(Newsreels ran in movie theaters, of course: what better critique of the high newsreel style than the new movies that jarred against it?). 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. As such, it was popular in the theatre and other forms of elite culture in that region. But he has never employed that voice professionally, and certainly does not speak that way in real life. Ever. He wrote for the Harvard Lampoon, was a member of the Hasty Pudding Club, Pi Eta, the Signet Society, and the Porcellian Club. The Very Good Life Of George Plimpton - The Washington Post Did he have the celebrated "Boston Brahmin" accent, or was it a psuedo-Brit affectation? Vault. 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. 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. Norman Mailer said that George Plimpton was the best-loved man in New York. The Blacklisted Journalist,George Plimpton, 76 Death Claims Another of Big, tall, good-looking guy, easy-going. I received many notes like this one: The variety of English you are referring to has a name in linguistics: "Mid-Atlantic English". At one point, there was a tremendous Wagnerian thunder and lighting storm. But the average person never talked that way. Spoke in a mid-Atlantic accent, reflecting a privileged Upper East Side (in New York City) upbringing. Puss, and my father enjoyed nothing more than holding the beast high in the air and making strange, affectionate sounds in that distinguished voice: Yeanngghh, Puss Yeaannngh Puss Puss Puss.) He called my sister Puss, too, sometimes, though mostly I think with her it was Kiddo, which he also called me, though there was a period in which he occasionally called me Ernie, which was the dogs name. Im having a harder time coming up with clear examples from the other side of the Atlantic, but Ive heard Alfred Molina (Londoner), and Catherine Zeta-Jones (Welsh) put on a Mid-Atlantic accent from time to time.. For instance: The American-British television presenter Loyd Grossman, who has described his accent as Mid-Atlantic. Volume 7, 2003-2005, pages 429-432. He would have a beer with you. Paris Review - Writers, Quotes, Biography, Interviews, Artists The fake English announcer voice lingered on sporadically until the end of the Johnson administration in newsreels, which themselves ceased production around the same time, but Rod Serlings decision sounded the death knell for that accent. George Plimpton's duplex apartment on the Upper East Side hit the market for $5.495 million on April 18. 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! 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. He was previously married to Sara Whitehead Dudley and Freddy Medora Espy. My dad and I could not lose each other, but we could never quite find each other, either. The film used archival audio and video of Plimpton lecturing and reading to create a posthumous narration. That was the last party for a while., I just got back from a road trip from Michigan. 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. Read more in this thread (long). Kim Noble, one of the announcers on the NPR affiliate in Kansas City, KCUR, speaks with a very affected Connecticut Lockjaw accent. 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. Your transparent jealousy is very unbecoming, Carnac. George Plimpton Detroit Lions | The Pop History Dig 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. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2007. Was it me? But it didnt define him, much the way he refused to be defined by the stiff, upper-crust world from which hed come. LL is typified, I think, but an almost clenching of the teeth while talking, producing a mushy sound, if you will. It was as if he was trying out again. These events were recalled in his best-known book Paper Lion, which was later adapted into the 1968 feature film starring Alan Alda. I think the term Old Money or patrician pretty much says it. I just heard that George Plimpton has died. 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. 'Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton as Himself' TV review - SFGATE Plimpton's remarkable life is showcased in a documentary that is. And here for the full interview). In fact, my dads farewells seemed loquacious in comparison to his mothers. 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. & FDR, George Plimpton, William F. Buckley, etc. George Plimpton. 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. To me, Mid-Atlantic English is the nom juste for a related but distinct phenomenon (which is also mentioned in Wikipedia). [47][48] There was love thereactually, his inability to express it sometimes made him positively brim with itbut speak the words, his voice could not. O ne afternoon this summer, I sat in George Plimpton's study waiting for the gentleman editor, participatory journalist, and beloved gadfly of American letters to arrive. George Plimpton | The New Yorker Angelo Dundee, trainer for Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard:George was such a great guy. All rights reserved. ), this isnt some kind of morbid contest to see who can be the first to inform the board of some celebritys death. Slate is published by The Slate Group, a Graham Holdings Company. But he could easily have said, Alice, I have enough trouble raising money for my magazine.. Heres a sampling for today, with more planned in the days ahead. George, Being George: George Plimpton's Life as Told, Admired, Deplored His response was "no, just affected.". Plimpton, George 1927-2003 | Encyclopedia.com 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. Hed ask what was new in fireworks business and doodle around the facility with my dad, and he would always leave with a package of fireworks, to put on his own show. I only wish I could not tell him again, just one more time. Between 1945 and 1948, Plimpton was a soldier in the United States Army. 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. Ill pick you up., I had a hard time sleeping that night, as you might imagine. Mia had the perfect model! Now, in George, Being George, 200 friends, lovers and rivals detail Plimpton's remarkable exploits. Except at parties. Plimpton entered Harvard as a member of the Class of 1948, but did not graduate until 1950 due to intervening military service. He liked the fact that I had broken my nose in defeat. If you say, I parked my car in Harvard Yard, you are being rhotic. George Plimpton, Author And Editor, Is Dead at 76 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! Okay, then, are you saying that Plimpton has such as accent? 