Plimpton's remarkable life is showcased in a documentary that is.
List of books by author George Plimpton - ThriftBooks #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.
'Plimpton!' documentary looks at George Plimpton's lives Shootout at Rio Lobo", "The Smaller the Ball, the Better the Book: A Game Theory of Literature", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=George_Plimpton&oldid=1137974740, This page was last edited on 7 February 2023, at 10:19. I feel that his work on this and many other language-related matters should be far more widely known than it is. Get book recommendations, fiction, poetry, and dispatches from the world of literature in your in-box. 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 . (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. Brown & Co. Re-issued George Plimpton Sports Books, 2016. His final interview appeared in The New York Sports Express of October 2, 2003 by journalist Dave Hollander. Plimpton himself described it as a "New England cosmopolitan accent"[36] or "Eastern seaboard cosmopolitan" accent. George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 - September 25, 2003) was an American journalist, writer, literary editor, actor and occasional amateur sportsman.
"Hut-Two-Three . . Ugh" A writer proves to be a Paper Lion at QB The Wikipedia entry is indeed delightful. 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?. No, my fathers voice was not an act, something chosen or practiced in front of mirrors: he came from a different world, where people talked differently, and about different things; where certain things were discussed, and certain things were notand his voice simply reflected this. A graduate of Harvard University and King's College, Cambridge, Plimpton was recruited to Paris by Peter Matthiessen in 1952 and signed on to the project shortly thereafter. He joined us in Monte Carlo when we won the international [fireworks] competition. Labov suspected that WWII had something to do about it.
With 'Paper Lion,' George Plimpton Played Pro Football So We Didn't Have To 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. silk-stockinged New Englander - private schools (he was And bolstering this last point, a reader who grew up in Depression-era Chicago writes: All I can think of is that people were imitating FDR. 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). [2] His first wife, whom he married in 1968[38] and divorced in 1988, was Freddy Medora Espy, a photographer's assistant. Few could give a toast or tell a story with equal humor. Actually, thats not far off from how my mom felt when she first met him. Oh, I suppose we should all just lavish praise upon Carnac the Magnificent now for bringing this to your attention, is that it? Norman Mailer, author:George had a rare gift. Did he have the celebrated "Boston Brahmin" accent, or was it a psuedo-Brit affectation? George had three siblings: Francis Taylor Pearsons Plimpton Jr., Oakes Ames Plimpton,[15] and Sarah Gay Plimpton. [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 a great addition to the human race. For it was George Plimpton the writer, not the editor nor the celebrity, who was honored here . [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 was smooth. 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. The young Paris Review editor and other New York literary figures arrived during a period marked by hope for a democratic Cuba. As Poling puts it, George was known as an unrivaled raconteur and, in making a film of his life story, it only seemed natural to allow him to tell it.. When George told the story, DiMaggio laughed so hard I thought he was going to fall on the floor. [11], His mother was Pauline Ames,[12] the daughter of botanist Oakes Ames (1874-1950) and artist Blanche Ames. In fact, my dads farewells seemed loquacious in comparison to his mothers. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2007. In the April 1, 1985 issue of Sports Illustrated, Plimpton pulled off a widely reported April Fools' Day prank. My dad could never say what he feltnot reallyand neither can any of us. Thats a common name for such an accent.
Against George Plimpton | Neotenianos And the many candidates for the crown of Last American to Speak This Way. George Plimpton's duplex apartment on the Upper East Side hit the market for $5.495 million on April 18.
Typical of George to laugh about something others saw as a defining traithe never took himself all that seriously. 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. In that vein, here is an oral biography of George Plimpton. He wanted to play his own part, but they wouldnt let him. . During my fight, my nose got badly broken in the second round, but I did last all four scheduled rounds, though I lost. 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. 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. What fine manners he had! He was so open to life and all its new and unexpected situations. By George Plimpton. People two or three deep stood looking out at the East River. The clipped, non-rhotic English accents of George Plimpton and William F. Buckley Jr. were vestigial examples. In finally hearing the great storyteller tell the one story he would not tell, I could hear, too, his long, reverent silence on the subjectand it reveals his integrity as a journalist, and as a man. Congratulations Carnac, for posting about George Plimptons death at
3:44 PM. The first minute is a cameo by Henry Ford II, who speaks in an utterly flat Midwest rather than Mid-Atlantic accent that no one would call elegant but that would sound perfectly natural in 2015. 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. 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. 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! We had the book party for my selected poems, Sailing Alone Around the Room, at Georges house on Sept 10, 2001. Is your language rhotic? 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. It was a great partyraucous and long. Plimpton appeared in the 1989 documentary The Tightrope Dancer which featured the life and the work of the artist Vali Myers. 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 . What exactly is a Boston Brahmin accent? :rolleyes: Ive got news for you, buddy, youre not even second in line! Documentary Shows George Plimpton's Best Story Was His Own : NPR - NPR.org In 1955 or 56, he went back to New York. Hed done it in Amsterdam, Moscow, and London; hed done it at a PEN benefit; and now he and Norman were going to do it in Cuba. When Plimpton, the co-founder of The Paris Review, died in 2003 at age 76, The New York Times . He was very understanding of what we did and how we did it. Larchmont Lockjaw? He also served as editor of the Harvard Lampoon. Now you know! I want you to go [to the shop] pull out the biggest firework you have and go out and light it up, because you just won the firework contest in Monaco!, I was so stunned, all I could think to say was, I dont think I can get a permit that fast!, Alice Quinn, director of the Poetry Society of America, poetry editor, The New Yorker:When I was an adviser at Columbia Magazine [a journal run out of Columbia University], we were scraping barrel, with no money in the bank, and I said to the students we should have a benefit auction. Shed wandered out to the balcony of a lonely Manhattan cocktail party, and was standing out there, smoking a cigarette and looking down mournfully at the street far below, when from behind her she heard a voice: I know a better way down.. Mid-Atlantic accent - Wikipedia Look out, Wilson! 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. Plimpton also appeared in the closing credits of the 2006 film Factory Girl. What stood in our way? Louis Begley, novelist:Jim Atlas interviewed me for an Art of Fiction piece in the Paris Review, a feature of the magazine that George invented and brought to perfection. He appeared in the PBS American Masters documentary on Andy Warhol. 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]. Future Poet Laureate Donald Hall, who had met Plimpton at Exeter, was Poetry Editor. A Final Party at George Plimpton's Storied Apartment He would have a beer with you. Plimpton was married twice. George also approved, I think, of the fact that I lost. And here for the full interview). That was when Westbrook van Voorhis, the famous March of Time voice, did the intro narration of the pilot episode of The Twilight Zone. 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.