in the front
of the limousine--
a very long stretch,
with, uh, Jerry Rubin.
And Chris and I
in the backseat saying,
we--we--'cause we did--
we did all this material
all the time.
So what are we going to sing?
And we said, "Well,
if we get one song to sing,
we should sing
'We Are The Children,'"
because that tells our story.
Foster children
Of the Pepsi generation
Cowboys and Indians ride
- Red man ride...
- Yeah.
Watching w*r movies
With the next-door neighbor
Secretly rooting for the other side
Yeah.
Of course, we were
two hours late.
There were people
outside the theater gathered,
waiting to see John Lennon.
As soon as we get in there
they wanted to see us,
what we're going
to do immediately.
So we sang the song,
very simply, uh, you--
and we got to the part,
"Watching w*r movies
with a next-door neighbor."
Secretly rooting for the other side
And boom, director comes up
and says, "Excuse me.
What other songs
do you have to sing?"
Chris and I look
at each other.
Uh, we're going
to sing this one.
"Well, well, you know there's
a couple of lines in there
that will upset
the housewives
of the Midwest."
"Watching w*r movies
with a next-door neighbor,
secretly--uh, rooting
for the other side"
seems subversive.
And then, John Lennon
and, uh, comes up trying
to mediate.
And I'm thinking,
would he change his words
from strawberry to raspberry
if somebody asked him to?
And then the director again
came at us and said,
you know, "Well, what other
songs can you sing?"
I try to be
accommodating myself
and be a good Asian, I guess.
It's my upbringing.
But all of a sudden, I just--
something took over me
and I said,
"You, you put us
in concentration camps,
and you're saying
we can't sing this song?"
And I turn around
and I walk out
towards the door.
And the director comes running
after me and says,
"No, no, no, no.
You can sing
anything you want."
And I'm like, "Oh."
I still had my finger pointed
at him, like, "Oh, my God.
Did I do that?"
We are the cousins
Of the freedom fighter
Brothers and sisters
All around the world
We are a part
Of the Third World people
Who will leave their stamp
On America
Who will leave their stamp
On America
Who will leave our stamp
On America
Who will leave our stamp
On America
America!
And leave our stamp on America
We will leave our stamp
On America
We will leave our stamp
And stamp and stamp
And we will leave our stamp
And stamp and stamp
Sing a song for ourselves
What have we got to lose?
Sing a song for ourselves
We got the right to choose
We got the right to choose
We got the right
We got the right
We got the right
We got the right
[applause]
[chuckles]
[interviewer]
That poor director
on the Mike Douglas Show,
did he know
what he was walking into?
Well, he deserved it. [laughs]
[]
[interviewer] If you didn't
know that was John Lennon
and Yoko,
were you ever able
to sort of get a bead on them
as human beings?
[Nobuko] Yoko had a lot
of confidence
in what she was doing.
She was a performance
artist extraordinaire.
And I think for John and Yoko,
they were very aware
also of this performance
between the movement in a way
and the greater audience
that they were reaching.
[Gary Schwartz] I didn't sense
them in any way competitive.
I felt that they were
very appreciative
of each other's questions.
[Rosenboom]
One of them is a superstar.
The other
is very important artist.
Yet it was equals right away.
They combine beautifully.
It was like one plus one
equals three.
[Vivian] There was
such a camaraderie
between the two of them.
And Yoko was Yoko, you know.
She's gonna answer.
She's gonna do her thing.
But it was okay for him
the way she was.
[Hilary] Somebody asked her,
where do you get your ideas?
And she kind of laughed
and said,
"I-- ideas just come."
[Nobuko] When have
we really seen,
you know, somebody like Yoko
who's like very frank
and outspoken
be an equal?
She was who she was.
And she was an equal
to a rock star.
[applause]
Woke up In the morning
My hands cold in fear
In midsummer New York,
My heart shakes in terror
My heart, my hand,
My legs, my mind
And everything I touch,
Shaking, shaking
Shaking, shaking,
Shake, I shake
Oooh
I woke up in the morning
The bed's wet in sweat
In midsummer New York,
I scream in the mirror
The door, the chairs,
The floor, the ceiling
Everything you see
Is aching, it's shaking
Shaking, shaking
Oooh...
[vocalizing]
[applause]
Here's a man that I know
very little about,
other than what I have read
in newspapers and magazines,
and what I've heard
on television.
And, uh, quite honestly,
my feelings
are quite negative.
[Di Massa]
One of the hardest things
for Mike to handle
and for the staff to handle,
the producers to handle,
was the presence
of Jerry Rubin.
Jerry Rubin had a persona
from the media
which was, uh, pretty wild,
and John actually talked
about himself being scared
of Jerry.
Jerry Rubin had
a very interesting approach
to politics.
A flair of theater really
and of humor.
The Yippies, you know,
this liberated white people
that were going
to do magical things.
Well, Jerry Rubin was
a confessed street fighter.
He believed in demonstrations
to get attention
of the establishment,
to arouse the masses
of the people.
And when he got invited
on these national shows,
I'm sure that there
is a lot of nervousness
as to whether he was going
to disrupt the show.
[Di Massa] Mike also felt
pretty strongly
that Jerry had
a lot of opinions
and a lot of things to say
that were not
in Mike's best interest
in terms of his audience,
and so this was a moment
of, uh, trepidation
for all parties.
[applause]
What--what the--what is
the new Jerry Rubin thinking
about these days?
I'm glad you asked that.
Uh, we're gonna support Nixon
for President,
because, uh, by going
to China,
he's furthering
communist revolutions
throughout the world.
[Di Massa] I can just imagine
Roger Ailes watching the show
and hearing that.
I'm just kidding.
I'm really just kidding.
I'm really just kidding.
What he's--
what he's really done
is automate the w*r in Vietnam
so that it's machines
k*lling people,
uh, created a situation
where 43 people can be
m*rder*d at Attica,
um, created a situation
where four kids can be k*lled
at Kent State,
and people are afraid.
So, um, I'm working very hard
with people all
over the country
to defeat Nixon.
I think that's the most
important thing.
[John] So you're not gonna vote
for him, though?
No, no, not gonna vote
for him at all.
What's different in you
and the movement? Right?
Let's say people thought the
movement had died, you know?
[Barbara Loden]
Yes. What is the movement?
What is--what--A,
what is the movement,
and B, did it die,
and what are the differences
in it now than four years ago?
- Can you explain that?
- Wow, I need an hour!
Well, the movement
is everybody I hope
watching television, you know?
It doesn't have
any narrow definition.
Now the way
the movement's changed,
is um, the rhetoric
has gone calmer,
because their oppression
is so heavy,
that anybody who does anything
gets arrested, jailed, k*lled,
that people
are like very pessimistic.