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. The funny thing about Harris was that he did not start out with that accent - as I suspect George Gershwin did not. *Originally posted by bordelond * The Curious Case Of Sidd Finch. In all my years, Ive never heard this accent in person. George Plimpton was an upper-class guy with a patrician accent who partied his way through life . 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. Finally I did. Articles by George Plimpton - Sports Illustrated Vault | SI.com I think it was an affectation people adopted because they thought it made them sound much more intelligent! He modestly shrugged off the compliment, but his bright smile betrayed his pleasureand ours. Lewis Lapham, editor, Harpers Magazine:Georges immense enthusiasm was his primary characteristic. (This is not to belittle Lowell Thomas, but to recognize the artifice that served him so well in his career). But he came right down to our level. his prose, and his down east, cultivated accent, although perhaps a bit pretentious, will remain with me as I reread one of my favorite books. The clearest example of the Mid-Atlantic accent is the accent of the Frasier & Niles Crane characters on the TV show Frasier. 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. Vault. [23] He was also notable for his appearance in television commercials during the early 1980s, including a memorable campaign for Mattel's Intellivision. OK? [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. The young Paris Review editor and other New York literary figures arrived during a period marked by hope for a democratic Cuba. The Writers won the game with a home run in extra innings, but the highlight was Plimptons hit. They all sound just like George. Read more. And he stood there ebullient and charming all night; he bid on many items himself. Anyhow, I asked Terry Gross from Fresh Air and George Plimpton to be auctioneers. George Plimpton: what kind of accent? Cambridge. George A. Plimpton Papers, 1634-1956 | Rare Book & Manuscript Library He hosted Disney Channel's Mouseterpiece Theater (a Masterpiece Theatre spoof which featured Disney cartoon shorts). It was horrifying.. The clenched jaw tight-bite bit: the lockjaw dentiloquist. Even the manliest actors, such as Humphrey Bogart and Clark Gable sometimes slipped into this voice-coach mode. What will you be mad about ten years after youre gone?). Kennedy died the next day at Good Samaritan Hospital. Researcher and writer Samuel Arbesman filed with NASA to name an asteroid after Plimpton; NASA issued the certificate 7932 Plimpton in 2009. George was not vainhe didnt care a whit about his image. That made him a great storyteller. An Oral History of George Plimpton: The Man Does Everything - Observer $ 9.19 - $ 32.19. Yes he is gone. Katharine Hepburn spoke this way, on and off screen until she died. Lionel on Twitter: "News children today have no concept of the Mid He was 76.. Mr. Plimpton was born in Manhattan in 1927 and raised in Huntington, L.I. (To read Part One, click here. 'Plimpton!' documentary looks at George Plimpton's lives 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. "He speaks with an oddly mannered accent, sounding as though on the verge of a stammer, polite, genteel, perhaps just a little Woosterish. 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 . 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. NYC speech in the sixties, in some ways, flipped prestige markers. "[44], In 2006, the musician Jonathan Coulton wrote the song entitled "A Talk with George", a part of his 'Thing a Week' series, in tribute to Plimpton's many adventures and approach to life. 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 76. George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 - September 25, 2003) was an American journalist, writer, literary editor, actor and occasional amateur sportsman. They spoke in this manner, and it seemed perfectly natural, evocative of a background spent among the gentry of the northeast.. 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. 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. 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.". tweedy demeanor and Oxford accent. If you are in the big league, God help us all. Peter Matthiesen, author, co-founder of the Paris Review:I was in Liberia, of all places, and George met me in Monrovia. I had George tell him the story of Sidd Finch. George Plimpton: what kind of accent? - Straight Dope Message Board 2023 Cond Nast. And George had written it straight. One reader writes: I've wondered whether that "announcer English" was at least partly caused by poor loudspeakers and microphones. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found The Paris Review. From looking at Labovs study, I know today, as I didnt know yesterday, that linguists use the term rhotic to describe whether a person pronounces, or doesnt, the R sound before a consonant or at the end of a word. He was equally at home on a bicycle or getting out of a limousine with a Saudi Arabian prince. 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. So we got together and, after some preliminaries, he popped the question that he was really there to ask. Call me back.. Congratulations Carnac, for posting about George Plimptons death at 3:44 PM. (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. 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. Both of Plimpton's maternal grandparents were born with the surname Ames; his mother was the granddaughter of Medal of Honor recipient Adelbert Ames (1835-1933), an American sailor, soldier, and politician, and Oliver Ames, a US political figure and the 35th Governor of Massachusetts (18871890). 