May a diseased yak squat in your hot tub.
How George Plimpton's Sports Books Presaged the First-Person Media Age By George Plimpton. They spoke in this manner, and it seemed perfectly natural, evocative of a background spent among the gentry of the northeast. Plimpton didnt die. Quite sad, as he just had a daughter not many years back. Vault. **Your transparent jealousy is very unbecoming, Carnac. He knew we were just as good as he was, but in a different field. 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. George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 - September 25, 2003) was an American journalist, writer, literary editor, actor and occasional amateur sportsman. He was one of her original supporters and had published an article about her work in The Paris Review.
Articles by George Plimpton - Sports Illustrated Vault | SI.com :rolleyes: Ive got news for you, buddy, youre not even second in line! The point of the flipped prestige markers is that generally the fewer the Rs, the fancier the person. The Cuban revolutionaries, led by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, had just marched on Havana and ousted the US-supported dictator Fulgencio Batista. Whats the matter?, Well, he said. 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. He was 76.. Call me back.. He was a Wasp (both of his parents came from old New England families, and had ancestors on the Mayflower). Get a life. It was a great partyraucous and long. * With a little more practice, you could give us boys in the big leagues a run for our money. 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. [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. 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. [2], In 1975, in Bellport, Long Island, Plimpton, with Fireworks by Grucci attempted to break the record for the world's largest firework. What fine manners he had! Those of us whose families are from Larchmont (that would be me) just call it lockjaw. 2023 Cond Nast. We worked at the Paris Review on the Rue Garanere for several years together. When he was on the scene, everything was a big happeningan event. Plimpton would not boast of his feat, so we did. They spoke in this manner, and it seemed perfectly natural, evocative of a background spent among the gentry of the northeast.. I think he came down [to the shooting of Paper Lion in] Florida once. 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. & FDR, George Plimpton, William F. Buckley, etc. 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. I hope not. Too old-fashioned. With a little more practice, you could give us boys in the big leagues a run for our money. :rolleyes: Ive got news for you, buddy, youre not even second in line! The last time I heard my fathers voice, it was over the telephone. [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. It includes clear pronunciation of each and every consonant cluster. My dad and I could not lose each other, but we could never quite find each other, either. [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. Her mother, a writer and critic for Commonweal and Catholic World. Norman Mailer, author:George had a rare gift. In this campaign, Plimpton touted the superiority regarding the graphics and sounds of Intellivision video games over the Atari 2600.[24]. He appeared in commercials for Oldsmobile and Intellivision, and appeared. All rights reserved. One reader writes: I've wondered whether that "announcer English" was at least partly caused by poor loudspeakers and microphones. It was scary, because he was never mad, and to see this normally benevolent, white-haired figure of civility fill with pink steam, to hear this gentle man, who loved nothing more than to tell lighthearted stories and laugh, suddenly shout-whisper Dammit at some injustice on the other end of the telephone was unsettling. OK? H.V. For it was George Plimpton the writer, not the editor nor the celebrity, who was honored here .
Being, And Appreciating, George Plimpton - krvs.org [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. 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. The clipped, non-rhotic English accents of George Plimpton and William F. Buckley Jr. were vestigial examples. In the offices of the Paris Review, he displayed far more discerning tastes. (A variation is the Locust Valley Lockjaw.). When George Plimpton Met the Best Bartender in Brooklyn Two New York Legends Collide By Tim Sultan February 26, 2016 The only other person that I had known who possessed a similar charisma to Sunny Balzano's was my first employer in New York: George Plimpton. [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. [23] He was also notable for his appearance in television commercials during the early 1980s, including a memorable campaign for Mattel's Intellivision. Greetings From the Vortex of Unpredictability, Truman Capote: In Which Various Friends, Enemies, Acquaintances and Detractors Recall His Turbulent Career. So we got together and, after some preliminaries, he popped the question that he was really there to ask. Wed gone to dinner and the maitre d comes over and says, Felix, I got a call for you from Monaco., I pick up the phone, and I hear Georges Bostonian accent. George Plimpton. (This is not to belittle Lowell Thomas, but to recognize the artifice that served him so well in his career).
