Talk:Cynthia Lennon

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Good article Cynthia Lennon has been listed as one of the Arts good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can delist it, or ask for a reassessment.
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Contents

[edit] Beatles wives

  • Cynthia Powell is notable in history as the wife of John Lennon
  • Maureen Starkey is only notable as a wife
  • Olivia Trinidad Arias is only notable as George's wife; although she has done great charity work and helped to organise George's legacy those thing have flowed from her marriage to George

Please note I'm talking of encyclopedic notability, not casting aspersions on their value as human beings!!

To kinda confirm my theory, the above 3 articles are all rather lame as they stand.

Yoko Ono, Barbara Bach, Heather Mills McCartney and Linda McCartney are I think notable in their own right.

Pattie Boyd, I'm not sure, I think notable because of Layla', acting appearances etc.

My proposal, then, is to consolidate the top-mentioned 3 into an article on the Beatles' wives, which would of course have brief paras on the other ladies with the links to their biographies. --kingboyk 22:34, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

I'd say clearly that this article isn't nearly as comprehensive as the one on Yoko, or the one on Linda, and that there's lots more to say in those cases, but I'm not sure that a merge is needed, this article has enough to stand on its own. I do like the idea of a Beatles wives article though. It may get at the angle of what being married to someone that famous is like and what the 24 hours surveillance did to them (assuming sources could be found). ++Lar: t/c 21:09, 4 March 2006 (UTC)
My point is that what is said here about Cyn is just about all that can be said. Olivia's article is one line long (in fact in the past I had to revert a cheeky attempt at redirecting that page to George Harrison!). Lose 3 poor stubs, gain a nice article. That was my rationale, might be wrong though. Anyone else? --kingboyk 21:41, 4 March 2006 (UTC)
Nod. With Olivia it's very clearcut, that unless there is a lot more to say, a merge is the way to go. But here, with Cyn, there's well over a page of article here. Not all articles are destined to be 25 pages long, some perfectly respectable articles need not be more than a page or so. So I'm not sure I agree per se. Not the end of the world if it got merged with a redirect though. ++Lar: t/c 06:28, 5 March 2006 (UTC)
Alright, maybe make Olivia's article one of the 'improvement drive' candidates then? There is more to say about her - Concert for George, managing his reissues and legacy, charity work, photo. --kingboyk 07:47, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

(placing this here, since it's kinda parta the same thread) Jane Asher of course needs a standalone article, but I think she should be in the same subcat as the "wives". That would necessitate renaming the category. Comments? --kingboyk 18:49, 6 March 2006 (UTC)

Beatles relationships? Beatles main squeezes? ++Lar: t/c 06:53, 9 March 2006 (UTC) (from STL)

Speaking as one who maintains a private list of non-notable spouses (a sort of hobby), I agree with the proposal, and I think Patti Boyd should go in too, all with proper redirects of course. My personal opinion is that Heather Mills should go in too, as her article is too long. Consider - if she wasn't married to McCartney, would her article be as long? No, she wouldn't have an article. Lots of people like seals or whatever. She's only notable as Paul's wife. But that's just my opinion. As for Patti Boyd, sure, Layla, but how did she inspire Layla? Was she really a muse for Clapton, or would any other wife have done as well? In this she differes from (say) Sara Dylan or Virginia Poe. Anyway, I say: Merge the three at least, and add Patti Boyd. As to the category, how about "Beatles Wives and Girlfriends"? Herostratus 17:33, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the comment and your broad agreement, but I find the argument regarding Patti vs Sara Dylan rather spurious. Only Clapton knows for sure, and Layla is a pretty hardcore, heartrenching song wouldn't you agree? :) (That said, Layla has it's own article now of course). --kingboyk 20:21, 10 March 2006 (UTC)
Re: Patti - If she wasn't the subject of "Something" and "Layla", she is most certainly the muse for Claptons later "Wonderful Tonight" (a UK hit single). She had some small fame as a model before meeting Harrison, but her major influence is how her change of partners did not (publicly) affect the friendship between the two men - at least in the long run - which says something about them.LessHeard vanU 21:59, 15 April 2006 (UTC)

Is being the inspiration for a song enough to earn a page? I know Layla is big but is it really enough? Are there pages for every inspiration of every numver 1 hit song? Also, George has said many times that Patty was not the inspiration for Something.

