[21] The prank was so successful that many readers believed the story, and the ensuing popularity of the joke resulted in Plimpton's writing an entire book on Finch. Consider his duties as host of Mousterpiece Theatre (my first intro to my father as celebrity), a childrens TV show in which he debated the adventures and psyches of Donald Duck and Goofy in that marvelously serious voice: Is Donald Duck really a strident existentialist and a hero? How wonderfulwhat fun!to have a constant reminder emerging from your lips that life was absurd, and identity, too; all of it a great game to be played at, enjoyed. The opposing team: the Detroit Lions. Share; Copied! He was very understanding of what we did and how we did it. silk-stockinged New Englander - private schools (he was My fathers voice was like one of those supposedly extinct deep-sea creatures that wash up on the shores of Argentina every now and then. [17], In 1953, Plimpton joined the influential literary journal The Paris Review, founded by Peter Matthiessen, Thomas H. Guinzburg, and Harold L. "Doc" Humes, becoming its first editor in chief. He was immensely generous in every waygenerous about sharing the work and about giving one a chance to edit things. Sign up for the Books & Fiction newsletter. Heres a sampling for today, with more planned in the days ahead. expelled from the very expensive, very WASP-y Philips Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2007. It includes clear pronunciation of each and every consonant cluster. ), this isnt some kind of morbid contest to see who can be the first to inform the board of some celebritys death. George was a little more in-depth than a lot of us, of course, with his education and all. The name George Plimpton is synonymous with a kind of all-in participatory journalism. Hows your mom? hed always ask me. She was having lunch at P. J. Clarkes with the publisher Bennet Cerf and his son Chris, and my dad swooped over to the table (he was wearing a cape) and introduced himself in that ridiculously gallant voice: Bennet, Chris, what a pleasant surprise! Ive known him forsix months and I just now learned hes not English!. Somehow Georgehad gotten it into his head that I was on the verge of becoming a pharmacist before he had called me up a year earlier to tell me the Paris Review was publishing a story I had submittedperhaps because of the pharmacological bent of the subject matter. I hope not. *Originally posted by CBCD * Plimpton was a writer-raconteur and dilettante in the best sense of the word: He co-founded an important literary magazine, the Paris Review, and tried his hand at everything from quarterbacking for the Detroit Lions (which he wrote about in Paper Lion), boxing with light-heavyweight champ Archie Moore (which became Shadow Box), and becoming New Yorks unofficial official fireworks commissioner. His exploits were such that at one point, The New Yorker ran a cartoon in which a patient eyed a surgeon with misgiving and said, But how do I know youre not George Plimpton?, But perhaps foremost among his accomplishments was his elevation of the interview to a literary form, both in the Paris Review and in his two superb works of oral history, Truman Capote: In Which Various Friends, Enemies, Acquaintances and Detractors Recall His Turbulent Career, and Edie, a biography of Edie Sedgwick, which he and Jean Stein compiled. In 1966, George Plimpton's book Paper Lion, recounting his attempt to play football with the Detroit Lions, allowed millions of Americans to vicariously live out their childhood dream of playing in the NFL. He was 76. Isnt that what they call it. Old money, would never say the word spanky, and certainly had more money than God could count. Its our anniversary. The clipped, non-rhotic English accents of George Plimpton and William F. Buckley Jr. were vestigial examples. Shootout at Rio Lobo", "The Smaller the Ball, the Better the Book: A Game Theory of Literature", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=George_Plimpton&oldid=1137974740, This page was last edited on 7 February 2023, at 10:19. *Originally posted by Phlosphr * Manhattan DVD. $ 9.19 - $ 32.19. So, pairing the Cagney hint with the Kennedy Inaugural, could we date the changeover to 1961? Peter even came with us on our honeymoon in Ravello, though George didnt. [29], His enthusiasm for fireworks grew, and he was appointed Fireworks Commissioner of New York by Mayor John Lindsay,[29][30] an unofficial post he held until his death. Thats a common name for such an accent. And bolstering this last point, a reader who grew up in Depression-era Chicago writes: All I can think of is that people were imitating FDR. But he would do this in the most charming and agreeable way. She was the daughter of writers Willard R. Espy[39] and Hilda S. Cole, who had, earlier