Been there, done that | Books | The Guardian He saw athletes as heroes he. I always thought it sounded similar to the accent of William F. Buckley, Jr., who I believe was not reared in Boston. The Mid-Atlantic accent, or Transatlantic accent, is a . George Plimpton is beautifully connected.
George Plimpton: what kind of accent? - Straight Dope Message Board He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found The Paris Review, as well as his patrician demeanor and accent. December 17, 2022 Rafael Garca. Plimpton was a writer-raconteur and dilettante in the best sense of the word: He co-founded an important literary magazine, the . Now, in George, Being George, 200 friends, lovers and rivals detail Plimpton's remarkable exploits.
Do, Write George Plimpton Has Made A Career Throwing Himself Into LL is typified, I think, but an almost clenching of the teeth while talking, producing a mushy sound, if you will. That was the last party for a while., I just got back from a road trip from Michigan. $ 4.19 - $ 17.92. Congratulations Carnac, for posting about George Plimptons death at
3:44 PM. 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. During my fight, my nose got badly broken in the second round, but I did last all four scheduled rounds, though I lost. [33] A later attempt, fired at Cape Canaveral, rose approximately 50 feet (15m) into the air and broke 700 windows in Titusville, Florida. George Ames Plimpton (1927 - 2003) - Genealogy - geni family tree George was the one who read my name out to the commissioner. Dan Rather certainly marks the definitive end of the newsreel style and the ascendance of the folksy vernacular: those rustic analogies! He could have been a fight trainer, a fight manager! This speech pattern might be common among US expatriates in the UK, of which Grossman would seem to represent just the most ostentatious example. The Detroit Lions let a reporter play QB. Can you guess how it went We were going to go looking for strange birds. 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. But it didnt define him, much the way he refused to be defined by the stiff, upper-crust world from which hed come. And I, of course, was looking them over, too. The flipped prestige markers point here is fascinating. His response was "no, just affected.". By strange coincidence, I actually became quite good friends with his (ex-)in-laws here in Manhattan. Is your language rhotic? Did he have the celebrated "Boston Brahmin" accent, or was it a psuedo-Brit affectation? Butch, he says, because he always called me Butch. *Originally posted by Phlosphr * What exactly is a Boston Brahmin accent? And here for the full interview). Billy Collins, poet:Im one of these people who went from crashing Georges parties in the 70s to being invited in the 80s. (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? Isnt that what they call it. Spoke in a mid-Atlantic accent, reflecting a privileged Upper East Side (in New York City) upbringing. It was so violent that it brought a lot of people to the windows. [citation needed]. 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. He would have a beer with you. Plimpton appeared in the 1989 documentary The Tightrope Dancer which featured the life and the work of the artist Vali Myers. George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 - September 25, 2003) was an American journalist, writer, literary editor, actor and occasional amateur sportsman. I have decided, he said, that I have got to jump from a plane. *Originally posted by j.c. * 3 people found this helpful . George Plimpton. During our time in Paris, he had a famous little car, a dark blue Peugeotit was mine originally; I sold it to himand it had to be seen to be believed. He hosted Disney Channel's Mouseterpiece Theater (a Masterpiece Theatre spoof which featured Disney cartoon shorts). After returning to New York from Paris, he routinely launched fireworks at his evening parties. 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. Listen to Caruso singing or Bix Beiderbecke playing his cornet to hear how muffled was the recording of those sounds. 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. 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). The journal, which had operated out of his home, moved downtown. 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. He was very understanding of what we did and how we did it. The Moth | The Art and Craft of Storytelling He was also an accomplished birdwatcher. Actors Nathan Lane (from Jersey City, NJ) and Robin Williams (grew up in SF Bay area) often adopt this accent. 1. To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories, To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. He rounded first as if he were about to go for a double, then glided back to the base, with fans waving and cheering. And they founded this thing called the Paris Review and published poetry and short story writers and did interviews. What stood in our way? 