Wherever you go right now,
there's tremendous pessimism.
[John] You mean youth
in general,
whether they're ranting
or anything,
just youth in general,
we noticed that amongst youth.
Just totally pessimistic.
Like there was no hope.
Whether
they're political youth
or just musical youth,
there seems to be such
an atmosphere
of apathy around 'em.
This is the only place
in the world,
if I may say so,
where a man can say something
like this on television,
and not go--
and not go to jail.
- And also I admit that your--
- No, wait a minute.
I got five years
in jail facing me
for saying things like this,
so it's not so true.
I only hear you say
what you are
against in this country.
What are you--
what do you think this count--
what do you think is right
about this country?
I think what's right
is the fact
that there are people
in the country
who want to change it.
What was your home life like?
Well, it was--
[Di Massa] Now, this is
a very interesting moment
because Mike asked
a very honest question
and was trying to find out
about Jerry's background,
his upbringing.
Hey, I'm not going
for laughter here.
No, it's a good question.
It's--I read that
in a magazine.
Uh, my father's
a truck driver.
Um, and a Teamster
and, uh, oppressed,
because he worked
like all around the clock
for very little money.
My mother was, uh, unhappy
as a housewife, you know.
And, you know,
and that's what I learned.
I saw it and was a child,
and I was forced to go
to school, which is boring,
and which doesn't
really educate you.
And, uh, that's where
the rebellion began.
Mm-hmm. And your parents
are no longer alive?
No.
And, you know, I think that
the system k*lled my parents,
just like I think
it kills all of us.
But he's talking
about the system,
and he's not talking
about the people.
You have trust in people,
don't you?
Oh, yeah.
I wouldn't be doing this
if I didn't have trust,
you know?
And you really do love people.
I mean, the reason for you
to come on the show
that you know
it's going on at 4:30
and is not an audience
that is geared to see you.
Is there a reason
for me to believe
that you have trust in enough
of those people
that are gonna watch you?
- [Jerry] Absolutely, yeah.
- [Yoko] Yes.
- [John] As well as...
- And change, you know.
[John] ...the so-called
movement and so called youth?
I have--we have
a tremendous faith
in the people in this country.
[John] But no age group.
I think this
is a beautiful country,
with full of possibilities,
you know?
The children of America
want to change the country,
and are going to change it.
That's what's beautiful.
You know,
that there is a future.
We are completely out of time.
Thank you, John.
Thank you, Yoko.
Thank you, Jerry.
See you tomorrow.
[applause]
the Georgia legislature,
Governor Jimmy Carter
had some praise
for Alabama Governor Wallace.
[reporter] Carter's statement
overshadowed
Wallace's standard
campaign speech,
which was interrupted
repeatedly by applause.
[Maddox] Hey, Mr. President.
[reporter] The shouts came
from Lieutenant Governor
Lester Maddox,
who told
the standing-room-only crowd
that George Wallace
could be elected president.
[Mike] So welcome please,
John Lennon
and his wife, Yoko Ono.
[applause]
[cheers and applause]
Hey
Are you going to tell them
what the song is about?
Okay.
Today's my--today's my turn
- and, um...
- Today's her turn to sing.
Yes, right.
- And it's a song that--
- With the mic, please.
It's a song that I dedicate
to the sisters in the world
called "O Sisters, O Sisters."
Some people thought
she was singing about nuns,
but it's not about nuns.
[laughter]
We lost our green land
We lost our clean air
We lost our true wisdom
We live in despair
O sisters, O sisters,
Let's stand up right now
It's never too late
To start from the start
O wisdom, O wisdom,
That's what we ask for
And yes, my dear sisters,
We must learn to ask
Wisdom, O wisdom,
That's what we ask for
That's what we live for now
O wisdom, O wisdom,
That's what we ask for
That's what we live for now
O sisters, O sisters,
Let's give up no more
It's never too late
To start from the start
O new world,
O new world
That's what we live for
And yes, my dear sisters,
We must learn to live
New world, O new world,
That's what we live for
That's what we must now
Learn to build
O new world,
O new world
That's what we live for
That's what we must now
Learn to build
[applause]
[Di Massa] So one of the things
we did with the co-hosts
on the Mike Douglas Show
was ask them
to give us a list of people
they'd like to meet.
John and Yoko obviously had
a very strong
political agenda,
but John also had some
musicians he wanted to meet,
and at the top of that list
was Chuck Berry.
On the day of the show,
the taping of the show,
I just by total random chance
happened to be
in the green room
when John and Chuck
encountered each other
for the first time.
It was a very powerful
moment to watch.
I think it's interesting
that you--that you chose--
chosen the guests
that you have this week
to be on the show.
And I wish we could
have photographed
the meeting between
John and Chuck Berry.
- Oh, yeah.
- Oh, that was beautiful. Yes.
Because he was really
the guy that started
- the whole thing--
- Oh, yeah.
--the whole
rock and roll thing.
I mean, I don't think
there's any-there's any group
in the world,
uh, white or Black,
but mainly the white kids
were really turned on
by Chuck Berry, you know?
And, uh, he was putting out
great records in the '50s.
And not one of us from Beatles
to Stones to--
you name any top group
and they've
all been influenced by him,
all done his numbers
on records.
[Mike] There was one of his
records right then.
Yeah. That--that was him
escaping now.
Yes.
- He was -
- And he's fantastic.
When we met today,
I hadn't met him.
George and Ringo met him
at some showbiz party
a long time ago in London.
I'd never met him.
Today, he walked in the door.
And I just, you know--
- [Yoko] Yeah.
- --I went, "Chuck Berry,
my hero."
It just came out, you know?
[Mike] That's marvelous.
And he just gets over
and he hugs me.
I was really thrilled,
you know?
- And we were playing--
- He's so together.
in the back there
playing the dressing room.
He just grabbed me
backstage, says, "I hope
we have a--" he said,
"Boy, John Lennon.
"I hope we have a chance
to rap."
He's the greatest
rock and roll poet.
And I really admire him,
you know?
Do you feel the same
today as you did
years ago in Liverpool
- about rock?
- When I--
when I hear rock,
good rock of the caliber
of Chuck Berry,
I just-I just fall apart
and I have no other
interest in life.
You know?
The world could be ending
if rock and roll is playing.
You know?
It's a disease of mine.
In the--in the days
when he was writing
and doing those songs,
those songs didn't have
messages.
- The me--the lyrics were--
- But his lyrics
were very intelligent lyrics
in the '50s.
When people were just singing
virtually about nothing,
he was writing social
comment songs.
He was writing
all kinds of songs
with incredible meter
to the lyrics,
which influenced Dylan and me
and many other people.
The meter of his lyrics
was tremendous
- and that was in '50s.