in her career, been a publicity agent for Kate Smith and Fred Waring. It was horrifying.. Plimpton revisited pro football in 1971,[18] this time joining the defending Super Bowl champion Baltimore Colts and seeing action in an exhibition game against his previous team, the Lions. If you found him at a fancy restaurant, he was there as a guest: For his own meals he preferred cheap Chinese or bangers and mash at a local Irish pub. Think of the accent of Jane Hathaway on the Beverly Hillbillies. But the gentleman amateur - a Harvard. * . He appeared in the PBS American Masters documentary on Andy Warhol. He would have a beer with you. What exactly is a Boston Brahmin accent? O ne afternoon this summer, I sat in George Plimpton's study waiting for the gentleman editor, participatory journalist, and beloved gadfly of American letters to arrive. George Plimpton. George Plimpton. [citation needed], Plimpton's studies at Harvard were interrupted by military service from 1945 to 1948, during which time he served in Italy as an Army tank driver. It took the form of a statement: I dont know writers who write about sex better than you. I rose to the bait and answered saying, Thank you. Ive rarely heard this accent in real life but its often used by actors doing a stereotype character based on other actors impersonations! It includes clear pronunciation of each and every consonant cluster. For instance: The American-British television presenter Loyd Grossman, who has described his accent as Mid-Atlantic. I knew that between the time Id asked Plimpton to do the auction and the night itself, he had probably received five invitations for a better evening, but he would never have reneged. Mr . When George told the story, DiMaggio laughed so hard I thought he was going to fall on the floor. When he was on the scene, everything was a big happeningan event. The last time I heard my fathers voice, it was over the telephone. Orson Welles also comes to mind, though I noticed he spoke in this mode more often during his early days, on and off screen. Plimpton brought the Left Bank to NYCpeople like Peter Mathiessen, William Styron, Terry Southern. His high Boston accent might have been heard as an influential transitional hybrid, and its interesting how prominent parodies of the speech of Brando, Dean, and Kennedy were at the time: seems a sign that we were noticing a marked change. Hearing the words Dammit, Im mad as a hornet! uttered in George Plimptons voice made anger sound totally ridiculous, which is exactly what it most often is. Its strange to think, but he would have been eighty-five this year: fourteen years older than my mom, fifty years older than me. A similar phenomenon can be noted in the use, well into the 1980s, of the recorded sound of teletype machines in the background of newscasts, a sound still faintly evoked by the bip-bip-bip patterns of music that often introduces news broadcasts, even though teletype machines are long gone The subconscious association of this pattern of sound with news is fading fast with the passing of the years and will undoubtedly disappear entirely in the coming decade as surely as the over-enunciated style of radio speech of the 30s disappeared within a generation of its no longer being needed. Congratulations Carnac, for posting about George Plimptons death at 3:44 PM. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to these men speak. [2], In 1975, in Bellport, Long Island, Plimpton, with Fireworks by Grucci attempted to break the record for the world's largest firework. Oh now, Im joking, Carnac ( see? Bill Buckley, Gore Vidal, George Plimpton. Plimpton and Dudley were the parents of twin daughters Laura Dudley Plimpton and Olivia Hartley Plimpton. We worked at the Paris Review on the Rue Garanere for several years together. He majored in English. Plimpton, George 1927-2003(George Ames Plimpton) Source for information on Plimpton, George 1927-2003: Concise Major 21st Century Writers dictionary. In the early 60s, when I was working at the firework plant with my dad [Felix Grucci], George would pull up in shiny red sports car on his way to the Hamptons. . Ive always heard it referred to as a patrician accent. [2][43], An oral biography titled George, Being George was edited by Nelson W. Aldrich Jr., and released on October 21, 2008. Cambridge. **. (What else happened that year??? [citation needed], In the movie Plimpton! Now, in George, Being George, 200 friends, lovers and rivals detail Plimpton's remarkable exploits. His friendships testified to what an eclectic man he was. Get book recommendations, fiction, poetry, and dispatches from the world of literature in your in-box. Plimpton himself described it as a "New England cosmopolitan accent"[36] or "Eastern seaboard cosmopolitan" accent. The first minute is a cameo by