In 1990, Cynthia Lennon contacted Yoko Ono about setting up a benefit concert on what would have been John Lennon’s 50th birthday. She hoped to televise the show and donate the proceeds in her former husband’s name. While Cynthia said Ono seemed receptive to the idea, she refused to get involved.
Before long, Ono publicly spoke about the concert in a way that completely derailed it. Cynthia Lennon told Yoko Ono about a benefit concert on John Lennon’s birthday Over two decades after The Beatles’ first charity concert , the organizer, Sidney Bernstein, came to Cynthia about putting on a benefit concert in Lennon’s memory. He intended to call it Come Together.
“The idea was to mark what would have been John’s fiftieth birthday, Oct. 9, 1990, with a rock symphony, to be performed in the States and televised around the world,” Cynthia wrote in her book John . “The funds raised would be used to support charitable ventures in John’s name .
.. I thought long and hard about it, but in the end it seemed so fitting and so worthwhile that I had to say yes.
” Cynthia spent months helping organize the show. She believed that the best way to ensure its success was to get Ono’s endorsement. They met at her New York apartment to discuss it.
“As I explained about the planned concert the work and ideas that had gone into it, Yoko said nothing,” Cynthia recalled. “She didn’t smile. My heart sank but I plowed on, showing her the plans and suggesting that it would me.