How to find out, and whether you should care. 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. Plimpton sparred for three rounds with boxing greats Archie Moore and Sugar Ray Robinson while on assignment for Sports Illustrated. [32] When lit, the firework remained on the ground and exploded, blasting a crater 35 feet (11m) wide and 10 feet (3.0m) deep. 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. Cambridge. Would you like Mike to run for you, George? the coach asked. She would not even say goodbye. By strange coincidence, I actually became quite good friends with his (ex-)in-laws here in Manhattan. [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. 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. That was when Westbrook van Voorhis, the famous March of Time voice, did the intro narration of the pilot episode of The Twilight Zone. When George told the story, DiMaggio laughed so hard I thought he was going to fall on the floor. Among other challenges for Sports Illustrated, he attempted to play top-level bridge, and spent some time as a high-wire circus performer. The Paris Review was a testimony to his literary taste and his sense of glamour. 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. Was it him? 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. Ad Choices. News children today have no concept of the Mid-Atlantic accent. 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. It sounds like Somerset Maugham, was a favorite putdown. 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! 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. 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. The funny thing about Harris was that he did not start out with that accent - as I suspect George Gershwin did not. Quite sad, as he just had a daughter not many years back. Look out, Wilson! Now, in George, Being George, 200 friends, lovers and rivals detail Plimpton's remarkable exploits. George Plimpton was born on March 18, 1927 in New York City, New York, USA. Even the most basic conversation was often a struggle. Is your language rhotic? He wanted to play his own part, but they wouldnt let him. This periodical has carried great weight in the literary world, but has never been financially strong; for its first half-century, it was allegedly largely financed by its publishers and by Plimpton. George Plimpton: what kind of accent? Articles From This Author. Manhattan DVD. George Plimpton was a literary man about town who did it all, from co-founding The Paris Review to boxing (and dribbling and quarterbacking) with the pros. Middle class? 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. George Plimpton (1927-2003) George Plimpton was the editor of The Paris Review from its founding in 1953 until his death in 2003. OK? Plimpton also appeared in a number of feature films as an extra and in cameo appearances. Talking about sports with Georgeor, even better, reading George about sportswas more fun than sports themselves. Plimpton was an optimist, a teller of amusing and amazing stories. 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. Harvard (where he edited the Lampoon), Kings College, These interviews are a collaborative effort, and, I believe, a fascinating contribution to literary history. Plimpton brought the Left Bank to NYCpeople like Peter Mathiessen, William Styron, Terry Southern. Hear Stories By George Plimpton. 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. In the offices of the Paris Review, he displayed far more discerning tastes. Almost twenty years ago, writing quirky sports pieces for the Village Voice, I decided to enter the world of championship arm wrestling.Like many young writers, I was inspired by the sports adventures of the gaunt but game George Plimpton, who had made a literary career out of placing himself in . Vault. Future Poet Laureate Donald Hall, who had met Plimpton at Exeter, was Poetry Editor. 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. The guys here in Detroit treated him like one of us. Ill pick you up., I had a hard time sleeping that night, as you might imagine. It was so tiny that if you saw him in it, you couldnt believe hed be able to get himself out of it. Shoot! hed hiss, when he was mad. [3], He was the son of Francis T. P. Plimpton[4] and the grandson of Frances Taylor Pearsons and George Arthur Plimpton. 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. I had George tell him the story of Sidd Finch. Several weeks later at a book party, he spotted two writers who had played in that game. Billy Collins, poet:Im one of these people who went from crashing Georges parties in the 70s to being invited in the 80s. I thought they were terrific. [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. Ever. Mia had the perfect model! He had been in the war, if briefly (stationed in Italy towards the end of it, hed missed action, but met the Pope, an early sign of the great good fortuneone of his favorite phrasesthat marked his life). There was love thereactually, his inability to express it sometimes made him positively brim with itbut speak the words, his voice could not. $ 9.19 - $ 32.19. By George Plimpton. He was 76.. 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! George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 September 25, 2003) was an American writer. . 3 people found this helpful . The Cuban revolutionaries, led by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, had just marched on Havana and ousted the US-supported dictator Fulgencio Batista. You heard it and it. Call me back.. 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. In 2013, the documentary Plimpton! Congratulations Carnac, for posting about George Plimptons death at 3:44 PM. [47][48] In all my years, Ive never heard this accent in person. 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. All the good guys have got to go. Volume 7, 2003-2005, pages 429-432. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to these men speak. [37] His son, Taylor, described it as a mixture of "old New England, old New York, tinged with a hint of King's College King's English."