John Gibson: Something to remember Lennon by

Published on Friday 3 April 2009 09:45

MARILYN MONROE'S lost none of her magnetism. When she was last in Edinburgh six years ago, in a collection of rare pictures, she was a sensation.

Jonathan Poole, who'd brought the collection from Los Angeles for exhibition/sale at The Dome, remembers her well: "On the closing day, a Saturday, I stood at the door with the 1400 programmes I'd brought with me, telling everybody 'admission free, programmes 1'.

"We sold the lot. That paid for my hotel across the road at the George."

Poole might well be termed an "exhibitionist". Organising exhibitions of art work of or by world-renowned icons, dead or alive, is his speciality. It's a living and he's back in town this week, same venue, showing John Lennon line-drawings in pen and pencil (permission of Yoko Ono).

Lennon's three years at the Liverpool Art Institute were to stand Yoko in very good stead. He had preserved several hundred sketches at the time of his death in 1980.

Poole brought here 14 of these, never before seen in public, and sold two before the exhibition opened on Monday. Closes tomorrow, admission free.

Cheltenham-based Poole will be back in Edinburgh later this year with more Monroe but at a different venue.

"It wasn't practical to return to The Dome, which has been very good for us, but Rebecca, my publicist, will be coming up with an alternative city centre location."

Forget me not

Inevitably the memory fails me (it's always the second thing to go) but I did remember to forget to send a card to Robbie Coltrane for his 58th on Tuesday (is that all he is?). But I didn't miss Victor Hochhauser, the celebrated impresario, on his 86th last weekend.

You remember old Vic. He's a charmer in comparison. Slimmer, too.

Oh, and latest research has discovered that memory lapses and other signs of ageism beset us from the age of 27. So that's when I began to lose the plot?

Afterwords . .

. . . Neck and neck to see what wins the latest Most Boring Telly of the Weekend Award – Formula 1 or McCall Smith's No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. Hold on to your seats! The race is on!