Drawing Room: film footage, December 1968.

For Kenwood obsessives like me, this is pretty exciting - the first, and probably only, professional filmed footage from inside Kenwood itself in the Lennon era! I had seen this film several times (I'll embed the film at the end of this post), but most commentators had it pegged as being from inside Sunny Heights when John and Yoko were staying there following the bust at Montagu Square. Not having any evidence to the contrary I went along with that. However, a reference at the You Are The Plastic Ono Band site made me go back and examine it again more closely...and I suddenly realised that, in fact, this is film from the drawing room (ie the room used as the main formal living room) at Kenwood, NOT Sunny Heights! (Bear with me on this). Examine the pics and screengrabs above. Note first the long white radiator(?) grille beneath John and Yoko's seat, and the general look of the window. Compare with the pic of John and George taken 3 years previously - the grille is there and it is clearly the same room. Now take note of the wooden flooring in the John and Yoko pic. Finally the pic of John and Cyn - the same room, and the fireplace faces the window. (See two old posts HERE and HERE for more exposition/evidence on this). Now compare the screengrabs from the film with the first three pics above...you can find all the features present and correct. Lastly, in the John and Yoko pic you can see some of her artwork from the Half A Wind show. Again, there it all is in the film!Finally a comp from Joe Baiardi's Kenwood footage showing that the wood panelling in that room is still there today. So there we have it! Here is the film, and I'm off to bed. (I just also realised I have the original Austrian TV show which this footage comes from, which will have more footage in it! I will try and get it on here soon).