Talk:Mimi Smith

Renominated
I have gone over this article with a very fine comb, and have paid attention to the previous comments.--andreasegde (talk) 19:04, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

what age was john when he moved in with the smiths?
please — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.81.199.45 (talk) 09:10, 16 September 2011 (UTC)
 * About 5, but permanently about 7.--andreasegde (talk) 12:17, 17 September 2011 (UTC)

Mimi
Sorry to do this but I must take issue with you about some of the assertions in Mimi Smith’s Wikipedia entry. Please forgive me if I am the umpteenth person to have said some of these things but, believe it or not, I hadn’t looked at Mimi’s saga until about a month ago so these comments may be very late in the day They say there’s no error more difficult to expunge than an entrenched error; and there are one or two in Mimi’s account. Perhaps I should start with one which is the easiest to verify. This is the statement that;- “Menlove Avenue suffered extensive damage during World War II”. Nothing of the sort. When I was in Liverpool in the late 40’s most of the bomb damaged buildings had been cleared away but there was very little started by way of rebuilding (you may know we called the empty spaces “Bomb Sites). I travelled Menlove Avenue twice daily to Liverpool, either by bike or tram, for months and can guarantee that there were no scars from the war anywhere along it’s length (all two miles of it). There was some bomb damage in Garston - about three miles from the Woolton end - and some off Smithdown Road about two miles from the other end but none at all in Menlove Avenue. You can easily test the veracity of this assertion by driving down Menlove Avenue today when you will find all the 1930’s detached houses and semis in (more or less) the same state as they were when they were first built. There have been some new-builds since but these are mostly 1960’s built on sites that were open fields in the 1950’s. For example the space between 251 and Vale Road - now built on - was an open field when I lived there. The left hand side, going towards Liverpool, is still mostly green open space - that is the golf course and Calderstones Park.

As for the story of Mimi and the incendiary bombs (pleural!) I find this hard to countenance. There were some incendiaries landed on the golf course opposite 251 on one raid and I suppose one of them could have landed in Mimi’s back garden. But who would tackle an incendiary burning harmlessly in the open, especially with something as valuable, in wartime, as a difficult-to-replace blanket? Some incendiaries had an explosive head designed to kill or maim anyone trying to put them out. I helped my Dad as a Fire-Watcher in the war and The Ministry of Information told us all to stay away from incendiaries that were doing no harm. An incendiary coming through the roof and burning in the loft is one thing - but burning itself out harmlessly in a garden? Lave well alone!

The other statement I take issue with is the Smiths “bought a semi-detached house called “Mendips”. I don’t believe the house was ever called “Mendips” when the Smiths bought it or when Mimi lived there. I never knew the house to have a name when I was there nor at any time during my periodic visits up to 1954 when I graduated and left the university. If there had been any sort of name-plate on 251 Menlove Avenue during that time I think I would have noticed. My guess is either the owner after Mimi gave the house a name or - more likely - it was dreamed up by Yoko Ono or her publicist before she gave it to The National Trust. J.C. Cavaleer (talk) 16:46, 15 July 2012 (UTC)


 * I agree with your suspicions regarding Mimi, because she was caught out a couple of times telling porky pies. The only problem is verifying that she was bending the truth. That can only be done by a reference in a book/newspaper or the internet. Could you think of a way to find out about claims for bomb damage during WWII?--andreasegde (talk) 17:15, 15 July 2012 (UTC)

Apropos of Mimi’s blanket. I have just been reading The Daily Telegraph’s regular “Britain at War” section.(this date 70 years ago). Today’s is about special allowances. How about one shilling a week for each child under 16? Regarding other grants, the sentence that caught my eye was “The grants would be made in cash except in the case of blankets, for which special arrangements were necessary owing to difficulties if supply”. About air raids and Menlove Ave; I have been in contact with Liverpool City Archives and they have not found any particular report about it. However, they sent me a link to the Chief Constables report on all the City’s Air raids. It list all the raids by time, date, type of bomb, location and damage. It will take some time to go through but I’ll let you know how I get on in due course. One more thing you may find interesting. When the National trust acquired (so called) “Mendips”, I contacted it and offered to assist regarding the house’s internal lay-out and how it was furnished in the 1950‘s. I also said that I had reservations about the house name and also the legend of John Lennon being forced into the front porch to practice his guitar (the house had no porch when I knew it). Since they now had the house deeds I thought that perhaps there might be a reference to when the name “Mendips” first appeared. There would certainly be a note of when planning permission was granted for the porch. Sadly, I never had a reply.Cavaleer (talk) 10:48, 17 July 2012 (UTC)


