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. I have decided, he said, that I have got to jump from a plane. And so fuck was definitely out of the question, but what about I love you? [29], With Felix Grucci, Plimpton competed in the 16th International Fireworks Festival in 1979 in Monte Carlo. It was a great partyraucous and long. [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. These events were recalled in his best-known book Paper Lion, which was later adapted into the 1968 feature film starring Alan Alda. Queen Elizabeth doesnt say car, and neither did Franklin D. Roosevelt, nor did the newsreel announcers or movie actors of his day. [citation needed], In the movie Plimpton! 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. 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. Oh, I suppose we should all just lavish praise upon Carnac the Magnificent now for bringing this to your attention, is that it? 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. This brings us back to the why things changed question. (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. 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 had, for instance, a series of antiquated phrases and terms of affection. All contents 2023 The Slate Group LLC. He was one of her original supporters and had published an article about her work in The Paris Review. Interesting that the two competitors for his anchor chair were both fully vernacular speakers from the South and West: Mudd and Rather. . Were taking off from Teterburo, N.J., at 4 a.m. tomorrow. George had three siblings: Francis Taylor Pearsons Plimpton Jr., Oakes Ames Plimpton,[15] and Sarah Gay Plimpton. The young Paris Review editor and other New York literary figures arrived during a period marked by hope for a democratic Cuba. To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories, To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. 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. BTW, I cant imagine a presidential candidate today getting anywhere close to a nomination with FDRs accent, cigarette holder, and aristocratic bearing. Youll get another shot at the big time, trust me. The name George Plimpton is synonymous with a kind of all-in participatory journalism. For it was George Plimpton the writer, not the editor nor the celebrity, who was honored here . There was one more matter I never heard my dad discuss. Is it in evidence among the Gen X set of Boston, or a passing phenomenon? He said, You better stay here, and I did, for a while. 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. 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. & FDR, George Plimpton, William F. Buckley, etc. $ 9.19 - $ 32.19. Whats the matter?, Well, he said. He's a pitcher, part yogi and part recluse. This book is the party that was George's life-and it's a big one-attended by scores of famous people, as well as. Starring George Plimpton as Himself, which documents his life, adventures, and work as participatory journalist and editor of the Paris Review, my dad will be playing himself one more time. He was 76.. 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. #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. Again with thanks to Jonathan Fields, here's the continuation of George Plimpton's famous interview of Ernest Hemingway from the Paris Review, Summer 1958. He appeared in commercials for Oldsmobile and Intellivision, and appeared. Ever. Ad Choices. He was immensely generous in every waygenerous about sharing the work and about giving one a chance to edit things. 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. He was smooth. Mr . People two or three deep stood looking out at the East River. I want you to go [to the shop] pull out the biggest firework you have and go out and light it up, because you just won the firework contest in Monaco!, I was so stunned, all I could think to say was, I dont think I can get a permit that fast!, Alice Quinn, director of the Poetry Society of America, poetry editor, The New Yorker:When I was an adviser at Columbia Magazine [a journal run out of Columbia University], we were scraping barrel, with no money in the bank, and I said to the students we should have a benefit auction. 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. Plimpton has grown. In his July 1936 obituary, the New York Times described George Arthur Plimpton (13 July 1855-1 July 1936) as an "internationally known publisher and collector, college trustee and philanthropist." As the materials in the George A. Plimpton Papers testify, those four areas of activity dominated Plimpton's public and private lives. If you say, I parked my car in Harvard Yard, you are being rhotic. George Plimpton is beautifully connected. He knew we were just as good as he was, but in a different field. . The opposing team: the Detroit Lions. You can. Actors Nathan Lane (from Jersey City, NJ) and Robin Williams (grew up in SF Bay area) often adopt this accent. Prestigious prep schools and ivy league institutions (though Gore Vidal never went to college). 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." He wrote for the Harvard Lampoon, was a member of the Hasty Pudding Club, Pi Eta, the Signet Society, and the Porcellian Club. On one website, I read about a Choate alumn saying one can still hear the LL (see above thread) accent on campus. He was previously married to Sara Whitehead Dudley and Freddy Medora Espy. Those of us whose families are from Larchmont (that would be me) just call it lockjaw. 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. Just when Jim and I thought we had finished, and we had been working a long time, George, who loved the result of our efforts, decided he wanted to talk to me as well. . He Was Shot by John Wayne. His response was "no, just affected.". Yes he is gone. [35], Plimpton was known for his distinctive accent which, by Plimpton's own admission, was often mistaken for an English accent. George Plimpton writer, publisher, amateur lion tamer died in 2003 after 50 years as the founding editor of The Paris Review. 