[edit] Name

The article says "After her divorce from John Twist, Cynthia changed her name back to Lennon by deed poll." Assuming this is correct, this page should surely be at Cynthia Lennon. I shall move it accordingly. Nick 17:56, 10 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Picture

Can nobody upload a nicer picture? There are many more of John and Cyn, or even Cynthia on her own, that would be more suitable than the existing one.

I have uploaded four pictures. The one with her and John on the car is really good, IMHO. Cynthia on the car roof? What a babe... andreasegde 12:08, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Marriages

Maybe this should have a section on its own.... andreasegde 13:12, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] References

I am working on Cynthia's book first (because it's easier) but will go through the other books after that. andreasegde 14:36, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Length

"I got a feelin'" that this article could be a bit long, and I've just started working on it... andreasegde 15:21, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

I think the length is fine, and I like the articleTammiMagee 12:02, 2 May 2007 (UTC)
Thanks, TammiMagee. The article will be longer than it is now, but I don't think there's much more to go in after Cynthia's divorce. andreasegde 14:21, 2 May 2007 (UTC)
30,012 bytes so far. andreasegde 13:46, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Nearly done

I have put this up for GA (which will take awhile). If anybody sees anything that needs fixing, please leave a note here or on my talk page. andreasegde 21:42, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] POV / not entirely encyclopedic?

I'm concerned the article reads somewhat non-npov - a vast majority of notes come from a book by Cynthia herself, which is not necessarily objective, and 2. not all information is entirely encyclopedic: do we really need to know how long she was in labour or how much Kenwood cost? Carrot Jones 17:15, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, and how about all that stuff about what a bitch Mimi was? Necessary?? Why??? --63.25.15.170 (talk) 14:42, 27 May 2008 (UTC)
It would take me about half an hour to put in extra citations from Spitz and Miles (which agree with Cynthia's comments) but I think it would clutter up the article. If that has to be done, I will very gladly do it. I was paraphrasing a published book, which nobody has said (in public, or in the courts) is wrong. If nobody sued her (including Yoko) then I think it stands. I thank you for your comments, BTW. andreasegde 18:19, 6 May 2007 (UTC)
  • I think the cost of the house is important, and how much they spent on it, because of the modern kitchen equipment that Cynthia didn't know how to use.
  • "how long she was in labour?" - that is something that women will understand (but not me, as I am a man) and will want to know. Do you have kids? If you don't, ask your mother :)andreasegde 18:32, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

49 in-line references from Cynthia's book, 30 from Spitz and 9 from Miles. One could easily take out 15 from Cynthia's which would balance it - but what would be the point? Anything referenced by her is referenced elswhere. andreasegde 18:19 2007 (UTC)

[edit] References

Cynthia now has 99 references, from various sources (59 from Cynthia). I hope that will suffice. andreasegde 09:55, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

The "Miscellaneous" section needs removing. LuciferMorgan 13:09, 7 May 2007 (UTC)
Have done it. Thanks, LuciferMorgan (as always). andreasegde 15:23, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] GA review

Waiting for it... andreasegde 05:37, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

Passed the article as a GA. It's one of the best I've seen nominated for the grading. However, try to expand the lead a little more - the one/two-line sentences don't really qualify as paragraphs. Another thing, have you tried getting in contact with the subject in order to release that infobox picture under a free license? Might be worth a try. Anyway, good work, and keep it up. CloudNine 10:43, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Mundane

This article is way too long, with many, many mundane details. E.g., the detail about all the various little rooms and flats she's lived in. Much in this article can be stated more succinctly. Not to diss her, but she was the first wife of John Lennon - she doesn't merit this much attention. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 165.189.169.190 (talk) 14:08, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

You are 'dissing' her, and you don't merit much attention by not having a user name (and not even using tildes.) --andreasegde 20:23, 21 September 2007 (UTC)

Go ahead and dimiss by comments because I haven't created a username - not sure why that's such a big deal. I have nothing against Cynthia Lennon and didn't mean to diss her - but seriously, this article is too long and contains too many mundane details ("she lived in a semi-detached house"). You yourself wondered about the length at one point. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 165.189.169.190 (talk) 12:59, 25 September 2007 (UTC)