 * Wonderful stuff.--andreasegde (talk) 10:57, 17 July 2012 (UTC

)I’ve had a very careful reading of the very detailed Chief Constable’s report on Liverpool air raids and have found the following. From 17th August 1940 to 10th Jan 1942 there were raids on 79 occasions (In WW2 Liverpool was the most heavily bombed British city outside London).  The only reference to Menlove Ave is the raid of 7/8th   April 1941 which reports “200 I.B.(incendiary bombs) in Menlove Avenue district”  These are the ones which I had heard about before, most (probably all) of which burned out harmlessly on the golf-course). (I.Bs were very small bombs about 30cm long and 5cm in diameter but I suspect this raid is the origin of the report of Menlove Ave being “extensively damaged”. There were some H.E. (high explosive) bombs in this raid but they fell in the Edge Lane area which at it’s nearest point is about 1½ miles from the Liverpool end of Menlove Ave. Otherwise, the closest H.E. bombs came to Menlove Ave was in raids of 15/16th April (Garston, about 1½ miles away from the Woolton end ) and on 3/4th May (Rose Lane, about ¾ mile from the Liverpool end) The relevant reports are as follows;- “7/8th April - About 20 explosive I.B. fell in neighbourhood of Beaconsfield Road, 150 I.B. in Garston district and 200 I.B. in Menlove Avenue district.  A large number of I.B. fell in Lister Drive area, some on the electric power station but damage was slight. Later H.E. fell in Edge Lane area demolishing a church and seriously damaging a convent. No casualties caused by this raid”. 15/16th April - Later, H.E,. which were dropped demolished the dwelling houses 42 and 44, Saunby Street, Gaqrston and 8 persons were killed there” 3/4th May - Sudley Road Council School, Rose Lane Council School and Corporation Yard, Smithdown Road seriously damaged” Hope this helps.J C.Cavaleer (talk) 11:51, 19 July 2012 (UTC) By the way, you were right about John Lennon not being born in an air raid. There was no raid on the 9th Oct 1940. However there were raids on the nights of 7/8th and 10/11th.Cavaleer (talk) 14:07, 19 July 2012 (UTC) I should have let you have this before. It's the link to the Chief Constable's report. Just hope it works! http://www.beatlesliverpoolandmore.com/liverpool-at-war-and-the-blitz-1940---1942.html Cavaleer (talk) 15:08, 20 July 2012 (UTC)


 * Great. I'll look at it later! BTW (by the way), how many cars were in Liverpool in 1960? How many people had one, and how many people had something like a Daimler? To explain, it's about something on Brian Epstein's page.--andreasegde (talk) 16:24, 20 July 2012 (UTC)

Don't know about cars in Liverpool. By 1960 I was working as a vet in Tobago. But I've looked up the statistics and found that in 1960 only 30 percent of household had a car contrasting with today's 90 percent with one or more. I know that in the mid 1950's, when I qualified, there was a waiting list of several years for a new car because I had my name down for one which never materialized and I had to buy second hand. BTW (see I'm getting the jargon!) Pre-war, it was not considered that "ordinary" people would be likely to own a car. My dad was a builder and was building detached houses in the 1930's none of which had a garage. They all had driveways but that was to provide access for the septic-tank to be emptied. BTW (I've done it again!) at Mimi's end of Menlove Avenue none of houses had a garage when I lived there (so far as I noticed).Cavaleer (talk) 18:11, 21 July 2012 (UTC)

Beatles RfC
You are invited to participate in an RfC at Wikipedia talk:Requests for mediation/The Beatles on the issue of capitalising the definite article when mentioning that band's name in running prose. This long-standing dispute is the subject of an open mediation case and we are requesting your help with determining the current community consensus. Thank you for your time. For the mediators. ~ GabeMc  (talk 21:49, 22 September 2012 (UTC)

Accuracy of References
I would like to question the accuracy of a reference. Cynthia Lennon's book (ISBN: 9780340895122) is heavily referenced in this article. I have recently started reading this book, and in the Hardcover edition, she states that All My Loving was a Lennon composition for her. With such a glaring historical inaccuracy, I have to inquire as to how valuable the book is as a reference. GravityIsForSuckers (talk) 07:29, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
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External links modified
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Was PC Eric Clague drunk when he killed Julia Lennon?
PC Eric Clague's "drunkenness" was never mentioned in the court record, according to Mark Lewisohn in "Tune In", the definitive Beatles biography (only 1/3 through!) on page 184. The "drunkenness" is not mentioned in the article for Julia Lennon. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Hoochski (talk • contribs) 17:55, 18 March 2018 (UTC)

Suggest reviewing information about "house" being demolished
I suggest that the last sentence in the "Death" section needs reviewing. It currently reads, " Ono put Smith's house up for sale on the same day as the cremation; it was demolished in 1994,[76] so a four-bedroomed house could be built on the site.[68][77] The new house on the site is now called 'Imagine'.[78]". One of the references is a PDF file that is apparently a promotional brochure. Another reference about the "vacant lot" is a link to Google Maps, but it didn't show the location specified. Also, it may not be entirely clear to people if the house being referred to was the childhood home of John Lennon or the "bungalow" mentioned in the lead section. GravityIsForSuckers (talk) 19:11, 21 December 2020 (UTC)

Lack of reliable published sources in "The Stanley Family" section
This is basically all direct reference to BMD and census records, with no guarantee the correct individuals/ family have been identified by the contributor. Are any of these details- rather too copiously given, per NOTGENEALOGY guidelines, frankly- corroborated in published treatments of Lennon/ the Beatles? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.109.217.17 (talk) 23:56, 27 January 2022 (UTC)