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. Ill pick you up., I had a hard time sleeping that night, as you might imagine. That made him a great storyteller. George Plimpton (1927-2003) George Plimpton was the editor of The Paris Review from its founding in 1953 until his death in 2003. Its a joke to say 500 of my closest friends, but that would have been true with George1,000 of his closest friends, actually. I have worked as poetry editor with editors on other magazines; only with George has the experience been entirely agreeable. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to these men speak. Is your language rhotic? He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found The Paris Review, as well as his patrician demeanor and accent. 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. He was stationed primarily in Italy, where he worked as a tank driver. 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. With the evolution of talkies in the late 1920s, voice was first heard in motion pictures. Jean Stein became his co-editor. silk-stockinged New Englander - private schools (he was One reader writes: I've wondered whether that "announcer English" was at least partly caused by poor loudspeakers and microphones. His friendships testified to what an eclectic man he was. He has the same type of patrician upper-class New Yorker accent as Jane Wyatt. George Plimpton was a literary man about town who did it all, from co-founding The Paris . At one point, there was a tremendous Wagnerian thunder and lighting storm. He also appeared in a featurette about Edie Sedgwick found on the Ciao! After the technology improved the need to speak so histrionically went away, and so did "announcer English.". And here for the full interview). But the gentleman amateur - a Harvard. I dont give a rats ass about informing anyone about the death of Plimpton. 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! We worked at the Paris Review on the Rue Garanere for several years together. That he died in his sleep was impressive. He died on September 26, 2003 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA. Your transparent jealousy is very unbecoming, Carnac. Labov suspected that WWII had something to do about it. To me, Mid-Atlantic English is the nom juste for a related but distinct phenomenon (which is also mentioned in Wikipedia). If he couldnt be taken quite seriously, that was fine with him (he took himself lightly, and relished being in on the joke). 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 speaks with an oddly mannered accent, sounding as though on the verge of a stammer, polite, genteel, perhaps just a little Woosterish. 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. You're going to play for us-making some sort of big comeback." "That's right," Plimpton replied in his patrician accent. OK? Several weeks later at a book party, he spotted two writers who had played in that game. Youll get another shot at the big time, trust me. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found The Paris Review. In 1955 or 56, he went back to New York. [11], His mother was Pauline Ames,[12] the daughter of botanist Oakes Ames (1874-1950) and artist Blanche Ames. 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. See below!) "[27], Plimpton was a member of the cast of the A&E TV series A Nero Wolfe Mystery (200102). Kaltenborn was a famous mid . Manhattan DVD. One of the magazine's most notable discoveries was author and screenplay writer Terry Southern, who was living in Paris at the time and formed a lifelong friendship with Plimpton, along with writer Alexander Trocchi and future classical and jazz pioneer David Amram. By George Plimpton. George Plimpton, Out of My League: The Classic Account of an Amateur's Ordeal in Professional Baseball, 2016, Little Plimpton was married twice. Hemingway on Fiction, Part Two. By George Plimpton. So, pairing the Cagney hint with the Kennedy Inaugural, could we date the changeover to 1961? The Cuban revolutionaries, led by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, had just marched on Havana and ousted the US-supported dictator Fulgencio Batista. **Those of us whose families are from Larchmont (that would be me) just call it lockjaw. 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". 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. He could have been a fight trainer, a fight manager! This was his habit. Shoot! hed hiss, when he was mad. . I enjoy doing it. Thats it, George cried out. Family (1) Spouse 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. 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! You heard it and it could only be him. 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.. Here's how Geroge Plimpton and his team created a prodigious pitcher out of thin air. If you didnt know the man, you could, I think, be fooled by the voice. I feel that his work on this and many other language-related matters should be far more widely known than it is. Even Orson Welles on occasion. Articles From This Author. He had it, as does/did William Buckley, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, and Julia Child. He was one of her original supporters and had published an article about her work in The Paris Review. 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. 2023 Cond Nast. Peter Matthiesen, author, co-founder of the Paris Review:I was in Liberia, of all places, and George met me in Monrovia. Read more in this thread (long). It took the form of a statement: I dont know writers who write about sex better than you. I rose to the bait and answered saying, Thank you. [2][43], An oral biography titled George, Being George was edited by Nelson W. Aldrich Jr., and released on October 21, 2008. They all gathered there. [2], In 1975, in Bellport, Long Island, Plimpton, with Fireworks by Grucci attempted to break the record for the world's largest firework. 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. 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. The Wikipedia entry for it is quite detailed. After his discharge, Plimpton returned to Harvard and finished his undergraduate education. He was respected by all. Isnt that what they call it. 