- Do all the songs--
do all the songs
that you write
or have written in the past,
John, have a message?
Well I think, uh--
Well it has a spirit,
every one.
In that way, every song
will have a message.
You know?
I don't sit down and say,
"What's today's message?"
You know?
I'm either writing about
something that happened,
uh, you know--I, I'm either
writing about what's going on
in the world or what's
happening to me, basically.
[applause]
If you were try--
to try and give rock and roll
another name,
you might call it Chuck Berry.
- Right.
- [Mike] Here he is,
- Chuck Berry.
- [applause]
["Memphis, Tennessee" playing]
[both]
Long distance information
Give me Memphis, Tennessee
Help me find a party
Trying to get in touch with me
She would not leave her number
But I know who placed the call
My uncle took the message
And he wrote it on the wall
Help me information
Get in touch with my Marie
She's the only who'd phone me
Here from Memphis, Tennessee
Her home is on the South Side
High up on a ridge
Just a half a mile
From the Mississippi Bridge
You know, the last time I saw Marie
She was waving me goodbye
- Hello, John!
- Hello!
[both] With hurry home
Drops on her cheek
That trickled from her eye
Marie is only six years old
Information, please
Try and put me through to her
In Memphis, Tennessee
[applause]
I nearly got the words--
words right, right?
Did you really invent ro--you
invented rock and roll,
- didn't you?
- Well, I say,
I'll answer for him.
He did. You're one
of the all-time greats.
I've heard more people,
before I ever met you, Chuck,
I--your, you know, your
reputation precedes you
- wherever you are.
- You know, rock and roll,
you mentioned rock and roll,
it's named rock and roll.
But gee,
some of our ancestors,
some of the people before me,
the people that,
uh, intrigued me with music
were Louis Jordan
and T-Bone Walker,
and, uh, Freddie Slack,
these people that I heard,
Glenn Miller,
uh, I should never forget
the beats that they had in.
- You know? And the big bands.
- Yeah.
And they're the ones
that really put
the spirit here. You know?
You made some record
with big bands, right?
- One.
- [singing lyrics]
- [hums tune]
- [Chuck Berry] Yeah.
[Mike] John said your
music had a message.
- Do you think it did?
- [John] It is a message.
I really try to make
a message.
I really, I can't sing a song,
"Oh, baby, oh, oh baby.
Don't go.
Don't go because you know
I love you so."
I mean, that's understood.
You know?
But he was writing good
lyrics and intelligent lyrics
in the '50s
when people were singing,
"Oh, baby, I love you so."
And it was people like him
that influenced
our generation to try
and make sense
out of the songs
rather than just say,
"Doo wah daddy." You know?
You know something
that occurred to me?
When, whenever I see you,
you're one of the few people
who can go away
from a recording studio
and do your thing
and it sounds
at least remotely
like what you recorded.
Some of these groups,
they get out of the studios
with all the gadgets
and all the things happening
and they can't--
they can't make that sound
again and without...
Mike, since you mentioned it--
...the age
of a recording studio.
I would much rather perform,
um, live than--I'd rather
perform live 10 times
than make a recording.
Because somehow, playing
to a wall or playing to a mic,
and that's all,
is, uh, it's fictitious.
- You know? It's not real.
- [Mike] You're a people lover.
- That's what.
- [laughs]
- You better believe it.
- You got to hear
that breathing
and see those faces.
To look in somebody's eyes
and see them bright
when, uh, when you're striking
a note or something,
it just calls
for another note. You know?
Don't ever play the same
or do something different.
You know? If you can't do
something different
wiggle or something.
Don't do the same thing.
- You know? Keep it different.
- I don't--
I don't know if the viewers
out there realize this,
but this is a first,
Chuck Berry
and John Lennon
appearing together.
In fact,
they met only this afternoon.
- You know, I can never hit--
- This is a first
- on television.
- I can never shake
- this guy's hand.
- [applause]
[Mike] Chuck Berry!
John Lennon and Yoko Ono!
We'll be right back!
[applause]
When I got the call and heard
that they were going
to do this,
it blew my mind
because Mike Douglas
was an afternoon show
that was bland.
Yoko, you mentioned you wanted
to have someone on the show
to talk about macrobiotic,
uh, foods.
And so, my next guest
will do just that.
In fact, she's even going
to demonstrate
how to make
a macrobiotic dish.
Greet Hilary Redleaf.
[Hilary] Oh, here's the moment.
Sweet John, he even rises
from his seat, as does Chuck.
What is
uh, a macrobiotic diet?
Well, it's a different way
of looking at food.
It's not with vitamins
and minerals.
It's a way of balancing
one's food
with one's environment.
Frankly, I was nervous.
I was clinging to...
[exhales] just be here.
This is gonna be fine.
And how did the whole thing
start originally?
Well, all countries
have macrobiotic diets.
In our industrialized society,
we have frozen everything,
- flown everything to us.
- [Mike] Yeah.
And native cultures
eat what's around them.
And when
it's cold in the winter,
they eat what they have
to keep them warm.
They don't eat,
uh, you know, ice water
because they don't have
freezers.
You know? In the winter and--
Everything's natural,
you know.
Naturally in warm,
um, climate,
you need more sugar. You know?
- And so...
- [Mike] Natural sugar.
The, the nature
is naturally,
you know,
it's sort of balancing it.
'Cause nature makes a balance.
The seasons change.
And if we can concentrate
and make an effort
in our cooking,
we can balance ourselves
with the seasons
and with the environment
around us
and make harmony with nature
and, and have peace.
You know, farm to table,
you know, organic food.
I mean, in 1972,
this was very far out.
- May I call you Hillary?
- Please.
Can we go over here?
I understand
we're gonna prepare something.
- Yes.
- And why don't we all--
[John] Shall we all go
in the kitchen?
[Hilary] So, we finally get
over to this part
and I don't even know
how I knew
how to do this, to be honest.
You can share mine.
You have to have it.
We don't have much to--
what are we going to make?
We're going to make something
called Hijiki eggroll.
- A what?
- Hijiki eggroll.
Hijiki eggroll.
We have to have a calm,
peaceful, loving attitude
about this, or else the food
- is gonna be very chaotic.
- [Mike] Oh, Joe--
Joe, we have to have a calm,
peaceful, loving attitude.
Can you play something
that's calm and peaceful?
Because--that's part
of the vibration in the food,
because if you have to make
something,
the cook's intention
and concentrated effort
goes into the final product.
- So with that in mind--
- [Yoko] No, you're right
- about that.
- [Mike] Is that seaweed
- that I'm looking at?
- This is seaweed.
This is called hijiki.
And this is
the first ingredient.
And we soak it in water
until it looks like this.
It kind of puffs up a lot.
Then we have carrots
and we try to maintain
the balance
that nature creates.
