The Lennon Tribute Will Go On
December 8th is just around the corner, and soon Strawberry Fields will be flickering with candles in memory of John Lennon, who was killed 28 years ago. On that day, decades ago, Joe Raiola was driving a cab when he heard sportscaster Howard Cosell announce Lennon's death on the radio, he told The NY Times: “I was on Queens Boulevard. I almost smashed into a telephone pole.” Raiola's long-running annual remembrance, one of the many for the Beatle, is called the Lennon Tribute. The now senior editor of Mad Magazine, pitting a fundraiser against the current economic climate, has been faced with suggestions to cancel the "shoe-string variety show" this year. Ultimately, the show will go on, with Railoa reminding that “Everything about this event is secondary to getting together to celebrate and remember John Lennon." In attendance next Sunday at the Ailey Citigroup Theater will be Rosanne Cash and many others presenting "a bill of entertainment heavy with Lennon and Beatles songs." Proceeds will go to the non-profit World Hunger Year.
