And I, of course, was looking them over, too. Self-help author and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson has a unique accent that, . (Did Eisenhower speak the newsreel style? 2) Truman v. Kaltenborn, 1949. 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. Best-selling author George Plimpton shares his experience as a "Storyteller For Life" with Dean Nelson of Point Loma Nazarene University as part of PLNU's 5th Annual Writer's Symposium By The. (Newsreels ran in movie theaters, of course: what better critique of the high newsreel style than the new movies that jarred against it?). George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 - September 25, 2003) was an American journalist, writer, literary editor, actor and occasional amateur sportsman. George Plimpton Wiki: Salary, Married, Wedding, Spouse, Family . (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. 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. The opposing team: the Detroit Lions. 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! Plimpton appeared in the 1989 documentary The Tightrope Dancer which featured the life and the work of the artist Vali Myers. History / Biographical Note Biographical Note. Its strange to think, but he would have been eighty-five this year: fourteen years older than my mom, fifty years older than me. *Originally posted by cuauhtemoc * He was a Wasp (both of his parents came from old New England families, and had ancestors on the Mayflower). It was always a surprise. The clearest example of the Mid-Atlantic accent is the accent of the Frasier & Niles Crane characters on the TV show Frasier. You should be very grateful. He could have been a fight trainer, a fight manager! Of course, I think he enjoyed the odd persona his voice and mannerisms conferred on him. Rose Styron, wife of William Styron and former Paris Review editor:My husband Bill was with George when he started the Paris Review. [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. Powered by Discourse, best viewed with JavaScript enabled. It was as if he was trying out again. 3: Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". If you say, I parked my car in Harvard Yard, you are being rhotic. The enormously popular speech styles of Brando and Dean (and I could add Elvis Presley) clearly pushed vernacular style into a kind of mainstream acceptability, then desirability. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found The Paris Review. But Labov said that in post-World War II New York, fancier people started becoming rhotic, and recovering their Rs. Between 2000 and 2003, Plimpton wrote the libretto to a new opera, Animal Tales, commissioned by Family Opera Initiative, with music by Kitty Brazelton directed by Grethe Barrett Holby. I only wish I could not tell him again, just one more time. Hed have that and a scotch on the rocks, his favorite drink. 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. One reader writes: I've wondered whether that "announcer English" was at least partly caused by poor loudspeakers and microphones. The Writer's Chapbook A Compendium of Fact, Opinion, Wit, and Advice from the Twentieth Century's Preeminent Writers. Macklem . A similar phenomenon can be noted in the use, well into the 1980s, of the recorded sound of teletype machines in the background of newscasts, a sound still faintly evoked by the bip-bip-bip patterns of music that often introduces news broadcasts, even though teletype machines are long gone The subconscious association of this pattern of sound with news is fading fast with the passing of the years and will undoubtedly disappear entirely in the coming decade as surely as the over-enunciated style of radio speech of the 30s disappeared within a generation of its no longer being needed. The Wikipedia entry for it is quite detailed. In that vein, here is an oral biography of George Plimpton. Whee!! 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. . So we got together and, after some preliminaries, he popped the question that he was really there to ask. How widespread, numerically and geographically? From what other people had told me, I knew a little bit about itthat my father (and mother) had been right by Bobbys side in California when he was shot, that my father had tackled Sirhan Sirhan to the ground, and wrestled the gun from his handbut not a word of it came from my dad himself. What will you be mad about ten years after youre gone?). 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? Indeed, the police deposition the filmmakers managed to uncover may be the only time my dad ever spoke about the tragedy, publicly or privately. The wife is also old money, as Phlosphr mentions, and she talks exactly the same way. Plimpton appeared in the 1989 documentary The Tightrope Dancer which featured the life and the work of the artist Vali Myers. Mr. Plimpton was born in Manhattan in 1927 and raised in Huntington, L.I. That made him a great storyteller. I believe the accent was at one time known as Larchmont Lockjaw. I just heard that George Plimpton has died. When he found a story to be short of the mark, he rejected it no matter who the author wasan old friend, a Pulitzer winner, an unknown. 