Yoko Ono Takes Early Lead in Fight Over Lennon Tapes

Yoko Ono stepped closer to suppressing a black-and-white tape featuring her husband John Lennon writing songs, smoking marijuana and talking about putting LSD in then-President Richard Nixon's tea. In a Boston courtroom yesterday, a judge ruled in favor of Ono while casting doubt on production company World Wide Video's ownership of the tapes. The footage, edited down to a two-hour film entitled 3 Days in the Life, were supposed to make their debut at a school in Maine until Ono's lawyers intervened with cease-and-desist letters. The tapes were shot by Ono's pre-Lennon husband Anthony Cox and sold to World Wide Video in 2000.