George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 - September 25, 2003) was an American journalist, writer, literary editor, actor and occasional amateur sportsman. Realizing that I probably didnt know anyone, George took me around the room to introduce me to his guestsWilliam Styron, Norman Mailer, Robert Stone, and Gay Talese among them. That is, until I saw the documentarythe assassination of his dear friend Bobby Kennedy. At one point, there was a tremendous Wagnerian thunder and lighting storm. He looked like a very eccentric old Englishman. I havent heard that he is dead, but if so RIP George. George was not vainhe didnt care a whit about his image. He was one of her original supporters and had published an article about her work in The Paris Review. Exeter Academy after an incident involving a He wanted to play his own part, but they wouldnt let him. What exactly is a Boston Brahmin accent? That phony-baloney feigned British pronunciation thing. (What else happened that year??? For instance: The American-British television presenter Loyd Grossman, who has described his accent as Mid-Atlantic. The responses fall into interesting categories: linguistic descriptions of this accent; sociological and ethnic explanations for its rise and fall; possible technological factors in its prominence and disappearance; explanations rooted in the movie industry; nominees for who might have been the last American to talk this way; and suggestions that a few rare specimens still exist. In the offices of the Paris Review, he displayed far more discerning tastes. 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. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found The Paris Review, as well as his patrician demeanor and accent. He was stationed primarily in Italy, where he worked as a tank driver. 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. [35], Plimpton was known for his distinctive accent which, by Plimpton's own admission, was often mistaken for an English accent. 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. I have decided, he said, that I have got to jump from a plane. Read more. The clearest example of the Mid-Atlantic accent is the accent of the Frasier & Niles Crane characters on the TV show Frasier. 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?. He did these jobs, and many others, as an amateur.. How to find out, and whether you should care. 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. During a career that spanned the second half of the 20th century, Plimpton was a quarterback for the Detroit Lions, pitched at Yankee Stadium, sparred with Archie Moore, played the triangle with. 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. 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. Oh now, Im joking, Carnac ( see? I havent heard that he is dead, but if so RIP George. 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 also served as editor of the Harvard Lampoon. He was an actor and writer, known for Good Will Hunting (1997), Nixon (1995) and Just Cause (1995). . It includes clear pronunciation of each and every consonant cluster. She was also the great-granddaughter on her father's side of Oakes Ames (18041873), an industrialist and congressman who was implicated in the Crdit Mobilier railroad scandal of 1872; and Governor-General of New Orleans Benjamin Franklin Butler, an American lawyer and politician who represented Massachusetts in the United States House of Representatives and later served as the 33rd Governor of Massachusetts. Few could give a toast or tell a story with equal humor. 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. It was as if some old gentlemans code prohibited us from interacting as human beings. Among other challenges for Sports Illustrated, he attempted to play top-level bridge, and spent some time as a high-wire circus performer. Now you know! He wrote for the Harvard Lampoon, was a member of the Hasty Pudding Club, Pi Eta, the Signet Society, and the Porcellian Club. [47][48] Plimpton, George 1927-2003(George Ames Plimpton) Source for information on Plimpton, George 1927-2003: Concise Major 21st Century Writers dictionary. Plimpton has grown. But for now, just one more category: 3) Changing technology, changing voices. At least, not to me, nor even to my sister, a fact she mentions in the movie. There was love thereactually, his inability to express it sometimes made him positively brim with itbut speak the words, his voice could not. [29], With Felix Grucci, Plimpton competed in the 16th International Fireworks Festival in 1979 in Monte Carlo. I believe the accent was at one time known as Larchmont Lockjaw. 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. George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 - September 25, 2003) was an American journalist, writer, literary editor, actor and occasional amateur sportsman. Prestigious prep schools and ivy league institutions (though Gore Vidal never went to college). Orson Welles also comes to mind, though I noticed he spoke in this mode more often during his early days, on and off screen. Yes he is gone. The clenched jaw tight-bite bit: the lockjaw dentiloquist. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found The Paris Review, as well as his patrician demeanor and accent. His final interview appeared in The New York Sports Express of October 2, 2003 by journalist Dave Hollander. Larchmont Lockjaw? [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. Somehow Georgehad gotten it into his head that I was on the verge of becoming a pharmacist before he had called me up a year earlier to tell me the Paris Review was publishing a story I had submittedperhaps because of the pharmacological bent of the subject matter. Did he have the celebrated Boston Brahmin accent, or was it a psuedo-Brit affectation? But looking back on it, its funny, too. But its clear that the diction I call Announcer Voice has been the object of close linguistic study. Read more in this thread (long). Plimpton also appeared in the closing credits of the 2006 film Factory Girl. And the many candidates for the crown of Last American to Speak This Way. BTW, I cant imagine a presidential candidate today getting anywhere close to a nomination with FDRs accent, cigarette holder, and aristocratic bearing. I never thought that George slept. You heard it and it. Okay, then, are you saying that Plimpton has such as accent? 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. I thought they were terrific. With a little more practice, you could give us boys in the big leagues a run for our money. expelled from the very expensive, very WASP-y Philips * He had it, as does/did William Buckley, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, and Julia Child. George Plimpton was a literary man about town who did it all, from co-founding The Paris . In the 50s Plimpton and staff came to New York, where they kept the Review going for half a century. 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." If he couldnt be taken quite seriously, that was fine with him (he took himself lightly, and relished being in on the joke). Off screen, George Plimpton and Gore Vidal come to mind. Well, perhaps it's more accurate to say that the book provided entertaining confirmation to millions of people that they -- like the author . 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. A friend of the New England Sedgwick family, Plimpton edited Edie: An American Biography with Jean Stein in 1982. He appeared in the PBS American Masters documentary on Andy Warhol. 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. George was a little more in-depth than a lot of us, of course, with his education and all. That tension between what was in his heart and what his voice allowed him to express is the basic tension of language we all face, only heightened. The Wikipedia entry for it is quite detailed. This was his habit. [21] The prank was so successful that many readers believed the story, and the ensuing popularity of the joke resulted in Plimpton's writing an entire book on Finch. By George Plimpton. **. The Paris Review was a testimony to his literary taste and his sense of glamour. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found The Paris Review. A lifelong New Yorker, he never tasted a bagel or an olive, and he never chewed a stick of gum. Plimpton also appeared in a number of feature films as an extra and in cameo appearances. 26 Feb 2023 12:18:23 **Thats a common name for such an accent. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2007. If you are in the big league, God help us all. What exactly is a Boston Brahmin accent? Share; Copied! Researcher and writer Samuel Arbesman filed with NASA to name an asteroid after Plimpton; NASA issued the certificate 7932 Plimpton in 2009. Ive rarely heard this accent in real life but its often used by actors doing a stereotype character based on other actors impersonations! Its a joke to say 500 of my closest friends, but that would have been true with George1,000 of his closest friends, actually.