[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. In this campaign, Plimpton touted the superiority regarding the graphics and sounds of Intellivision video games over the Atari 2600.[24]. Plimpton sparred for three rounds with boxing greats Archie Moore and Sugar Ray Robinson while on assignment for Sports Illustrated. 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. Jean Harlow, one of my favorites, is all over the map with this, sometimes sounding like a tough streetwalker, other times like a society matron, and, oddly, slipping in and out of both dialects in the same role, or even in one sentence. * With a little more practice, you could give us boys in the big leagues a run for our money. He was 76. Peter Matthiesen, author, co-founder of the Paris Review:I was in Liberia, of all places, and George met me in Monrovia. As such, it was popular in the theatre and other forms of elite culture in that region. It was so violent that it brought a lot of people to the windows. Isnt that what they call it. I hope not.
George A. Plimpton Papers, 1634-1956 | Rare Book & Manuscript Library 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. 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. I have decided, he said, that I have got to jump from a plane. 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]. Hows your mom? hed always ask me. Typical of George to laugh about something others saw as a defining traithe never took himself all that seriously. 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. (This is not to belittle Lowell Thomas, but to recognize the artifice that served him so well in his career). Nevertheless, its a strange thing that one of the great voices of modern storytelling had limitations, restrictions, words, and phrases it was incapable of uttering, matters it could not express: death, love, tragedy. [3] During the summers, he lived in the hamlet of West Hills, Huntington, Suffolk County on Long Island. His father co-founded the law firm Debevoise Plimpton. [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. Peter even came with us on our honeymoon in Ravello, though George didnt. [19] Another sports book, Open Net, saw him train as an ice hockey goalie with the Boston Bruins, even playing part of a National Hockey League preseason game. It was horrifying.. George had three siblings: Francis Taylor Pearsons Plimpton Jr., Oakes Ames Plimpton,[15] and Sarah Gay Plimpton. In 1992, Plimpton married Sarah Whitehead Dudley, a graduate of Columbia University and a freelance writer. *Originally posted by cuauhtemoc * Middle class? 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. He was 76.. I had made about five thousand egg and tuna sandwiches. He had, for instance, a series of antiquated phrases and terms of affection. 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! Listen to Caruso singing or Bix Beiderbecke playing his cornet to hear how muffled was the recording of those sounds. [citation needed]. 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. It includes clear pronunciation of each and every consonant cluster.
Mid-Atlantic accent - Wikipedia How do I know you're not George Plimpton? Now, in George, Being George, 200 friends, lovers and rivals detail Plimpton's remarkable exploits. By George Plimpton. How to find out, and whether you should care. [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. News children today have no concept of the Mid-Atlantic accent. For instance: Mid-Atlantic English was the dominant dialect among the Northeastern American upper class through the first half of the 20th century. 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.
How George Washington Spoke (Brief Thoughts) | Dialect Blog You heard it and it. George Plimpton was a literary man about town who did it all, from co-founding The Paris . rejoiced in the name of Euphemia van Renssalaer Wyatt. Plimpton would not boast of his feat, so we did. 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. 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. (The filmmakers assembled his voice-over from recorded speeches and other archival footage.) So we got together and, after some preliminaries, he popped the question that he was really there to ask. Puss, and my father enjoyed nothing more than holding the beast high in the air and making strange, affectionate sounds in that distinguished voice: Yeanngghh, Puss Yeaannngh Puss Puss Puss.) He called my sister Puss, too, sometimes, though mostly I think with her it was Kiddo, which he also called me, though there was a period in which he occasionally called me Ernie, which was the dogs name. He appeared in commercials for Oldsmobile and Intellivision, and appeared. Firstly, then-managing director of SI, Mark Mulvoy, gave Plimpton the liberty to create a hoax.Secondly, SI photographer Lane Stewart recruited his friend, Joe Berton to play the part of Sidd Finch.
George Plimpton : Movies - CinemaOne Youll get another shot at the big time, trust me. 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. With such a useful explanation, why do I gripe about the name?
George Plimpton The Movie Database (TMDB) The clearest example of the Mid-Atlantic accent is the accent of the Frasier & Niles Crane characters on the TV show Frasier. We made $15,000-20,000. Robert Silvers, editor, the New York Review of Books:I met George on the Ile Saint-Louis in 1953 as I was leaving NATO headquarters.
Articles by George Plimpton - Sports Illustrated Vault | SI.com There was one more matter I never heard my dad discuss. George Plimpton, who died last week at his town house, on East Seventy-second Street near the river, was a serious man of serious accomplishments who just happened to have more fun than a van. And they founded this thing called the Paris Review and published poetry and short story writers and did interviews. Everything he did was like this, just a bit odd. This brings us back to the why things changed question. Here's how Geroge Plimpton and his team created a prodigious pitcher out of thin air. Isnt that what they call it. Ill try to give a representative range, and I am grateful for the care and thought that have gone into these responses. & FDR, George Plimpton, William F. Buckley, etc. Would you admit to there being symbolism in your novels?
