george plimpton accent

. [citation needed], Outside the literary world, Plimpton was famous for competing in professional sporting events and then recording the experience from the point of view of an amateur. Mr . 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. [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. Would you like Mike to run for you, George? the coach asked. History / Biographical Note Biographical Note. Was it me? May a diseased yak squat in your hot tub. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found The Paris Review, as well as his patrician demeanor and accent. Plimpton also appeared in the closing credits of the 2006 film Factory Girl. You heard it and it could only be him. He rounded first as if he were about to go for a double, then glided back to the base, with fans waving and cheering. Are you saying that the denizens of Larchmont sound like Plimpton did? He was 76. Did he have the celebrated Boston Brahmin accent, or was it a psuedo-Brit affectation? Where are you?, Im at dinner with my wife, I said. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found The Paris Review. [2][43], An oral biography titled George, Being George was edited by Nelson W. Aldrich Jr., and released on October 21, 2008. Larchmont Lockjaw? [33] A later attempt, fired at Cape Canaveral, rose approximately 50 feet (15m) into the air and broke 700 windows in Titusville, Florida. Rose Styron, wife of William Styron and former Paris Review editor:My husband Bill was with George when he started the Paris Review. All rights reserved. We were going to go looking for strange birds. 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. Think of the accent of Jane Hathaway on the Beverly Hillbillies. Oh now, Im joking, Carnac ( see? I can understand your frustration, but celebrities die every day. They all sound just like George. I enjoy doing it. Thats it, George cried out. [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. Ive always heard it referred to as a patrician accent. Few could give a toast or tell a story with equal humor. And the answer may explain partly why it has gone out of fashion: Jonathan Harris, the actor who played Dr. Smith on the television show "Lost in Space.". [3], He was the son of Francis T. P. Plimpton[4] and the grandson of Frances Taylor Pearsons and George Arthur Plimpton. The name George Plimpton is synonymous with a kind of all-in participatory journalism. Well, perhaps it's more accurate to say that the book provided entertaining confirmation to millions of people that they -- like the author . If you say, I pahked my cah in Hahvahd Yahd, like some vaudeville version of a Boston accent, you are non-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. George Plimpton, Out of My League: The Classic Account of an Amateur's Ordeal in Professional Baseball, 2016, Little While I don't normally think of Lithgow as speaking with a Mid-Atlantic accent, he does a great job affecting one for the role. Of course, I think he enjoyed the odd persona his voice and mannerisms conferred on him. Isnt that what they call it. * For instance: Mid-Atlantic English was the dominant dialect among the Northeastern American upper class through the first half of the 20th century. Norman Mailer, author:George had a rare gift. I never thought that George slept. For it was George Plimpton the writer, not the editor nor the celebrity, who was honored here . This speech pattern might be common among US expatriates in the UK, of which Grossman would seem to represent just the most ostentatious example. 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. His final interview appeared in The New York Sports Express of October 2, 2003 by journalist Dave Hollander. I have decided, he said, that I have got to jump from a plane. In all my years, Ive never heard this accent in person. Plimpton, George 1927-2003(George Ames Plimpton) Source for information on Plimpton, George 1927-2003: Concise Major 21st Century Writers dictionary. 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. Felix Grucci Jr., of Fireworks by Grucci (Plimpton wrote about the Grucci family, widely held to be the first family of fireworks, in Fireworks: A History and Celebration):George had a very big passion for fireworks. **Mid-Atlantic. [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. 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. The Curious Case Of Sidd Finch. Vault. 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. 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. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2007. The 16th at Cypress Point is one of the famous golf holes of the world, certainly one of the most difficult and demanding par 3's. 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. 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. Thanks for the scores of replies that have arrived in the past day, in response to my post asking why the stentorian, phony-British Announcer Voice that dominated newsreel narration, stage and movie acting, and public discourse in the United States during the first half of the 20th century had completely disappeared. We made $15,000-20,000. After it was published, all of the baseball people were trying to get in touch with Sidd, but he didnt existit was an April Fools joke! At Harvard, Plimpton was a classmate and close personal friend of Robert F. Kennedy. 2) The Role of Broadway and Hollywood, and the Shift from Jimmy Cagney to Marlon Brando. The primary reason [for the accent] was primitive microphone technology: "natural" voices simply did not get picked up well by the microphones of the time, and people were instructed to and learned to speak in such a way that their words could be best transmitted through the microphone to the radio waves or to recording media. That was the last party for a while., I just got back from a road trip from Michigan. They all gathered there. :rolleyes: Ive got news for you, buddy, youre not even second in line! Manhattan DVD. He was smooth. Tom Nowatzke, fullback, Detroit Lions (In the 1960s, Plimpton briefly played with the Detroit Lions asresearch for the best-selling book Paper Lion, which was later made into a film):I was the No. 