george plimpton accent11 Apr george plimpton accent
(This is not to belittle Lowell Thomas, but to recognize the artifice that served him so well in his career). George Plimpton gives an auction winner a star-studded walk through the legendary NYC eatery Elaine's. Peter Matthiessen took the magazine over from Humes and ousted him as editor, replacing him with Plimpton, using it as his cover for Matthiessen's CIA activities. [17], In 1953, Plimpton joined the influential literary journal The Paris Review, founded by Peter Matthiessen, Thomas H. Guinzburg, and Harold L. "Doc" Humes, becoming its first editor in chief. 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. 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. Did he have the celebrated "Boston Brahmin" accent, or was it a psuedo-Brit affectation? [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." 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. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. What fine manners he had! I think the term Old Money or patrician pretty much says it. By George Plimpton. (To read Part One, click here. 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. He rounded first as if he were about to go for a double, then glided back to the base, with fans waving and cheering. Was this sheer affectation? By strange coincidence, I actually became quite good friends with his (ex-)in-laws here in Manhattan. 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. They all gathered there. These events were recalled in his best-known book Paper Lion, which was later adapted into the 1968 feature film starring Alan Alda. All contents 2023 The Slate Group LLC. It was a hot, sweltering day. During our time in Paris, he had a famous little car, a dark blue Peugeotit was mine originally; I sold it to himand it had to be seen to be believed. 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). Where are you?, Im at dinner with my wife, I said. I live in Connecticut which is both the richest and poorest state in the union - I think we still are - and we have our fair share of extremely rich folk who sit around all day in their large victorians wearing rockport loafers, no sox, khaki pants and a polo-shirt with the collar up. He wanted to play his own part, but they wouldnt let him. On one website, I read about a Choate alumn saying one can still hear the LL (see above thread) accent on campus. A lifelong New Yorker, he never tasted a bagel or an olive, and he never chewed a stick of gum. With the evolution of talkies in the late 1920s, voice was first heard in motion pictures. May a diseased yak squat in your hot tub. That phony-baloney feigned British pronunciation thing. We all just had our own regional accentor non accent, like the flat midwest speak. Typical of George to laugh about something others saw as a defining traithe never took himself all that seriously. . Its a joke to say 500 of my closest friends, but that would have been true with George1,000 of his closest friends, actually. Ad Choices. [citation needed]. 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. News children today have no concept of the Mid-Atlantic accent. The funny thing about Harris was that he did not start out with that accent - as I suspect George Gershwin did not. I just heard that George Plimpton has died. Its our anniversary. George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 - September 25, 2003) was an American journalist, writer, literary editor, actor and occasional amateur sportsman. One night Joe DiMaggio was here, and they had never met, so I introduced them. The Sidd Finch story was accompanied by a series of photos which managed to convince even the eagle-eyed fans . Youll get another shot at the big time, trust me. In 2013, the documentary Plimpton! I received many notes like this one: The variety of English you are referring to has a name in linguistics: "Mid-Atlantic English". Plimpton brought the Left Bank to NYCpeople like Peter Mathiessen, William Styron, Terry Southern. 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." Interesting that the two competitors for his anchor chair were both fully vernacular speakers from the South and West: Mudd and Rather. When George told the story, DiMaggio laughed so hard I thought he was going to fall on the floor. **Your transparent jealousy is very unbecoming, Carnac. Researcher and writer Samuel Arbesman filed with NASA to name an asteroid after Plimpton; NASA issued the certificate 7932 Plimpton in 2009. After it was published, all of the baseball people were trying to get in touch with Sidd, but he didnt existit was an April Fools joke! If you say, I pahked my cah in Hahvahd Yahd, like some vaudeville version of a Boston accent, you are non-rhotic. He is also credited with saving, Learn how and when to remove this template message, Plimpton! Sign up for the Books & Fiction newsletter. It was as if some old gentlemans code prohibited us from interacting as human beings. 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. 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. Thanks for the scores of replies that have arrived in the past day, in response to my post asking why the stentorian, phony-British Announcer Voice that dominated newsreel narration, stage and movie acting, and public discourse in the United States during the first half of the 20th century had completely disappeared. Think of the accent of Jane Hathaway on the Beverly Hillbillies. *Originally posted by j.c. * **. Hemingway on Fiction, Part Two. George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 - September 25, 2003) was an American journalist, writer, literary editor, actor and occasional amateur sportsman. George Plimpton's duplex apartment on the Upper East Side hit the market for $5.495 million on April 18. The point of the flipped prestige markers is that generally the fewer the Rs, the fancier the person. 