Henry Ford II, who speaks in an utterly flat Midwest rather than Mid-Atlantic accent that no one would call elegant but that would sound perfectly natural in 2015. I only wish I could not tell him again, just one more time. Read more in this thread (long). NEW YORK -- George Plimpton, the self-deprecating author of "Paper Lion" and other sporting adventures and a patron to Philip Roth, Jack Kerouac and countless other writers, has died. The fake English announcer voice lingered on sporadically until the end of the Johnson administration in newsreels, which themselves ceased production around the same time, but Rod Serlings decision sounded the death knell for that accent. Again with thanks to Jonathan Fields, here's the continuation of George Plimpton's famous interview of Ernest Hemingway from the Paris Review, Summer 1958. Sometimes, we used to have quarrels, because he thought I took too many poems: Are you turning this magazine into a poetry magazine? he would say. George had three siblings: Francis Taylor Pearsons Plimpton Jr., Oakes Ames Plimpton,[15] and Sarah Gay Plimpton. Spoke in a mid-Atlantic accent, reflecting a privileged Upper East Side (in New York City) upbringing. If you are in the big league, God help us all. George Plimpton boxed with Archie Moore, played quarterback for the Detroit Lions, and played percussion for the New York Philharmonic. It was always as if one were setting out with him on a special adventure. This speech pattern might be common among US expatriates in the UK, of which Grossman would seem to represent just the most ostentatious example. [citation needed], In 1963, Plimpton attended preseason training with the Detroit Lions of the National Football League as a backup quarterback, and he ran a few plays in an intrasquad scrimmage. Im having a harder time coming up with clear examples from the other side of the Atlantic, but Ive heard Alfred Molina (Londoner), and Catherine Zeta-Jones (Welsh) put on a Mid-Atlantic accent from time to time.. And so it seemed only fitting to commemorate his death with the form he made his own.Meghan ORourke. He said, You better stay here, and I did, for a while. Starring George Plimpton as Himself, directed by Tom Bean and Luke Poling, was released. He called his computer the machine. At dinner, when offered seconds, he would often decline by saying, Thank you, no, Ive had a gracious plenty. He called my mom Puss (this was also the name of our fat, raccoon-striped cat, though he was Mr. That is, until I saw the documentarythe assassination of his dear friend Bobby Kennedy. Its something different, and Ive not encountered that in the mid-Atlantic. The Writer's Chapbook A Compendium of Fact, Opinion, Wit, and Advice from the Twentieth Century's Preeminent Writers. He looked for ways in which he could make himself a ridiculous figure, and not only on the football field, but in all walks of life. [2] His first wife, whom he married in 1968[38] and divorced in 1988, was Freddy Medora Espy, a photographer's assistant. [3] During the summers, he lived in the hamlet of West Hills, Huntington, Suffolk County on Long Island. Greetings From the Vortex of Unpredictability, Truman Capote: In Which Various Friends, Enemies, Acquaintances and Detractors Recall His Turbulent Career. Well have a lot more to say about Buckley and Vidal for now the leaders in the race for Last American to Talk This Way (with George Plimpton in third)in the next installment. I received many notes like this one: The variety of English you are referring to has a name in linguistics: "Mid-Atlantic English". By George Plimpton. During our time in Paris, he had a famous little car, a dark blue Peugeotit was mine originally; I sold it to himand it had to be seen to be believed. From what other people had told me, I knew a little bit about itthat my father (and mother) had been right by Bobbys side in California when he was shot, that my father had tackled Sirhan Sirhan to the ground, and wrestled the gun from his handbut not a word of it came from my dad himself. After St. Bernard's School, Plimpton attended Phillips Exeter Academy (from which he was expelled just shy of graduation), and Daytona Beach High School, where he received his high school diploma,[16] before entering Harvard College in July 1944. He was one of her original supporters and had published an article about her work in The Paris Review. George was the one who read my name out to the commissioner. Was this sheer affectation? Plimpton was a writer-raconteur and dilettante in the best sense of the word: He co-founded an important literary magazine, the . Plimpton played Tom Hanks's antagonistic father in Volunteers. **Thats a common name for such an accent. On Saturday Night Live, even the great impersonator Dana Carvey couldnt get it quite right. I have decided, he