It sounds like Somerset Maugham, was a favorite putdown. The Sidd Finch story was accompanied by a series of photos which managed to convince even the eagle-eyed fans . (He intended to face both line-ups, but tired badly and was relieved by Ralph Houk.) They all sound just like George. 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. 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. He majored in English. Share; Copied! 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. He would have a beer with you. He was also an accomplished birdwatcher. In fact, my dads farewells seemed loquacious in comparison to his mothers. You heard it and it. Actually, thats not far off from how my mom felt when she first met him. If you are in the big league, God help us all. If you say, I pahked my cah in Hahvahd Yahd, like some vaudeville version of a Boston accent, you are non-rhotic. He had a way of putting it all together, of understanding fighters in the ring; he was a good analyst of boxing. It was a hot, sweltering day. In all my years, Ive never heard this accent in person. 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. 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. :rolleyes: Ive got news for you, buddy, youre not even second in line! The Curious Case Of Sidd Finch. We were bound to play the roles of father and son, unable to simply be ourselves. George Plimpton Broke My Arm. The risky pleasures of Plimpton's | by Too old-fashioned. 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. Plimpton would not boast of his feat, so we did. [citation needed] In 1958, prior to a post-season exhibition game at Yankee Stadium between teams managed by Willie Mays (National League) and Mickey Mantle (American League), Plimpton pitched against the National League. He hosted Disney Channel's Mouseterpiece Theater (a Masterpiece Theatre spoof which featured Disney cartoon shorts). I didnt know he was from the Larchmont area. [2], In 1975, in Bellport, Long Island, Plimpton, with Fireworks by Grucci attempted to break the record for the world's largest firework. 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. Interesting that the two competitors for his anchor chair were both fully vernacular speakers from the South and West: Mudd and Rather. George Plimpton gives an auction winner a star-studded walk through the legendary NYC eatery Elaine's. That life couldnt contain him, hed burst its seams like it was an old coat two sizes too small. George Plimpton, Author And Editor, Is Dead at 76 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). That was the last party for a while., I just got back from a road trip from Michigan. 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. I do believe his accent was decidedly Swamp Yankee. Shoot! hed hiss, when he was mad. Mr . I dont give a rats ass about informing anyone about the death of Plimpton. It was always as if one were setting out with him on a special adventure. When he was on the scene, everything was a big happeningan event. I saw him [last] Wednesday night at a party; we rode home together, and he told me that he was planning to go down to Cuba, to revisit the site of his famous interview with Hemingway. (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. 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. Above all, he was a gentleman, one of the lasta figure so archaic, it could be easily mistaken for something else. Norman Mailer, author:George had a rare gift. By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. "[25] He had a recurring role as the grandfather of Dr. Carter on the NBC series ER. For more than fifty years, his friends made a circle whose circumference was vast and whose center was a fashionable tenement on New York's East Seventy-second street. George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 - September 25, 2003) was an American journalist, writer, literary editor, actor and occasional amateur sportsman. *Originally posted by cuauhtemoc * He never went all the way, though his authenticity and newly-downstyle speaking could probably be marked in the crisis/triumph stages of his reporting: the death of JFK; the Vietnam report; the moon landing. 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. George Plimpton (1927-2003) was a journalist and the first editor-in-chief of The Paris Review. Look out, Wilson! His experience was captured in the book Out of My League. Vault. What will you be mad about ten years after youre gone?). He looked like a very eccentric old Englishman. He also appeared in a featurette about Edie Sedgwick found on the Ciao! 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. [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. Plimpton brought the Left Bank to NYCpeople like Peter Mathiessen, William Styron, Terry Southern. 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. 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. When George told the story, DiMaggio laughed so hard I thought he was going to fall on the floor. Being, And Appreciating, George Plimpton - krvs.org 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. 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. 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. And his apartment, with those windows that looked out onto the East River, became a famous landmark in NYC. Bill Buckley, Gore Vidal, George Plimpton. He's a pitcher, part yogi and part recluse. Okay, then, are you saying that Plimpton has such as accent? Plimpton didnt die. The Paris Review was a testimony to his literary taste and his sense of glamour. Over the years, we held a lot of dinner parties for him, and he brought a lot of people inmany, many writers. [26] He also appeared in an episode of the NBC sitcom Wings. I remember getting the news: It was my wife Madeleines birthday, Aug. 7. These events were recalled in his best-known book Paper Lion, which was later adapted into the 1968 feature film starring Alan Alda. Documentary Shows George Plimpton's Best Story Was His Own : NPR - NPR.org He had, for instance, a series of antiquated phrases and terms of affection. The last time I heard my fathers voice, it was over the telephone. George . 