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. Several weeks later at a book party, he spotted two writers who had played in that game. How to find out, and whether you should care. rejoiced in the name of Euphemia van Renssalaer Wyatt. I mean, if George Plimpton wasnt my father and Id never met him, and I heard that voice emerge from his lips and matched it with his severe Roman features and his usual blue blazer, oxford shirt, and tie, I might have assumed that he was a little pompous or snooty or affected. It was a great partyraucous and long. Middle class? 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. George Plimpton (1927-2003) George Plimpton was the editor of The Paris Review from its founding in 1953 until his death in 2003. He could have been a fight trainer, a fight manager! Your transparent jealousy is very unbecoming, Carnac. As an old film buff, I am used to this voice, though it figures unevenly in old movies. Vault. It was as if he was trying out again. 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." Yes he is gone. Plimpton has grown. He was very understanding of what we did and how we did it. 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. Powered by Discourse, best viewed with JavaScript enabled. And he stood there ebullient and charming all night; he bid on many items himself. My dad and I could not lose each other, but we could never quite find each other, either. 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. Thats a common name for such an accent. They were divorced, and had been for a while, but they still talked, and visited every now and then, and they would sit on my moms porch on Long Island and look out over the pond at the birds and tell each other stories and laugh until the tears came to their eyes, but he could not ask her this directlyHow are you, Freddy? He had lost my mom, at least in part because he had been unable to communicate with her, to show his love. Aldas version was always angry or consternated, like a character in a Woody Allen film, while my dad, though he certainly faced hurdles as an amateur in the world of the professional, bore his humiliations with a comic lightness and charmmuch of which emanated from that befuddled, self-deprecating professors voice. I never thought that George slept. 3: Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". In the 50s Plimpton and staff came to New York, where they kept the Review going for half a century. That was the last party for a while., I just got back from a road trip from Michigan. Plimpton was associated with the literary magazine in Paris, Merlin, which folded because the State Department withdrew its support.[why?] "[27], Plimpton was a member of the cast of the A&E TV series A Nero Wolfe Mystery (200102). Actually, thats not far off from how my mom felt when she first met him. So it was that my father played himself not just in movies and on TV, but in life, too. [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. 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. He was 76. He did not appear last year, or the year before, and we feared he was done with us. 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! (A variation is the Locust Valley Lockjaw.). Vault. There was love thereactually, his inability to express it sometimes made him positively brim with itbut speak the words, his voice could not. A lordly accent acquired at St. Bernard's and burnished later at Cambridge, in England, enhanced his distinguished aura, as did elevated stature and a silver head of hair which might have encouraged a career in politics but mercifully did not. I believe the accent was at one time known as Larchmont Lockjaw. In the April 1, 1985 issue of Sports Illustrated, Plimpton pulled off a widely reported April Fools' Day prank. Slate is published by The Slate Group, a Graham Holdings Company. Plimpton's remarkable life is showcased in a documentary that is. (Newsreels ran in movie theaters, of course: what better critique of the high newsreel style than the new movies that jarred against it?). Plimpton, George 1927-2003(George Ames Plimpton) Source for information on Plimpton, George 1927-2003: Concise Major 21st Century Writers dictionary. Queen Elizabeth doesnt say car, and neither did Franklin D. Roosevelt, nor did the newsreel announcers or movie actors of his day. George Plimpton writer, publisher, amateur lion tamer died in 2003 after 50 years as the founding editor of The Paris Review. He was immensely generous in every waygenerous about sharing the work and about giving one a chance to edit things. Isnt that what they call it. OK? Its something different, and Ive not encountered that in the mid-Atlantic. It includes clear pronunciation of each and every consonant cluster. Description above from the Wikipedia article George Plimpton, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of . Kennedy died the next day at Good Samaritan Hospital. Here's a look inside the space, where the Paris Review editor hosted legendary parties. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found The Paris Review. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found The Paris Review, as well as his patrician demeanor and accent. When he was on the scene, everything was a big happeningan event. *Originally posted by Phlosphr * The Paris Review was a testimony to his literary taste and his sense of glamour. Too old-fashioned. [2] His first wife, whom he married in 1968[38] and divorced in 1988, was Freddy Medora Espy, a photographer's assistant. George Plimpton. Whom is it spoken bymerely the elite, old-money types? O ne afternoon this summer, I sat in George Plimpton's study waiting for the gentleman editor, participatory journalist, and beloved gadfly of American letters to arrive. He hosted Disney Channel's Mouseterpiece Theater (a Masterpiece Theatre spoof which featured Disney cartoon shorts). His dish was Spaghetti Bolognese. Congratulations Carnac, for posting about George Plimptons death at
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