He wrote for the Harvard Lampoon, was a member of the Hasty Pudding Club, Pi Eta, the Signet Society, and the Porcellian Club. 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. Old money, would never say the word spanky, and certainly had more money than God could count. For such admissions to escape my fathers lips, they always had to be a little removed somehow. George Plimpton was an upper-class guy with a patrician accent who partied his way through life . He also appeared in a featurette about Edie Sedgwick found on the Ciao! George Plimpton was a literary man about town who did it all, from co-founding The Paris . It sounds like Somerset Maugham, was a favorite putdown. You can. George Plimpton, journalist extraordinaire, trains with and then performs as Quarterback for the Baltimore Colts. It came from a different era, shouldnt have still existed, but nevertheless, there it wasold New England, old New York, tinged with a hint of Kings College Kings English. Billy Collins, poet:Im one of these people who went from crashing Georges parties in the 70s to being invited in the 80s. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found The Paris Review, as well as his patrician demeanor and accent. 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. Discussing the accent he used for Washington in an interview with The Onion AV Club, he explained: The accent back then was probably nothing like what we think of as a Southern accent now or a New England accent now, so we tried to find the root of the accents. And his apartment, with those windows that looked out onto the East River, became a famous landmark in NYC. They spoke in this manner, and it seemed perfectly natural, evocative of a background spent among the gentry of the northeast.. Eerily enough, one of the messages on my answering machine was from George, with that distinctive accent of his: Hallo, its George Plimpton. 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. 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. The Curious Case Of Sidd Finch. By George Plimpton. 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. In early 1959, George Plimpton was preparing to watch an execution in Cuba. These interviews are a collaborative effort, and, I believe, a fascinating contribution to literary history. BTW, I cant imagine a presidential candidate today getting anywhere close to a nomination with FDRs accent, cigarette holder, and aristocratic bearing. He hosted Disney Channel's Mouseterpiece Theater (a Masterpiece Theatre spoof which featured Disney cartoon shorts). 08:37 Dinner at Elaine's. by George Plimpton. Volume 7, 2003-2005, pages 429-432. Ill try to give a representative range, and I am grateful for the care and thought that have gone into these responses. Where are you?, Im at dinner with my wife, I said. He was stationed primarily in Italy, where he worked as a tank driver. **. 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. The responses fall into interesting categories: linguistic descriptions of this accent; sociological and ethnic explanations for its rise and fall; possible technological factors in its prominence and disappearance; explanations rooted in the movie industry; nominees for who might have been the last American to talk this way; and suggestions that a few rare specimens still exist. And you are going to come with me. (The filmmakers assembled his voice-over from recorded speeches and other archival footage.) Ill pick you up., I had a hard time sleeping that night, as you might imagine. 26 Feb 2023 12:18:23 Among other challenges for Sports Illustrated, he attempted to play top-level bridge, and spent some time as a high-wire circus performer. Shoot! hed hiss, when he was mad. All the good guys have got to go. 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. Future Poet Laureate Donald Hall, who had met Plimpton at Exeter, was Poetry Editor. Richard Howard, poetry editor, the Paris Review:I worked with George for 10 years on the magazine. Plimpton himself described it as a "New England cosmopolitan accent"[36] or "Eastern seaboard cosmopolitan" accent. I received many notes like this one: The variety of English you are referring to has a name in linguistics: "Mid-Atlantic English". People two or three deep stood looking out at the East River. It was as if some old gentlemans code prohibited us from interacting as human beings. Off screen, George Plimpton and Gore Vidal come to mind. May a diseased yak squat in your hot tub. (Did Eisenhower speak the newsreel style? And he stood there ebullient and charming all night; he bid on many items himself. Well, perhaps it's more accurate to say that the book provided entertaining confirmation to millions of people that they -- like the author . 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. And so it seemed only fitting to commemorate his death with the form he made his own.Meghan ORourke. I think the term Old Money or patrician pretty much says it. Were taking off from Teterburo, N.J., at 4 a.m. tomorrow. Larchmont Lockjaw? That phony-baloney feigned British pronunciation thing. (He intended to face both line-ups, but tired badly and was relieved by Ralph Houk.) 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. *Originally posted by cuauhtemoc * In fact, my dads farewells seemed loquacious in comparison to his mothers. To me, Mid-Atlantic English is the nom juste for a related but distinct phenomenon (which is also mentioned in Wikipedia). Starring George Plimpton as Himself" - is meant as a wink-wink to Plimpton's career as a "participatory journalist." As a writer for Sports . Plimpton scowled, and said he was perfectly capable of running for himself. 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. He was very understanding of what we did and how we did it. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found The Paris Review, as well as his patrician demeanor and accent. Peter Matthiesen, author, co-founder of the Paris Review:I was in Liberia, of all places, and George met me in Monrovia. 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. 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. Those of us whose families are from Larchmont (that would be me) just call it lockjaw. 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. 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. **Your transparent jealousy is very unbecoming, Carnac. After her transformation, I noted that Mia sounds precisely like her mother, Maureen OSullivan, who had that patrician manner of speaking on and off screen. All rights reserved. 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. The young Paris Review editor and other New York literary figures arrived during a period marked by hope for a democratic Cuba. I didnt know he was from the Larchmont area. Interesting that the two competitors for his anchor chair were both fully vernacular speakers from the South and West: Mudd and Rather. That was the last party for a while., I just got back from a road trip from Michigan. I hope not. I just knew it was going to be something terrible. What will you be mad about ten years after youre gone?). The title of the PBS documentary - "Plimpton! 