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 . We were going to go looking for strange birds. He was immensely generous in every waygenerous about sharing the work and about giving one a chance to edit things. Ad Choices. And he stood there ebullient and charming all night; he bid on many items himself. He did these jobs, and many others, as an amateur.. With 'Paper Lion,' George Plimpton Played Pro Football So We Didn't Have To Buckley clearly flaunts it, probably to set himself apart from the hoi polloi of his contemporaries. An Evening With George Plimpton - 2000 - YouTube And so fuck was definitely out of the question, but what about I love you? 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 . "[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. Plimpton sparred for three rounds with boxing greats Archie Moore and Sugar Ray Robinson while on assignment for Sports Illustrated. Isnt that what they call it. He wrote for the Harvard Lampoon, was a member of the Hasty Pudding Club, Pi Eta, the Signet Society, and the Porcellian Club. He rounded first as if he were about to go for a double, then glided back to the base, with fans waving and cheering. He was respected by all. The film used archival audio and video of Plimpton lecturing and reading to create a posthumous narration. 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?. Several readers wrote in with specimens of Americans who had gone to England and ended up speaking in this mid-Atlantic way. 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. #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. Now, in George, Being George, 200 friends, lovers and rivals detail Plimpton's remarkable exploits. 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. 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. He was one of her original supporters and had published an article about her work in The Paris Review. Please educate me. The funny thing about Harris was that he did not start out with that accent - as I suspect George Gershwin did not. 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. [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. News children today have no concept of the Mid-Atlantic accent. 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. [11], His mother was Pauline Ames,[12] the daughter of botanist Oakes Ames (1874-1950) and artist Blanche Ames. He wrote, "I suppose in a mild way there is a lesson to be learned for the young, or the young at heart the gumption to get out and try one's wings". [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. The Cuban revolutionaries, led by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, had just marched on Havana and ousted the US-supported dictator Fulgencio Batista. 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). So we got together and, after some preliminaries, he popped the question that he was really there to ask. I never thought that George slept. And you are going to come with me. He had it, as does/did William Buckley, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, and Julia Child. Besides, third is a very respectable showing! 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. He wanted to play his own part, but they wouldnt let him. (What else happened that year??? See below!) George Plimpton | Military Wiki | Fandom [13], Plimpton's son described him as a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant and wrote that both of Plimpton's parents were descended from Mayflower passengers.[14]. Its something different, and Ive not encountered that in the mid-Atlantic. The risky pleasures of Plimpton's classic of participatory sportswriting, Paper Lion. In the 50s Plimpton and staff came to New York, where they kept the Review going for half a century. 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. I have worked as poetry editor with editors on other magazines; only with George has the experience been entirely agreeable. See Inside George Plimpton's Upper East Side Duplex My dad could never say what he feltnot reallyand neither can any of us. It is the kind of study . George Plimpton, who died last week at his town house, on East Seventy-second Street near the river, was a serious man of serious accomplishments who just happened to have more fun than a van. It was so violent that it brought a lot of people to the windows. He said, You better stay here, and I did, for a while. 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. Among other challenges for Sports Illustrated, he attempted to play top-level bridge, and spent some time as a high-wire circus performer. All rights reserved. **. 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. And the many candidates for the crown of Last American to Speak This Way. Against George Plimpton | Neotenianos The name George Plimpton is synonymous with a kind of all-in participatory journalism. Whee!! And they founded this thing called the Paris Review and published poetry and short story writers and did interviews. Heres a sampling for today, with more planned in the days ahead. Plimpton! The Great Quarterback Sneak - YouTube George was the one who read my name out to the commissioner. Even the most basic conversation was often a struggle. The coach for the Writers team announced that Plimpton would pinch-hit for the first batter of the game, Daily News sports columnist Mike Lupica, and the crowd roared. Macklem . 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. 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. Think of the accent of Jane Hathaway on the Beverly Hillbillies. As an old film buff, I am used to this voice, though it figures unevenly in old movies. Been there, done that | Books | The Guardian I feel that his work on this and many other language-related matters should be far more widely known than it is. 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. Get book recommendations, fiction, poetry, and dispatches from the world of literature in your in-box. 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.
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