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. To me, it meant admission to this little exclusive club at the Paris Review. George was a little more in-depth than a lot of us, of course, with his education and all. But for now, just one more category: 3) Changing technology, changing voices. Look out, Wilson! The title of the PBS documentary - "Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton as Himself, the writer James Salter said of Plimpton that "he was writing in a genre that really doesn't permit greatness. 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. Did he have the celebrated "Boston Brahmin" accent, or was it a psuedo-Brit affectation? 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. When Muhammad Ali was fighting, George Plimpton was always there. Plimpton played quarterback for the Detroit Lions and triangle for the New York Philharmonic, an. George Plimpton, who has died aged 76, became a best-selling author by not only writing about sporting heroes but by participating in those sports as well. All rights reserved. And being good at losing was one of Georges many gifts. Katharine Hepburn spoke this way, on and off screen until she died. 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! Back to Plimpton I dont remember the LL affect at all. 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. The clearest example of the Mid-Atlantic accent is the accent of the Frasier & Niles Crane characters on the TV show Frasier. Vault. 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. [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. [47][48] By George Plimpton. He appeared in the PBS American Masters documentary on Andy Warhol. I think that perhaps Harris' portrayal of Dr. Smith made the accent so identified with cowardly buffoonery that no one in the baby boom generation and later would want to use the accent as anything other than a joke. (A variation is the Locust Valley Lockjaw.). I hope not. Ken Auletta, author:Sometime after age 70, when his reflexes dulled, George took to the sidelines in the Artists and Writers softball game in Easthampton, N.Y. Each year his name was announced, and each year he was hailed by the crowd, who paid more attention to him than to the game. The picture at the top of this post is of the same Westbrook Van Voorhis who epitomized FDR-era announcer-speak but didnt fit the sensibility of the early-cool-cat-era Twilight Zone. Bill Buckley, Gore Vidal, George Plimpton. Hed have that and a scotch on the rocks, his favorite drink. At the time, he was getting ready to pitch for the Yankees,and we would throw pitches across 72nd Street in preparation. [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. He was also an accomplished birdwatcher. Larchmont Lockjaw? **Get a life. George Plimpton. For such admissions to escape my fathers lips, they always had to be a little removed somehow. After several problems with transporting and preparing the fireworks, Plimpton and Grucci became the first competitors from the United States to win the event. expelled from the very expensive, very WASP-y Philips He loved the ones that made a lot of noise and racket and excitement. 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. With such a useful explanation, why do I gripe about the name? He very much approved. 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. Plimpton also appeared in a number of feature films as an extra and in cameo appearances. Never heard of this decidedly imprecise term. YESTERDAY IS NOT FAR AWAY. Cambridge. Norman Mailer said that George Plimpton was the best-loved man in New York. [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. 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. 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. As an old film buff, I am used to this voice, though it figures unevenly in old movies. After finishing at Harvard in 1950, he attended King's College, Cambridge, from 1950 to 1952, and graduated with third class honors in English. Actually, thats not far off from how my mom felt when she first met him. Just in time for the Sixties, with all their other pressures towards some kind of anti-Eisenhower authenticity. Revolutionary musket, a stairwell and a housemaster), If you are in the big league, God help us all. [3], He was the son of Francis T. P. Plimpton[4] and the grandson of Frances Taylor Pearsons and George Arthur Plimpton. 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. 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. [30] Plimpton later wrote the book Fireworks, and hosted an A&E Home Video with the same name featuring his many fireworks adventures with the Gruccis of New York in Monte Carlo and for the 1983 Brooklyn Bridge Centennial. The limited frequency response of the recording technology of the late 19th and early 20th centuries has left us with only a pale, and sometimes caricatural image of the original sound. These experiences served as the basis of another football book, Mad Ducks and Bears, although much of the book dealt with the off-field escapades and observations of football friends Alex Karras ("Mad Duck") and John Gordy ("Bear"). That was when Westbrook van Voorhis, the famous March of Time voice, did the intro narration of the pilot episode of The Twilight Zone. In early 1959, George Plimpton was preparing to watch an execution in Cuba. 08:37 Dinner at Elaine's. by George 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. I thought Id died and gone to Olympus. I dont give a rats ass about informing anyone about the death of Plimpton. With the help of the New York Mets organization and several Mets players, Plimpton wrote a convincing account of a new unknown pitcher in the Mets spring training camp named Siddhartha Finch, who threw a baseball over 160mph, wore a heavy boot on one foot, and was a practicing Buddhist with a largely unknown background. Famed participatory journalist George Plimpton (1927-2003) was a writer, editor, amateur sportsman, actor, and friend to many.