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. Back to Plimpton I dont remember the LL affect at all. George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 - September 25, 2003) was an American journalist, writer, literary editor, actor and occasional amateur sportsman. It includes clear pronunciation of each and every consonant cluster. Back in the 1960s and '70s, I would nightly sit alone in front of a TV set in a darkened room in the Midwest munching on potato chips watching late night talk shows out of New York CityJohnny Carson and Dick Cavett in particularand Plimpton was a regular on those shows. By George Plimpton. [2], A November 6, 1971, cartoon in The New Yorker by Whitney Darrow Jr. shows a cleaning lady on her hands and knees scrubbing an office floor while saying to another one: "I'd like to see George Plimpton do this sometime." 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. In this campaign, Plimpton touted the superiority regarding the graphics and sounds of Intellivision video games over the Atari 2600.[24]. And he stood there ebullient and charming all night; he bid on many items himself. 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. He thought Castro might come. He also served as editor of the Harvard Lampoon. Okay, then, are you saying that Plimpton has such as accent? But he would do this in the most charming and agreeable way. In early 1959, George Plimpton was preparing to watch an execution in Cuba. Just in time for the Sixties, with all their other pressures towards some kind of anti-Eisenhower authenticity. 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. George . What exactly is a Boston Brahmin accent? *Originally posted by Phlosphr * George Plimpton gives an auction winner a star-studded walk through the legendary NYC eatery Elaine's. 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. In 2013, the documentary Plimpton! He wrote for the Harvard Lampoon, was a member of the Hasty Pudding Club, Pi Eta, the Signet Society, and the Porcellian Club. When he was on the scene, everything was a big happeningan event. I can understand your frustration, but celebrities die every day. 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. George Plimpton was a literary man about town who did it all, from co-founding The Paris . Kennedy died the next day at Good Samaritan Hospital. Bill Buckley, Gore Vidal, George Plimpton. There youd be, talking with her on the phone, and shed say, Well, tell him I called, and youd say, O.K., Grandma, good to talk to you, I Grandma?. 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. On Sept. 26, George Plimpton died in his sleep, at the age of 76. News children today have no concept of the Mid-Atlantic accent. To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories, To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. 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. Peter Matthiesen, author, co-founder of the Paris Review:I was in Liberia, of all places, and George met me in Monrovia. Slate is published by The Slate Group, a Graham Holdings Company. 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. I thought they were terrific. Realizing that I probably didnt know anyone, George took me around the room to introduce me to his guestsWilliam Styron, Norman Mailer, Robert Stone, and Gay Talese among them. 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. 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"). The risky pleasures of Plimpton's classic of participatory sportswriting, Paper Lion. Is your language rhotic? But its clear that the diction I call Announcer Voice has been the object of close linguistic study. As such, it was popular in the theatre and other forms of elite culture in that region. Famed participatory journalist George Plimpton (1927-2003) was a writer, editor, amateur sportsman, actor, and friend to many. Quite sad, as he just had a daughter not many years back. The wife is also old money, as Phlosphr mentions, and she talks exactly the same way. And they founded this thing called the Paris Review and published poetry and short story writers and did interviews. Plimpton appeared in the 1989 documentary The Tightrope Dancer which featured the life and the work of the artist Vali Myers. The s. Labov suspected that WWII had something to do about it. One reader writes: I've wondered whether that "announcer English" was at least partly caused by poor loudspeakers and microphones. There was love thereactually, his inability to express it sometimes made him positively brim with itbut speak the words, his voice could not. He would have a beer with you. Plimpton sparred for three rounds with boxing greats Archie Moore and Sugar Ray Robinson while on assignment for Sports Illustrated. The flipped prestige markers point here is fascinating. And George had written it straight. 3: Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". It was always a surprise. On Sept. 26, George Plimpton died in his sleep, at the age of 76. Here's how Geroge Plimpton and his team created a prodigious pitcher out of thin air. Finally I did. 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. With a little more practice, you could give us boys in the big leagues a run for our money. **Oh, I suppose we should all just lavish praise upon Carnac the Magnificent now for bringing this to your attention, is that it? He had, for instance, a series of antiquated phrases and terms of affection. 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. **Thats a common name for such an accent. 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. We had the book party for my selected poems, Sailing Alone Around the Room, at Georges house on Sept 10, 2001. By strange coincidence, I actually became quite good friends with his (ex-)in-laws here in Manhattan. All rights reserved. George had three siblings: Francis Taylor Pearsons Plimpton Jr., Oakes Ames Plimpton,[15] and Sarah Gay Plimpton. And being good at losing was one of Georges many gifts. Spoke in a mid-Atlantic accent, reflecting a privileged Upper East Side (in New York City) upbringing. So it was that George Plimptons accent could not be imitated. Please educate me. [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. Billy Collins, poet:Im one of these people who went from crashing Georges parties in the 70s to being invited in the 80s. 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. 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. We were bound to play the roles of father and son, unable to simply be ourselves. But he came right down to our level. **Those of us whose families are from Larchmont (that would be me) just call it lockjaw. 