[14]. 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. With a little more practice, you could give us boys in the big leagues a run for our money. 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 last time I heard my fathers voice, it was over the telephone. 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]. After the technology improved the need to speak so histrionically went away, and so did "announcer English.". 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. To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories, To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. [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. 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. Self-help author and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson has a unique accent that, . And the many candidates for the crown of Last American to Speak This Way. In 1955 or 56, he went back to New York. He once said that, in writing Paper Lion, he wanted to reveal the "humor and grace" of football. If he couldnt be taken quite seriously, that was fine with him (he took himself lightly, and relished being in on the joke). Vault. H.V. Final Twist of the Drama. Richard Howard, poetry editor, the Paris Review:I worked with George for 10 years on the magazine. 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. Hed have that and a scotch on the rocks, his favorite drink. George Plimpton's duplex apartment on the Upper East Side hit the market for $5.495 million on April 18. 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. Plimpton didnt die. 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. 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! After his discharge, Plimpton returned to Harvard and finished his undergraduate education. By George Plimpton. Plimpton played Tom Hanks's antagonistic father in Volunteers. For it was George Plimpton the writer, not the editor nor the celebrity, who was honored here . He could have done whatever he wanted. 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. Plimpton embedded with the Detroit Lions for their three week training camp, an adventure which culminated with him playing quarterback in their annual intra-team preseason scrimmage. [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. But the gentleman amateur - a Harvard. After several problems with transporting and preparing the fireworks, Plimpton and Grucci became the first competitors from the United States to win the event. [35], Plimpton was known for his distinctive accent which, by Plimpton's own admission, was often mistaken for an English accent. He did these jobs, and many others, as an amateur.. **. Its a shot from a YouTube video that itself is a fascinating time-capsule portrait of language change. Mid-Atlantic. "[25] He had a recurring role as the grandfather of Dr. Carter on the NBC series ER. (A variation is the Locust Valley Lockjaw.). Ive always heard it referred to as a patrician accent. George Plimpton, the New York aristocrat and literary journalist whose career was a happy lifelong competition between scholarly pursuits and madcap attempts -- chronicled in self-deprecating. He was going to put on a reading of his play Zelda, Scott, and Ernest. (What else happened that year??? He majored in English. 1) The linguists have a name for it: they call it Mid-Atlantic English. I dont like this name, for reasons Ill explain in a minute. 08:37 Dinner at Elaine's. by George Plimpton. Thats a common name for such an accent. Could it be fairly said that Plimptom had it? Famed participatory journalist George Plimpton (1927-2003) was a writer, editor, amateur sportsman, actor, and friend to many. 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. Sidd Finch was a fictional character George had created for a Sports Illustrated story, supposedly the greatest and fastest pitcher in the world. 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 did not appear last year, or the year before, and we feared he was done with us. 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. Would you admit to there being symbolism in your novels? His response was "no, just affected.". * 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! 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. #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. (Every now and then he also called me Sweet Prince, as in Goodnight, Sweet Prince.), Of course, my fathers voice was odd not just in what it said, but in what it couldnt. Oh, I suppose we should all just lavish praise upon Carnac the Magnificent now for bringing this to your attention, is that it? How widespread, numerically and geographically? [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. Big, tall, good-looking guy, easy-going. 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. Harris trained himself as a young man to lose his native Bronx accent - to the point that he was asked if he were British. **Get a life. The Left Bank really became East 72nd Street. 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. 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! Ive rarely heard this accent in real life but its often used by actors doing a stereotype character based on other actors impersonations! Bill, who was from the South, kept saying to me, Can you believe Georges not English? (Newsreels ran in movie theaters, of course: what better critique of the high newsreel style than the new movies that jarred against it?). In that regard, Plimpton is the perfect candidate, and the proof is in "George, Being George," the compulsively readable oral biography edited by his friend Nelson W. Aldrich Jr. **Your transparent jealousy is very unbecoming, Carnac. Macklem . All contents 2023 The Slate Group LLC. [2][43], An oral biography titled George, Being George was edited by Nelson W. Aldrich Jr., and released on October 21, 2008. In fact, my dads farewells seemed loquacious in comparison to his mothers. Norman Mailer said that George Plimpton was the best-loved man in New York. tweedy demeanor and Oxford 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. I only wish I could not tell him again, just one more time. George was a little more in-depth than a lot of us, of course, with his education and all. But Labov said that in post-World War II New York, fancier people started becoming rhotic, and recovering their Rs. George Plimpton gives an auction winner a star-studded walk through the legendary NYC eatery Elaine's. He would have a beer with you. Next up: some sociological explanations of why someone like George Gershwin might have tried to speak like Westbrook Van Voorhis. That is, until I saw the documentarythe assassination of his dear friend Bobby Kennedy. 