1 draft choice of the Lions in 1965. He very much approved. "[34] A feature in Mad titled "Some Really Dangerous Jobs for George Plimpton" spotlighted him trying to swim across Lake Erie, strolling through New York's Times Square in the middle of the night, and spending a week with Jerry Lewis. 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. Quite sad, as he just had a daughter not many years back. I had George tell him the story of Sidd Finch. Nevertheless, its a strange thing that one of the great voices of modern storytelling had limitations, restrictions, words, and phrases it was incapable of uttering, matters it could not express: death, love, tragedy. Is it in evidence among the Gen X set of Boston, or a passing phenomenon? But looking back on it, its funny, too. "[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. At one point, there was a tremendous Wagnerian thunder and lighting storm. 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. **Those of us whose families are from Larchmont (that would be me) just call it lockjaw. Eerily enough, one of the messages on my answering machine was from George, with that distinctive accent of his: Hallo, its George Plimpton. The Writers won the game with a home run in extra innings, but the highlight was Plimptons hit. [citation needed], In the movie Plimpton! Look out, Wilson! And what have we here? My moms initial impression was that he was a little hoity-toityI mean, who did this guy think he was?, But the second time they met, it was, in fact, my fathers voice that won her over. OK? 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. Ive rarely heard this accent in real life but its often used by actors doing a stereotype character based on other actors impersonations! Why Did William F. Buckley Jr. Talk Like That? - Slate Magazine What was our problem? [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. [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. . A few days after, I went to a Paris Review party and showed off my damaged nose and two black eyes to George. 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. Talking about sports with Georgeor, even better, reading George about sportswas more fun than sports themselves. [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. Plimpton was .the public face of the New York intellectual: tweedy, eclectic and with a plummy accent he himself described as "Eastern seaboard cosmopolitan." . His friendships testified to what an eclectic man he was. [citation needed] Some of these events, such as his stint with the Colts, and an attempt at stand-up comedy, were presented on the ABC television network as a series of specials. Plimpton has grown. (And, OK, Im not a linguist, but Im married to one!) Return of the Big Bopper. Bill Buckley, Gore Vidal, George Plimpton. 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. 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. 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. Was this sheer affectation? 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. 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. George Plimpton: Writer, Quarterback, Pitcher, Boxer, Triangle Player George Plimpton (1927-2003) was a journalist and the first editor-in-chief of The Paris Review. For instance: Mid-Atlantic English was the dominant dialect among the Northeastern American upper class through the first half of the 20th century. As an old film buff, I am used to this voice, though it figures unevenly in old movies. 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. Almost twenty years ago, writing quirky sports pieces for the Village Voice, I decided to enter the world of championship arm wrestling.Like many young writers, I was inspired by the sports adventures of the gaunt but game George Plimpton, who had made a literary career out of placing himself in . 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. One night Joe DiMaggio was here, and they had never met, so I introduced them. 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. He appeared in commercials for Oldsmobile and Intellivision, and appeared. The Scout Is a Lonely Hunter. *Originally posted by cuauhtemoc * I think it was an affectation people adopted because they thought it made them sound much more intelligent! Peter even came with us on our honeymoon in Ravello, though George didnt. In the April 1, 1985 issue of Sports Illustrated, Plimpton pulled off a widely reported April Fools' Day prank. A little before my time, but Kennedy certainly didnt, even if his vernacular was more formal than Brandos. That was the last party for a while., I just got back from a road trip from Michigan. Plimpton sparred for three rounds with boxing greats Archie Moore and Sugar Ray Robinson while on assignment for Sports Illustrated. Please educate me. He majored in English. George Plimpton and Papa in Cuba - Guernica 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. He plays the 'fancy pants' to our outhouse Americana," Flaherty asserted. **Get a life. Is your language rhotic? By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. Vault. 2) Truman v. Kaltenborn, 1949. 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. Friends were almost always happy to see him because you knew he was bound to improve your mood. 