I draw jokes, not landscapes @lennison-yaoi - Tumblr Blog

George Harrison at the Beatles Press Conference in Cleveland, OH, 1964

Doodle of Georges (60s-70s era)

Which era do you like? Me? Hmm...I can’t decide which I prefer: the time when his mop-top had grown out a bit, or when he had medium-length hair...

I don't know what to post here, especially when I go to the hospital for 2 weeks. (Because of severe depression and my tearfulness). I can only show my lennison hetero and just George.

#the beatles #george harrison #lennison #john lennon

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Lennison is always real and true

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Paperback Writer (1966) Directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg

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George’s paternal grandfather, Henry (known as Harry) Harrison, was killed in action during World War I. George’s father was six years old at the time. Pictured in image 1 is news of the loss in the Wavertree Times (published on November 17, 1915); image 2 (George with his father, Harry) in 1963, photo © Trinity Mirror/Mirrorpix.

“Pte Harrison... died on September 25th, 1915, the first day of the Battle of Loos. [...] [He] is buried in St Mary’s Advanced Dressing Station (ADS) Commonwealth War Grave Cemetery, north of Lens in the Pas de Calais.“ - Irish Times (September 16, 2016) “My father’s father, whom I never knew, was a builder, and he built a lot of the great Edwardian houses in Princes Road, Liverpool. That was where all the doctors and other professionals lived. They knew how to build in those days: good masonry, bricks and timber. Perhaps my interest in architecture comes from my grandfather. I like to see nice buildings, whether it be a little cottage with a thatched roof or St. Pancras Station.” - George Harrison, The Beatles Anthology Speaking of World War I, tying in with a recent post about George’s maternal grandfather: “When [John French] was away during the First World War, my mother became a lamplighter herself. She was up a lamp post one day and somebody accidentally took the ladder away. She was left hanging by her hands from the bar and had to fall in the end. She was eight months pregnant as well. But the baby was lovely. Nine pounds.” - Louise Harrison on her parents, The Beatles: The Authorized Biography (1968) “My grandmother — my mother’s mother — used to live in Albert Grove, next to Arnold Grove, so when I was small I could go out of our back door and around the back entries (they called them ‘jiggers’ in Liverpool) to her house. I would be there when my mother and father were at work.” - George Harrison, The Beatles Anthology (More about George's father in a recent post.)

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My 1D

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This first image was scanned from a 2011 George tribute magazine published by the British Beatles Fan Club, and shows George’s maternal grandfather, John French, circa 1919. Photo 2 shows George in 1967, photographed by Richard Avedon.

“Of all the Beatles, George Harrison can truly claim to have the strongest Irish roots. His family tree can be traced back to the thirteenth century when his ancestors, who were Norman knights from France, settled in southern Ireland at the time of William the Conqueror. Given the name ‘Ffrench’ by their peasant subjects, these knights owned all the land that could be seen from the tower of their Norman castle in Co Wexford, 60 miles south of Dublin. During the time of Oliver Cromwell the family refused to renounce their Catholic beliefs and, as a result, were stripped of their property and thrown into a life of poverty, toiling on the land and continuing to do so for the next 300 years. Records show that as recently as 50 years before George Harrison began his musical career, his Irish forebears still lived a humble peasant life on a tiny farm at Corah, Co Wexford. George’s great-grandfather, James Darby Ffrench, was born in 1825 and he married Ellen (née Whelan), born in 1831. The two struggled all their lives to produce enough to feed and clothe their five children and meet a monthly rent of 14s 6d for their two-acre farm. When they died within two months of each other in 1906, James was 81 and his wife was 75. Their children, who by now had dropped the extra ‘f’ from their name, struggled on with the farm for four more years. When Elizabeth, the eldest daughter, died in 1911, the surviving siblings sold the smallholding and divided the proceeds. One of the remaining children, John, born in 1870, emigrated to Liverpool where he signed up with the city’s police force. He was sacked, along with the rest of his colleagues, during a bitter union dispute that became known as The Liverpool Lock-out, in which policemen were banned from entering their own stations. Following a brief spell as a carriage driver, he found employment as a streetlamp lighter and moved to a small terraced house, 9 Albert Grove, Wavertree, where his wife [Liverpool-born Louise Woollam] bore seven children. One of their children, Louise, met her husband-to-be, Harold Hargreaves Harrison, when she was a teenager working as a grocer’s assistant and he was a steward in the Merchant Navy. [...] Harold Harrison married Louise in 1930 and they moved into a tiny two-up, two-down, in 12 Arnold Grove. They had four children, Louise (born 1931), Harold (1934), Peter (1940) and George (1943).” - The Beatles and Ireland by Michael Lynch and Damian Smith

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Freddie Mercury and George Harrison poster

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The Beatle: You Get One

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Do you know anything about George and Estelle? Or any other pre-Pattie girlfriends? I’ve been curious about it.