Documentary Shows George Plimpton's Best Story Was His Own : NPR - NPR.org 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. The Paris Review was a testimony to his literary taste and his sense of glamour. He smiled broadly, signaled for the coach to send Lupica in to run for him, and trotted back to the sidelines.
What accent does Logan have in the show? : r/SuccessionTV The journal, which had operated out of his home, moved downtown. 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. Plimpton, George 1927-2003(George Ames Plimpton) Source for information on Plimpton, George 1927-2003: Concise Major 21st Century Writers dictionary. Powered by Discourse, best viewed with JavaScript enabled. Are you saying that the denizens of Larchmont sound like Plimpton did? George was not vainhe didnt care a whit about his image. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found The Paris Review. To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories, To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. (A variation is the Locust Valley Lockjaw.). 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. Buckley clearly flaunts it, probably to set himself apart from the hoi polloi of his contemporaries.
George Ames Plimpton (1927 - 2003) - Genealogy - geni family tree 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. Starring George Plimpton as Himself" - is meant as a wink-wink to Plimpton's career as a "participatory journalist." As a writer for Sports . 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. At one point, there was a tremendous Wagnerian thunder and lighting storm. 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. I believe the accent was at one time known as Larchmont Lockjaw. Its strange to think, but he would have been eighty-five this year: fourteen years older than my mom, fifty years older than me. If you didnt know the man, you could, I think, be fooled by the voice. If you say, I pahked my cah in Hahvahd Yahd, like some vaudeville version of a Boston accent, you are non-rhotic. 08:37 Dinner at Elaine's. by George Plimpton. I just heard that George Plimpton has died. Think of the accent of Jane Hathaway on the Beverly Hillbillies. Next up: some sociological explanations of why someone like George Gershwin might have tried to speak like Westbrook Van Voorhis. After his discharge, Plimpton returned to Harvard and finished his undergraduate education. But the gentleman amateur - a Harvard. Friends were almost always happy to see him because you knew he was bound to improve your mood. And he told everyone that night, and for many years after, that hed diverted me from a career of filling prescriptions. I feel that his work on this and many other language-related matters should be far more widely known than it is. Plimpton played quarterback for the Detroit Lions and triangle for the New York Philharmonic, an. **Mid-Atlantic. These interviews are a collaborative effort, and, I believe, a fascinating contribution to literary history. Harvard (where he edited the Lampoon), Kings College, George also approved, I think, of the fact that I lost. (Newsreels ran in movie theaters, of course: what better critique of the high newsreel style than the new movies that jarred against it?). 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. He watched the first pitch sail high for a ball, and then hit a rope into left field. George Plimpton Dec 1, 2014 In which the venturous author, the rawest rookie pro football has ever known, recounts all the excruciating details of what happened when he called five plays as. The Wikipedia entry for it is quite detailed. Indeed, the police deposition the filmmakers managed to uncover may be the only time my dad ever spoke about the tragedy, publicly or privately. Its something different, and Ive not encountered that in the mid-Atlantic. Plimpton entered Harvard as a member of the Class of 1948, but did not graduate until 1950 due to intervening military service. 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! For his grandfather, the publisher and philanthropist, see, Calvin Gay Plimpton and Priscilla G. Lewis were the parents of, He was widely reviled for years after the war by Southern whites, who gave him the nickname "Beast Butler." The Writer's Chapbook A Compendium of Fact, Opinion, Wit, and Advice from the Twentieth Century's Preeminent Writers. The book offers memories of Plimpton from among other writers, such as Norman Mailer, William Styron, Gay Talese and Gore Vidal, and was written with the cooperation of both his ex-wife and his widow. What stood in our way? Just in time for the Sixties, with all their other pressures towards some kind of anti-Eisenhower authenticity. December 17, 2022 Rafael Garca. Plimpton's most memorable writings involved him inserting himself into a daunting situation about which he knew . Read more in this thread (long). He had a small role in the Oscar-winning film Good Will Hunting,[22] playing a psychologist. Now the interview is perfect!. 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. 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. . Yes he is gone.
George Plimpton Broke My Arm. The risky pleasures of Plimpton's | by It was always as if one were setting out with him on a special adventure. By strange coincidence, I actually became quite good friends with his (ex-)in-laws here in Manhattan. 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. He could have done whatever he wanted. I thought Id died and gone to Olympus. [citation needed], In the movie Plimpton! Exeter Academy after an incident involving a
My Father's Voice | The New Yorker What exactly is a Boston Brahmin accent? 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. Plimpton also appeared in the closing credits of the 2006 film Factory Girl. Anyhow, I asked Terry Gross from Fresh Air and George Plimpton to be auctioneers. He appeared in the PBS American Masters documentary on Andy Warhol. George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 - September 25, 2003) was an American journalist, writer, literary editor, actor and occasional amateur sportsman. 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. The clenched jaw tight-bite bit: the lockjaw dentiloquist. [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]. Id like to offer a speculation, for what its worth. *Originally posted by cuauhtemoc * Starring George Plimpton as Himself, directed by Tom Bean and Luke Poling, was released. As Poling puts it, George was known as an unrivaled raconteur and, in making a film of his life story, it only seemed natural to allow him to tell it.. Vault.
