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He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found The Paris Review, as well as his patrician demeanor and accent. And here for the full interview). Hear Stories By George Plimpton. It was so tiny that if you saw him in it, you couldnt believe hed be able to get himself out of it. It was always as if one were setting out with him on a special adventure. Well, perhaps it's more accurate to say that the book provided entertaining confirmation to millions of people that they -- like the author . Norman Mailer said that George Plimpton was the best-loved man in New York. In the "I'm Spelling as Fast as I Can" episode of The Simpsons, he hosts the "Spellympics" and attempts to bribe Lisa Simpson to lose with the offer of a scholarship at a Seven Sisters College and a hot plate; "it's perfect for soup! I have a memory of George emerging out of the bush, with a terrible sunburn on his nose and face and legs; he was in safari gear, none of it hanging together very well, and over it all he was wearing a nice blue blazer. Middle class? And I, of course, was looking them over, too. I had made about five thousand egg and tuna sandwiches. Peter Matthiessen took the magazine over from Humes and ousted him as editor, replacing him with Plimpton, using it as his cover for Matthiessen's CIA activities. 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. It includes clear pronunciation of each and every consonant cluster. On Saturday Night Live, even the great impersonator Dana Carvey couldnt get it quite right. Mona Abboud remembers George Plimpton - Orlando Sentinel 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. 2023 Cond Nast. Another entertainment-related explanation for the shift, right about the time of the Eisenhower-Kennedy transition: The plumby announcer voice that hovers over the Atlantic midway between the Eastern Seaboard and England was mortally wounded in 1959. Mr . Plimpton's remarkable life is showcased in a documentary that is. 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. He majored in English. Plimpton, George 1927-2003 | Encyclopedia.com Plimpton sparred for three rounds with boxing greats Archie Moore and Sugar Ray Robinson while on assignment for Sports Illustrated. It was horrifying.. What exactly is a Boston Brahmin accent? Big, tall, good-looking guy, easy-going. So it went in late 1960 at one of George Plimpton's legendary soirees at 541 E. 72nd St., New York. 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. George Plimpton. If you say, I pahked my cah in Hahvahd Yahd, like some vaudeville version of a Boston accent, you are non-rhotic. **Mid-Atlantic. He Was Shot by John Wayne. Even Orson Welles on occasion. Hed ask what was new in fireworks business and doodle around the facility with my dad, and he would always leave with a package of fireworks, to put on his own show. Final Twist of the Drama. Butch, he says, because he always called me Butch. Would you like Mike to run for you, George? the coach asked. 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.. George Plimpton: what kind of accent? In the offices of the Paris Review, he displayed far more discerning tastes. [26] He also appeared in an episode of the NBC sitcom Wings. Talking about sports with Georgeor, even better, reading George about sportswas more fun than sports themselves. He was respected by all. He also served as editor of the Harvard Lampoon. Yes indeed, George Plimpton is a man for all seasons. Typical of George to laugh about something others saw as a defining traithe never took himself all that seriously. After several problems with transporting and preparing the fireworks, Plimpton and Grucci became the first competitors from the United States to win the event. And I felt such love for my sweet old excited dad at that moment that I thought I would do him the favor of not telling him so, of leaving it unsaid. Premiring on June 21st at the SilverDocs festival, in Washington, D.C., and directed by Tom Bean and Luke Poling, the film contains interviews with notable friends and peers like Hugh Hefner, Peter Matthiessen, and James Lipton, though the majority of this remarkable account is narrated by none other than George Plimpton. Back to Plimpton I dont remember the LL affect at all. That he died in his sleep was impressive. I think he came down [to the shooting of Paper Lion in] Florida once. If you are in the big league, God help us all. That life couldnt contain him, hed burst its seams like it was an old coat two sizes too small. Plimpton entered Harvard as a member of the Class of 1948, but did not graduate until 1950 due to intervening military service. Hed go on to move freely through so many worlds and circles, without ever not speaking in that singular accentthough it probably would have made life easier for him if hed adopted a new way of talking (after all, as a journalist in the locker rooms, where slang and cursing were art-forms, my dads stiff, formal tongue made him stick out like an egret among ducks). Its something different, and Ive not encountered that in the mid-Atlantic. Plimpton! The Great Quarterback Sneak - YouTube By George Plimpton. Slate is published by The Slate Group, a Graham Holdings Company. Plimpton died on September 25, 2003, in his New York City apartment from a heart attack later determined to have been caused by a catecholamine surge. Norman Mailer, author:George had a rare gift. Famed participatory journalist George Plimpton (1927-2003) was a writer, editor, amateur sportsman, actor, and friend to many. [citation needed] Some of these events, such as his stint with the Colts, and an attempt at stand-up comedy, were presented on the ABC television network as a series of specials. 