New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Yoko Ono announced today that the PBS "American Masters" film "LENNONYC" will be shown publicly free in the city's Central Park on Oct. 9, the date of what would have been John Lennon's 70th birthday.

The screening which will be first-come, first served, will start at 7 p.m. at Rumsey Playfield in Central Park (best reached by entering the park at 69th Street and Fifth Avenue). Doors will open at 6 p.m. The screening, which will take place rain or shine, will include picnic style seating so viewers are encouraged to bring blankets. People are encouraged to line up early given there will be limited seating.

“John Lennon and Yoko Ono made New York their spiritual and artistic home. They fed off of the energy and creativity of our neighborhoods, and they added to it immeasurably. Today they are both an integral part of our city’s cultural landscape, and also its physical landscape through this beautiful part of Central Park, Strawberry Fields. I’d like to thank and congratulate the many people who brought this incredible film into existence and who organized this special, free screening for New Yorkers,” the mayor said in a press release announcing the event.

“New York became a part of who John and I were. We couldn’t have existed the same way anywhere else.  We had a very special relationship with the city, which is why I continue to make this my home, and I think this film captures what that time was like for us very movingly. While I will not be able to attend the screening on John’s birthday, I’m thrilled that there will be a screening in Central Park, a park he loved in the city he loved to call home,” added Yoko Ono in the announcement.

Central Park was indeed a favorite place of John and Yoko's. A video for the song "Woman" shows them walking through the park.

(Thanks to New York Rock Culture Examiner Jeff Slate. His story, with the full press release, is here.)

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