Hello,

I hope you won’t mind if I answer both of you together as the subjects are related.

Did George have ‘a type’. I think the answer is yes and no. Like all red blooded Beatle boys, George had a thing for Brigitte Bardot, French actress and sex symbol who John, and to a lesser degree I think, Paul and Ringo, were besotted with. So that lead to a ‘preference’ if you like for blonde, tall and skinny girls (hello Pattie!) However, that’s not to say he didn’t like girls of all shapes and sizes and kinds as well.

I think it’s interesting that in interviews, the Beatles would often stress they wanted girls who attracted them to them with their minds as well as their physical attributes. Here’s George answering a question like that in 16 Magazine in June 1964:

(More on that at a later date).

George was very private about his… well, private life, so I think there were probably a few more girlfriends of his other than those we know a bit about, but here’s a quick over view of the very lucky, lucky girls who at one time or another were able to call themselves George’s girlfriend (up to and including Estelle).

IRIS CALDWELL

Iris was Rory Storm’s younger sister and George’s first girlfriend.

“My first girlfriend was Rory Storm’s sister, Iris Caldwell. She was really nice and had cotton wool in her bra. She probably didn’t ever think she was my girlfriend. You never know when you’re young; you just fancy somebody, or someone’s in the same room as you, and you end up thinking they’re your girlfriend.”

[George, Anthology]

George and Iris had a very sweet, very chaste romance, which involved lots of hand-holding and sitting on sofas. There’s a very sweet story about George and Iris - Rory embarrassed Iris by announcing from a stage that his sister stuffed her bra with cotton wool (as George alludes to in the above quote). Iris ran out, mortified and George chased after her.

“[A]ll the sudden, he caught up with me, turned me round, and it was George, and that was our first kiss. And nobody has ever - that was the best kiss ever in my life, and to this day, I remember that feeling in my tummy. Nobody ever kissed me like that. It was beautiful.”

George and Iris broke up after George insulted some of Iris’ friends at a party, so that was the end of that. But it’s not all sadness for Iris - she went on to date Paul later and eventually married Alvin Stardust (and, I think, someone else after Alvin).

RUTH MORRISON

Ruth was George’s girlfriend when he was around 16, and this small, low quality picture seems to be the only one of her. It’s from Pete, Rory and Roag Best’s book, The Beatles: The True Beginnings, and I think it could have been supplied by Ken Brown, who was briefly in the Beatles (or The Quarrymen) when the Casbah Club opened in 1959. Ruth was quite involved in the Casbah Club (I think that could be Mona Best’s dog she’s pictured with, though that’s unconfirmed). Ruth is described as having beautiful auburn hair and being very pretty. She was mad about George and he was mad about her - for a short time. But alas for Ruth, George was more in love with rock and roll. Apparently George signalled the end of his relationship with poor Ruth in the most callous way. Ken Brown found Ruth crying one night, outside the Casbah. When he asked her what was wrong she told him George had refused to go to the cinema with her and she was frightened he just wasn’t bothered about her any more. Ken went and found George and told him Ruth was upset, but instead of going to find her, he shrugged his shoulders and went to play with the band instead. They continued together for a short while, but it was more or less over.

“In those days, Paul was not very interested in girls - he took one or two to the pictures, but that was all. He was in love with music. George was the same. Ruth was crazy over him, but he did not bother very much with her. George and Paul both thought it a great laugh that John was so keen on Cynthia.“

[Ken Brown]

MONIKA PRICKEN

Monika, who I don’t have a picture for or much info about unfortunately, was briefly George’s girlfriend when the Beatles were in Hamburg. She was 17 and so was George, so they were underagers together. She says it was more of a platonic relationship but she was there when George was deported and had to catch the train home.

PAULINE BEHAN

Pauline was George’s girlfriend c.1960-61. She met the Beatles at the Casbah and was first attracted to John, but it was George who asked her out. Pauline was probably George’s first steady girlfriend and she was still his girlfriend when he want to Hamburg with the Beatles in the Spring of 1961. Unfortunately for George, while he was away Pauline caught the eye of Gerry Marsden of Gerry and The Pacemakers. With George out of the country, Pauline when out with Gerry a couple of times, but she clearly told Gerry that George was her boyfriend and they could only be friends.

