George Plimpton. When I eventually went back to be an editor at Harpers, I arrived at his flat, not having been in New York for eight years. 3 people found this helpful . Few could give a toast or tell a story with equal humor. Look out, Wilson! Off screen, George Plimpton and Gore Vidal come to mind. He got the personality totally wrong, too. When George told the story, DiMaggio laughed so hard I thought he was going to fall on the floor. For instance: Mid-Atlantic English was the dominant dialect among the Northeastern American upper class through the first half of the 20th century. April Fool's Day: Throwback to the time George Plimpton fooled the Hows your mom? hed always ask me. I do believe his accent was decidedly Swamp Yankee. 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. Jean Stein became his co-editor. He was stationed primarily in Italy, where he worked as a tank driver. What was our problem? After finishing at Harvard in 1950, he attended King's College, Cambridge, from 1950 to 1952, and graduated with third class honors in English. [28], Plimpton was a demolitions expert in the post-World War II Army. The opposing team: the Detroit Lions. 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. All the good guys have got to go. And they founded this thing called the Paris Review and published poetry and short story writers and did interviews. We had the book party for my selected poems, Sailing Alone Around the Room, at Georges house on Sept 10, 2001. 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. The Paris Review was a testimony to his literary taste and his sense of glamour. 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. Kennedy died the next day at Good Samaritan Hospital. 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. He hosted Disney Channel's Mouseterpiece Theater (a Masterpiece Theatre spoof which featured Disney cartoon shorts). 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. Felix Grucci Jr., of Fireworks by Grucci (Plimpton wrote about the Grucci family, widely held to be the first family of fireworks, in Fireworks: A History and Celebration):George had a very big passion for fireworks. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found The Paris Review, as well as his patrician demeanor and accent. 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. Think of the accent of Jane Hathaway on the Beverly Hillbillies. Plimpton and Dudley were the parents of twin daughters Laura Dudley Plimpton and Olivia Hartley Plimpton. Plimpton was married twice. On one website, I read about a Choate alumn saying one can still hear the LL (see above thread) accent on campus. Why couldnt we have a good time, too? 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". December 17, 2022 Rafael Garca. But Labov said that in post-World War II New York, fancier people started becoming rhotic, and recovering their Rs. I hope not. The clenched jaw tight-bite bit: the lockjaw dentiloquist. When he was on the scene, everything was a big happeningan event. Paper Lion: Confessions of a Last-String Quarterback: Plimpton, George He liked the fact that I had broken my nose in defeat. Except at parties. Congratulations Carnac, for posting about George Plimptons death at 3:44 PM. George Plimpton writer, publisher, amateur lion tamer died in 2003 after 50 years as the founding editor of The Paris Review. 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. Plimpton was .the public face of the New York intellectual: tweedy, eclectic and with a plummy accent he himself described as "Eastern seaboard cosmopolitan." . 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. You should be very grateful. A lordly accent acquired at St. Bernard's and burnished later at Cambridge, in England, enhanced his distinguished aura, as did elevated stature and a silver head of hair which might have encouraged a career in politics but mercifully did not. 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 also approved, I think, of the fact that I lost. Thats where there was that cross-section you once found in Parisof literary people, of people who were illiterate, of people down on their luck, and people of status. Starring George Plimpton as Himself" - is meant as a wink-wink to Plimpton's career as a "participatory journalist." As a writer for Sports . Impressively liberated from our opulent life-style, Sidd's deciding about yogaand his future in baseball. Plimpton was associated with the literary magazine in Paris, Merlin, which folded because the State Department withdrew its support.[why?] 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 . A Final Party at George Plimpton's Storied Apartment George Plimpton, Out of My League: The Classic Account of an Amateur's Ordeal in Professional Baseball, 2016, Little Paris Review - Writers, Quotes, Biography, Interviews, Artists As such, it was popular in the theatre and other forms of elite culture in that region. 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. Orson Welles also comes to mind, though I noticed he spoke in this mode more often during his early days, on and off screen. 