Talk:George Smathers

Page contents not supported in other languages.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Oldest living[edit]

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

"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[edit]

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[edit]

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))[reply]

Father[edit]

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)[reply]


  • 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 Quoting from the unpublished biography of Frank Smathers, Jr (the judge's son; the senator's older brother): "My father...was later appointed a Judge by Governor _______'s office."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)[reply]

External links modified[edit]

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to one external link on George Smathers. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add {{cbignore}} after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add {{nobots|deny=InternetArchiveBot}} to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at {{Sourcecheck}}).

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 18 January 2022).

  • If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
  • If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—cyberbot IITalk to my owner:Online 01:34, 29 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified[edit]

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on George Smathers. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 18 January 2022).

  • If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
  • If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 14:15, 22 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Why was the thespian celibacy speech removed?[edit]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:George_Smathers&oldid=1212141284"