And they founded this thing called the Paris Review and published poetry and short story writers and did interviews. If you listen to Grossman (who is originally from Boston) starting about 15 seconds into the clip below, youll see that he uses a split-the-difference UK/US hybrid that is literally mid-Atlantic, in the sense of combining accents from both countries, but is different from the newsreel announcer voice: You should talk to William Labov [JF: I will try] , pioneering sociolinguist, whose landmark study into New York City speech led him to ask the same question you have. 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 guys here in Detroit treated him like one of us. What exactly is a Boston Brahmin accent? It was as if he was trying out again. Is it in evidence among the Gen X set of Boston, or a passing phenomenon? With a little more practice, you could give us boys in the big leagues a run for our money. On Saturday Night Live, even the great impersonator Dana Carvey couldnt get it quite right. [citation needed]. 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). ), this isnt some kind of morbid contest to see who can be the first to inform the board of some celebritys death. 2023 Cond Nast. 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. I had made about five thousand egg and tuna sandwiches. That phony-baloney feigned British pronunciation thing. OK? The clipped English of George Plimpton and William F. Buckley, Jr. were vestigial examples.. 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. So it was that my father played himself not just in movies and on TV, but in life, too. Billy Collins, poet:Im one of these people who went from crashing Georges parties in the 70s to being invited in the 80s. 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. **Thats a common name for such an accent. #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. 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". 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. Read more in this thread (long). Ive always heard it referred to as a patrician accent. Vault. The Mid-Atlantic accent, or Transatlantic accent, is a . If you found him at a fancy restaurant, he was there as a guest: For his own meals he preferred cheap Chinese or bangers and mash at a local Irish pub. Peter Matthiesen, author, co-founder of the Paris Review:I was in Liberia, of all places, and George met me in Monrovia. Did he have the celebrated "Boston Brahmin" accent, or was it a psuedo-Brit affectation? It includes clear pronunciation of each and every consonant cluster. In fact, my dads farewells seemed loquacious in comparison to his mothers. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. tweedy demeanor and Oxford accent. 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. **. George Plimpton's duplex apartment on the Upper East Side hit the market for $5.495 million on April 18. The clenched jaw tight-bite bit: the lockjaw dentiloquist. 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. 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. The title of the PBS documentary - "Plimpton! Vault. Mr . George also approved, I think, of the fact that I lost. For such admissions to escape my fathers lips, they always had to be a little removed somehow. Isnt that what they call it. Slate is published by The Slate Group, a Graham Holdings Company. [2], In 1975, in Bellport, Long Island, Plimpton, with Fireworks by Grucci attempted to break the record for the world's largest firework. He was not himself interested in poetry, but he read all of the poems every quarter, and he would tell me what he thought of them. Ken Auletta, author:Sometime after age 70, when his reflexes dulled, George took to the sidelines in the Artists and Writers softball game in Easthampton, N.Y. Each year his name was announced, and each year he was hailed by the crowd, who paid more attention to him than to the game. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found The Paris Review, as well as his patrician demeanor and accent. Shadow Box. [29], With Felix Grucci, Plimpton competed in the 16th International Fireworks Festival in 1979 in Monte Carlo. Just listen to very early recordings from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, back even before microphones, when singers had to yell directly into a large cone and over-enunciate so that their voices would be recorded into something intelligible on a spinning wax cylinder or disk. Ever. He could have done whatever he wanted. He was a great addition to the human race. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found The Paris Review, as well as his patrician demeanor and accent. To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories, To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. With a little more practice, you could give us boys in the big leagues a run for our money. My dad could never say what he feltnot reallyand neither can any of us. 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 could have been a fight trainer, a fight manager! Starring George Plimpton as Himself, directed by Tom Bean and Luke Poling, was released. By George Plimpton. The last time I heard my fathers voice, it was over the telephone. Famed participatory journalist George Plimpton (1927-2003) was a writer, editor, amateur sportsman, actor, and friend to many. Richard Howard, poetry editor, the Paris Review:I worked with George for 10 years on the magazine. 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. George Plimpton, the New York aristocrat and literary journalist whose career was a happy lifelong competition between scholarly pursuits and madcap attempts -- chronicled in self-deprecating. 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. Plimpton sparred for three rounds with boxing greats Archie Moore and Sugar Ray Robinson while on assignment for Sports Illustrated. He smiled broadly, signaled for the coach to send Lupica in to run for him, and trotted back to the sidelines. Plimpton embedded with the Detroit Lions for their three week training camp, an adventure which culminated with him playing quarterback in their annual intra-team preseason scrimmage. Hemingway on Fiction, Part Two. (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. 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. Labov suspected that WWII had something to do about it. She would not even say goodbye. *Originally posted by CBCD * George had three siblings: Francis Taylor Pearsons Plimpton Jr., Oakes Ames Plimpton,[15] and Sarah Gay Plimpton. Your transparent jealousy is very unbecoming, Carnac. As a result, this American version of a posh accent has all but disappeared even among the American upper classes. 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. 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. Again with thanks to Jonathan Fields, here's the continuation of George Plimpton's famous interview of Ernest Hemingway from the Paris Review, Summer 1958. But he would do this in the most charming and agreeable way. Timothy Seldes, George Plimptons literary agent:Whenever George wanted me to do something for him, he would call me up and say, Hello, Old Tim. One day, I got a call, and heard his voice, and my heart sank. With the evolution of talkies in the late 1920s, voice was first heard in motion pictures. A lifelong New Yorker, he never tasted a bagel or an olive, and he never chewed a stick of gum. [23] He was also notable for his appearance in television commercials during the early 1980s, including a memorable campaign for Mattel's Intellivision. He was one of her original supporters and had published an article about her work in The Paris Review. Archie Moore, after all, had broken his nose. (And, OK, Im not a linguist, but Im married to one!) He was also an accomplished birdwatcher. **. That life couldnt contain him, hed burst its seams like it was an old coat two sizes too small. The Writers won the game with a home run in extra innings, but the highlight was Plimptons hit. Heres a sampling for today, with more planned in the days ahead. Anyhow, I asked Terry Gross from Fresh Air and George Plimpton to be auctioneers. George Plimpton. He was one of her original supporters and had published an article about her work in The Paris Review. Just in time for the Sixties, with all their other pressures towards some kind of anti-Eisenhower authenticity. A little before my time, but Kennedy certainly didnt, even if his vernacular was more formal than Brandos. I only wish I could not tell him again, just one more time. 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. May a diseased yak squat in your hot tub. 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. When George told the story, DiMaggio laughed so hard I thought he was going to fall on the floor. I do believe his accent was decidedly Swamp Yankee. The clipped, non-rhotic English accents of George Plimpton and William F. Buckley Jr. were vestigial examples. 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. In this campaign, Plimpton touted the superiority regarding the graphics and sounds of Intellivision video games over the Atari 2600.[24]. 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. Her mother, a writer and critic for Commonweal and Catholic World. 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. By George Plimpton. Brown & Co. Re-issued George Plimpton Sports Books, 2016. 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. Vault. In the 50s Plimpton and staff came to New York, where they kept the Review going for half a century. 1. He had, for instance, a series of antiquated phrases and terms of affection. Description above from the Wikipedia article George Plimpton, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of . What stood in our way? Old money, would never say the word spanky, and certainly had more money than God could count. For his grandfather, the publisher and philanthropist, see, Calvin Gay Plimpton and Priscilla G. Lewis were the parents of, He was widely reviled for years after the war by Southern whites, who gave him the nickname "Beast Butler." Even the manliest actors, such as Humphrey Bogart and Clark Gable sometimes slipped into this voice-coach mode.
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