And as you see, some are cut.
Okay. Now, Mike is gonna
help me cut onions.
- [laughter]
- [Yoko] Is he?
He was eating
them today, right?
- [Mike] Yeah.
- Okay.
Why do I always get
the onion?
[Hilary] John was definitely--
he was beautiful.
He was really interested
in it.
Yoko, too.
Chuck was like along
for the ride.
What's John making?
He have to -
After she's finished,
you're gonna--
you're gonna fry them up.
- I'm gonna fry them up?
- Yup.
[clears throat]
You know, this,
this looks like
a soul brother pizza, really.
[laughter]
- A soul brother pizza?
- Yeah.
[Hilary] Right. Would you like?
Yes, I would love it.
- Didn't eat today.
- Thank you.
You dip it in the sauce, okay?
[Hilary]
Well, how do they taste?
[laughter]
- [Yoko] How is it going?
- [Hilary] You see,
this is gonna become
part of your body
so it's important that you
have--
[laughter]
It's important
that you get to know it.
- What part?
- [Hilary] Your blood.
- Your muscles.
- This is goo-
- my muscles?
- Well, sure.
[Yoko] I think you should
chew it a lot.
[Hilary] Yes, and you should
chew it well.
How come it gets larger
as I chew?
Hilary Redleaf. Thank you.
Hilary, thank you.
It's beautiful food.
Thank you.
[applause]
So this is an artifact
that I didn't even remember
that I had,
and it's the pay stub
from the honorarium
that I received
for being on the show.
It says,
"Mike Douglas Entertainment"
on the top,
so maybe that's why I kept it.
Like, okay,
this really happened.
I cashed the check. [laughs]
[]
[interviewer]
Tell me what I'm getting into.
You're about to see something
very new and unusual,
how someone might be able
to learn to control aspects
of their brain waves,
which is related
to their general state,
by putting electrodes
on Mike Douglas
for a little demo
and then on John and Yoko.
I'm gonna then join them
and play a little bit
on a keyboard.
Sort of an envelope around it
to make it a musical
experience.
And we're going to have
to do this quickly
in a very compacted
TV show time frame.
[interviewer] Why didn't
you say this 50 years ago?
[laughs]
[Mike] David, welcome.
- [applause]
- Thank you. Thank you.
Yes, can you explain
to our viewers
please what biofeedback is?
Biofeedback is a new process,
uh, that's been made possible
by advances in technology,
by which a person can listen
to his own internal
physiological processes.
And, uh, by listening to it,
he can learn about it
and, uh, begin to learn
to control
some that he may not be
in control of.
Do some people respond
to this better than others?
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
For example alpha brain waves,
there's been a lot
of publicity about that.
And we know that if you're
high strung
and nervous
and things like that,
uh, you may have a hard time
at first.
You can learn to do it.
It may take
you a little longer.
You have to learn
how to be a person
by not trying to be a person,
you know?
What would it be like
if a stone
had to try to be a stone,
you know?
You know,
why is a stone a stone?
Yeah.
David played me a tape of he
and his friends performing
with the alpha wave
on the head.
And, uh, I think they used
a keyboard as well.
And I was asking him,
uh, could I do it
with a guitar
and rock and roll?
And if we could learn it,
we could do it eventually.
It'd be fantastic.
[David] The process
of doing it was a bit scary,
that could we make this work?
Of course, we were audacious.
We wanted to do these things.
So let's, so why not try it?
I have to put some paste on it
so it makes a good
electrical contact.
I hope my Alpha's all right.
[laughter]
[Yoko] He might be.
That machine --
What's the song called,
this one
I referred to that you
composed?
- What, this thing?
- Yeah.
This thing we're gonna do now?
This is going to be improvised
completely
out of whatever
comes out of our head
and whatever David
- does on the keyboard.
- All right. Yeah.
[John] Complete improvisation.
This is--see,
David was talking to us
also privately
about a lot of this,
the state of alpha
is often a state
that musicians will get into
when they're jamming,
you know?
Whether it's rock
and roll or jazz.
And they'll get into a certain
jam session,
and then the music
will sort of take them higher.
And uh, that state of mind
is the state of mind
that gives you
the control over this.
- You know?
- [Mike] That's wild.
[rapid clicking]
[David] Now turn on the sound
and see what...
- Am I star--
- [rapid clicking]
[David]
There goes Yoko. Hear it?
Hear that sound?
You hear it?
[clicking, warbling]
[Mike] That is eerie, isn't it?
[sounds accompanied by piano]
[David]
There was a meeting of minds
and spirits
and creative energies.
A very wonderful,
resonant unity.
John and Yoko achieved
a very significant focus
in a really short period
of time.
I only wish
we could have done it
for a longer period of time.
[Mike] I just have enough time
to thank Chuck Berry,
Hilary Redleaf
and David Rosenboom.
And, of course, Yoko Ono
and John Lennon
and Chuck,
thank you for joining us.
This was really a first today,
you two guys together,
were too much.
Thank you. Bye-bye.
[applause]
Yes, I think
there was a utopian agenda.
There was an idealism
that came out of that time
that John and Yoko
were absolutely, um,
promoting and pushing
and saying, "Why not?"
The White House said
Mr. Nixon made
an announcement today
which puts him squarely
on the side of those
who oppose busing
as a means to achieve
racial balance in schools.
I've called on the President
to end the busing
by executive order.
[reporter] What followed
were some of the most violent
protests against bussing
that have yet
to be seen in the North.
[crowd shouting]
Hi. Welcome back.
Uh, Yoko, why don't you, uh--
if you will start
at the beginning. Tell--
because maybe somebody
hasn't been with us,
- uh, might just be joining.
- This cup is a broken cup.
Every day we're just sort of
putting it together.
May I ask you something?
Because even though
I know you very well
and I still haven't quite
understood it. You see?
- I know you broke it.
- [Mike] Why has she broke it
- in the first place?
- But sticking it
together again, now,
what, what's the--
Well, the idea is that, uh,
- you start with a broken cup.
- [John] The actual doing it?
The actual physically
doing it?
Right. And also, everybody
doing it together, actually.
Now, you should do
part of it--
- Well, we should.
- [Mike] We should tell
the young people around
the country
not to break mama's china -
right?
This is what you do
with the broken one there.
No, but try with a broken one.
You know?
- [Mike] I see.
- [Yoko] Already broken.
[Mike] What's this?
Is this for me?
I live with her, you know?
I still don't get it.
Yes, that is actually,
a present for you.
[chuckles]
- You should read it.
- It says "a box of smile.
Yoko Ono. 1967."
Now what am I--
do I smile as I look in it?
Well, why don't you open it
and see what it is?
- Okay.
- You might just smile in it.
It's not a jack
in the box, now?