said, that I have got to jump from a plane. And so when it was time to say goodbye, we did so simplyno awkwardness, no strangled expressions of affectionand this is why, even though it was the last time we ever spoke, and I would never get the chance again, I do not regret not telling him that I loved him. Revolutionary musket, a stairwell and a housemaster), The Wikipedia entry is indeed delightful. Norman Mailer said that George Plimpton was the best-loved man in New York. He had been in the war, if briefly (stationed in Italy towards the end of it, hed missed action, but met the Pope, an early sign of the great good fortuneone of his favorite phrasesthat marked his life). . This kept his magazine fresh for 50 years. Besides, third is a very respectable showing! For such admissions to escape my fathers lips, they always had to be a little removed somehow. And he told everyone that night, and for many years after, that hed diverted me from a career of filling prescriptions. If you didnt know the man, you could, I think, be fooled by the voice. George . Plimpton appeared in the 1989 documentary The Tightrope Dancer which featured the life and the work of the artist Vali Myers. All rights reserved. On one website, I read about a Choate alumn saying one can still hear the LL (see above thread) accent on campus. A lifelong New Yorker, he never tasted a bagel or an olive, and he never chewed a stick of gum. Ken Auletta, author:Sometime after age 70, when his reflexes dulled, George took to the sidelines in the Artists and Writers softball game in Easthampton, N.Y. Each year his name was announced, and each year he was hailed by the crowd, who paid more attention to him than to the game. He came from a family where such endearments were not expressed, and phone conversations were curt. Macklem . I just heard that George Plimpton has died. There was intellectual heft in the Plimpton genes too: one Ames was a Professor of Botany, another was Governor of Massachusetts, another relation was a publisher, and yet another a writer-philanthropist fascinated with the subject of how the great figures of the past were educated Young Georges educational path was precisely that of a Charles McGrath, editor of the New York Times Book Review:I dont think George had played golf in years, but he used to save up oddball tips for me and others. He wanted to play his own part, but they wouldnt let him. George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 - September 25, 2003) was an American journalist, writer, literary editor, actor and occasional amateur sportsman. You're going to play for us-making some sort of big comeback." "That's right," Plimpton replied in his patrician accent. He very much approved. George Plimpton. Starring George Plimpton as Himself" - is meant as a wink-wink to Plimpton's career as a "participatory journalist." As a writer for Sports . The flipped prestige markers point here is fascinating. Aldas version was always angry or consternated, like a character in a Woody Allen film, while my dad, though he certainly faced hurdles as an amateur in the world of the professional, bore his humiliations with a comic lightness and charmmuch of which emanated from that befuddled, self-deprecating professors voice. BTW, I cant imagine a presidential candidate today getting anywhere close to a nomination with FDRs accent, cigarette holder, and aristocratic bearing. [40] They had two children: Medora Ames Plimpton and Taylor Ames Plimpton, who has published a memoir entitled Notes from the Night: A Life After Dark. No, my fathers voice was not an act, something chosen or practiced in front of mirrors: he came from a different world, where people talked differently, and about different things; where certain things were discussed, and certain things were notand his voice simply reflected this. Tom Nowatzke, fullback, Detroit Lions (In the 1960s, Plimpton briefly played with the Detroit Lions asresearch for the best-selling book Paper Lion, which was later made into a film):I was the No. I didnt know he was from the Larchmont area. It was scary, because he was never mad, and to see this normally benevolent, white-haired figure of civility fill with pink steam, to hear this gentle man, who loved nothing more than to tell lighthearted stories and laugh, suddenly shout-whisper Dammit at some injustice on the other end of the telephone was unsettling. You heard it and it could only be him. Finally I did. And they founded this thing called the Paris Review and published poetry and short story writers and did interviews. To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories, To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. **. (And, OK, Im not a linguist, but Im married to one!) [31][32][33] His firework, a Roman candle named "Fat Man",[31][32][33] weighed 