3: Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Plimpton was married twice. We had the book party for my selected poems, Sailing Alone Around the Room, at Georges house on Sept 10, 2001. He liked the fact that I had broken my nose in defeat. [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. Indeed, the police deposition the filmmakers managed to uncover may be the only time my dad ever spoke about the tragedy, publicly or privately. Actually, thats not far off from how my mom felt when she first met him. $ 4.19 - $ 17.92. Whats the matter?, Well, he said. And the many candidates for the crown of Last American to Speak This Way. He did not appear last year, or the year before, and we feared he was done with us. The s. 2) Truman v. Kaltenborn, 1949. When George told the story, DiMaggio laughed so hard I thought he was going to fall on the floor. With such a useful explanation, why do I gripe about the name? 3 people found this helpful . Plimpton and Dudley were the parents of twin daughters Laura Dudley Plimpton and Olivia Hartley Plimpton. Truman Capote: In Which Various Friends, Enemies, Acquaintances, and Detractors Recall His Turbulent Career. [47][48] [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. I thought Id died and gone to Olympus. On one website, I read about a Choate alumn saying one can still hear the LL (see above thread) accent on campus. 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. She is the product of a line of the original Dutch settlers of New York and grew up in Tuxedo Park and the Gramercy Park area of Manhattan, very exclusive. George Plimpton is beautifully connected. And later I woke upat 6 a.m. Later I called up George, I said, What happened?, I thought it over, he said, and I took mercy on you. The clearest example of the Mid-Atlantic accent is the accent of the Frasier & Niles Crane characters on the TV show Frasier. I mean, if George Plimpton wasnt my father and Id never met him, and I heard that voice emerge from his lips and matched it with his severe Roman features and his usual blue blazer, oxford shirt, and tie, I might have assumed that he was a little pompous or snooty or affected. She was also the great-granddaughter on her father's side of Oakes Ames (18041873), an industrialist and congressman who was implicated in the Crdit Mobilier railroad scandal of 1872; and Governor-General of New Orleans Benjamin Franklin Butler, an American lawyer and politician who represented Massachusetts in the United States House of Representatives and later served as the 33rd Governor of Massachusetts. 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. Starring George Plimpton as Himself" - is meant as a wink-wink to Plimpton's career as a "participatory journalist." As a writer for Sports . They spoke in this manner, and it seemed perfectly natural, evocative of a background spent among the gentry of the northeast.. Harvard (where he edited the Lampoon), Kings College, 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. Plimpton, along with former decathlete Rafer Johnson and American football star Rosey Grier, was credited with helping wrestle Sirhan Sirhan to the floor when Kennedy was assassinated following his victory in the 1968 California Democratic primary at the former Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California. The Moth | The Art and Craft of Storytelling [35], Plimpton was known for his distinctive accent which, by Plimpton's own admission, was often mistaken for an English accent. George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 - September 25, 2003) was an American journalist, writer, literary editor, actor and occasional amateur sportsman. The conservative thinker may have shared an accent with some other men of the same age and social class, but his mannerisms and gestures made him entirely uniqueand occasionally prone to. And the answer may explain partly why it has gone out of fashion: Jonathan Harris, the actor who played Dr. Smith on the television show "Lost in Space.". Self-help author and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson has a unique accent that, . All the good guys have got to go. Heres a sampling for today, with more planned in the days ahead. 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. That tension between what was in his heart and what his voice allowed him to express is the basic tension of language we all face, only heightened. Update: This post is #2 in the announcer-speak series. Ad Choices. Best-selling author George Plimpton shares his experience as a "Storyteller For Life" with Dean Nelson of Point Loma Nazarene University as part of PLNU's 5th Annual Writer's Symposium By The. He rounded first as if he were about to go for a double, then glided back to the base, with fans waving and cheering. Powered by Discourse, best viewed with JavaScript enabled. How to find out, and whether you should care. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. For instance: Mid-Atlantic English was the dominant dialect among the Northeastern American upper class through the first half of the 20th century. He also appeared in a featurette about Edie Sedgwick found on the Ciao! George Plimpton writer, publisher, amateur lion tamer died in 2003 after 50 years as the founding editor of The Paris Review. What was our problem? His dish was Spaghetti Bolognese. Book excerpt - George Plimpton on why Hole 16 at Cypress Point is one What will you be mad about ten years after youre gone?). How George Plimpton's Sports Books Presaged the First-Person Media Age Brown & Co. Re-issued George Plimpton Sports Books, 2016. [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. George . Kim Noble, one of the announcers on the NPR affiliate in Kansas City, KCUR, speaks with a very affected Connecticut Lockjaw accent. Announcer-Speak: The Video Highlights Reel - The Atlantic No one realized till the next day that this was the weather that created the extreme blue skies of Sept. 11a condition I since learned that pilots call severe clear. The next day, friends called and said, That was the last party. He was also known for "participatory journalism," including accounts of his active involvement in professional sporting events, acting in a Western, performing a comedy act at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, and playing with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra[1] and then recording the experience from the point of view of an amateur. Here are five things you may not have known about him. Shadow Box: An Amateur In The Ring -- George Plimpton On Boxing The Writers won the game with a home run in extra innings, but the highlight was Plimptons hit. rejoiced in the name of Euphemia van Renssalaer Wyatt. silk-stockinged New Englander - private schools (he was The flipped prestige markers point here is fascinating. [41] She is the daughter of James Chittenden Dudley,[42] a managing partner of Manhattan-based investment firm Dudley and Company, and geologist Elisabeth Claypool. George Plimpton - Rotten Tomatoes tweedy demeanor and Oxford accent. I feel that his work on this and many other language-related matters should be far more widely known than it is. What stood in our way? George Plimpton | Sport | The Guardian If you say, I parked my car in Harvard Yard, you are being rhotic. (Newsreels ran in movie theaters, of course: what better critique of the high newsreel style than the new movies that jarred against it?). So it was that George Plimptons accent could not be imitated. Spoke in a mid-Atlantic accent, reflecting a privileged Upper East Side (in New York City) upbringing. [3], He was the son of Francis T. P. Plimpton[4] and the grandson of Frances Taylor Pearsons and George Arthur Plimpton. Your transparent jealousy is very unbecoming, Carnac. By George Plimpton. Quite sad, as he just had a daughter not many years back. The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. 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. (What else happened that year??? Family (1) Spouse If you didnt know the man, you could, I think, be fooled by the voice. Several weeks later at a book party, he spotted two writers who had played in that game. His response was "no, just affected.". George, Being George: George Plimpton's Life as Told, Admired, Deplored All rights reserved. But he would do this in the most charming and agreeable way. He wrote, "I suppose in a mild way there is a lesson to be learned for the young, or the young at heart the gumption to get out and try one's wings". Peter even came with us on our honeymoon in Ravello, though George didnt. But he could easily have said, Alice, I have enough trouble raising money for my magazine.. Shadow Box. 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. Paper Lion: Confessions of a Last-String Quarterback [29], With Felix Grucci, Plimpton competed in the 16th International Fireworks Festival in 1979 in Monte Carlo. Where are you?, Im at dinner with my wife, I said. December 17, 2022 Rafael Garca. He was previously married to Sara Whitehead Dudley and Freddy Medora Espy. In 1992, Plimpton married Sarah Whitehead Dudley, a graduate of Columbia University and a freelance writer. A little before my time, but Kennedy certainly didnt, even if his vernacular was more formal than Brandos. After it was published, all of the baseball people were trying to get in touch with Sidd, but he didnt existit was an April Fools joke! "[44], In 2006, the musician Jonathan Coulton wrote the song entitled "A Talk with George", a part of his 'Thing a Week' series, in tribute to Plimpton's many adventures and approach to life. "[25] He had a recurring role as the grandfather of Dr. Carter on the NBC series ER. The 16th at Cypress Point is one of the famous golf holes of the world, certainly one of the most difficult and demanding par 3's. George, Being George: George Plimpton's Life as Told, Admired, Deplored He looked like a very eccentric old Englishman. In Praise of Plimpton - Newsweek Was this sheer affectation? Several readers wrote in with specimens of Americans who had gone to England and ended up speaking in this mid-Atlantic way. And the role of Katharine Hepburn, whose Locust Valley Lockjaw accent was a cousin of announcer-speak: I was just discussing this not a week ago with a friend who has done voice work in film and television, and can adopt this accent in an instant to evoke that period, much to my amusement. In 1994, Plimpton appeared several times in the Ken Burns series Baseball, in which he shared some personal baseball experiences as well as other memorable events throughout the history of baseball.