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In it Van Voorhis has the formal delivery that would have seemed familiar to many mid-century listeners but which in retrospect we know was on the way out. Update: This post is #2 in the announcer-speak series. All rights reserved. Plimpton's The Bogey Man chronicles his attempt to play professional golf on the PGA Tour during the Nicklaus and Palmer era of the 1960s. Future Poet Laureate Donald Hall, who had met Plimpton at Exeter, was Poetry Editor. Ive always heard it referred to as a patrician accent. George also approved, I think, of the fact that I lost. That life couldnt contain him, hed burst its seams like it was an old coat two sizes too small. Talking about sports with Georgeor, even better, reading George about sportswas more fun than sports themselves. No matter where he was, or who he wasquarterback, trapeze artist, Philharmonic triangle-playerhis voice never changed, proving that you can be whomever you want to be without ever abandoning yourself. What exactly is a Boston Brahmin accent? George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 - September 25, 2003) was an American journalist, writer, literary editor, actor and occasional amateur sportsman. [26] He also appeared in an episode of the NBC sitcom Wings. He knew we were just as good as he was, but in a different field. A little before my time, but Kennedy certainly didnt, even if his vernacular was more formal than Brandos. [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. Plimpton would not boast of his feat, so we did. Isnt that what they call it. By George Plimpton. 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. 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. He rounded first as if he were about to go for a double, then glided back to the base, with fans waving and cheering. Consider his duties as host of Mousterpiece Theatre (my first intro to my father as celebrity), a childrens TV show in which he debated the adventures and psyches of Donald Duck and Goofy in that marvelously serious voice: Is Donald Duck really a strident existentialist and a hero? How wonderfulwhat fun!to have a constant reminder emerging from your lips that life was absurd, and identity, too; all of it a great game to be played at, enjoyed. 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. As an old film buff, I am used to this voice, though it figures unevenly in old movies. 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. I do believe his accent was decidedly Swamp Yankee. 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. "[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. The Cuban revolutionaries, led by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, had just marched on Havana and ousted the US-supported dictator Fulgencio Batista. Id like to offer a speculation, for what its worth. Actors Nathan Lane (from Jersey City, NJ) and Robin Williams (grew up in SF Bay area) often adopt this accent. Peter even came with us on our honeymoon in Ravello, though George didnt. These interviews are a collaborative effort, and, I believe, a fascinating contribution to literary history. He was 76.. 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 knew that between the time Id asked Plimpton to do the auction and the night itself, he had probably received five invitations for a better evening, but he would never have reneged. 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[2] was born in New York City on March 18, 1927, and spent his childhood there, attending St. Bernard's School and growing up in an apartment duplex on Manhattan's Upper East Side located at 1165 Fifth Avenue. Norman Mailer said that George Plimpton was the best-loved man in New York. Plimpton brought the Left Bank to NYCpeople like Peter Mathiessen, William Styron, Terry Southern. [5][6][7][8][9][10] His father was a successful corporate lawyer and partner of the law firm Debevoise and Plimpton; he was appointed by President John F. Kennedy as U.S. deputy ambassador to the United Nations, serving from 1961 to 1965. (What else happened that year??? He was also an accomplished birdwatcher. 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". For such admissions to escape my fathers lips, they always had to be a little removed somehow. Bill Buckley, Gore Vidal, George Plimpton. George . 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. Vault. Interesting that the two competitors for his anchor chair were both fully vernacular speakers from the South and West: Mudd and Rather. 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. But he came right down to our level. [32] When lit, the firework remained on the ground and exploded, blasting a crater 35 feet (11m) wide and 10 feet (3.0m) deep. Buckley clearly flaunts it, probably to set himself apart from the hoi polloi of his contemporaries. Dan Rather certainly marks the definitive end of the newsreel style and the ascendance of the folksy vernacular: those rustic analogies! Its something different, and Ive not encountered that in the mid-Atlantic. If you are in the big league, God help us all. News children today have no concept of the Mid-Atlantic accent. He was immensely generous in every waygenerous about sharing the work and about giving one a chance to edit things. And here for the full interview). In that regard, Plimpton is the perfect candidate, and the proof is in "George, Being George," the compulsively readable oral biography edited by his friend Nelson W. Aldrich Jr. But the average person never talked that way. George Plimpton (1927-2003) was a journalist and the first editor-in-chief of The Paris Review. If he couldnt be taken quite seriously, that was fine with him (he took himself lightly, and relished being in on the joke). Volume 7, 2003-2005, pages 429-432. He liked the fact that I had broken my nose in defeat. 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. George Plimpton gives an auction winner a star-studded walk through the legendary NYC eatery Elaine's. At least, not to me, nor even to my sister, a fact she mentions in the movie. Hemingway on Fiction, Part Two. What was our problem? 