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. The film used archival audio and video of Plimpton lecturing and reading to create a posthumous narration. **, In this case, Mid-Atlantic refers to speech in which the attributes of British English and American English meet halfway. And I, of course, was looking them over, too. Being, And Appreciating, George Plimpton : NPR Isnt that what they call it. [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. An oral history of George Plimpton. - Slate Magazine The Detroit Lions let a reporter play QB. Can you guess how it went It evoked a sense of Paris from a time when Paris was still the literary capital of the world, publishing literary giants who were considered obsceneHenry Miller, D.H. Lawrence. [2][43], An oral biography titled George, Being George was edited by Nelson W. Aldrich Jr., and released on October 21, 2008. Volume 7, 2003-2005, pages 429-432. "[34] A feature in Mad titled "Some Really Dangerous Jobs for George Plimpton" spotlighted him trying to swim across Lake Erie, strolling through New York's Times Square in the middle of the night, and spending a week with Jerry Lewis. 'Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton as Himself' TV review - SFGATE A graduate of Harvard University and King's College, Cambridge, Plimpton was recruited to Paris by Peter Matthiessen in 1952 and signed on to the project shortly thereafter. Sign up for the Books & Fiction newsletter. 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. Shoot! hed hiss, when he was mad. Youll get another shot at the big time, trust me. 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. 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. May a diseased yak squat in your hot tub. George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 September 25, 2003) was an American writer. Dan Rather certainly marks the definitive end of the newsreel style and the ascendance of the folksy vernacular: those rustic analogies! The Writers won the game with a home run in extra innings, but the highlight was Plimptons hit. So, pairing the Cagney hint with the Kennedy Inaugural, could we date the changeover to 1961? I remember getting the news: It was my wife Madeleines birthday, Aug. 7. It was always as if one were setting out with him on a special adventure. In another cartoon in The New Yorker, a patient looks up at the masked surgeon about to operate on him and asks, "Wait a minute! H.V. On Saturday Night Live, even the great impersonator Dana Carvey couldnt get it quite right. Manhattan DVD. 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. 'Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton as Himself' review [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. The clipped English of George Plimpton and William F. Buckley, Jr. were vestigial examples.. Plimpton was an omnipresence for much of American cultural lifeboth high and lowin the last third of the 20th century. 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. . OK? (And, OK, Im not a linguist, but Im married to one!) 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. What stood in our way? Truman Capote: In Which Various Friends, Enemies, Acquaintances, and Detractors Recall His Turbulent Career. And he stood there ebullient and charming all night; he bid on many items himself. He was 76. Whats the matter?, Well, he said. 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. Orson Welles notably spoke in a mid-Atlantic accent in the 1941 film Citizen Kane, as did many of his co-stars, such as Joseph Cotten. Could it be fairly said that Plimptom had it? Against George Plimpton | Neotenianos Oh, I suppose we should all just lavish praise upon Carnac the Magnificent now for bringing this to your attention, is that it? "He speaks with an oddly mannered accent, sounding as though on the verge of a stammer, polite, genteel, perhaps just a little Woosterish. But he has never employed that voice professionally, and certainly does not speak that way in real life. (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? 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. By George Plimpton. He came from a family where such endearments were not expressed, and phone conversations were curt. [33] A later attempt, fired at Cape Canaveral, rose approximately 50 feet (15m) into the air and broke 700 windows in Titusville, Florida. Mona Abboud remembers George Plimpton - Orlando Sentinel By George Plimpton. :rolleyes: Ive got news for you, buddy, youre not even second in line! [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. A little before my time, but Kennedy certainly didnt, even if his vernacular was more formal than Brandos. Documentary Shows George Plimpton's Best Story Was His Own : NPR - NPR.org The presentation was called Freedom of the American Road and was made 60 years ago, in 1955, as part of the campaign to build support for the new Interstate Highway system. Its strange to think, but he would have been eighty-five this year: fourteen years older than my mom, fifty years older than me. [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. But he came right down to our level. (Why do I even bother?) 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. [45], Plimpton is the protagonist of the semi-fictional George Plimpton's Video Falconry, a 1983 ColecoVision game postulated by humorist John Hodgman and recreated by video game auteur Tom Fulp.[46]. People two or three deep stood looking out at the East River. To me, Mid-Atlantic English is the nom juste for a related but distinct phenomenon (which is also mentioned in Wikipedia). There was love thereactually, his inability to express it sometimes made him positively brim with itbut speak the words, his voice could not. Now, in George, Being George, 200 friends, lovers and rivals detail Plimpton's remarkable exploits. He smiled broadly, signaled for the coach to send Lupica in to run for him, and trotted back to the sidelines. We made $15,000-20,000. **Mid-Atlantic. Kim Noble, one of the announcers on the NPR affiliate in Kansas City, KCUR, speaks with a very affected Connecticut Lockjaw accent. 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. 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. An Oral History of George Plimpton: The Man Does Everything - Observer 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. But he would do this in the most charming and agreeable way. The Very Good Life Of George Plimpton - The Washington Post
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