So it went in late 1960 at one of George Plimpton's legendary soirees at 541 E. 72nd St., New York. Mr . [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. At Harvard, Plimpton was a classmate and close personal friend of Robert F. Kennedy. During a career that spanned the second half of the 20th century, Plimpton was a quarterback for the Detroit Lions, pitched at Yankee Stadium, sparred with Archie Moore, played the triangle with. He was equally at home on a bicycle or getting out of a limousine with a Saudi Arabian prince. For such admissions to escape my fathers lips, they always had to be a little removed somehow. Whom is it spoken bymerely the elite, old-money types? Its something different, and Ive not encountered that in the mid-Atlantic. Vault. He appeared in the PBS American Masters documentary on Andy Warhol. George was not vainhe didnt care a whit about his image. He could have done whatever he wanted. Speaking of which, didnt the young Jackie Kennedy have something of this, along with a kinda dreamy, airy, Monroe-esque (though many degrees less contrived) essence to it? For it was George Plimpton the writer, not the editor nor the celebrity, who was honored here . Did he have the celebrated "Boston Brahmin" accent, or was it a psuedo-Brit affectation? 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. In early 1959, George Plimpton was preparing to watch an execution in Cuba. His friendships testified to what an eclectic man he was. George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 - September 25, 2003) was an American journalist, writer, literary editor, actor and occasional amateur sportsman. 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. The Sidd Finch story was accompanied by a series of photos which managed to convince even the eagle-eyed fans . George had three siblings: Francis Taylor Pearsons Plimpton Jr., Oakes Ames Plimpton,[15] and Sarah Gay Plimpton. The enormously popular speech styles of Brando and Dean (and I could add Elvis Presley) clearly pushed vernacular style into a kind of mainstream acceptability, then desirability. But he came right down to our level. I think the term Old Money or patrician pretty much says it. Is your language rhotic? expelled from the very expensive, very WASP-y Philips [citation needed], Outside the literary world, Plimpton was famous for competing in professional sporting events and then recording the experience from the point of view of an amateur. He had a small role in the Oscar-winning film Good Will Hunting,[22] playing a psychologist. He got the personality totally wrong, too. He was very understanding of what we did and how we did it. LL is typified, I think, but an almost clenching of the teeth while talking, producing a mushy sound, if you will. In it Van Voorhis has the formal delivery that would have seemed familiar to many mid-century listeners but which in retrospect we know was on the way out. The Writers won the game with a home run in extra innings, but the highlight was Plimptons hit. After her transformation, I noted that Mia sounds precisely like her mother, Maureen OSullivan, who had that patrician manner of speaking on and off screen. 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. My dad and I could not lose each other, but we could never quite find each other, either. A little before my time, but Kennedy certainly didnt, even if his vernacular was more formal than Brandos. George Plimpton was born on March 18, 1927 in New York City, New York, USA. The clenched jaw tight-bite bit: the lockjaw dentiloquist. George Plimpton (1927-2003) George Plimpton was the editor of The Paris Review from its founding in 1953 until his death in 2003. 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. #1 was Who Was the Last American to Speak This Way, #3 is Class-War Edition, and #4 is The Origin Story., Who Was the Last American to Speak This Way. Did he have the celebrated Boston Brahmin accent, or was it a psuedo-Brit affectation? George Plimpton, Out of My League: The Classic Account of an Amateur's Ordeal in Professional Baseball, 2016, Little Now the interview is perfect!. I'm not an expert, but Bill Labov from UPenn is, and he is quoted thusly: According to William Labov, teaching of this pronunciation declined sharply after the end of World War II. That was when Westbrook van Voorhis, the famous March of Time voice, did the intro narration of the pilot episode of The Twilight Zone. Finally I did. Look out, Wilson! You should be very grateful. **. These interviews are a collaborative effort, and, I believe, a fascinating contribution to literary history. Dan Rather certainly marks the definitive end of the newsreel style and the ascendance of the folksy vernacular: those rustic analogies! *Originally posted by cuauhtemoc * 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. Even if it had nothing else going for itsomething very far from the truth Shadow Box by George Plimpton will forever remain a bastion of boxing literature because of the image it contains of the "Near Room," a place of dreadful foreboding which Muhammad Ali once described to the famed . By George Plimpton. Elaine Kaufman, owner of Elaines restaurant:Over the 40 years I knew him, George came in often, sometimes twice a week, usually on his way back from a cocktail party. Slate is published by The Slate Group, a Graham Holdings Company. 