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. George Plimpton was born on March 18, 1927 in New York City, New York, USA. Speaking of which, didnt the young Jackie Kennedy have something of this, along with a kinda dreamy, airy, Monroe-esque (though many degrees less contrived) essence to it? So it was that my father played himself not just in movies and on TV, but in life, too. "Hut-Two-Three . . Ugh" A writer proves to be a Paper Lion at QB This brings us back to the why things changed question. Jonathan Ames, author:Back in the fall of 1999, in preparation for my one and only boxing match, I read George Plimptons great book, Shadow Box, where he recounted his foray into the world of boxing and his famous encounter with Archie Moore. 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. . 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. George Plimpton | The New Yorker Even the most basic conversation was often a struggle. On Sept. 26, George Plimpton died in his sleep, at the age of 76. But he has never employed that voice professionally, and certainly does not speak that way in real life. Plimpton, George 1927-2003(George Ames Plimpton) Source for information on Plimpton, George 1927-2003: Concise Major 21st Century Writers dictionary. 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. [23] He was also notable for his appearance in television commercials during the early 1980s, including a memorable campaign for Mattel's Intellivision. Sidd Finch was a fictional character George had created for a Sports Illustrated story, supposedly the greatest and fastest pitcher in the world. 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. *Originally posted by cuauhtemoc * I had made about five thousand egg and tuna sandwiches. George, Being George: George Plimpton's Life as Told, Admired, Deplored Here's a look inside the space, where the Paris Review editor hosted legendary parties. And the role of Katharine Hepburn, whose Locust Valley Lockjaw accent was a cousin of announcer-speak: I was just discussing this not a week ago with a friend who has done voice work in film and television, and can adopt this accent in an instant to evoke that period, much to my amusement. 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. Mona Abboud remembers George Plimpton - Orlando Sentinel In 1994, Plimpton appeared several times in the Ken Burns series Baseball, in which he shared some personal baseball experiences as well as other memorable events throughout the history of baseball.[20]. Daniel Kunitz, managing editor of the Paris Review from1995-2000: I once heard George joking with William F. Buckley on the phone about how they had the last affected accents in New York. 1. **Mid-Atlantic. Revolutionary musket, a stairwell and a housemaster), He was very understanding of what we did and how we did it. 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. 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. **Your transparent jealousy is very unbecoming, Carnac. He could as easily have been my grandfather as father. This speech pattern might be common among US expatriates in the UK, of which Grossman would seem to represent just the most ostentatious example. As such, it was popular in the theatre and other forms of elite culture in that region. 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. Youll get another shot at the big time, trust me. I hope not. In fact, my dads farewells seemed loquacious in comparison to his mothers. Plimpton was an omnipresence for much of American cultural lifeboth high and lowin the last third of the 20th century. George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 - September 25, 2003) was an American journalist, writer, literary editor, actor and occasional amateur sportsman. I can understand your frustration, but celebrities die every day. It was always as if one were setting out with him on a special adventure. He also appeared in the 1996 documentary When We Were Kings about the "Rumble in the Jungle" 1974 Ali-Foreman Championship fight opposite Norman Mailer crediting Muhammad Ali as a poet who composed the world's shortest poem: "Me? Was it me? Buckley clearly flaunts it, probably to set himself apart from the hoi polloi of his contemporaries. I have decided, he said, that I have got to jump from a plane. Manhattan DVD. And later I woke upat 6 a.m. Later I called up George, I said, What happened?, I thought it over, he said, and I took mercy on you. George Plimpton - Biography - IMDb Bill, who was from the South, kept saying to me, Can you believe Georges not English? How to find out, and whether you should care. Its something different, and Ive not encountered that in the mid-Atlantic. A Final Party at George Plimpton's Storied Apartment In most situations, he had the remarkable quality of making everyone he talked to feel at ease, at home, welcome, no matter who they were or what they didbut for whatever strange reason there wasnt this effortlessness with me, this warmth. Richard Howard, poetry editor, the Paris Review:I worked with George for 10 years on the magazine. We all just had our own regional accentor non accent, like the flat midwest speak. I thought Id died and gone to Olympus. What exactly is a Boston Brahmin accent? Now the interview is perfect!. December 17, 2022 Rafael Garca. Plimpton played Tom Hanks's antagonistic father in Volunteers. Sidd Finch: A pitcher, part yogi and part recluse. - Sports Illustrated 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. [47][48] He got the personality totally wrong, too. . 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.