FROM THE ARCHIVE: Watch John Lennon and Yoko Ono ride a cable car in SF with Geraldo Rivera

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Tuesday, December 8, 2020
John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Geraldo ride a cable car and tour SF
Ultra rare footage shot on film from the 1970s shows John Lennon and Yoko Ono exploring the City by the Bay with Geraldo Rivera when he was a reporter for ABC News.

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Newly uncovered videos shows John Lennon, Yoko Ono and Geraldo Rivera hanging out in San Francisco in the 1970s. They're seen riding a cable car, driving down a steep hill and then sitting down for an interview with Rivera when he was an ABC News reporter.

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In an interview with our sister station WABC in New York, Rivera commented on his trip to visit Lennon and Ono in the City by the Bay:

"You know, we were constantly chatting back and forth and then they disappeared to San Francisco, so I had to follow John and Yoko to San Francisco. I remember John was in this room and, or maybe it was my hotel room, and he brought an amp, and his guitar, and he actually gave me like a private concert - John and Yoko's right in the hotel room. John's just ripping but, you know, all of his, his greatest hits and Yoko was, you know, doing her vocalization sitting alongside."

He went on to say, "I mean what an experience for, you know, a young reporter relatively inexperienced the Eyewitness News man to have the the most famous couple on earth. They were really the Prince William and and Catherine of their time, Harry and Megan of their time they were so huge. And they were so so famous and so humble in their own way and so fun loving in their own way and so so kooky in their own way. They were sincere, the world was too crazy for them, they wanted to be in their bedroom, they want to be safe and sound and you want to be friends with them, you went into their bedroom. Amazing."

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Paul McCartney, followed by Ringo Starr and John Lennon of the Beatles, arrive by plane at San Francisco International Airport on Aug. 29, 1966.