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. George Plimpton (1927-2003) was a journalist and the first editor-in-chief of The Paris Review. George was the one who read my name out to the commissioner. "[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. His father co-founded the law firm Debevoise Plimpton. [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. There was one more matter I never heard my dad discuss. That made him a great storyteller. As a result, this American version of a posh accent has all but disappeared even among the American upper classes. They all gathered there. I didnt know he was from the Larchmont area. 2) The Role of Broadway and Hollywood, and the Shift from Jimmy Cagney to Marlon Brando. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found The Paris Review. He's a pitcher, part yogi and part recluse. 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. He was so open to life and all its new and unexpected situations. 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. The Writer's Chapbook A Compendium of Fact, Opinion, Wit, and Advice from the Twentieth Century's Preeminent Writers. On Sept. 26, George Plimpton died in his sleep, at the age of 76. It was so violent that it brought a lot of people to the windows. Starring George Plimpton as Himself, "George Plimpton, Urbane and Witty Writer, Dies at 76", "Obituary: Frances T. P. Plimpton, 82, Dies", "Obituary: Pauline A. Plimpton, 93, Author Of Works on Famed Relatives", "Milton at the Midpoint of the Last Century: One Collection of Memories", "How Failing at Exeter made a Success of George Plimpton", "Legendary Humorist, Poonster Dies at 76 | News | The Harvard Crimson", "George Plimpton, Paris Review Founder, Pitches 1980s Video Games for the Mattel Intellivision", "The Simpsons: I'm Spelling As Fast As I Can", "George Plimpton, Author And Editor, Is Dead at 76", "Professor Muhammed Ali Delivers Lecture; Poems and Parables Fill Talk on Friendship | News | The Harvard Crimson", "George Plimpton | Full Film | American Masters | PBS", "George Plimpton, Still Burning His Punk at Both Ends, Finds a Sport in Which He Can Sparkle", "George Plimpton: The Professional Amateur", "Some Really Dangerous Jobs For George Plimpton", "Being, And Appreciating, George Plimpton", "Obituary: Willard Espy, Who Delighted In Wordplay, Is Dead at 88", "George Plimpton, Writer and editor, Is Wed to Sarah W. Dudley, a Writer", "Obituary: James C. Dudley, 77, Investment Adviser", "Naming the Sky: The true story of one man's quest to give George Plimpton a permanent presence in orbit", "DEAD END-DRIVE-IN | Plimpton! Katharine Hepburn spoke this way, on and off screen until she died. 2) Truman v. Kaltenborn, 1949. Kim Noble, one of the announcers on the NPR affiliate in Kansas City, KCUR, speaks with a very affected Connecticut Lockjaw accent. All rights reserved. The most recent was about how to extend the swing though impact, and the trick, George said, was to station an imaginary dwarf several feet in front of your ball and then (you have to re-create those broad Plimptonian vowels here) smack the dwarf in the ass. I dont know whether it works, because I cant think of it without laughing. Ill try to give a representative range, and I am grateful for the care and thought that have gone into these responses. See below!) 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. Were taking off from Teterburo, N.J., at 4 a.m. tomorrow. Its something different, and Ive not encountered that in the mid-Atlantic. In the 50s Plimpton and staff came to New York, where they kept the Review going for half a century. He could have been a fight trainer, a fight manager! Finally I did. 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. 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. **Mid-Atlantic. He thought Castro might come. George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 - September 25, 2003) was an American journalist, writer, literary editor, actor and occasional amateur sportsman. 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 . Anyhow, I asked Terry Gross from Fresh Air and George Plimpton to be auctioneers. Read more in this thread (long). I knew that between the time Id asked Plimpton to do the auction and the night itself, he had probably received five invitations for a better evening, but he would never have reneged. LL is typified, I think, but an almost clenching of the teeth while talking, producing a mushy sound, if you will. It was a hot, sweltering day. 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. 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. Dan Rather certainly marks the definitive end of the newsreel style and the ascendance of the folksy vernacular: those rustic analogies! But he has never employed that voice professionally, and certainly does not speak that way in real life. Shadow Box. :rolleyes: Ive got news for you, buddy, youre not even second in line! (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? Whee!! 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. The journal, which had operated out of his home, moved downtown. 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. "He speaks with an oddly mannered accent, sounding as though on the verge of a stammer, polite, genteel, perhaps just a little Woosterish. (To read Part One, click here. The Scout Is a Lonely Hunter. Well, perhaps it's more accurate to say that the book provided entertaining confirmation to millions of people that they -- like the author .