Well, let's see.
Yeah. Oh,
there is a smile. Yes.
[Yoko] Really?
Is there a smile in it?
- But it's mine.
- [Yoko] Oh, great.
Yeah. That's nice.
Well, I thought maybe
we should all put
- a smile in it. You know?
- [Mike] Okay.
- Instead of autographs.
- We put one in.
That's a present for you
from both of us.
- Yes.
- And there's our smile.
Can I have one more, John?
- There we go.
- There's one with teeth.
[Di Massa] You know,
as you watch these shows,
you're going to see
the comfort level growing
between John and Mike
actually becoming friends.
And John is very open.
You know what I'd like
to ask, John?
I haven't found out--
I've read--
I was reading the book,
The Beatles.
[John] Oh, the Hunter Davies
book, you mean?
Yes. And, uh,
your father left you
and your mother
- at a--at a very tender age.
- [John] Yeah.
And you were--you were raised
by an aunt,
- weren't you?
- I was raised by my auntie.
My father and my mother split
when I was about four.
I had--I spent some time
with mother
up till about four,
then my father split.
He was a merchant seaman.
You know?
You can imagine
and it was 1940s
in the w*r and all that.
He left and I was brought up
by an auntie.
- And then I, uh--
- And then he--didn't he, uh--
He turned up
after I was famous.
- After you were famous.
- You know, which I wasn't
- very pleased about. 'Cause--
- And you didn't really open
the door to him right away
at that point, did you?
He knew
where I was all my life
up till I was--I mean,
I lived in the same house
in the same place
and he knew I was living
with that auntie for most
of my childhood
up till 24 or 25 it was
before I really--
- we made it big.
- And he never visited you?
And I thought it was a bit
suspicious that he turned up
- after I'd made it. You know?
- Yeah.
He looks like
a little one of me, only.
He's only five foot tall.
You know?
- [Mike] Five feet?
- He's 5'1".
What is he--what is he
doing now, John?
Uh, I guess he's retired.
He just married
a 23-year-old girl. You know?
He's had another son,
so he's getting on fine now.
See what you're in for?
No, no, no.
They're a lot of ravers,
those Lennons.
Hey, yeah, we can't
talk about that.
How old is your father now?
I guess he must be in his 60s.
I really don't know. You know?
And then, uh, when I was 16,
I reestablished
a relationship with my mother
for about four years.
She taught me music.
She first of all taught me
the banjo.
And from that I progressed
to guitar.
She--the first song I learned
was "Ain't That a Shame,"
an old rock hit, Fats Domino.
And then unfortunately,
she was, uh, run over
by an off-duty policeman,
who was drunk at the time.
And in spite of all that,
I still don't have a hate
the pigs attitude
or hate cop attitude.
But, uh, it was very hard
for me at that time.
And, uh, I really had a chip
on my shoulder,
and it still comes out
now and then. You know?
Because it's a--
it's a strange life to lead.
But in general, uh,
I've gotten my own family now.
- [Yoko] Not these days.
- That's Yoko and she made up
- for all that pain.
- Interesting that we were
talking about your aunt
because, uh,
this is a very interesting
quote.
- [John] I know. I guessed it.
- May I?
- Go on.
- Did you? "I never forgave
her for not treating me
like a genius
or whatever I was
when I was a child."
Her husband died and she was
looking after me on her own.
She wanted to keep up
this semi-detached house
and not go down. And so,
we took in students in.
And she always wanted me to be
a rugby type
or a chemist. You know?
And I was writing poetry
and painting
and singing since, uh,
since she had me.
And all the time I used
to fight and say,
"Look, I'm an artist.
Don't bug me with all
this maths and don't try
and make me
into a chemist or a vet.
I can't do it. You know?
I have to be--"
and I used to say,
"Don't you destroy my papers."
You know? I'd come home
when I was 14
and she'd rooted all my things
and thrown all my poetry out.
I said, "One day
I'll be famous
and you're going
to regret it."
But the best quote
she ever said was,
"The guitar's all right
for a hobby, John,
but you'll never
make a living at it."
- Oh. Oh.
- So, some fan in America
had that framed on steel
and sent it to her.
She has it in the house
I bought her
and she has that looking
at her all the time.
[applause]
[Mike] Here's a young lady
that I got to know
when we worked together
in Las Vegas.
She creates an excitement
when she works.
And you'll feel it
immediately.
- [Yoko] Oh, I agree.
- Yes. And she's got
the ability to sing opera
if she were taught about it.
- [Yoko] Oh, sure. Yes.
- But believe me,
you're going to hear
more soul now
than you've heard
in a long time.
Here's Vivian Reed.
Yeah!
Yeah!
Uh-uh, you can get nastier
than that. Do it again.
[woman] Yeah
Whoo-woo!
[woman] Whoo-woo!
[Vivian] Coming into show
business is not easy.
I think the biggest thing
for me is that women
were starting to come
into their own
and--which really at that time
or at any time
was very important
and is important
because back then
we were not taken seriously.
It was a man's world.
Why
Should my heart
Be discouraged?
And why
Should the shadows fall?
Why
Should my heart be lonely
And yearn
For heaven and home?
When Jesus
Is my portion
A constant friend
Is He
His eye is on...
- Sing, Vivian.
- The sparrow
And I know
He watches
He watches me
- [cheers and applause]
- Yes!
When I look at myself singing
"His Eye is on the Sparrow,"
I sang it...
I sing
Because I'm happy
I sing
Because I'm free
And that worked for me
back then.
But today... [chuckles]
I go...
I sing
Because I'm happy
I sing
Because I'm free
Oh
His eye
There's a difference.
There's a difference.
[cheers and applause]
Vivian Reed.
We'll be right back.
[John] The man
we're going to introduce
is a good friend of ours
and also of yours I hope.
The man is Bobby Seale,
the chairman
of the Black Panther Party
and here he is.
[Mike] Bobby Seale.
[applause]
I had no idea
that Bobby Seale was gonna be
on this show.
I said, "Bobby Seale, what?"
Did you really do standup
comedy at one time,
as John pointed out?
I wasn't aware of that.
- [John] Did I get it right?
- Yeah, I did do that.
- Yeah.
- That's tough, isn't it?
- No.
- Really?
- Not to me.
- Mike had a comfort level
with Bobby Seale
that he did not have
with some of the other guests
that John and Yoko brought.
And actually, Mike to me,
felt a little more comfortable
than Bobby felt.
You group is into some very
new and positive projects.
Now the food program
and the--
and the addition
of the shoe program.
Well actually, we have, uh,
15 survival programs.
Uh, we have a sickle
cell anemia foundation
and we work in conjunction
with the Mid Peninsula Sickle
Cell Anemia Foundation,
uh, implementing
the slide elution method
in all our clinics
where we've tested
nearly 30,000, uh,
Black people in this country.
