[26] He also appeared in an episode of the NBC sitcom Wings. He majored in English. Plimpton has grown. If he couldnt be taken quite seriously, that was fine with him (he took himself lightly, and relished being in on the joke). If you listen to Grossman (who is originally from Boston) starting about 15 seconds into the clip below, youll see that he uses a split-the-difference UK/US hybrid that is literally mid-Atlantic, in the sense of combining accents from both countries, but is different from the newsreel announcer voice: You should talk to William Labov [JF: I will try] , pioneering sociolinguist, whose landmark study into New York City speech led him to ask the same question you have. Over the years, we held a lot of dinner parties for him, and he brought a lot of people inmany, many writers. Were taking off from Teterburo, N.J., at 4 a.m. tomorrow. 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. Typical of George to laugh about something others saw as a defining traithe never took himself all that seriously. Angelo Dundee, trainer for Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard:George was such a great guy. George had three siblings: Francis Taylor Pearsons Plimpton Jr., Oakes Ames Plimpton,[15] and Sarah Gay Plimpton. Read more. 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). By George Plimpton. Sidd Finch was a fictional character George had created for a Sports Illustrated story, supposedly the greatest and fastest pitcher in the world. Description above from the Wikipedia article George Plimpton, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of . Hear Stories By George Plimpton. In fact, my dads farewells seemed loquacious in comparison to his mothers. He appeared in the PBS American Masters documentary on Andy Warhol. [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. The journal, which had operated out of his home, moved downtown. I always thought it sounded similar to the accent of William F. Buckley, Jr., who I believe was not reared in Boston. He liked the fact that I had broken my nose in defeat. 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. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found The Paris Review, as well as his patrician demeanor and accent. Impressively liberated from our opulent life-style, Sidd's deciding about yogaand his future in baseball. 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. (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? A lifelong New Yorker, he never tasted a bagel or an olive, and he never chewed a stick of gum. 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. The Cuban revolutionaries, led by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, had just marched on Havana and ousted the US-supported dictator Fulgencio Batista. List of books by author George Plimpton - ThriftBooks **. George A. Plimpton Papers, 1634-1956 | Rare Book & Manuscript Library All rights reserved. I remember the Lowell Thomas documentary films of the 50s where Mr. Thomas' mellifluous tones and distinct radio-style pronunciation gave him a respectability that a similar huckster could hardly hope to replicate today by the mere application of such an artifice. **. When he was on the scene, everything was a big happeningan event. Louis Begley, novelist:Jim Atlas interviewed me for an Art of Fiction piece in the Paris Review, a feature of the magazine that George invented and brought to perfection. And so it seemed only fitting to commemorate his death with the form he made his own.Meghan ORourke. (And, OK, Im not a linguist, but Im married to one!) But he could easily have said, Alice, I have enough trouble raising money for my magazine.. There was one more matter I never heard my dad discuss. **Get a life. After his discharge, Plimpton returned to Harvard and finished his undergraduate education. Archie Moore, after all, had broken his nose. Being, And Appreciating, George Plimpton - krvs.org Prestigious prep schools and ivy league institutions (though Gore Vidal never went to college). Among other challenges for Sports Illustrated, he attempted to play top-level bridge, and spent some time as a high-wire circus performer. Plimpton, George 1927-2003 | Encyclopedia.com George Plimpton Wiki: Salary, Married, Wedding, Spouse, Family . Showdown in the Pits. The coach for the Writers team announced that Plimpton would pinch-hit for the first batter of the game, Daily News sports columnist Mike Lupica, and the crowd roared. With the evolution of talkies in the late 1920s, voice was first heard in motion pictures. Are you saying that the denizens of Larchmont sound like Plimpton did? George Plimpton Detroit Lions | The Pop History Dig The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. Whether on the football field or on a golf course or in a poem or an essay, the notion of human talent in whatever form excited him. I havent heard that he is dead, but if so RIP George. He also served as editor of the Harvard Lampoon. Isnt that what they call it. So we got together and, after some preliminaries, he popped the question that he was really there to ask. George Plimpton, Author And Editor, Is Dead at 76 He was previously married to Sara Whitehead Dudley and Freddy Medora Espy. Peter Matthiesen, author, co-founder of the Paris Review:I was in Liberia, of all places, and George met me in Monrovia. Macklem . Ive lived in Boston for 30 years and have never heard a George Plimpton accent; so I guess it must be a Larchmont accent, *Originally posted by Carnac the Magnificent! An Oral History of George Plimpton: The Man Does Everything - Observer Talking about sports with Georgeor, even better, reading George about sportswas more fun than sports themselves. His father co-founded the law firm Debevoise Plimpton. 3: Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 - September 25, 2003) was an American journalist, writer, literary editor, actor and occasional amateur sportsman. But it didnt define him, much the way he refused to be defined by the stiff, upper-crust world from which hed come. Do, Write George Plimpton Has Made A Career Throwing Himself Into 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! The opposing team: the Detroit Lions. He was a Wasp (both of his parents came from old New England families, and had ancestors on the Mayflower). **, In this case, Mid-Atlantic refers to speech in which the attributes of British English and American English meet halfway. 