“We’d been out a couple of times by then. But Pauline said she was going to see George. I returned alone downstairs to the Cavern and went to George. ‘Hiya, Gerry,’ he said. I said, ‘Don’t smile. I’ve got some good news and some bad news. The good news is I’m in love. The bad news is that it’s with your girl.’ The conversation didn’t last long. I think he said something to do with sex and travel. I then went back to Pauline upstairs and I told her there was no need to bother to go down - ‘I’ve packed him in for you,’ I added. Pauline was furious, but I’ve always believed in dealing with problems head on.“

[Gerry Marsden]

Neither Pauline nor George took much notice of Gerry, but he just wouldn’t go away. Eventually George asked Pauline to chose, him or Gerry, and she picked Gerry - although George called her a few times afterwards to check “if she was still happy”. She married him in 1965 - as photographed above, with Brian Epstein as best man - and they’re still married today.

MARIE GUIRRON

Marie was from Birkenhead and George’s girlfriend in the summer of 1961 (pictured above in 1963). She met George in the Cavern and after a couple of chats, they started going out. George had recently passed his driving test and he and Marie would go driving in George’s new Ford Anglia late at night, after the Beatles Merseyside gigs, sometimes going as far as into North Wales. (The idea of this does strange things to my heart!) I’m not really sure how Marie and George broke up - I think the relationship probably petered out when George was taken away from Liverpool by Beatle tours and he moved to London. Marie went on to marry Justin Hayward of the Moody Blues, and I think they’re still together today as well.

BERNADETTE FARRELL

Bernadette - who is the small blonde girl watching George from under the Cavern’s arch with her arms folded - was George’s girlfriend in early 1963, when she was 17. She was a Cavern regular and George asked her out by slipping a note through her door.

“It wasn’t too much out of his way to run me home. I still have a little note that he gave me for our first date. It was in early 1963. It was a very happy teenaged period, and I have so many happy memories. […] It was no big, raging love affair, but George was my boyfriend. He was a lovely, lovely man, a caring, private person. A lot of people said he was quiet but that’s because they didn’t get to know him. He was actually quite lively and humorous. he was always making dry quips. He was not shy, but he was happy to stand back and only speak when he thought it was relevant. He was a deep thinker who didn’t say any more than was necessary.”

“It was just a short relationship that ended when he went to London. Some of the girls from the Cavern went off to follow the band, but that was not for me. We drifted apart with the pressure of his work. It was just one of those things. People get stick for leaving Liverpool but in those days it was just something you had to do to succeed. They left Liverpool almost overnight and he just didn’t have time to see me. I saw him again at a party in the 1970s and he was still the same handsome, charismatic George.”

[Bernadette Farrell]

ESTELLE BENNETT

Estelle of The Ronettes dated George (on and off) from late 1963 to early 1964. The Ronettes toured the UK in December 1963 and early 1964 and were introduced to the Beatles. George and Estelle hit it off right away.

“George and I talked whenever we’d see each other. We found we liked the same things, long walks while wearing comfortable clothes and being with sincere people who liked us for ourselves and not because we were in show business. I think I was the happiest when I was talking with George. There was something about him that made me open up and spill out anything that was on my mind. I think he felt the same way, for he’d often call late in the evening and talk on the phone for hours. We started seeing each other in England, but then had to say goodbye when he and the other Beatles left for Paris and an engagement. He called me every day. He even flew into London so he could see me on the one day he was off. liked George. He wasn’t my boyfriend, but someone special, someone who meant an awful lot to me.”

[Estelle Bennett]

The budding relationship was put on hold when The Ronettes returned to the US at the end of their tour, but they were sure to meet up again a very short time later when the Beatles came over in February 1964. The Ronettes went to see the Beatles at their hotel on the first day, but it was crazy busy and George and Estelle didn’t have chance to talk (also, remember, George was just about to fall sick). He asked Estelle to come back and see him the next night.

“The next night I met George at the hotel. Along with the other Beatles, and Cynthia, John’s wife, we sat down to dinner. What a good feeling it was to be with all of them again, just like old time in England. After dinner, George and I went into an adjoining study and brought each other up to date on the various happenings since our last meeting. George looked tired and told me he never gets a chance to relax. I got the impression he didn’t enjoy traveling as much as the other boys did. […] We saw each other many times. I was with him at the party after their concert and on other evenings when we just sat around the hotel with the rest of the group. But somehow things weren’t the same. We couldn’t recreate the same relationship we had when I was in London. Instinct told me this wasn’t the right time to be with him. I didn’t want to be around when he wasn’t happy. Since I’d be returning to England soon, I decided it would be better to see each other on his home ground.”

[Estelle Bennett]

But I think by that time, George had met Pattie and that was all she wrote. Although Estelle says he was not her boyfriend, they did share a few dates and boys don’t generally fly back from France on a day off to see a girl they don’t have any feelings for.

I think there could have been one or two others… but these are the acknowledged members of George’s girlfriends. Thank you for your ask(s)!