720 pounds (330kg)[31] and was expected to rise to 1,000 feet (300m)[33] or more[31] and deliver a wide starburst. It's a Scottish accent that's been modified somewhat for a mainstream audience that tends to associate them with Groundskeeper Willie. I always thought it sounded similar to the accent of William F. Buckley, Jr., who I believe was not reared in Boston. [5][6][7][8][9][10] His father was a successful corporate lawyer and partner of the law firm Debevoise and Plimpton; he was appointed by President John F. Kennedy as U.S. deputy ambassador to the United Nations, serving from 1961 to 1965. & FDR, George Plimpton, William F. Buckley, etc. She would not even say goodbye. Except at parties. Just in time for the Sixties, with all their other pressures towards some kind of anti-Eisenhower authenticity. *Originally posted by cuauhtemoc * George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 - September 25, 2003) was an American journalist, writer, literary editor, actor and occasional amateur sportsman. I think he came down [to the shooting of Paper Lion in] Florida once. 2) The Role of Broadway and Hollywood, and the Shift from Jimmy Cagney to Marlon Brando. Plimpton also appeared in a number of feature films as an extra and in cameo appearances. That was how it was in New York in those days, George just dragged it out a bit longer." Dudley Plimpton suspects the excess contributed to Plimpton's death in his sleep in 2003, at the age of 76. Actually, thats not far off from how my mom felt when she first met him. Anyhow, I asked Terry Gross from Fresh Air and George Plimpton to be auctioneers. Id like to offer a speculation, for what its worth. George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 - September 25, 2003) was an American journalist, writer, literary editor, actor and occasional amateur sportsman. ), this isnt some kind of morbid contest to see who can be the first to inform the board of some celebritys death. He was 76.. They all sound just like George. He never went all the way, though his authenticity and newly-downstyle speaking could probably be marked in the crisis/triumph stages of his reporting: the death of JFK; the Vietnam report; the moon landing. Researcher and writer Samuel Arbesman filed with NASA to name an asteroid after Plimpton; NASA issued the certificate 7932 Plimpton in 2009. They were born to Plimpton and his second wife, Sarah Dudley, 26 years younger than he, who is chairwoman of the East Harlem Tutorial Program, for which he was a trustee. He thought Castro might come. They spoke in this manner, and it seemed perfectly natural, evocative of a background spent among the gentry of the northeast. 26 Feb 2023 12:18:23 Hed done it in Amsterdam, Moscow, and London; hed done it at a PEN benefit; and now he and Norman were going to do it in Cuba. Since all we have are recordings of those long-vanished voices, we do not and cannot know whether people spoke "this way" when they were not being recorded, although I would be willing to wager that they did not. If he couldnt be taken quite seriously, that was fine with him (he took himself lightly, and relished being in on the joke). That was when Westbrook van Voorhis, the famous March of Time voice, did the intro narration of the pilot episode of The Twilight Zone. He was smooth. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found The Paris Review, as well as his patrician demeanor and accent. Typical of George to laugh about something others saw as a defining traithe never took himself all that seriously. We had the book party for my selected poems, Sailing Alone Around the Room, at Georges house on Sept 10, 2001. In no way do I recall Plimpton talking in a way that is typically associated with LLa style which, as I understand it, is associated with unclear pronunciation of most consonant cluster. Plimpton had a quasi-Brit patrician accent, which in no way corresponds with the official descriptions of LL that Ive read on the Net. If you were making a speech in a large hall, or speaking on the radio, you needed to enunciate very clearly and use a lot of emphases to be sure your audience could understand what you were saying. Family (1) Spouse [23] He was also notable for his appearance in television commercials during the early 1980s, including a memorable campaign for Mattel's Intellivision. What fine manners he had! In his July 1936 obituary, the New York Times described George Arthur Plimpton (13 July 1855-1 July 1936) as an "internationally known publisher and collector, college trustee and philanthropist." As the materials in the George A. Plimpton Papers testify, those four areas of activity dominated Plimpton's public and private lives. He liked the fact that I had broken my nose in defeat.
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