“They’d go to Central Park for picnics: ham sandwiches and Dom Pérignon,” a neighbor observes, adding a critique of their outdoor table manners: “They would drink out of the bottle, passing it back and forth like hippies.”

John and Yoko clean up when, after months of silence from the US government, a hearing is called for July 27 at 20 West Broadway, the Immigration and Naturalization Service building.

With Judge Ira Fieldsteel presiding, attorney Leon Wildes helps his star witness make the case that the United States should finally issue him a green card.

WILDES: Have you ever been convicted of any crime, anywhere in the US?

LENNON: No.

WILDES: Have you ever been a member of the Communist Party or any other organization that may seek to overthrow the US government by force?

LENNON: No.

WILDES: Do you intend to make the US your home?

LENNON: I do.

WILDES: Will you continue your work here?

LENNON: Yes. I wish to continue to live here with my family and continue making music.

A parade of celebrity supporters details the extent of the good John has already done for his adopted country.

“Justice for John & Yoko!” says Bob Dylan in a handwritten plea to the INS, applauding their “great voice and drive for this country’s so called ART INSTITUTION” and insisting, “Let them stay and live here and breathe.”

“We had to prove that John was an important figure to the well-being of American society,” Geraldo Rivera, a witness on Lennon’s behalf, says in a 2019 interview. “I told the judge how important Lennon was to the cause of deinstitutionalizing the mentally disabled in New York through his work in the Willowbrook case.”

Gloria Swanson, a screen siren in the golden age of Hollywood, who’d met and befriended John over their shared passion for health food, also comes to his defense. “We must educate the country,” she tells the judge, “and the Lennons will help do something about it.”

“He is one of the great artists of the Western world,” the writer Norman Mailer states.

After ninety minutes of testimony, the judge grants John’s petition.

“It’s great to be legal again!” John exclaims with a kiss for Yoko.

*  *  *

A few months later, George delivers the Saturday Night Live punch line.

“See, I thought you would understand,” Lorne Michaels tells his musical guest in the show’s cold open on November 20, in a follow-up to his comedic enticement to the Beatles in April, “that it was $3,000 for four people, and that it would just be $750 for each of you. As far as I’m concerned, you could have the full $3,000.”

“That’s pretty chintzy,” George jokes with the producer.