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. Plimpton was a writer-raconteur and dilettante in the best sense of the word: He co-founded an important literary magazine, the . If you say, I parked my car in Harvard Yard, you are being rhotic. [11], His mother was Pauline Ames,[12] the daughter of botanist Oakes Ames (1874-1950) and artist Blanche Ames. 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. Shed wandered out to the balcony of a lonely Manhattan cocktail party, and was standing out there, smoking a cigarette and looking down mournfully at the street far below, when from behind her she heard a voice: I know a better way down.. Typical of George to laugh about something others saw as a defining traithe never took himself all that seriously. 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. George was not vainhe didnt care a whit about his image. I dont give a rats ass about informing anyone about the death of Plimpton. I feel that his work on this and many other language-related matters should be far more widely known than it is. The opposing team: the Detroit Lions. Hed go on to move freely through so many worlds and circles, without ever not speaking in that singular accentthough it probably would have made life easier for him if hed adopted a new way of talking (after all, as a journalist in the locker rooms, where slang and cursing were art-forms, my dads stiff, formal tongue made him stick out like an egret among ducks). I think the term Old Money or patrician pretty much says it. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 - September 25, 2003) was an American journalist, writer, literary editor, actor and occasional amateur sportsman. The Wikipedia entry is indeed delightful. Katharine Hepburn spoke this way, on and off screen until she died. But looking back on it, its funny, too. But dying in sleep: It was as if he was doing what he did when he tried out for all those other things as an amateurballooning, acting, boxing, performing at amateur night. After his discharge, Plimpton returned to Harvard and finished his undergraduate education. George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 - September 25, 2003) was an American journalist, writer, literary editor, actor and occasional amateur sportsman. [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. 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. The clenched jaw tight-bite bit: the lockjaw dentiloquist. He came from a family where such endearments were not expressed, and phone conversations were curt. 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. We worked at the Paris Review on the Rue Garanere for several years together. 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. Bill, who was from the South, kept saying to me, Can you believe Georges not English? He was going to put on a reading of his play Zelda, Scott, and Ernest. Everything he did was like this, just a bit odd. The Mid-Atlantic accent, or Transatlantic accent, is a . It's a Scottish accent that's been modified somewhat for a mainstream audience that tends to associate them with Groundskeeper Willie. The clipped English of George Plimpton and William F. Buckley, Jr. were vestigial examples.. I just heard that George Plimpton has died. And so when it was time to say goodbye, we did so simplyno awkwardness, no strangled expressions of affectionand this is why, even though it was the last time we ever spoke, and I would never get the chance again, I do not regret not telling him that I loved him. 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. This brings us back to the why things changed question. Butch, he says, because he always called me Butch. See below!) I think all the editors who worked at the magazine can recount a time when they ascended to his office to argue for a particular story that had been submitted, certain that George hadnt read it or hadnt read it closely enough, only to stand gape-mouthed as he reeled off, from memory, its every deficiency. [3] During the summers, he lived in the hamlet of West Hills, Huntington, Suffolk County on Long Island. 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. A friend of the New England Sedgwick family, Plimpton edited Edie: An American Biography with Jean Stein in 1982. Hes just trying it out and will come back and write a book about his experiences. Vault. (The filmmakers assembled his voice-over from recorded speeches and other archival footage.) **, In this case, Mid-Atlantic refers to speech in which the attributes of British English and American English meet halfway. Elaine Kaufman, owner of Elaines restaurant:Over the 40 years I knew him, George came in often, sometimes twice a week, usually on his way back from a cocktail party. What exactly is a Boston Brahmin accent? If he couldnt be taken quite seriously, that was fine with him (he took himself lightly, and relished being in on the joke). & FDR, George Plimpton, William F. Buckley, etc. 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! He also appeared in a featurette about Edie Sedgwick found on the Ciao! Angelo Dundee, trainer for Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard:George was such a great guy. *Originally posted by CBCD * 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. By George Plimpton. A lifelong New Yorker, he never tasted a bagel or an olive, and he never chewed a stick of gum. Plimpton was married twice. Whee!! Thats where there was that cross-section you once found in Parisof literary people, of people who were illiterate, of people down on their luck, and people of status. Besides, third is a very respectable showing! And his apartment, with those windows that looked out onto the East River, became a famous landmark in NYC. On Saturday Night Live, even the great impersonator Dana Carvey couldnt get it quite right. The title of the PBS documentary - "Plimpton! He was one of her original supporters and had published an article about her work in The Paris Review. Whom is it spoken bymerely the elite, old-money types? 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. Even the most basic conversation was often a struggle. 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.

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george plimpton accent

george plimpton accent