[20]. And what have we here? My moms initial impression was that he was a little hoity-toityI mean, who did this guy think he was?, But the second time they met, it was, in fact, my fathers voice that won her over. The young Paris Review editor and other New York literary figures arrived during a period marked by hope for a democratic Cuba. George was a little more in-depth than a lot of us, of course, with his education and all. The responses fall into interesting categories: linguistic descriptions of this accent; sociological and ethnic explanations for its rise and fall; possible technological factors in its prominence and disappearance; explanations rooted in the movie industry; nominees for who might have been the last American to talk this way; and suggestions that a few rare specimens still exist. He modestly shrugged off the compliment, but his bright smile betrayed his pleasureand ours. In early 1959, George Plimpton was preparing to watch an execution in Cuba. Oh now, Im joking, Carnac ( see? Of course, I think he enjoyed the odd persona his voice and mannerisms conferred on him. His final interview appeared in The New York Sports Express of October 2, 2003 by journalist Dave Hollander. That phony-baloney feigned British pronunciation thing. (To read Part One, click here. George was the one who read my name out to the commissioner. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found The Paris Review, as well as his patrician demeanor and accent. This was his habit. But he came right down to our level. Starring George Plimpton as Himself, the writer James Salter said of Plimpton that "he was writing in a genre that really doesn't permit greatness. 1. 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. George was not vainhe didnt care a whit about his image. In finally hearing the great storyteller tell the one story he would not tell, I could hear, too, his long, reverent silence on the subjectand it reveals his integrity as a journalist, and as a man. Friends were almost always happy to see him because you knew he was bound to improve your mood. Was it me? He loved the ones that made a lot of noise and racket and excitement. As a result, this American version of a posh accent has all but disappeared even among the American upper classes. Timothy Seldes, George Plimptons literary agent:Whenever George wanted me to do something for him, he would call me up and say, Hello, Old Tim. One day, I got a call, and heard his voice, and my heart sank. The risky pleasures of Plimpton's classic of participatory sportswriting, Paper Lion. 08:37 Dinner at Elaine's. by George Plimpton. "I've decided to stay over here in . It was a hot, sweltering day. Mid-Atlantic. (My dads been dead nearly ten years: not that he held many in his life, but what grudges could he possibly be holding on to now? Queen Elizabeth doesnt say car, and neither did Franklin D. Roosevelt, nor did the newsreel announcers or movie actors of his day. I believe the accent was at one time known as Larchmont Lockjaw. Youll get another shot at the big time, trust me. He had it all going! These are some of the things my father could not say: Shit. Fuck. I love you. His curses were never actually curse-words, though it was perhaps because of this that they held such weight. He knew we were just as good as he was, but in a different field. I live in Connecticut which is both the richest and poorest state in the union - I think we still are - and we have our fair share of extremely rich folk who sit around all day in their large victorians wearing rockport loafers, no sox, khaki pants and a polo-shirt with the collar up. By George Plimpton. Plimpton appeared in the 1989 documentary The Tightrope Dancer which featured the life and the work of the artist Vali Myers. When he found a story to be short of the mark, he rejected it no matter who the author wasan old friend, a Pulitzer winner, an unknown. He joined us in Monte Carlo when we won the international [fireworks] competition. Was it him? 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. The Wikipedia entry is indeed delightful. With the evolution of talkies in the late 1920s, voice was first heard in motion pictures. Others outside the entertainment industry known for speaking Mid-Atlantic English include William F. Buckley, Jr., Gore Vidal, George Plimpton, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Norman Mailer, Diana Vreeland, Maria Callas, Cornelius Vanderbilt IV. His experience was captured in the book Out of My League. Writing Wednesdays: Hemingway on Fiction, Part Two - Steven Pressfield (This is not to belittle Lowell Thomas, but to recognize the artifice that served him so well in his career). As such, it was popular in the theatre and other forms of elite culture in that region. He was very understanding of what we did and how we did it. 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. But dying in sleep: It was as if he was doing what he did when he tried out for all those other things as an amateurballooning, acting, boxing, performing at amateur night. This book is the party that was George's life-and it's a big one-attended by scores of famous people, as well as. After his discharge, Plimpton returned to Harvard and finished his undergraduate education. Off screen, George Plimpton and Gore Vidal come to mind. A lifelong New Yorker, he never tasted a bagel or an olive, and he never chewed a stick of gum. To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories, To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. Vault. George Plimpton (1927-2003) was a journalist and the first editor-in-chief of The Paris Review.