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. George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 - September 25, 2003) was an American journalist, writer, literary editor, actor and occasional amateur sportsman. expelled from the very expensive, very WASP-y Philips 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. That is, until I saw the documentarythe assassination of his dear friend Bobby Kennedy. Plimpton also appeared in the closing credits of the 2006 film Factory Girl. We all just had our own regional accentor non accent, like the flat midwest speak. I just heard that George Plimpton has died. He once said that, in writing Paper Lion, he wanted to reveal the "humor and grace" of football. **. The wife is also old money, as Phlosphr mentions, and she talks exactly the same way. The Sidd Finch story was accompanied by a series of photos which managed to convince even the eagle-eyed fans . But he would do this in the most charming and agreeable way. He appeared in the PBS American Masters documentary on Andy Warhol. Even the most basic conversation was often a struggle. With the evolution of talkies in the late 1920s, voice was first heard in motion pictures. What stood in our way? 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. So it went in late 1960 at one of George Plimpton's legendary soirees at 541 E. 72nd St., New York. Are you saying that the denizens of Larchmont sound like Plimpton did? [2][43], An oral biography titled George, Being George was edited by Nelson W. Aldrich Jr., and released on October 21, 2008. But for now, just one more category: 3) Changing technology, changing voices. 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"). [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. When Plimpton, the co-founder of The Paris Review, died in 2003 at age 76, The New York Times . 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. And being good at losing was one of Georges many gifts. What fine manners he had! George Plimpton and Papa in Cuba - Guernica **Thats a common name for such an accent. George Plimpton Net Worth He has the same type of patrician upper-class New Yorker accent as Jane Wyatt. All rights reserved. George Plimpton, Out of My League: The Classic Account of an Amateur's Ordeal in Professional Baseball, 2016, Little He grew up in New York City with bona fide WASP credentials; became the longtime editor of the Paris Review, working with many of the great novelists of the day; contributed to the New Journalism. Its our anniversary. Typical of George to laugh about something others saw as a defining traithe never took himself all that seriously. He watched the first pitch sail high for a ball, and then hit a rope into left field. George also approved, I think, of the fact that I lost. 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. * I believe the accent was at one time known as Larchmont Lockjaw. That he died in his sleep was impressive. **. Paper Lion: Confessions of a Last-String Quarterback: Plimpton, George 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. Talking about sports with Georgeor, even better, reading George about sportswas more fun than sports themselves. George Plimpton Biography - life, family, children, wife, school, son The guys here in Detroit treated him like one of us. Hemingway on Fiction, Part Two. Youll get another shot at the big time, trust me. Plimpton has grown. [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. Impressively liberated from our opulent life-style, Sidd's deciding about yogaand his future in baseball. 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. Plimpton was .the public face of the New York intellectual: tweedy, eclectic and with a plummy accent he himself described as "Eastern seaboard cosmopolitan." . A reader writes: Ive wondered about this myself when I see old Jimmy Cagney moviesand the date of his last starring role might give us a hint towards the date range of the change: "One, Two, Three" in 1961. He had a small role in the Oscar-winning film Good Will Hunting,[22] playing a psychologist. Butch, he says, because he always called me Butch. **. Plimpton would not boast of his feat, so we did. 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. Besides, third is a very respectable showing! Thats a common name for such an accent. George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 - September 25, 2003) was an American journalist, writer, literary editor, actor and occasional amateur sportsman. An oral history of George Plimpton. - Slate Magazine 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. Whats the matter?, Well, he said. 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. He was a great addition to the human race. And his apartment, with those windows that looked out onto the East River, became a famous landmark in NYC. "Hut-Two-Three . . Ugh" A writer proves to be a Paper Lion at QB Hearing the words Dammit, Im mad as a hornet! uttered in George Plimptons voice made anger sound totally ridiculous, which is exactly what it most often is. As an old film buff, I am used to this voice, though it figures unevenly in old movies. 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. Macklem . *Originally posted by Phlosphr * How George Plimpton's Sports Books Presaged the First-Person Media Age With a little more practice, you could give us boys in the big leagues a run for our money. George Plimpton, journalist extraordinaire, trains with and then performs as Quarterback for the Baltimore Colts. I remember getting the news: It was my wife Madeleines birthday, Aug. 7. 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. Starring George Plimpton as Himself, directed by Tom Bean and Luke Poling, was released. Even Orson Welles on occasion. The Wikipedia entry for it is quite detailed. By George Plimpton. Even in the UK we sometimes subtitle various Scots dialects on the news and TV and whatnot, so it makes sense that he wouldn't go full Dundee for the show. George Plimpton Wiki: Salary, Married, Wedding, Spouse, Family . Look out, Wilson! [29], With Felix Grucci, Plimpton competed in the 16th International Fireworks Festival in 1979 in Monte Carlo. Even if it had nothing else going for itsomething very far from the truth Shadow Box by George Plimpton will forever remain a bastion of boxing literature because of the image it contains of the "Near Room," a place of dreadful foreboding which Muhammad Ali once described to the famed .