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. And being good at losing was one of Georges many gifts. Plimpton's The Bogey Man chronicles his attempt to play professional golf on the PGA Tour during the Nicklaus and Palmer era of the 1960s. He had a small role in the Oscar-winning film Good Will Hunting,[22] playing a psychologist. . His final interview appeared in The New York Sports Express of October 2, 2003 by journalist Dave Hollander. 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. Sidd Finch: A pitcher, part yogi and part recluse. - Sports Illustrated But he would do this in the most charming and agreeable way. A little before my time, but Kennedy certainly didnt, even if his vernacular was more formal than Brandos. If he couldnt be taken quite seriously, that was fine with him (he took himself lightly, and relished being in on the joke). One thinks of the glorious character actress, Kathleen Freeman, as the voice coach Phoebe Dinsmore in Singing in the Rain: Round tones, Miss Lamont. In Woody Allens Radio Days, Mia Farrow has an impossibly thick Brooklyn accent until she takes voice lessons and becomes a successful radio purveyor of celebrity gossip. ), this isnt some kind of morbid contest to see who can be the first to inform the board of some celebritys death. 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. *Originally posted by cuauhtemoc * The Writer's Chapbook A Compendium of Fact, Opinion, Wit, and Advice from the Twentieth Century's Preeminent Writers. Now the interview is perfect!. All the good guys have got to go. The wife is also old money, as Phlosphr mentions, and she talks exactly the same way. 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. 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. Old money, would never say the word spanky, and certainly had more money than God could count. 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. George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 - September 25, 2003) was an American journalist, writer, literary editor, actor and occasional amateur sportsman. George Plimpton | About the Film | American Masters | PBS Several readers wrote in with specimens of Americans who had gone to England and ended up speaking in this mid-Atlantic way. Hows your mom? hed always ask me. That made him a great storyteller. History / Biographical Note Biographical Note. The Sidd Finch story was accompanied by a series of photos which managed to convince even the eagle-eyed fans . The conservative thinker may have shared an accent with some other men of the same age and social class, but his mannerisms and gestures made him entirely uniqueand occasionally prone to. George Plimpton: what kind of accent? George Plimpton. (Did Eisenhower speak the newsreel style? After the technology improved the need to speak so histrionically went away, and so did "announcer English.". **, In this case, Mid-Atlantic refers to speech in which the attributes of British English and American English meet halfway. Prestigious prep schools and ivy league institutions (though Gore Vidal never went to college). Plimpton appeared in the 1989 documentary The Tightrope Dancer which featured the life and the work of the artist Vali Myers. I thought they were terrific. It was always as if one were setting out with him on a special adventure. For more than five decades, author and journalist George Plimpton delved deeply into an array of high-profile and often physically grueling experiences, including professional baseball, boxing . George Plimpton, journalist extraordinaire, trains with and then performs as Quarterback for the Baltimore Colts. Mid-Atlantic accent - Wikipedia (Newsreels ran in movie theaters, of course: what better critique of the high newsreel style than the new movies that jarred against it?). Brown & Co. Re-issued George Plimpton Sports Books, 2016. No matter where he was, or who he wasquarterback, trapeze artist, Philharmonic triangle-playerhis voice never changed, proving that you can be whomever you want to be without ever abandoning yourself. In fact, my dads farewells seemed loquacious in comparison to his mothers. 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". In the early 60s, when I was working at the firework plant with my dad [Felix Grucci], George would pull up in shiny red sports car on his way to the Hamptons. 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. The Left Bank really became East 72nd Street. Even the manliest actors, such as Humphrey Bogart and Clark Gable sometimes slipped into this voice-coach mode. [13], Plimpton's son described him as a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant and wrote that both of Plimpton's parents were descended from Mayflower passengers.[14].