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. These events were recalled in his best-known book Paper Lion, which was later adapted into the 1968 feature film starring Alan Alda. Kim Noble, one of the announcers on the NPR affiliate in Kansas City, KCUR, speaks with a very affected Connecticut Lockjaw accent. #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. Was this sheer affectation? He is connected by blood to Benjamin "Beast" Butler, a rakish pol who told Abraham Lincoln he would be his running mate "only if you die within three. "[27], Plimpton was a member of the cast of the A&E TV series A Nero Wolfe Mystery (200102). 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. [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]. Whom is it spoken bymerely the elite, old-money types? And the many candidates for the crown of Last American to Speak This Way. In 1955 or 56, he went back to New York. Norman Mailer said that George Plimpton was the best-loved man in New York. Talking about sports with Georgeor, even better, reading George about sportswas more fun than sports themselves. $ 4.19 - $ 17.92. I always thought it sounded similar to the accent of William F. Buckley, Jr., who I believe was not reared in Boston. The s. Spoke in a mid-Atlantic accent, reflecting a privileged Upper East Side (in New York City) upbringing. Actors Nathan Lane (from Jersey City, NJ) and Robin Williams (grew up in SF Bay area) often adopt this accent. And being good at losing was one of Georges many gifts. 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. So it was that George Plimptons accent could not be imitated. Youll get another shot at the big time, trust me. 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. 3: Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". What stood in our way? He liked the fact that I had broken my nose in defeat. Look out, Wilson! 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. You heard it and it. George Plimpton. He was a great addition to the human race. Kennedy died the next day at Good Samaritan Hospital. 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. [33] A later attempt, fired at Cape Canaveral, rose approximately 50 feet (15m) into the air and broke 700 windows in Titusville, Florida. Plimpton would not boast of his feat, so we did. So, pairing the Cagney hint with the Kennedy Inaugural, could we date the changeover to 1961? When I eventually went back to be an editor at Harpers, I arrived at his flat, not having been in New York for eight years. . I just heard that George Plimpton has died. In the April 1, 1985 issue of Sports Illustrated, Plimpton pulled off a widely reported April Fools' Day prank. Please educate me. 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. His dish was Spaghetti Bolognese. When he was on the scene, everything was a big happeningan event. Except at parties. That was how it was in New York in those days, George just dragged it out a bit longer." Dudley Plimpton suspects the excess contributed to Plimpton's death in his sleep in 2003, at the age of 76. Off screen, George Plimpton and Gore Vidal come to mind. Orson Welles also comes to mind, though I noticed he spoke in this mode more often during his early days, on and off screen. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found The Paris Review, as well as his patrician demeanor and accent. Think of the accent of Jane Hathaway on the Beverly Hillbillies. Along with all the other things he does, George is an editor of the Paris Review, a literary quarterly published by the Aga Khan's uncle, Sadrudin, and his apartment is overstuffed with the comforts and legends of its use as a literary salon. 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. He could have been a fight trainer, a fight manager! Get book recommendations, fiction, poetry, and dispatches from the world of literature in your in-box. George Plimpton (1927-2003) was a journalist and the first editor-in-chief of The Paris Review. George . I believe the accent was at one time known as Larchmont Lockjaw. [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. I only wish I could not tell him again, just one more time. In 1992, Plimpton married Sarah Whitehead Dudley, a graduate of Columbia University and a freelance writer. Could it be fairly said that Plimptom had it? $ 3.99 - $ 27.44. [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 known for "participatory journalism," including accounts of his active involvement in professional sporting events, acting in a Western, performing a comedy act at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, and playing with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra[1] and then recording the experience from the point of view of an amateur. Friends were almost always happy to see him because you knew he was bound to improve your mood. [26] He also appeared in an episode of the NBC sitcom Wings. He looked like a very eccentric old Englishman. [23] He was also notable for his appearance in television commercials during the early 1980s, including a memorable campaign for Mattel's Intellivision. What was our problem? 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"). At Harvard, Plimpton was a classmate and close personal friend of Robert F. Kennedy. 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. 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. 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. They spoke in this manner, and it seemed perfectly natural, evocative of a background spent among the gentry of the northeast. Description above from the Wikipedia article George Plimpton, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of . [41] She is the daughter of James Chittenden Dudley,[42] a managing partner of Manhattan-based investment firm Dudley and Company, and geologist Elisabeth Claypool. Here are five things you may not have known about him. 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! Isnt that what they call it. ), this isnt some kind of morbid contest to see who can be the first to inform the board of some celebritys death. . Would you admit to there being symbolism in your novels? The flipped prestige markers point here is fascinating. Mid-Atlantic. Besides, third is a very respectable showing! He could as easily have been my grandfather as father. Cambridge. And here for the full interview). For it was George Plimpton the writer, not the editor nor the celebrity, who was honored here . [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. 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. (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. 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. 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. Kaltenborn was a famous mid . But Labov said that in post-World War II New York, fancier people started becoming rhotic, and recovering their Rs. I can understand your frustration, but celebrities die every day. (To read Part One, click here.