An Oral History of George Plimpton: The Man Does Everything - Observer 'Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton as Himself' review Back in the 1960s and '70s, I would nightly sit alone in front of a TV set in a darkened room in the Midwest munching on potato chips watching late night talk shows out of New York CityJohnny Carson and Dick Cavett in particularand Plimpton was a regular on those shows. The Cuban revolutionaries, led by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, had just marched on Havana and ousted the US-supported dictator Fulgencio Batista. It's a Scottish accent that's been modified somewhat for a mainstream audience that tends to associate them with Groundskeeper Willie. He wrote for the Harvard Lampoon, was a member of the Hasty Pudding Club, Pi Eta, the Signet Society, and the Porcellian Club. 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. 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. I can understand your frustration, but celebrities die every day. In the April 1, 1985 issue of Sports Illustrated, Plimpton pulled off a widely reported April Fools' Day prank. It came from a different era, shouldn't have still existed, but nevertheless, there it wasold New England, old New York, tinged with a hint of King's College King's English. My dad and I could not lose each other, but we could never quite find each other, either. Rose Styron, wife of William Styron and former Paris Review editor:My husband Bill was with George when he started the Paris Review. George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 - September 25, 2003) was an American journalist, writer, literary editor, actor and occasional amateur sportsman. Angelo Dundee, trainer for Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard:George was such a great guy. 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.
George Plimpton, Author And Editor, Is Dead at 76 Why couldnt we have a good time, too? 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. He was one of her original supporters and had published an article about her work in The Paris Review. 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. 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. Havent heard that term in years. In the 50s Plimpton and staff came to New York, where they kept the Review going for half a century.
The Blacklisted Journalist,George Plimpton, 76 Death Claims Another of He also appeared in the 1996 documentary When We Were Kings about the "Rumble in the Jungle" 1974 Ali-Foreman Championship fight opposite Norman Mailer crediting Muhammad Ali as a poet who composed the world's shortest poem: "Me? If he couldnt be taken quite seriously, that was fine with him (he took himself lightly, and relished being in on the joke). 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. Labov suspected that WWII had something to do about it. You can. 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. I dont give a rats ass about informing anyone about the death of Plimpton. Too old-fashioned. Thurston Howell III had the Larchmont Lockjaw accent. Back to Plimpton I dont remember the LL affect at all. Cambridge. Off screen, George Plimpton and Gore Vidal come to mind. 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.
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. 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. 26 Feb 2023 12:18:23 **Your transparent jealousy is very unbecoming, Carnac. Butch, he says, because he always called me Butch. Bill and I met in Rome, several months after the Paris Review was startedwe were, as they say, courtingand he drove me to Paris so George and Peter [Mathiessen] could look me over. That is the tendency of Americans trying to sound more British, or Brits trying to sound more Yank, to split the difference and speak in an accent whose home ground is no real country but somewhere in the middle of the sea. If you are in the big league, God help us all. 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. Youll get another shot at the big time, trust me.
Been there, done that | Books | The Guardian But the average person never talked that way. 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.". 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! 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. George Plimpton (1927-2003) was a journalist and the first editor-in-chief of The Paris Review. I thought they were terrific. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found The Paris Review, as well as his patrician demeanor and accent. Plimpton was an optimist, a teller of amusing and amazing stories. At the time, he was getting ready to pitch for the Yankees,and we would throw pitches across 72nd Street in preparation. George Plimpton is beautifully connected. **, In this case, Mid-Atlantic refers to speech in which the attributes of British English and American English meet halfway. Youd be on the phone with him and get to the end of the conversation, and youd say I love you, Dad, and at most, hed reply, without subject or object, Love, like he was signing a letter. Mid-Atlantic. It is the kind of study .
George Plimpton: what kind of accent? - Straight Dope Message Board The title of the PBS documentary - "Plimpton! 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. 2) The Role of Broadway and Hollywood, and the Shift from Jimmy Cagney to Marlon Brando. I think all the editors who worked at the magazine can recount a time when they ascended to his office to argue for a particular story that had been submitted, certain that George hadnt read it or hadnt read it closely enough, only to stand gape-mouthed as he reeled off, from memory, its every deficiency. 3 people found this helpful . 2023 Cond Nast.
Paris Review - Writers, Quotes, Biography, Interviews, Artists Losing, he knew, always makes a better story than winning. George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 - September 25, 2003) was an American journalist, writer, literary editor, actor and occasional amateur sportsman.