The story of the couple who did their own John and Yoko bed-in

A few days ago, our daily Some days in the Beatles lives feature included this: 

• July 2, 1969: Robert and Maria Watson of Newton, Mass., start a six-day bed-in in support of John and Yoko. 

I was so surprised to see Bob and Maria's bed-in listed on your daily listing for July 2. I hope you don't think this is a big deal over very little.  But at the time, we found it to be very exciting.  

 

In its own way, it was a form of contact with the Beatles.  And as far as I know, it was the first time anyone did a bed-in for John and Yoko.  As you know, John & Yoko expressed disappointment that they were unable to do a bed-in in the United States over the summer of 1969 because of John's legal problems with immigration.  They ended up doing their bed-in from Montreal during the last week of May 1969 instead.

 

My friend Bob Watson came up with the idea that he and his wife would do a bed-in for John and Yoko and decided that such an event should take place in Washington DC. during the Independence Day holiday week.  Arrangements were made to stay in a hotel and stage a bed-in as John and Yoko might have.  

 

Press releases were made up at the local printers and sent to all the newspapers and wire services, hoping to generate interest in this event.  Bob even called Apple in London to tell them about his plans.  Bob spoke with Derek Taylor, the Beatles press agent, who seemed interested and promised to send some music tapes and pictures to use for background during the bed-in.  Bob and his wife, Maria, and I were very excited about the fact that Apple would be behind us.

 

So we flew in to Washington DC and checked into the hotel and started the week-long bed-in on July 2, 1969.  Unfortunately, I can not remember the name of the hotel we stayed in.  I remember Bob called the Washington Press Bureau to tell them we were in Washington and the person Bob spoke with said "John Lennon?  John Lennon of the Beatles?  We're not interested in covering such nonsense.  We only cover real news" and hung up.  

 

Well, it turns out that Bob was unable to get too many visitors and the bed-in seemed to be a failure.  It seemed all the reporters we received were young kids, aspiring to be reporters or Beatle fans.

 

Being an artist, I passed the time making drawings and signs to decorate the hotel room.  We never received any of the stuff that Derek promised to send although a big bouquet of white carnations was delivered to the hotel room with a card that said "Peace and love from John and Yoko".  On the last day of the event, a local TV station sent a camera crew to interview Bob and Maria and ran the news feature on that evening's news broadcast.  At the very end of the video, they showed Bob and Maria in bed and faded in my drawing of John and Yoko in a heart.  I was so excited that my drawing was shown on television.

 

Well, the next day, we packed up and flew back to Boston.  We were disappointed that we were unable to generate much interest.  On the plane, a passenger was reading a newspaper and recognized Bob and Maria from the photograph accompanying the article.  The next issue of Rolling Stone ran a small story with the same photograph about Bob and Maria's bed-in.  And that seemed to be the end of it.  Then, Bob and Maria started getting mail.  The majority of it, unfortunately, was hate mail from people who felt that Bob and Maria were running down America by doing this bed-in and protesting the war movement.  Some of the letters actually threatened Bob and Maria. There was not much mail from people praising Bob's effort to stage the bed-in.  

 

So that, I'm afraid, is end of that story.  I've since then lost touch with Bob and Maria and every once in a while, I remember that week in Washington DC.  I never thought that after all these years, anyone would even remember Bob and Maria's efforts.