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. At least, not to me, nor even to my sister, a fact she mentions in the movie. In 1955 or 56, he went back to New York. Havent heard that term in years. The point of the flipped prestige markers is that generally the fewer the Rs, the fancier the person. He very much approved. George Plimpton. If you didnt know the man, you could, I think, be fooled by the voice. The wife is also old money, as Phlosphr mentions, and she talks exactly the same way. When he was on the scene, everything was a big happeningan event. That phony-baloney feigned British pronunciation thing. The Curious Case Of Sidd Finch. Along with all the other things he does, George is an editor of the Paris Review, a literary quarterly published by the Aga Khan's uncle, Sadrudin, and his apartment is overstuffed with the comforts and legends of its use as a literary salon. Discussing the accent he used for Washington in an interview with The Onion AV Club, he explained: The accent back then was probably nothing like what we think of as a Southern accent now or a New England accent now, so we tried to find the root of the accents. Rose Styron, wife of William Styron and former Paris Review editor:My husband Bill was with George when he started the Paris Review. Larchmont Lockjaw? Family (1) Spouse Plimpton appeared in the 1989 documentary The Tightrope Dancer which featured the life and the work of the artist Vali Myers. Plimpton was .the public face of the New York intellectual: tweedy, eclectic and with a plummy accent he himself described as "Eastern seaboard cosmopolitan." . These events were recalled in his best-known book Paper Lion, which was later adapted into the 1968 feature film starring Alan Alda. 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. Its a shot from a YouTube video that itself is a fascinating time-capsule portrait of language change. Harvard (where he edited the Lampoon), Kings College, Jay McInerney, author:Arriving in Manhattan as a young writer, nothing was more thrilling or daunting than attending my first Paris Review party at Georges townhouse on East 72nd in the fall of 1984. Read more. Several weeks later at a book party, he spotted two writers who had played in that game. 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. George Plimpton was a literary man about town who did it all, from co-founding The Paris . (Why do I even bother?) And George had written it straight. 08:37 Dinner at Elaine's. by George Plimpton. 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. Just listen to very early recordings from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, back even before microphones, when singers had to yell directly into a large cone and over-enunciate so that their voices would be recorded into something intelligible on a spinning wax cylinder or disk. George was the one who read my name out to the commissioner. If you are in the big league, God help us all. The Dudleys established the 36-acre (15ha) Highstead Arboretum in Redding, Connecticut. [citation needed] In 1958, prior to a post-season exhibition game at Yankee Stadium between teams managed by Willie Mays (National League) and Mickey Mantle (American League), Plimpton pitched against the National League. To me, it meant admission to this little exclusive club at the Paris Review. 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. Never heard of this decidedly imprecise term. Impressively liberated from our opulent life-style, Sidd's deciding about yogaand his future in baseball. With such a useful explanation, why do I gripe about the name? 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. So it was that George Plimptons accent could not be imitated. Actors Nathan Lane (from Jersey City, NJ) and Robin Williams (grew up in SF Bay area) often adopt this accent. George Plimpton boxed with Archie Moore, played quarterback for the Detroit Lions, and played percussion for the New York Philharmonic. Queen Elizabeth doesnt say car, and neither did Franklin D. Roosevelt, nor did the newsreel announcers or movie actors of his day. At the time, he was getting ready to pitch for the Yankees,and we would throw pitches across 72nd Street in preparation. Billy Collins, poet:Im one of these people who went from crashing Georges parties in the 70s to being invited in the 80s. It was always as if one were setting out with him on a special adventure. 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. He would have a beer with you. He watched the first pitch sail high for a ball, and then hit a rope into left field. his prose, and his down east, cultivated accent, although perhaps a bit pretentious, will remain with me as I reread one of my favorite books. In this campaign, Plimpton touted the superiority regarding the graphics and sounds of Intellivision video games over the Atari 2600.[24]. Articles From This Author. 