[Yoko] Are you getting
any government help?
No. The press done
one of the dirtiest things
to the Black Panther Party
five years ago
when it first started
when they first said
that the Black Panther Party
picked up g*ns
to go into the white community
to k*ll white people.
Now, we've been here
five years
and we've never done that
and that was never
our intention
in the first place.
Our intention was to defend
ourselves against unjust
brutalizing r*cist attacks
that occur
upon Black people
in the Black community
on the part of the police
and other races.
Only that negative action
that they're--
that negative attack,
that aggression they put up
on you to k*ll you,
at that point we was teaching
people that, to defend
ourselves even with g*ns.
But the main thing
is this here,
you don't want to defend
yourselves with g*ns.
You defend yourselves also
with these basic programs
'cause violence is also
manifested in hunger,
- is it not?
- [John] Yeah.
Violence is also manifested
in rats and roaches
and dilapidated
living conditions, right?
You see what
I'm talking about?
That's a form of violence
that comes
- from the whole system.
- Now, this film
that you have brought. It's,
uh, on the Richmond Program.
Uh, it is silent
so will you comment
- on it when we roll it?
- Yes, I will.
Okay. Will you--will you
roll it please, Don?
[Seale] Uh, this is, um,
a free food program
in Richmond where we gave away
some, um, 750 bags
of groceries plus free brand
new shoes that we had.
[John] Brand-new shoes
you're giving away.
It ain't secondhand though.
That was --
[Seale] This is Elbert Howard,
who is speaking
to the people there. People
talk about freedom this,
freedom that, freedom
must ring out in the land.
We say okay,
we want some free medicine.
We need some free clothing.
We need some free shoes.
We need some free bread.
We need some free medical
care, etcetera, etcetera,
etcetera, to actually
implement some real freedom.
He was all about
defining freedom
the way Marcus Cicero,
the ancient Roman lawyer, did.
Best definition
I've ever heard.
He said, quote, "Freedom
is participation in power."
[Vivian] To hear him speak
on this with such eloquence
and talk about the things
that he had established
inside of the Black community
and galvanizing Black people
to, "Come on, let's do this."
Are you getting
good reception,
good reaction to that?
Would you say Black people
come in and help?
Definitely. But, see,
you're going to get
very good reaction.
If you have 5,000 bags
of groceries
and you put leaflets out
with 5,000 bags of groceries
to be given away
and all these people
are hungry you're going to get
good response 'cause they're
going to come down, right?
I was impressed.
I gotta tell you,
I found a new respect
for that man.
We'll continue. Just a minute.
We'll be right back.
[applause]
[man] John Lennon and Yoko Ono!
Hello, hello.
Hello? Is the mic on?
My favorite song.
Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to k*ll or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
You
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday
You'll join us
And the world will live as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world
You
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
Am I?
I hope someday
You'll join us
And the world will be as one
[cheers and applause]
A year and a half ago,
the Reverend Daniel Berrigan
began serving a three-year
prison term for destroying
draft records
at Catonsville, Maryland
as a protest against the w*r.
Last month,
he was granted parole,
and today he left prison.
[all] All we are saying
Give peace a chance
All we are saying
Is give peace a chance
[applause]
My co-hosts this week
are really involved.
It's been an education
all of this week,
finding out about the many
interests they have.
Here are John Lennon
and Yoko Ono.
[cheers and applause]
They're marvelous,
just marvelous.
Are going to put
another piece?
- Uh, this is the last day.
- Going to finish it today.
I'm going to explain
that, um,
this was a broken cup.
It was all broken
in the beginning
and, uh, it's just about
to be finished.
- Um...
- John, Yoko doesn't go around
breaking china at home
just to put it back together,
does she?
- Nothing like that?
- Uh, occasionally,
I have to let her.
You know how it is.
[laughter]
- This side. Very good.
- [Yoko] Back now.
[John]
It's going to make it. Right?
- Oh.
- Hey, hey.
[John] Oh, great.
Hey! Hey!
[applause]
We've got
a marvelous show today.
We got one
of the most brilliant young
comedians
that-that I've known.
I've known him
for a long time.
- His name is George Carlin.
- [John] Oh, great.
- He'll be with us today.
- Very grand.
And a medical discussion of,
of heart
and blood pressure with
a Dr. Gary Schwartz
of Harvard University.
So, sounds like a very
- exciting show, doesn't it?
- Very exciting idea, yes.
Who are some
of the other people that-that
you listened to when you were
in Liverpool just starting?
Uh, well, there was
Bo Diddley,
Little Richard,
Elvis, of course,
Gene Vincent
when he was alive,
Eddie Cochran
when he was alive.
Uh, before that
we used to listen
to a lot of, uh,
blues, you know?
Uh, some of T-Bone Walker
that Chuck Berry mentioned
and, uh--
- [Yoko] And Elvis.
- Sleepy John Estes.
We-we listened
to blues at first.
When I went to art school--
I was at art school
for five years.
When I went to--
this is a sort of college.
I went in there, they would
only allow jazz to be played.
You know, they wouldn't
allow rock and roll
and it was frowned upon
those days.
So we had to con them
into letting us
play rock and roll there
on the record player
by calling it blues. You know?
So, we'd have blues sessions
and then gradually
slip in the rock records.
You-your real intention
was to-to have it happen big
here because that's
what really
makes a person a-a superstar.
It has to happen
in America for you.
In the early days,
we didn't even dream of it.
- You know?
- [Mike] Didn't you?
I mean, we didn't think
we'd, uh, you know,
we-we couldn't think in terms
of going to America.
I mean, that was like a dream.
Uh, I mean, you think locally.
First of all, it was making it
big in Liverpool.
- [Mike] Yes.
- And then being the best
group in the--in the county.
You know?
Then being the best group
in England,
and then we got to Scotland
and break them in
and things like that.
And your goal is always,
you know, just a few
yards ahead rather than
right up there.
Originally, Paul and I
wanted to be
sort of Goffin
and King of England.
You know?
Carole King and Gerry Goffin
were writing good songs
a long time ago.
- Yes.
- And Paul and I
used to think, well,
I'm sure we could do it
if we just worked at it.
And we wanted to, you know--
Our goal was to be
as big as Elvis,
but we didn't actually think
we were going to do it.
- You know?
- [Mike] You got bigger.
- Well, I don't know.
- [Mike] Oh, yes. Oh, yes.
How long did you really think
it was going to last, John?
Well, you see, that was one
of them questions, actually.
- Yeah.
- [Mike] Oh, really?
You know, they used
to always ask us, uh--yeah.
[overlapping chatter]
[Mike] But I wonder about
that though.
But we never thought of it.
