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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 that I can say, ladies and gentlemen,
I would like to introduce to you,
John and Yoko Lennon.
One, two, three, four.
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."
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.
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.
When President Nixon leaves for Peking on Thursday
he will travel on his specially equipped
Boeing 707 Air Force One.
The government of the People's.
Republic of China
and the government of the United States
can have differences without being enemies in war.
Attorney John Mitchell resigned today
to run the Presidents campaign for reelection.
A Federal court order
which calls for large scale busing
went into effect today in Augusta, Georgia.
Although there were several false
bomb threats yesterday,
no incidents were reported today.
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.
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.
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.
Attack bombers
bristling with their deadly cargo
are screaming skyward
from the deck of the aircraft carrier, Constellation.
You read in the newspaper
that the war is over.
I don't know if it's Congress, Senate,
but the war is not over.
We'll be right back.
The idea of John Lennon
being a mediator.
Yeah, that's sort of funny, isn't it?
Okay. B's rolling only.
Why don't you go up to Wes. What lens do you have now?
28 to 135.
Marker. Marker.
Marker.
This is funny. I haven't seen this whole thing
in all these years.
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.
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?
We're Mike's co-hosts this week
and with us on today's show will be my hero,
Chuck Berry.
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.
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.
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.
Ooh. Look at that dress! Hmm.
And we not gonna talk about that hair.
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.
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.
Welcome to the "Mike Douglas Show."
- This is John Lennon. - And Yoko Ono.
Now, here's 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.
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.
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.
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.
- War. 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...
I wish he'd run for office.
Well, I asked him today,
when are you gonna run for president?
- Did you? - You know?
She could minister of peace, and I'll be minister of music.
That would be marvelous.
And we have people like Bobby Seale
and Jerry Rubin and, you know, just very interesting people.
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 bomb-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.
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.
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... - 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...
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?
- 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.
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. - Oh, that's...
You gonna do the next one?
Yeah, can I take a different color?
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."
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.
- Oh, okay. - Make it more...
worth a dime more... when we sell it.
Do we pass it around the audience or... or what?
Yeah.
Why don't we find out
if anybody really has artistic ability?
-Yes. - Everybody does.
- Please. - You wanna take it out, John?
Anybody is an artist.
Artist is a frame of mind.
Please pass it on.
While you're passing this on,
would you please touch each other?
- Come on, don't be shy. - Don't be shy!
Touch a stranger, it's great!
Okay, this is great.
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...
- John.
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 lndica 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."
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. - Uh-huh.
- 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."
- 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...
- 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... - 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.
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...
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?
"ls 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.
A policeman's hat and...
We'll be right back.
What 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.
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 counter cultural figures.
I mean, it was really interesting
to see Ralph Nader so young.
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.
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.
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.
' "
- 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...
Yin and yang is like positive-negative,
- black-white, right. - Going back to...
R. Nader.
The nat... natural balance of things.
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?
That's right. Action, Action for a Change.
It's to show them how they could do it themselves, like...
- Exactly. - 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.
- 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,"
so, 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 37>, or 2% of that, two, three,
four dollars a year, they could develop
the strongest democratic force in the state.
- Yeah. - And they could also work
with people who aren't students.
- 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?
- Register to vote. - Because that's been a great
- change in the whole... - 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.
- 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. - 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.
I've never thought of housewives
as a silent majority.
- 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?
- 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?
- Do you do such things?
Yeah, actually.
What... what were yours, or what was yours?
Try to find a 36-hour day.
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.
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.
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.
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.
You'll drag for two seconds,
then you'll hold for 15 seconds,
then you'll exhale
- and relax for 20 seconds. - Okay.
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...
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.
Yes. You made us very relaxed.
- Thank you. Thank you. - And that's so nice.
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.
One piece every day?
Yes, one piece every day.
And in the end, probably we'll have a nice cup.
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...
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...
- 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.
One, two, three!
Mama!
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?"
- 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...
Oh!
Ain't it funny?
You did that and the audience didn't react.
I know.
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 War.
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 war."
'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...
Well, I don't know.
Well, maybe I'm still an Elvis fan.
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.
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... - 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.
Yes, it is.
How do you expect me to remember all that?
- I've got to write it down. - 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.
But the real story happened before this.
That's what got us in trouble.
Usually, people know very little about...
Asians...
and this is a song about our movement,
about our people's plight in America.
Chris ljima
was a pretty 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.
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.
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 war movies
with a next-door neighbor."
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 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.
H'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?"
That poor director
on the "Mike Douglas Show,"
did he know what he was walking into?
Well, he deserved it.
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?
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.
I didn't sense them in any way competitive.
I felt that they were very appreciative
of each other's questions.
One of them is a superstar.
The other is very important artist.
And yet it was equals right away.
They combine beautifully.
It was like one plus one equals three.
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.
Somebody asked her, where do you get your ideas?
And she kind of laughed and said,
"I... ideas just come."
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.
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.
One of the hardest thing
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.
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.
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.
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 war in Vietnam
so that it's machines killing people,
uh, created a situation
where 43 people can be murdered at Attica,
um, created a situation
where four kids can be killed 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.
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?
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, killed,
that people are like very pessimistic.
Wherever you go right now, there's tremendous pessimism.
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...
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 killed my parents,
just like I think it killed 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?
- Absolutely, yeah. - Yes.
- As well as... -And change, you know.
The so-called movement and so called youth?
I have... we have a tremendous faith
in the people in this country.
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.
The Georgia legislature, Governor Jimmy Carter
had some praise for Alabama Governor Wallace.