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. Hed have that and a scotch on the rocks, his favorite drink. George Plimpton - Rotten Tomatoes So, pairing the Cagney hint with the Kennedy Inaugural, could we date the changeover to 1961? We all just had our own regional accentor non accent, like the flat midwest speak. Several weeks later at a book party, he spotted two writers who had played in that game. 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. Here's a look inside the space, where the Paris Review editor hosted legendary parties. [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 Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 - September 25, 2003) was an American journalist, writer, literary editor, actor and occasional amateur sportsman. Dan Rather certainly marks the definitive end of the newsreel style and the ascendance of the folksy vernacular: those rustic analogies! Mr . He appeared in commercials for Oldsmobile and Intellivision, and appeared. Jonathan Ames, author:Back in the fall of 1999, in preparation for my one and only boxing match, I read George Plimptons great book, Shadow Box, where he recounted his foray into the world of boxing and his famous encounter with Archie Moore. Of course, I think he enjoyed the odd persona his voice and mannerisms conferred on him. But he came right down to our level. 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. Was it me? On Saturday Night Live, even the great impersonator Dana Carvey couldnt get it quite right. On Sept. 26, George Plimpton died in his sleep, at the age of 76. It was so tiny that if you saw him in it, you couldnt believe hed be able to get himself out of it. If you are in the big league, God help us all. George Plimpton writer, publisher, amateur lion tamer died in 2003 after 50 years as the founding editor of The Paris Review. George . George was a little more in-depth than a lot of us, of course, with his education and all. With a little more practice, you could give us boys in the big leagues a run for our money. George Plimpton: Writer, Quarterback, Pitcher, Boxer, Triangle Player Its strange to think, but he would have been eighty-five this year: fourteen years older than my mom, fifty years older than me. Between 2000 and 2003, Plimpton wrote the libretto to a new opera, Animal Tales, commissioned by Family Opera Initiative, with music by Kitty Brazelton directed by Grethe Barrett Holby. To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories, To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. His experience was captured in the book Out of My League. 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. He was a great addition to the human race. Now, in George, Being George, 200 friends, lovers and rivals detail Plimpton's remarkable exploits. Actors Nathan Lane (from Jersey City, NJ) and Robin Williams (grew up in SF Bay area) often adopt this accent. [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. [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. [citation needed]. Is your language rhotic? (The filmmakers assembled his voice-over from recorded speeches and other archival footage.) 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. And being good at losing was one of Georges many gifts. 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! George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 - September 25, 2003) was an American journalist, writer, literary editor, actor and occasional amateur sportsman. He wrote for the Harvard Lampoon, was a member of the Hasty Pudding Club, Pi Eta, the Signet Society, and the Porcellian Club. 1 draft choice of the Lions in 1965. Gay Talese, author:As a young man not long out of university, at 26, 27 years of age, George Plimpton went with his friends to Paris to be benighted in the tradition of Paris culture. 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. His friendships testified to what an eclectic man he was. Starring George Plimpton as Himself" - is meant as a wink-wink to Plimpton's career as a "participatory journalist." As a writer for Sports . She would not even say goodbye. . Alan Alda, portraying my dad in the movie version of Paper Lion (his book on playing quarterback for the Detroit Lions), didnt bother with his voice at all. Next up: some sociological explanations of why someone like George Gershwin might have tried to speak like Westbrook Van Voorhis. You're going to play for us-making some sort of big comeback." "That's right," Plimpton replied in his patrician accent. 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. In most situations, he had the remarkable quality of making everyone he talked to feel at ease, at home, welcome, no matter who they were or what they didbut for whatever strange reason there wasnt this effortlessness with me, this warmth. Its our anniversary. He grew up in New York City with bona fide WASP credentials; became the longtime editor of the Paris Review, working with many of the great novelists of the day; contributed to the New Journalism. It was always a surprise. Larchmont Lockjaw? Plimpton was associated with the literary magazine in Paris, Merlin, which folded because the State Department withdrew its support.[why?] In the 50s Plimpton and staff came to New York, where they kept the Review going for half a century. A few days after, I went to a Paris Review party and showed off my damaged nose and two black eyes to George. George Plimpton. So it went in late 1960 at one of George Plimpton's legendary soirees at 541 E. 72nd St., New York. He wanted to play his own part, but they wouldnt let him. Here are five things you may not have known about him. 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. *Originally posted by cuauhtemoc * 'Plimpton!' documentary looks at George Plimpton's lives Off screen, George Plimpton and Gore Vidal come to mind. George Plimpton (1927-2003) was a journalist and the first editor-in-chief of The Paris Review. As such, it was popular in the theatre and other forms of elite culture in that region. 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. Plimpton appeared in the 1989 documentary The Tightrope Dancer which featured the life and the work of the artist Vali Myers. 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.". Your transparent jealousy is very unbecoming, Carnac. The last time I heard my fathers voice, it was over the telephone. Ill try to give a representative range, and I am grateful for the care and thought that have gone into these responses. Congratulations Carnac, for posting about George Plimptons death at
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