Is Bob Spitz implying something lavender about Jim and Mary McCartney's marriage?
There seems to be something underlying to the way that Bob Spitz describes the elder McCartney courtship in his Beatles bio. On Jim:
In his demeanor, his generosity, his plain-spokenness, his effusiveness, his intimacy, and his irrepressible wit, Jim, like Paul later on, proved an earnest, often devoted companion. People of both sexes were attracted to him.
No further elaboration for a very striking choice of words. Only that Jim then "shunn[ed] serious relationships for a period of ten years."
Mary's introduction emphasized a similar lack of interest in relationships:
at thirty-one and unmarried, Mary was no longer considered "a prime catch" [...] Remarkably, over the next seventeen years, there were no serious suitors in her life. "Mary was so career-conscious that she didn't worry much about men," says her sister-in-law and confidante Dill Mohin. [...] "We were so immersed in our work," she recalls, "no one was in any hurry to get married." But if Mary Mohin harbored any regrets or disappointment in what had been dealt her, she never let on to a soul."
Immediately after this is a description of Jim that raises the biggest (rainbow) flag:
Jim, at forty, had settled into what friends considered "a confirmed bachelorhood." Although he was about the same age as his father when he found a bride, he had shown no inclination toward marriage
No source is given for "a confirmed bachelor," but the implication is that it's someone who knew him before Mary, so not Dill. I looked it up to be sure, and while it's unclear whether "confirmed bachelor" was widely used to mean a closeted homosexual in the 1940s, by the second half of the 20th century, that connotation was certainly there. Wherever Spitz got this quote, it was likely sometime much later and from someone reflecting on the past but using the language of the time in which they were speaking. (As @bodhbdearg suggested, perhaps an off the record interview with Spitz at the time of writing.)
The book goes on to describe how they fell in love, chatting while hiding from a bomb threat and "Jim became an object of Mary's disciplined interest." Romantic! No description of Jim's feelings about Mary is given. OK!
(@bodhbdearg also pointed out that they then went on to have exactly two kids, in very quick succession, and then no more. Interesting!)
Make of that all what you will, but one can't help but wonder what Jim's "friends" might have said about him to Spitz.
Also, it can't help but be noticed that "he had shown no inclination toward marriage" sounds exactly like a phrase that would be used to describe Paul in the 60s.
