Talk:George Smathers

Oldest living

Let's just cut this claim until we can come up with a claim that makes sense.--MikeDayoub 02:30, 6 November 2007 (UTC)

"He is currently the oldest living former US senator."

Replaced with

"He is currently the earliest living former US senator."

Smathers is NOT the oldest living former seantor, that honor belongs to Clifford P. Hansen of Wyoming. Smathers is the earliest living US senator, as in that nobody is alive who was appointed senator before he was in 1951.

1950 election

Cut from article:

It is also widely claimed that Smathers won the election by using linguistic tricks to attack Pepper before uneducated audiences, such as stating that Pepper had a "thespian" sister and a "Homo sapiens" brother, although Smathers repeatedly denied these claims during his term in the Senate.

This was apparently cribbed from a 1970 article in Mad Magazine:

• His youngest brother wrote an essay extolling the virtues of being a homo sapiens.
• His wife was a thespian before their marriage and even performed the act in front of paying customers. [1]

It could not have been "cribbed" from a 1970 article, because Time reported it in 1950[2]. While the quote is most likely apocryphal, considering that it is probably the one thing Smathers is most famous for, it seems strange to cut the mention of it completely. That would be like having an entry on Louis XIV and not mentioning, "L'etat c'est mois." Better to discuss the issue and evaluate its veracity.

Dead

He is dead. Perhaps we should fix this?

• Yes Sen. Smathers was just laid to rest at the Arlington National Cemetery this past week.

(KingYaba 03:28, 3 June 2007 (UTC))

Father

I see there are a number of sources (some seemingly reliable) stating that his father (unnamed in the sources) was a federal judge, but the Federal Judicial Center site indicates that no one named Smathers has ever been a federal judge [3]. I'm going to delete the reference in the absence of the father's name and evidence to the contrary. Maybe he was a state judge? MisfitToys 21:11, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

• His father, Frank Smathers, was a judge, state not federal. Appointed in New Jersey. Quoting from the unpublished biography of Frank Smathers, Jr (the judge's son; the senator's older brother): "My father...was later appointed a Judge by Governor _______'s office." (FYI: The governor's name was left blank in that draft b/c FSjr was uncertain which governor it was.)

--HeritageHelper 22:19, 5 July 2007 (UTC)

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Why was the thespian celibacy speech removed?

Yes, he never said it, but it's a significant part of United States political folklore, and maybe what he's most widely known for nowadays, so it should definitely be included in the article. AnonMoos (talk) 03:05, 6 October 2020 (UTC)

Since we agree that he didn't say it despite it having been attributed to him, I plan to relocate this bit of political folklore to the section on popular culture. -- 13:10, 15 October 2020 Danrebo

OK, but don't delete it... AnonMoos (talk) 05:12, 16 October 2020 (UTC)