Carter's statement overshadowed.
Wallace's standard campaign speech,
which was interrupted repeatedly by applause.
Hey, Mr. President.
The shouts came
from Lieutenant Governor Lester Maddox,
who told the standing-room-only crowd
that George Wallace could be elected president.
So welcome please, John Lennon
and his wife, Yoko Ono.
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.
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.
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...
- Yeah. - I went, "Chuck Berry,"
"my hero." It just came out, you know?
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.
If you were try... to try and give rock and roll
another name, you might call it Chuck Berry.
- Right. - Here he is,
- Chuck Berry.
- Hello, John! - Hello!
I nearly got the words... words right, right?
Did you really invent r0... 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.
- Yeah.
John said your music had a message.
- Do you think it did? - 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. - You're a people lover.
- That's what.
- 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.
Chuck Berry! John Lennon and Yoko Ono!
We'll be right back!
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.
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...
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. - 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... - 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 Hilary? - Please.
Can we go over here? I understand
we're gonna prepare something.
- Yes. - And why don't we all...
Shall we all go in the kitchen?
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 egg roll.
- A what? - Hijiki egg roll.
Hijiki egg roll.
We have to have a calm, peaceful, loving attitude
about this, or else the food
- is gonna be very chaotic. - 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... - No, you're right
- about that. - 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.
- Is he?
He was eating them today, right?
- Yeah. - Okay.
Why do I always get the onion?
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.
You know, this, this looks like
a soul brother pizza, really.
- A soul brother pizza? - Yeah.
Right. Would you like?
Yes, I would love it.
- Didn't eat today. - Thank you.
You dip it in the sauce, okay?
Well, how do they taste?
- How is it going? - You see,
this is gonna become part of your body
so it's important that you have...
It's important that you get to know it.
- What part? - Your blood.
- Your muscles. - This is goo-
- my muscles? - Well, sure.
I think you should chew it a lot.
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.
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.
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.
Why didn't you say this 50 years ago?
David, welcome.
- 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.
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.
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.
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? - That's wild.
Now turn on the sound and see what...
-Am I star...
There goes Yoko. Hear it?
Hear that sound?
You hear it?
That is eerie, isn't it?
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.
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.
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.
What followed were some of the most violent
protests against busing that have yet
to be seen in the North.
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. - 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. - 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. - 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?
- I see. - Already broken.
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.
- 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.
Really? ls there a smile in it?
- But it's mine. - Oh, great.
Yeah. That's nice.
Well, I thought maybe we should all put
- a smile in it. You know? - 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.
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."
Oh, the Hunter Davies book, you mean?
Yes. And, uh,
your father left you and your mother
- at a... at a very tender age. - 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 war 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?
- 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
for 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.
- 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.
- 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 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.
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.
- Oh, I agree. - Yes. And she's got
the ability to sing opera if she were taught about it.
- 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.
Uh-uh, you can get nastier than that. Do it again.
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.
- Yes!
When I look at myself singing.
"His Eye is on the Sparrow," I sang it...
And that worked for me back then.
But today...
I go-.-...
There's a difference.
Vivian Reed.
We'll be right back.
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.
Bobby Seale.
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.
- Did I get it right? - Yeah, I did do that.
- Yeah. - That's tough, isn't it?
- Reality?
- 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.
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 guns
to go into the white community to kill 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 racist 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 kill you, at that point we was teaching
people that, to defend ourselves even with guns.
But the main thing is this here,
you don't want to defend yourselves with guns.
You defend yourselves also with these basic programs
'cause violence is also manifested in hunger,
- is it not? - 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?
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.
brand-new shoes you're giving away.
It ain't secondhand though. That was...
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."
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.
John Lennon and Yoko Ono!
Hello, hello.
Hello? ls the mic on?
My favorite song.
Am I?
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 war.
Last month, he was granted parole,
and today he left prison.
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.
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.
- This side. Very good. - Back now.
It's going to make it. Right?
- Oh. - Hey, hey.
Oh, great.
Hey! Hey!
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. - 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...
- 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? - 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.
- 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 Goff in and King of England.
You know? Carole King and Gerry Goff in
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? - You got bigger.
- Well, I don't know. - 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. - Oh, really?
You know, they used to always ask us, uh... yeah.
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.
Oh, really?
I can't do it even.
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.
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.
Were you getting into that with the people
lowering their own blood pressure at will?
- Yes. - That's really good.
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.
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."
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.
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. - 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.
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.
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."
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. - 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.
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 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.
To John and Yoko.
US'
John Lennon, Yoko Ono.
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"?
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.
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.
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 fucked 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."
Let's talk about the other idol,
the other world entertainment superstar.
- I'm not being facetious... - Yeah.
Here, is Mike Douglas.
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.
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.
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?
US'
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?
- Oh, hello. - Oh, hi.
Will you and your band be going
on tour in the near future?
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.
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.
First hand I saw was that young lady right there.
What was the biggest hit record you made?
Biggest of all your hit records, which one?
- Oh, um, I really don't know.
It could be probably something like
"I Want to Hold Your Hand" or "She Loves You."
L-I can't... it was one that you don't expect.
I really don't know which one it is.
I've forgotten offhand.
I'd like to know if you've heard the new
McCartney album and if so, how'd you like it?
- 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?
- 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?
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.
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..."
This market.
"Yoko wanted... "It says, "Yoko wanted to call.
The Beatles 'Yoko's Husband and his Three Sidemen."'
Would you wait until the boom gets to you...
would you mind standing?
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.
Do you want to 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.