(Entered November 9, 2000)

Thanks to Richard Joly of Ono-Web

Jill Serjeant, reported for Reuters News Service that 150 bricks removed from the Menlove Avenue home where John Lennon was raised by the famous Aunt Mimi will be auctioned on the Internet next week.

The NBC television network acquired the bricks from the house in Woolton during filming in Liverpool for a two-hour TV movie about John's teenage years. It was the first time a film crew of any sort had been allowed access to the house, which is privately owned but has become a regular stop on fan tours of the city where the Beatles were born.

After long discussions, the 88-year-old owner agreed not only to let his house be used in the movie, but also to having a downstairs wall knocked through to allow more room for filming.

"At first we were going to throw the bricks in a dumpster,'' writer and executive producer Michael O'Hara told Reuters. "Then I said 'hold on a minute', because this was a very expensive movie to make and we were over budget and I thought here's an opportunity to generate some revenue. We had a big laugh about it. But then I slept on it," O'Hara said.

The bricks were removed and documented in the presence of an local Liverpool auctioneer and then "carted away almost under armed guard."

O'Hara noted that 5,000 bricks salvaged from the demolition of Liverpool's Cavern Club several years ago are now fetching between $300 and $500 each on the Web.

The owner of Lennon's house - who will only say his name is Ernest - will get 50 percent of the profits, some will be donated to the nearby Strawberry Fields children's home immortalized in the Beatles song, and the rest will go to cover the costs of the movie.

The auction will begin on November 15 and end on December 4th and will be held at http://www.nbci.com/lennon .