Polythene Pam and Frederic M. Sackett: Difference between pages

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'''Frederic Mosley Sackett''' ([[December 17]], 1868-[[May 18]], 1941) served as a [[United States Senator]] from [[Kentucky]] and [[ambassador]] to [[Germany]] during the [[Hoover Administration]].

'''Polythene Pam''' is the name of a song written by [[John Lennon]] (although credited to [[Lennon-McCartney]]) and performed by [[The Beatles]] on their final album, ''[[Abbey Road (album)|Abbey Road]]''. Superficially about "a mythical [[Liverpool F.C.|Liverpool]] [[Sexual slang|scrubber]] dressed up in her jackboots and kilt", the song was inspired by an evening that John spent with poet [[Royston Ellis]] and his girlfriend, Stephanie. The three wore

polythene (a common British truncation of the word [[polyethylene]]) bags and slept in the same bed out of curiosity about kinky sex. Incidentally, John would later admit in the 1980 interview with ''[[Playboy]]'' that Ellis was the first person to introduce the Beatles to [[drugs]] when he showed them how to get high from the strips inside a [[Benzedrine]] inhaler. It was in this interview that John supplied the details of this event but refused to elaborate further.

He was born in [[Providence, Rhode Island]]. His father was a wealthy wools manufacturer. He attended the public schools in Providence. He graduated from [[Brown University]] in 1890 and from [[Harvard Law School]] in 1893.

The song may have been equally inspired by [[Cavern Club]] fan Pat Hodgetts, who was called "Polythene Pat" because she used to eat the material. "I'd tie it in knots and then eat it," she later reported. "Sometimes I even used to burn it and then eat it when it got cold."

He was admitted to the bar in 1893 and began practice in [[Columbus, Ohio]]. Shorltly after he moved to [[Cincinnati, Ohio]] and then to [[Louisville, Kentucky]]. He practiced law until 1907.

On the album, this song runs directly into the next song, "[[She Came in Through the Bathroom Window]]". Technically, "Polythene Pam" is over at the end of the guitar solo, at which point Lennon says, "We'll listen to that now," followed by, "Oh, look out!"

In 1898 he married [[Olive Speed]], the daughter of [[James Breckenridge Speed]], who was part of a wealthy and prominent Kentucky family.

At 0:47, someone picks up a maraca and, in the right channel, [[Paul McCartney]] can be heard saying "Yeah," while Lennon says, "Great".

Although he began as an attorney, he gradually became involved in his wife's family business, the mining of coal and the manufacture of cement. He served as president of the Louisville Gas Co. and of the Louisville Lighting Co. from 1907-1912. He was involved with the Board of Trade of Louisville, serving as president in 1917, 1922, and 1923. He was also director of the Louisville Branch of the [[Federal Reserve Bank]] from 1917-1924. During the [[First World War]], he served as federal food administrator for Kentucky from 1917-1919. This led to a friendship with the directory of the national food administrator, [[Herbert Hoover]]. Afterwards he was a member of the Kentucky State Board of Charities and Corrections from 1919-1924.

==References==

*Turner, Steve. ''A Hard Day's Write: The Stories Behind Every Beatles' Song'', Harper, New York: 1994, ISBN 006095065X

*[http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/DATABASES/AWP/pp.html Alan W. Pollack's Notes on "Polythene Pam"]

*[http://www.columbia.edu/~brennan/beatles/anomaly.html What Goes On?]

He was elected as a Republican to the United States Senate in 1924 and served from March 4, 1925, to January 9, 1930, when he resigned, having been appointed Ambassador to Germany by President Herbert Hoover. He served from 1930 to 1933, when he resigned. Afterwards, he resumed his former business activities. He died of a heart attack while visiting [[Baltimore]], and is buried in Cave Hill Cemetery, Louisville.

==External links==

*[http://frogcircus.org/beatles/abbey_road/polythene_pam Lyrics]

{{The Beatlesbioguide}}

==References==

*Burke, Bernard V. ''Ambassador Frederic Sackett and the Collapse of the Weimar Republic, 1930-1933'' Cambridge University Press, 1994.

[[Category:The1868 Beatlesbirths|Sackett, songsFrederic M.]]

[[Category:19691941 songsdeaths|Sackett, Frederic M.]]

[[Category:United States Senators from Kentucky|Sackett, Frederick M.]]

[[Category:Ambassadors|Sackett, Frederic M.]]