Video: John Lennon celebrates his 31st birthday at the Hotel Syracuse

John Lennon in Syracuse John Lennon in Syracuse, NY, in the 1970s. Video provided by Abbey Road.

Just a year after the breakup of The Beatles, John Lennon was in Syracuse on Oct. 9, 1971.

The visit included the opening of his wife's first major art exhibit, at the Everson Museum, a 31st birthday celebration and almost a Beatles' reunion.

Yoko Ono's art exhibit, entitled "This is Not Here," ran for three weeks at the Everson, and drew thousands of visitors to the museum. Celebrities such as Andy Warhol, Bob Dylan, and Dennis Hopper viewed it.

The exhibition took up most of the museum, and Ono encouraged visitors to reach out and touch her work. Pieces included a bubble gum machine that offered invisible trinkets, and a pane of glass titled, "Painting to let the evening light through."

In an interview with the Post-Standard in 2006, Ono called her time in Syracuse as a "most beautiful memory," and "a milestone in my life."

David Ross, an assistant to then Everson director Jim Harithas, spent hours trying to assemble equipment for what was to be Lennon's surprise birthday gift, a secret midnight concert of at least three of the Beatles at the theater in the Everson, accompanied by some of the greatest musicians in the nation. Paul McCartney, estranged from Lennon at the time, declined, and George Harrison couldn't make it.

Ringo Starr was in Syracuse for the exhibition, and producer Phil Spector, poet Allen Ginsberg and musicians Eric Clapton, Jim Keltner, Nicky Hopkins and Klaus Voorman were there.

However, the secret leaked out, and people crowded into the Everson for the possible Beatles reunion concert. The concert was cancelled.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono at the Everson Museum in Syracuse in 1971.

Ross told the Post-Standard in 2005: "That evening the doors to the Everson were broken down because people had heard there'd be a secret Beatles concert. The entire museum was filled with people furious ... and we were afraid they'd trash the place."

Allen Ginsberg calmed the crowd.

Instead, the group went to the Hotel Syracuse, where Lennon celebrated his birthday with his wife and friends.

Lennon received a guitar-shaped birthday cake that read "A Gift to John from Yoko and the Whole World."

The group sat on the floor and performed for about 45 minutes, with Starr kicking an overturned trash can for percussion. The little group is said to have played 20 songs, including "Give Peace a Chance," "Peggy Sue" and "Yellow Submarine."

The music survives on tapes available on the Internet, and as part of a film called "Three Friends" by avant-garde filmmaker Jonas Mekas.

This feature is a part of CNY Nostalgia, a section on syracuse.com. Send your ideas and curiosities to Johnathan Croyle: Email | 315-427-3958.

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