During the Vietnam War in 1969, Beatles’ singer John Lennon and Yoko Ono staged a now-famous “Bed-In for Peace” at the Hilton Amsterdam. Govert De Roos was a 15-year-old photographer at the time who desperately wanted to cover the event, and he managed to sneak in by making his own fake press pass.



The above is a 3.5-minute video by Hilton in which De Roos shares how he pulled off his deception to capture a series of memorable photos in Room 702. The video was produced for the 50th anniversary of the bed-in.

“In those days, I just had one goal in life: I wanted to be a photographer,” De Roos says. “I read in the paper that they were giving a press conference, so I thought, ‘I have to get into that room.'”

The teen brought a phony press card he made to the hotel and stood in line to get into the room as a photojournalist.

Luckily for De Roos, his fake pass worked and he managed to shoot a series of career-defining photos of the bed-in.

Image credits: Video and still frames by Hilton