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. Norman Mailer, author:George had a rare gift. He plays the 'fancy pants' to our outhouse Americana," Flaherty asserted. If you say, I pahked my cah in Hahvahd Yahd, like some vaudeville version of a Boston accent, you are non-rhotic. 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. For instance: Mid-Atlantic English was the dominant dialect among the Northeastern American upper class through the first half of the 20th century. 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. . [35], Plimpton was known for his distinctive accent which, by Plimpton's own admission, was often mistaken for an English accent. tweedy demeanor and Oxford accent. Brown & Co. Re-issued George Plimpton Sports Books, 2016. . How do I know you're not George Plimpton? I just heard that George Plimpton has died. Could it be fairly said that Plimptom had it? In 2013, the documentary Plimpton! 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. And he stood there ebullient and charming all night; he bid on many items himself. 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. *Originally posted by cuauhtemoc * His father co-founded the law firm Debevoise Plimpton. **Your transparent jealousy is very unbecoming, Carnac. I hope not. *Originally posted by Phlosphr * In that vein, here is an oral biography of George Plimpton. He was equally at home on a bicycle or getting out of a limousine with a Saudi Arabian prince. And his apartment, with those windows that looked out onto the East River, became a famous landmark in NYC. Oh now, Im joking, Carnac ( see? And I felt such love for my sweet old excited dad at that moment that I thought I would do him the favor of not telling him so, of leaving it unsaid. Indeed, the police deposition the filmmakers managed to uncover may be the only time my dad ever spoke about the tragedy, publicly or privately. 3 people found this helpful . After his discharge, Plimpton returned to Harvard and finished his undergraduate education. I think the term Old Money or patrician pretty much says it. 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. 2) The Role of Broadway and Hollywood, and the Shift from Jimmy Cagney to Marlon Brando. George Plimpton boxed with Archie Moore, played quarterback for the Detroit Lions, and played percussion for the New York Philharmonic. 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. If you say, I parked my car in Harvard Yard, you are being rhotic. Billy Collins, poet:Im one of these people who went from crashing Georges parties in the 70s to being invited in the 80s. 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. Look out, Wilson! It was a hot, sweltering day. 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! He did not appear last year, or the year before, and we feared he was done with us. I received many notes like this one: The variety of English you are referring to has a name in linguistics: "Mid-Atlantic English". [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]. He watched the first pitch sail high for a ball, and then hit a rope into left field. 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. 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. He was smooth. Call me back.. If you were making a speech in a large hall, or speaking on the radio, you needed to enunciate very clearly and use a lot of emphases to be sure your audience could understand what you were saying. 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. 26 Feb 2023 12:18:23 Harris trained himself as a young man to lose his native Bronx accent - to the point that he was asked if he were British. The clearest example of the Mid-Atlantic accent is the accent of the Frasier & Niles Crane characters on the TV show Frasier. So it was that my father played himself not just in movies and on TV, but in life, too. As a result, this American version of a posh accent has all but disappeared even among the American upper classes. (Why do I even bother?) I can understand your frustration, but celebrities die every day. 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. Plimpton sparred for three rounds with boxing greats Archie Moore and Sugar Ray Robinson while on assignment for Sports Illustrated. 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. That is, until I saw the documentarythe assassination of his dear friend Bobby Kennedy. But he has never employed that voice professionally, and certainly does not speak that way in real life. George Plimpton Dec 1, 2014 In which the venturous author, the rawest rookie pro football has ever known, recounts all the excruciating details of what happened when he called five plays as. **. When I spoke to him my voice went up an octave and took on his formal tone and became careful and unnatural; his voice became like his fathersstern, authoritative, disciplinarianwhen his father was the last person in the universe he wanted to be. The Dudleys established the 36-acre (15ha) Highstead Arboretum in Redding, Connecticut. I thought they were terrific. He was so open to life and all its new and unexpected situations. He was "George Plimpton"-editor, host . For it was George Plimpton the writer, not the editor nor the celebrity, who was honored here . :rolleyes: Ive got news for you, buddy, youre not even second in line! Larchmont Lockjaw? (And, OK, Im not a linguist, but Im married to one!) George Plimpton. Everything he did was like this, just a bit odd. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found The Paris Review. He had been in the war, if briefly (stationed in Italy towards the end of it, hed missed action, but met the Pope, an early sign of the great good fortuneone of his favorite phrasesthat marked his life). 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. You can. [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. To me, it meant admission to this little exclusive club at the Paris Review. I think he came down [to the shooting of Paper Lion in] Florida once. But he could easily have said, Alice, I have enough trouble raising money for my magazine.. The young Paris Review editor and other New York literary figures arrived during a period marked by hope for a democratic Cuba.