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.. Congratulations Carnac, for posting about George Plimptons death at 3:44 PM. He just did it because Columbia was another literary magazine. By George Plimpton. When Plimpton, the co-founder of The Paris Review, died in 2003 at age 76, The New York Times . Gay Talese, author:As a young man not long out of university, at 26, 27 years of age, George Plimpton went with his friends to Paris to be benighted in the tradition of Paris culture. George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 - September 25, 2003) was an American journalist, writer, literary editor, actor and occasional amateur sportsman. Plimpton brought the Left Bank to NYCpeople like Peter Mathiessen, William Styron, Terry Southern. *Originally posted by CBCD * *Originally posted by cuauhtemoc * People two or three deep stood looking out at the East River. For instance: Mid-Atlantic English was the dominant dialect among the Northeastern American upper class through the first half of the 20th century. By strange coincidence, I actually became quite good friends with his (ex-)in-laws here in Manhattan. After returning to New York from Paris, he routinely launched fireworks at his evening parties. We had the book party for my selected poems, Sailing Alone Around the Room, at Georges house on Sept 10, 2001. Friends were almost always happy to see him because you knew he was bound to improve your mood. Vault. In no way do I recall Plimpton talking in a way that is typically associated with LLa style which, as I understand it, is associated with unclear pronunciation of most consonant cluster. Plimpton had a quasi-Brit patrician accent, which in no way corresponds with the official descriptions of LL that Ive read on the Net. His dish was Spaghetti Bolognese. He watched the first pitch sail high for a ball, and then hit a rope into left field. His friendships testified to what an eclectic man he was. 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. Are you saying that the denizens of Larchmont sound like Plimpton did? Its something different, and Ive not encountered that in the mid-Atlantic. Description above from the Wikipedia article George Plimpton, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of . "I've decided to stay over here in . Oh, I suppose we should all just lavish praise upon Carnac the Magnificent now for bringing this to your attention, is that it? Queen Elizabeth doesnt say car, and neither did Franklin D. Roosevelt, nor did the newsreel announcers or movie actors of his day. Was this sheer affectation? Paul McCartney and his then-girlfriend Heather showed up. See below!) In the offices of the Paris Review, he displayed far more discerning tastes. $ 9.19 - $ 32.19. 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. The journal, which had operated out of his home, moved downtown. But its clear that the diction I call Announcer Voice has been the object of close linguistic study. He did not appear last year, or the year before, and we feared he was done with us. That is, until I saw the documentarythe assassination of his dear friend Bobby Kennedy. Now the interview is perfect!. In 1955 or 56, he went back to New York. 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. silk-stockinged New Englander - private schools (he was But for now, just one more category: 3) Changing technology, changing voices. That was the last party for a while., I just got back from a road trip from Michigan. 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. Never heard of this decidedly imprecise term. 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. Except at parties. On Saturday Night Live, even the great impersonator Dana Carvey couldnt get it quite right. He hosted Disney Channel's Mouseterpiece Theater (a Masterpiece Theatre spoof which featured Disney cartoon shorts). He majored in English. The Wikipedia entry is indeed delightful. The s. But he would do this in the most charming and agreeable way. 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! Starring George Plimpton as Himself" - is meant as a wink-wink to Plimpton's career as a "participatory journalist." As a writer for Sports . [28], Plimpton was a demolitions expert in the post-World War II Army. 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 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. By George Plimpton. 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. Was it me? Suddenly, a New York cop remembered a long-ago murder. 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. Everything he did was like this, just a bit odd. 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. Off screen, George Plimpton and Gore Vidal come to mind. In the "I'm Spelling as Fast as I Can" episode of The Simpsons, he hosts the "Spellympics" and attempts to bribe Lisa Simpson to lose with the offer of a scholarship at a Seven Sisters College and a hot plate; "it's perfect for soup! [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." 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. 