John Lennon & May Pang: Tittenhurst Park's White Rug shipped over to Sutton Place 434 East 52nd Street, New York

Albert Goldman. The Lives of John Lennon

Chapter "Like Normal"

In June 1974, after John and Harry had finished their whiskey-voiced album Pussy Cats, May Pang returned to Lennon's side and Harry Nilsson left it, forever. This was the signal for one of those sudden reversals in behavior that constitute the basic pattern of John Lennon's life. Overnight, Lennon the alley cat transformed himself into Lennon the domestic cat.Rejecting an offer by Yoko to rent them a flat at the Dakota, John and May found the apartment of which every New Yorker dreams, a charming little penthouse on Sutton Place at 434 East 52nd Street. John's building was the last before the street comes to a dead end overlooking the East River at River House, the poshest address on the East Side. Lennon's most famous neighbor on the block was a woman who had always fascinated him, Greta Garbo.In furnishing this $750-a-month pad, John and May looked first to their comfort. On one side of the living room, which boasted a working fireplace and a door that let upon a terrace with a river view, they installed a king-size platform bed, with a nineteen-inch Sony Trinitron at their feet and a remote-control channel selector for John's restless hand. The spare room they prepared for Julian's visits, May having persuaded John that he should pay more attention to his son. The rest of the flat was sparsely furnished but luxuriously carpeted with the white rug from Tittenhurst, across which bounded two vivacious kittens. Major (white) and Minor (black).