We thought that, uh, as long
as we could make--go on--
as long as we wanted to go on,
that we could always make
and write good enough music
to get an occasional hit,
not saying that every song
would be number one
and it would be Beatlemania
for all our lives.
I think
we could have sustained
making the occasional
hit record
for years and years to come.
Because I think--
You're saying that,
uh, by--you know,
in 30 you won't be singing.
Yeah, but, yeah, that's
a great one to remind me.
Thanks. When-when,
when we did earlier interviews
when I must have been about
25 or 24 or something,
I used to always say, "Well,
one thing I won't be doing
is singing
"She Loves You" when I'm 30.
What I really meant, I had
some idea that I wouldn't be
what I was, whatever I was at
30 and it was th--I'm 31 now.
I was 30 when I first decided
to, you know,
let's, uh, finish this now,
go on for a new life.
Someone once reviewed
The Beatles
and it could possibly
have been after
- one of your early movies...
- Yeah.
...and they referred to you
as the Groucho of the group.
[John] Oh, really?
[imitates Groucho Marx]]
I can't do it even.
[laughter]
[applause]
[Mike]
Yoko, would you introduce
- our next guest for us?
- Yes. Our next guest
is, um, assistant professor
of personality psychology
in the department
of social relations.
He's here to discuss
people's ability
to lower their blood pressure
at will,
which is very interesting,
you know.
Greet Dr. Gary Schwartz.
[applause]
[interviewer] What does
it feel like watching this?
It's nostalgic,
um, at multiple levels.
Can you explain
the term biofeedback?
Because on Wednesday's show
we did something that was, uh,
very interesting,
which we'll get into.
But explain that for me,
please.
The term biofeedback
was a term coined
to express the use
of equipment
for providing information
about what goes
on inside of you,
things that you're not
normally aware of
like the beat of your heart,
your blood pressure,
your brain waves.
And it would present it to you
in a way such as a-
a meter, or a light, or in
your case, musical notes.
[John] Were you getting
into that with the people
lowering their own
blood pressure at will?
- [Gary] Yes.
- [Yoko] That's really good.
[John] How did that start?
I mean, the yogas and all that
had been doing it
and everybody thought
only the mysterious East
could do it.
And there the West came
along and says, "No,
anybody can do it."
Well, the Westerners
were really ignorant,
that is the scientists,
of what was going in the East.
That is, they knew of it
but they didn't believe it.
[John] Yeah.
But in the late '50s
and early '60s,
a number of creative and, uh,
sort of bold scientists said,
"Look, some of these things
must be possible
and we have to just develop
procedures for looking
at it carefully
and making it easier."
[Gary] I felt like
I was with peers.
I felt like I was interacting
with people
who were thinking
about this as deeply as I was.
It was a delight to have
a conversation with them.
[John] I mean, if you can
control your blood pressure,
I mean,
it's-it's obvious to me
that you can control
everything.
It's just learning
how to do it.
There'd be no reason
for us to be able
to just control one part
of our body.
We must--we obviously
control it all, right?
Sure, but on the other hand
it's very good that our bodies
are built to keep things going
- in spite of our minds.
- [Yoko] Right.
If you had to worry
all the time about
keeping your heart rate going
and your blood pressure
going you'd never
get anything done.
This may have been
the first time
that I was in a green room.
And I'm in this room
with this young skinny guy--
his hair was longer
than mine--
um, who introduced himself
as George Carlin,
and I did not know him
from a hole in the wall.
I last, uh, had him
on the show
when we were in San Diego
before a young
college audience
and he just absolutely
destroyed--
- He's great, isn't he?
- He's just marvelous.
He's, uh, he's original.
He writes a lot
of his own material
and he has a great rapport
with America's youth
because he's concerned
about conditions.
Here's George Carlin.
[applause]
[Di Massa]
George himself had changed
from a three-piece suit,
wearing-a-tie comedian
into kind of this, uh,
what he used to call
the hippy dippy weatherman
kind of persona.
And, uh, it sort of fit
where we were at the times.
[Carlin] If Sister Nathaniel
could see that.
I never had good handwriting
and she would always hold up,
"Whose homework is this?
I can't read the name
on this."
[Di Massa]
It was really fascinating.
George had started doing the
show in the Cleveland days.
Had followed the show
to Philadelphia.
And as George's persona
changed,
Mike's relationship
with George never changed.
George, you've
undergone some changes...
Yeah.
...in the last couple
of years.
- Mm-hmm.
- Each time I've seen you,
that's been a--you've been
a little bit different.
Has this made you,
uh, a better person
or a better performer?
All of my bits used to be
ladies on quiz shows,
or newsmen, or disc jockeys,
and I was hiding
behind these things.
I didn't know it consciously.
But television rewarded that.
See, that's one facet
of my comedy is I am a mimic.
And they rewarded that
so much for me,
and starting in 1965,
that I just forgot myself
and I was not
in my act anymore.
And that was not the reason
I went into this.
As anyone knows, you go
into as self-expression,
and once you're not
doing that, forget it.
So it just dawned on me.
I said, "Hey, wait a second
now. Look here."
And, uh, it worked out fine.
It only took about a year
to turn things around
the way I, uh, feel happy now
that I'm in control
of what happens to my life
and career
instead of drifting.
One of your idols--excuse me.
- Pardon me.
- I'm sorry.
Was there a lot of pressure,
I mean,
just to become yourself?
Oh. Uh, well,
I was ready for that.
It was one thing is
I wasn't in my act anymore.
Secondly, I discovered
I didn't want to be an actor.
All my life I'd grown up
saying, "Well, I'll become
a disc jockey, and that'll get
me to be a comedian,
and then that'll get me
to be an actor."
I always thought actor was
the end of the road for it.
And I found out one day
I hated it
and I want to write.
Let me write down
"Phil comes in
and walks like a chicken."
I don't want to do it.
Let me write that.
I'd like to write the jokes.
So when I discovered that
and I wasn't in my act,
I was freed and I was free
to change.
And then there was a couple
incidents in nightclubs
where I had grown
too far so far,
- you know, to stay there.
- [Mike] Yeah.
And, uh,
I had little incidents
that weren't much really,
but, uh, it served as a basis
for some of the things
I do in my shows now.
[Gary]
It was like a variety, uh,
a very creative kind
of variety show.
And I don't know if such a--
if such a thing could
be recreated partly
because you have
to have a John Lennon
and a Yoko Ono along
with a Mike Douglas.
You probably have been seeing
many people creeping around
with cameras all week
taking pictures,
but-- and one of them
belongs to us.
The rest of them
are just people taking--
Are you going
to give us copies?
Oh, yeah.
You'll love them too.
These are pictures
that have been taken
throughout the five shows.
Oh, I like this bit.