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. (A variation is the Locust Valley Lockjaw.). $ 3.99 - $ 27.44. After several problems with transporting and preparing the fireworks, Plimpton and Grucci became the first competitors from the United States to win the event. It was as if some old gentlemans code prohibited us from interacting as human beings. 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! 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. "[25] He had a recurring role as the grandfather of Dr. Carter on the NBC series ER. Jay McInerney, author:Arriving in Manhattan as a young writer, nothing was more thrilling or daunting than attending my first Paris Review party at Georges townhouse on East 72nd in the fall of 1984. He wanted to play his own part, but they wouldnt let him. He would have a beer with you. "[27], Plimpton was a member of the cast of the A&E TV series A Nero Wolfe Mystery (200102). In fact, my dads farewells seemed loquacious in comparison to his mothers. 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. 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. That was when Westbrook van Voorhis, the famous March of Time voice, did the intro narration of the pilot episode of The Twilight Zone. Middle class? It includes clear pronunciation of each and every consonant cluster. 1 draft choice of the Lions in 1965. Bill, who was from the South, kept saying to me, Can you believe Georges not English? 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. The list of authors interviewed is extraordinary, and stretches from Hemingway years ago to Amy Hempel (in the 50th anniversary issue that has just been published). #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. [29], With Felix Grucci, Plimpton competed in the 16th International Fireworks Festival in 1979 in Monte Carlo. All rights reserved. Ill try to give a representative range, and I am grateful for the care and thought that have gone into these responses. Harris trained himself as a young man to lose his native Bronx accent - to the point that he was asked if he were British. 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. I always thought it sounded similar to the accent of William F. Buckley, Jr., who I believe was not reared in Boston. And they founded this thing called the Paris Review and published poetry and short story writers and did interviews. 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. Buckley clearly flaunts it, probably to set himself apart from the hoi polloi of his contemporaries. George also approved, I think, of the fact that I lost. These interviews are a collaborative effort, and, I believe, a fascinating contribution to literary history. So think of Margaret Anderson or Amanda and you can place George. He smiled broadly, signaled for the coach to send Lupica in to run for him, and trotted back to the sidelines. 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 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. Plimpton played quarterback for the Detroit Lions and triangle for the New York Philharmonic, an. Hes just trying it out and will come back and write a book about his experiences. And similarly on the role of ridicule in speeding the move away from this accent: This is only partly facetious, but I think I know who was the American to speak "Announcer." He also served as editor of the Harvard Lampoon. 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. 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. I remember getting the news: It was my wife Madeleines birthday, Aug. 7. Bill and I met in Rome, several months after the Paris Review was startedwe were, as they say, courtingand he drove me to Paris so George and Peter [Mathiessen] could look me over. Would you like Mike to run for you, George? the coach asked. George Plimpton (1927-2003) George Plimpton was the editor of The Paris Review from its founding in 1953 until his death in 2003. He was one of her original supporters and had published an article about her work in The Paris Review. As an old film buff, I am used to this voice, though it figures unevenly in old movies. A heuristic approximation! Why couldnt we have a good time, too? When he was on the scene, everything was a big happeningan event. The Dudleys established the 36-acre (15ha) Highstead Arboretum in Redding, Connecticut. 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. My dad could never say what he feltnot reallyand neither can any of us. **Oh, I suppose we should all just lavish praise upon Carnac the Magnificent now for bringing this to your attention, is that it? (He intended to face both line-ups, but tired badly and was relieved by Ralph Houk.) [citation needed], In the movie Plimpton! Call me back.. He loved the ones that made a lot of noise and racket and excitement. The Mid-Atlantic accent, or Transatlantic accent, is a . He liked the fact that I had broken my nose in defeat. Plimpton and Dudley were the parents of twin daughters Laura Dudley Plimpton and Olivia Hartley Plimpton. 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. YESTERDAY IS NOT FAR AWAY. Quite sad, as he just had a daughter not many years back. The young Paris Review editor and other New York literary figures arrived during a period marked by hope for a democratic Cuba.
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