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. Thats a common name for such an accent. George Plimpton, journalist extraordinaire, trains with and then performs as Quarterback for the Baltimore Colts. As an old film buff, I am used to this voice, though it figures unevenly in old movies. You're going to play for us-making some sort of big comeback." "That's right," Plimpton replied in his patrician accent. It was then that the majority of audiences first heard Hollywood actors speaking predominantly in Mid-Atlantic English, British expatriates John Houseman, Henry Daniell, Anthony Hopkins, Camilla Luddington, and Angela Cartwright exemplified the accent, as did [a long list of North Americans, from Elizabeth Taylor and Grace Kelly to Richard Chamberlain and Christopher Plummer]. $ 9.19 - $ 32.19. They were divorced, and had been for a while, but they still talked, and visited every now and then, and they would sit on my moms porch on Long Island and look out over the pond at the birds and tell each other stories and laugh until the tears came to their eyes, but he could not ask her this directlyHow are you, Freddy? He had lost my mom, at least in part because he had been unable to communicate with her, to show his love. A few days after, I went to a Paris Review party and showed off my damaged nose and two black eyes to George. "[27], Plimpton was a member of the cast of the A&E TV series A Nero Wolfe Mystery (200102). Vault. Is it in evidence among the Gen X set of Boston, or a passing phenomenon? I only wish I could not tell him again, just one more time. Even in the UK we sometimes subtitle various Scots dialects on the news and TV and whatnot, so it makes sense that he wouldn't go full Dundee for the show. 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. 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! Peter even came with us on our honeymoon in Ravello, though George didnt. When I spoke to him my voice went up an octave and took on his formal tone and became careful and unnatural; his voice became like his fathersstern, authoritative, disciplinarianwhen his father was the last person in the universe he wanted to be. He smiled broadly, signaled for the coach to send Lupica in to run for him, and trotted back to the sidelines. In the 50s Plimpton and staff came to New York, where they kept the Review going for half a century. [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. Vault. He was so open to life and all its new and unexpected situations. Of the Murrow Boys, Eric Sevareid held on to the newsreel style the longest; relying on memory, Im betting that we could actually watch the transition away from that to a more vernacular style in the long career of Walter Cronkite. He had it, as does/did William Buckley, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, and Julia Child. In 2013, the documentary Plimpton! **Those of us whose families are from Larchmont (that would be me) just call it lockjaw. He majored in English. . Think of the accent of Jane Hathaway on the Beverly Hillbillies. Daniel Kunitz, managing editor of the Paris Review from1995-2000: I once heard George joking with William F. Buckley on the phone about how they had the last affected accents in New York. After several problems with transporting and preparing the fireworks, Plimpton and Grucci became the first competitors from the United States to win the event. $ 4.19 - $ 17.92. He was also an accomplished birdwatcher. Archie Moore, after all, had broken his nose. It was horrifying.. Big, tall, good-looking guy, easy-going. Off screen, George Plimpton and Gore Vidal come to mind. We all just had our own regional accentor non accent, like the flat midwest speak. And here for the full interview). Mr. Plimpton was born in Manhattan in 1927 and raised in Huntington, L.I. The Wikipedia entry is indeed delightful. 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. It includes clear pronunciation of each and every consonant cluster. Even the manliest actors, such as Humphrey Bogart and Clark Gable sometimes slipped into this voice-coach mode. I dont give a rats ass about informing anyone about the death of Plimpton. George Plimpton: what kind of accent? Would you admit to there being symbolism in your novels? For more than fifty years, his friends made a circle whose circumference was vast and whose center was a fashionable tenement on New York's East Seventy-second street. Shadow Box. Hes just trying it out and will come back and write a book about his experiences. I always thought it sounded similar to the accent of William F. Buckley, Jr., who I believe was not reared in Boston. Of course, my dad had tried out for the role of himself and not gotten it, though he would go on to have a steady film career playing one version or another of a striking white-haired figure with a distinguished, chivalrous voice in bit roles in some twenty or so movies, including Reds and Good Will Hunting. Fortunately, in the upcoming film Plimpton! Both of Plimpton's maternal grandparents were born with the surname Ames; his mother was the granddaughter of Medal of Honor recipient Adelbert Ames (1835-1933), an American sailor, soldier, and politician, and Oliver Ames, a US political figure and the 35th Governor of Massachusetts (18871890). silk-stockinged New Englander - private schools (he was Whats the matter?, Well, he said. You heard it and it. (Newsreels ran in movie theaters, of course: what better critique of the high newsreel style than the new movies that jarred against it?). We were both excitedId just come back from a weekend in Las Vegas, and hed just come back from celebrating the fortieth anniversary reunion of his Detroit Lions team at Ford Field, where the fans had given him a standing ovation, and he had raised his hatand for a moment we were no longer father and son, but just two big excited boys, each comparing adventures, and I could hear the pride in his voice, the happiness. Plimpton's most memorable writings involved him inserting himself into a daunting situation about which he knew .
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