John and Yoko arrive in city

by George Radwanski

Somewhere in Montreal today, Beatle John Lennon will be lying-in.

Where he'll be lying or just why he'll be lying there isn't quite clear.

But there's a trail of harried officials, frustrated grubby-boppers and thwarted reporters he left in his wake last night more than ready to testify that Lennon has chosen Montreal as the scene for his horizontal Beatle happenings.

Although he's supposedly doing this thing for peace, Lennon seemed to being out the worst in everyone on his arrival here from Toronto last night.

Looking completely isolated from reality, he stepped from the plane clutching his six-year-old stepdaughter and leading his tiny wife.

Dressed in a white sari -- or was it a toga? --and with shoulder-length hair and straggly beard, Lennon clearly appeared to have made the complete transition from mop-topped pop idol to tripped out love guru.

His arrival at Montreal International Airport at Dorval brought some 500 teenagers crowding into the corridors for a look at their hero.

But the airport police blocked off the fans and whisked Lennon off in a Dorval police car before anyone could do more than get a glimpse.

Lennon, looking dazed, peered through his spectacles and muttered something about "a press conference tomorrow" before stepping into the waiting car.

Lennon's police escort lasted as far as the Dorval traffic circle where he was unceremoniously shuttled off into a passing taxicab.

The taxi took the Beatle brood to the Queen Elizabeth hotel where they were whisked up to the 17th floor suite via service elevator without even signing in at the desk.

Copyright by The Montreal Gazette, May 27, 1969, all rights reserved.