I said "this article could be a bit long",, which is far from beng too long. Living in a semi-detached house means somethng in the UK, because living in a terraced house like McCartney, Harrison and Starr did meant—in the 1940s/50s—that you were working class and not middle class.
Q: Why are you worried about this article being too long? She was Lennon's first wife, had his first son, and lived with him through most of The Beatles glory years. How much would you cut out and where would it stop?
If Wikipedia sets a limit on how long an article should be (and this is less than the limit of 50,000 bytes) then what's the problem?
You know who I am, so create a username and we can converse, because then I will know who you are. :) --andreasegde 15:08, 25 September 2007 (UTC)

I see many opportunities to edit this article down. I gave it a try a while ago, but my edits were reverted. I almost expect to read what kind of toilet paper was used at Mendips. I'm not that concerned about the length or how important Cynthia Lennon is; justing stopped by and commented. Still think this article is way too long, and contains too much mundane detail. 165.189.169.190 (talk) 21:19, 5 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Kenwood picture

Hello. The picture on this page is not Kenwood. I think it could well be Sunny Heights, Ringo's former home on the same estate. It is not Kenwood though. The same picture is in the Bob Spitz book, and it isn't Kenwood there, either. There is an accurate picture of Kenwood available to Wikipedians, and you can see it, funnily enough, on the entry for Kenwood. By the way, someone like andreas should take a look at the Kenwood page - surely it is now better than start class? But any suggestions to improve it would be welcome.Brownhouse1 20:29, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

I recall reverting a vandal last month that claimed that this image was sunny heights. If this is indeed true, then I suggest that you be bold and edit this image's page (named "Image:Kenwood estate.jpg") to reflect the true nature of this image. In a minute or two, I'm going to switch the image over to the one used at Kenwood, St. George's Hill so that the image is unambiguously Kenwood. Thanks, Lisatwo 02:10, 24 September 2007 (UTC)
The photo was taken from Bob Spitz's book (see article for ISBN) and is definitely Kenwood. Spitz worked on the book for 7 years, so I think we can trust his judgement on a photo. --andreasegde 15:11, 25 September 2007 (UTC)
Oh, sorry about the picture swap. I should've looked up the book before making this hasty edit. Lisatwo 16:41, 25 September 2007 (UTC)
No guys, the picture is definitely NOT Kenwood. Take a look at the Kenwood page - someone has now put up a lot of pictures of the house, and the picture on this page doesn't match. Trust your own eyes! It's quite likely that this was taken from an agency who mis-labelled the pic at some point. However, there are pictures of Ringo outside Sunny Heights, and it looks really like this house, so my guess is it is Sunny Heights. As far as the Spitz book goes, whilst not without merit, it is well known for the number of mistakes it contains - 7 years' research or not.86.153.33.81 11:06, 27 September 2007 (UTC)


The photos on the Kenwood page are all GNU Free Documentation License. I'll go with any one of those. (They're nicer anyway because they're in colour). One was taken from a second-storey window, so it must be the one. Problem solved. --andreasegde 17:46, 27 September 2007 (UTC)

P.S. Errr... My only problem is that this google shot has no rectangular pool. --andreasegde 17:55, 27 September 2007 (UTC)

This one quite near has a rectangular pool but only access from Old Avenue, not Cavendish Road. --andreasegde 18:02, 27 September 2007 (UTC)

Was it this one? --andreasegde 18:08, 27 September 2007 (UTC)

Yes, that's Kenwood.86.153.33.81 18:11, 27 September 2007 (UTC)

Drinks all round, people. I will copy over the 'sunroom' photo and put a link in to the google sat photo. --andreasegde 18:15, 27 September 2007 (UTC)
Good work! 86.153.33.81 20:20, 27 September 2007 (UTC)
Yeah an remember, "All YOU NEED IS LOVE" ("we have failed to paint it black, man." Dave) Vera, Chuck & Dave (talk) 22:07, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Sunny Heights

Where did Ringo live? --andreasegde 19:14, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] References

Any edit made without a verifiable reference will be deleted, including edits that are slipped into referenced sentences, BTW. --andreasegde (talk) 02:47, 17 December 2007 (UTC)