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Exactly 40 years ago today, on May 26, 1969, a 14-year-old Beatles fanatic named Jerry Levitan casually walked into the King Edward Hotel in Toronto and started systematically knocking on the doors of all the hotel rooms on the top floor. Jerry Levitan had heard John Lennon and Yoko Ono, on their way to Montreal for their famous bed-in at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel, had spent the night of May 25 in Toronto. He'd armed himself with a Brownie camera, a Super-8 movie camera that had no sound capablities, a notepad and a copy of Lennon's Two Virgins album.

After startling a number of innocent guests on three or four floors of the hotel, a chambermaid spied him and asked him if he was looking for "the Beatle." He said yes, and she directed him to room 869. Levitan found the room, outside of which Ono's daughter Kyoko was lying on the carpet, working on a colouring book. He knocked and announced, "Canadian News." And the next thing he knew, Lennon and Ono were in front of him, sitting together on a sofa, being interviewed by a grownup reporter.

I Met the Walrus

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No one seemed to mind the young boy being there, so Levitan took out his cameras and started shooting. Eventually he pulled out his copy of Two Virgins, which was infamous for featuring a full-frontal nude photo of Lennon and Ono on the cover. The album caught Lennon's attention: "How did you get that?" he asked Levitan. "I thought the Mounties had come in on horses and took them all."

Levitan explained he got it at the Sam The Record Man store in Toronto. Lennon took the album, drew one of his famous caricatures in the corner, and then he and Ono autographed it.

Then Levitan got really daring. Lennon and his wife were about to leave the hotel room; Levitan threw out the suggestion that he come back later and tape an interview about peace that he would play for other schoolchildren. Lennon loved the idea and told him to return at 6 p.m. Which Levitan did. The kid got the interview, and we have a couple of excerpts from it.

Levitan went on to become a lawyer, actor, children's entertainer and filmmaker. His animated 2007 short, I Met the Walrus, based on about four minutes of his 30-minute interview with Lennon, was nominated for an Oscar. And now he has released a book about his life-changing moment, also called I Met the Walrus. It comes with a complete transcript of the interview, as well as a DVD with his soundless Super-8, his photos and, of course, the taped interview. The book also features illustrations by Montreal artist James Braithwaite, who did the drawings for the animated short.

Lennon left Toronto that night and flew with Ono to Montreal to begin their bed-in, which lasted from May 26-June 2. They recorded Give Peace A Chance in their hotel room on June 1.