#aunt mimi

[chezeduck]

mama ooh.. i dont wanna die but sometimes wish id never been born at all..

[homicidalbrunette]

John and Julian

[handfetis]

"John tried to smooth the way for George by telling Mimi what a great guy he was before she ever met him, but once Mimi got a look at his pink shirt, she threw him out the door," reads TLYM.

[tar-tar-from-the-mclennons]

Do you think anyone knew about McLennon? I'm thinking about the early days, Jim really didn't like Paul hanging around with John, and Aunt Mimi wasnt keen on Paul. But once they were famous, I know that Jane didn't like John either, and maybe she caught them together. I also wonder if they told Brian, as he was gay.

As usual, my answer isn't very definitive, so apologies in advance.

I think that RE Jim and Mimi, unless something was seen or overheard, I doubt either of them would just assume John and Paul were romantically/sexually involved. Now, as my theory is that John was always bi (or, possibly, gay and closeted), it's possible Mimi may have either gotten an inkling of this in John's childhood (when he was less guarded and more likely to unintentionally let it slip) and then seen John and Paul together and tried to keep them apart, partly because of homophobic views of the time, and likely also to protect John. There's also Paul's looks to consider: i do wonder if people (family, friends, schoolmates, bullies) made comments about his looks and him being girlie and/or gay (I mean, I think it's quite likely). So maybe Jim had suspicions in that area. But I think realistically it was probably more a case of Jim seeing his son hanging around with an older boy (yes, not by much, but when you're 15, a lad who's almost 17 is considered older) who was into rock music and drank and had a band etc. We know Jim was quite stern with Paul. As for Mimi, I really think it was probably a class thing, and she probably looked down on Paul.

Skipping forward, Jane is always a bit of an odd one for me. I don't know why, maybe it's because I'm a big Linda fan, or maybe it's because I kind of feel bad for her; she was so young when she and Paul started dating, and whenever I see pics of them together, all I can think about is the countless times Paul cheated on her. But with regards to John, I think it's plausible. I could certainly imagine her catching them at it and pretending she never saw anything, and especially as she was in theatre, I think she'd have had an understanding that being gay isn't the terrible thing that most people of that time thought it was. But then again, he was her boyfriend, so would she really have been that OK with it? Was she sworn to secrecy? Or maybe she saw them together without them knowing?

And finally, Brian... honestly, out of all of your suggestions, maybe Brian is the most likely. He spent a lot of time with them and it's possible he caught them at some point (although, I have just read a fic where this happens, so maybe that's why I'm thinking that, haha). I love the possible conflict of that happening, too. Obviously Brian would never say anything - he can't jeopardise the Beatles - but as a gay man, he probably would've been dying to scream it from.the rooftops.

What do we all think? ❤️

[tavolgisvist]

‘When I caught sight of him, when John brought him home for the first time, I thought “Oh-ho, look what the cat’s dragged in,”’ Mimi later recalled. ‘He seemed so much younger than John–and John was always picking up waifs and strays. I thought “Here we go again, John Lennon… another Shotton.”’ Even Paul’s immaculate manners could not thaw her. ‘Oh, yes, he was well-mannered–too well-mannered. He was what we call in Liverpool “talking posh” and I thought he was taking the mickey out of me. I thought “He’s a snake-charmer all right,” John’s little friend, Mr Charming. I wasn’t falling for it. After he’d gone, I said to John, “What are you doing with him? He’s younger than you… and he’s from Speke!”’ After that, when Paul appeared, she would always tell John sarcastically that his ‘little friend’ was here. ‘I used to tease John by saying “chalk and cheese”, meaning how different they were,’ she remembered, ‘and John would start hurling himself around the room like a wild dervish shouting “Chalkandcheese! Chalkandcheese!” with this stupid grin on his face.’”

(Paul McCartney: The Life by Philip Norman, 2016)

Q: "Why did you collaborate with Yoko on this LP?" JOHN: "It's like a play and we're acting in it. It's John and Yoko - you can take it or leave it. Otherwise (laughing) it's cows and cheese, my dear! Being with Yoko makes me whole. I don't want to sing if she's not there. We're like spitiual advisors. When I first got out of the Beatles, I thought, 'Oh great. I don't have to listen to Paul and Ringo and George.' But it's boring yodeling by yourself in a studio. I don't need all that space anymore."

(John Lennon, The September 29th 1980 issue of Newsweek)

[hermajestythesun]

Reddit - The heart of the internet

why is aunt mimi lowkey a narc

[shinywitchdaze]

They just casted Aunt Mimi!!!!!

Leanne Best will be casted as Aunt Mimi!!

They've also casted Mal Evans, Neil Aspinall, Allen Klein and a few others I forgot 😭

[bodhbdearg]

re your tags on that post with John calling himself fat: woah I hadn’t heard that Mimi only ate one meal a day, that makes sense to me that it would plant some seeds in John’s mind with respect to eating habits. is there any more on that that you’re aware of?

(Re: this post and my tags)

I read about it in Tune In and just checked the reference. It comes from a profile of Mimi written by journalist and friend Mike Hennessy in the Record Mirror paper in 1971. There isn't much other information about her eating habits in the quote, but there are other comments highlighting her lack of vanity, saying that she never wears makeup, jewellery or goes to the hairdresser (I'm not sure if that last one can be true, as in photos she seems to have a fairly typical "set" 1950s hairstyle). Here's the full quote:

“Aunt Mimi is a remarkable woman. Slender, dressed with severe simplicity and regarding the world with warm, brown, inquisitive eyes, she somehow communicates great inner strength and resolution and an independence of spirit, all mellowed by an irresistible sense of fun. She comes, she says, from a family of incessant talkers and certainly [she holds] free-flowing and intelligent conversation… She is extremely well-read, utterly self-sufficient, defiantly unsentimental and is sometimes mischievously irreverent. Her bookshelves are thick with biographies. She has a special regard for Osbert Sitwell but no time at all for slushy love stories. ‘I couldn’t possibly read that rubbish,’ she says. ‘If I read a book I want to be wiser afterwards.’ Books are her only indulgence. She eats one simple meal a day, has never been to the hairdresser in her life and never wears make-up or jewellery. ‘But if I go into Smith’s, that’s the end. I just can’t resist books.”

Mark Lewisohn: “The Beatles - All These Years - Extended Special Edition: Volume One: Tune In”. (2013), p. 271.