[Mike] To John and Yoko.
All my thanks for being my co-hosts
I'd like to say this week
With you is really the most
It's been a joy and pleasure
The moments really flew
I'll have this week to treasure
In my memories of you
I'd like to thank my many
Friends for being so helpful
It's been a happy week
I know I'll never forget
I hope it isn't very long
Before the moment when
We have another chance
To do it again
I'd like to thank my many friends
For being so helpful
It's been a happy week
I know I'll never forget
So once again before
We bid you all a fond adieu
It's really been a pleasure
Just being here with you
John Lennon, Yoko Ono.
[applause]
[interviewer] What would
you say to a student
who watched this appearance
and said,
"Yeah, but that was '72,
the world was full of promise,
gas was 25 cents a gallon,
John Lennon was alive,
I don't have those
opportunities anymore"?
[David]
Well, you have to keep trying.
Go with your vision
and you can think about life
as kind of like two circles.
One of them has all the things
that you're most inspired by
that are right
at the center of your vision,
and the other is the things
you have to do to survive.
And your goal in life is to
make those two things overlap
as much as you possibly can.
[Vivian] You know,
I remember back to the '60's
and in particular the '70's,
where young people thought,
okay, we can do this,
we're going--
we're going to do big things,
where they had hope.
But I think the difference
between the youth then
and the youth today
are the youth today,
they don't play.
[interviewer]
I watched you 50 years ago,
30 year-old Ralph Nader
making incredibly prescient
point after point after point.
And 50 years later things are,
pardon my French,
still f*cked up.
How do you maintain
optimism?
How do you do it?
Well, young people
are known to be cynical.
And I say to them, you know,
if you're cynical,
you're a quitter and you're
gonna make things worse
for you
and your close friends,
not just for the world
at large.
So try to be skeptical
because skeptical asks
the same questions
that the cynic asked,
but they charge back
and try to change things.
You know, as, uh,
Norman Cousins once said,
"Nobody's smart enough
to be a pessimist."
[interviewer] Let's talk
about the other idol,
the other world
entertainment superstar.
- I'm not being facetious...
- [man] Yeah.
[interviewer]
...here, is Mike Douglas.
[Di Massa] You know,
it's really interesting
when you look back at these
shows 50 years later,
that everybody remembers
these shows
because of John and Yoko.
But the host of this show,
Mike Douglas,
was an amazing man.
The fact that anybody wants to
look at this 50 years later,
really has a lot to do
with who that man was.
[interviewer] There was a lot
going on in these things.
They're more than
a time capsule.
They're a signpost
and a warning sign.
They were like canaries
in the mines, so to speak.
They were seeing
the possibilities
of both concerns
and opportunities
and were encouraging us
to look forward.
[Nobuko]
It's a long process,
change--it-it took us
how many centuries
to get here,
to really crawl out of,
and to understand the system
that we live in,
and how we're going
to change it
to make a more human world.
What better to work for
than that?
[applause]
[Mike]
All right. Who would like
to ask a question of John?
I see a hand way in the back,
the very last row.
You see it?
On the right-hand side?
- [John] Oh, hello.
- Oh, hi.
Will you and your band
be going
on tour in the near future?
[John] Uh, we-we both,
we-we'd like to.
It really--we have to get
permission to work here.
You know? Every time--
Like if we do this show
we have to--we ask
for permission to work.
We'd really like to get
on the road again.
- It really depends on the--
- You only have to do that--
you only have to do that every
few months, don't you?
Something like that. Yeah.
For something like a tour
we'd have to apply for a kind
of special visa or something.
[Mike] Are you planning
to do that, John?
We-we'd like to if it--
if it's all right
with the people
in the visa office.
What are your--what
are your immediate plans
- when you leave here?
- Uh, recover.
[laughter]
First hand I saw was
that young lady right there.
[woman] What was the biggest
hit record you made?
[Mike] Biggest of all your
hit records, which one?
[John] Oh, um,
I really don't know.
[Mike] You love me
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
It could be probably
something like
"I Want to Hold Your Hand"
or "She Loves You."
I-I can't--it was one
that you don't expect.
I really don't know which one it is.
I've forgotten offhand.
[man] I'd like to know
if you've heard the new
McCartney album and if so,
how'd you like it?
- [John] The Wings one?
- Yeah.
I quite enjoy some it, yeah.
You know, I think it's, uh,
I don't--it's very hard to,
you know,
- uh, listen to your friend.
- How did you like it?
- How do you like it?
- [man] Not much.
Some of it's all right. I
thought it was getting better.
Some of it wasn't as good
and some was better.
I think he's going
in the right direction.
You think he's getting ba--you
think he's getting it back?
[John] I think he has to.
He's got it there somewhere.
Is he your best friend, Paul?
I guess, uh, in the male sex,
he-he-he was.
I don't know about now
because I don't
see much of him now.
[Mike]
There was something in the--
in the Philadelphia paper here
which I--which I--
can I get in on this?
- Yeah. Yeah.
- Oh, yes. Go ahead.
This is--this is interesting
because I wrote this down.
The quote is "Yoko is a quiet,
sweet girl in public,
all right."
- Oh, that's what that is.
- Oh, that one.
"But at home with John
it's kvetch, kvetch, kvetch."
Now, that means,
that means nag, that word.
That-that story
is a lunatic story.
I thought it must have come...
Now let-let me, give it me.
It's incredible
what they're saying.
They're saying about--
this-this is one
of those stories,
I thought it must have come
from the Holly--"National
Enquirer" or something.
It says things like--
It says, uh, has a pa--
It's supposed
to be the inside story.
It's from
the "Los Angeles..."
[Mike] This market.
"Yoko want--" It says,
"Yoko wanted to call
The Beatles 'Yoko's Husband
and his Three Sidemen.'"
[laughter]
Would you wait
until the boom gets to you--
would you mind standing?
[woman] Like a lot of times
people say you know,
about demonstrations
at all and like
how everybody should rush out
and go to demonstrations
and everything
and it's gonna help.
But I don't know
if it really helps.
And I want to know
like what I can do,
like me,
just personally, like to help
people, you know,
how I can do it.
[John] Do you want
me to take that?
You should first start,
uh, I think,
you know, we can all do it.
But, uh, if we can't solve
our own personal problems,
we can never solve
a big problem.
All we have to do
is convince one person,
and that's all you have to do.
And, uh, if everybody
convinced one person,
the whole world
is going to be convinced.
You see? It's that simple.
People tend to think that, uh,
somebody will save them,
whether it's a president
or a, you know,
whoever your hero might be.
Somebody's going to come out
of the blue to save you.
And there's only people
can save us,
only us all deciding to do
something about anything,
whatever it is,
just even making that decision
I want to do something
is a start.
[applause]
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