george plimpton accent george plimpton accent

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. **Oh, I suppose we should all just lavish praise upon Carnac the Magnificent now for bringing this to your attention, is that it? 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. George Plimpton, journalist extraordinaire, trains with and then performs as Quarterback for the Baltimore Colts. I only wish I could not tell him again, just one more time. But dying in sleep: It was as if he was doing what he did when he tried out for all those other things as an amateurballooning, acting, boxing, performing at amateur night. The enormously popular speech styles of Brando and Dean (and I could add Elvis Presley) clearly pushed vernacular style into a kind of mainstream acceptability, then desirability. Okay, then, are you saying that Plimpton has such as accent? Revolutionary musket, a stairwell and a housemaster), [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. [35], Plimpton was known for his distinctive accent which, by Plimpton's own admission, was often mistaken for an English accent. He looked for ways in which he could make himself a ridiculous figure, and not only on the football field, but in all walks of life. Vault. [40] They had two children: Medora Ames Plimpton and Taylor Ames Plimpton, who has published a memoir entitled Notes from the Night: A Life After Dark. **. Exeter Academy after an incident involving a 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. 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. Plimpton was associated with the literary magazine in Paris, Merlin, which folded because the State Department withdrew its support.[why?] Plimpton also appeared in a number of feature films as an extra and in cameo appearances. $ 9.19 - $ 32.19. He appeared in commercials for Oldsmobile and Intellivision, and appeared. The fake English announcer voice lingered on sporadically until the end of the Johnson administration in newsreels, which themselves ceased production around the same time, but Rod Serlings decision sounded the death knell for that accent. (Why do I even bother?) Thurston Howell III had the Larchmont Lockjaw accent. [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. 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. He thought Castro might come. **, In this case, Mid-Atlantic refers to speech in which the attributes of British English and American English meet halfway. And what have we here? My moms initial impression was that he was a little hoity-toityI mean, who did this guy think he was?, But the second time they met, it was, in fact, my fathers voice that won her over. Its something different, and Ive not encountered that in the mid-Atlantic. It was so tiny that if you saw him in it, you couldnt believe hed be able to get himself out of it. YESTERDAY IS NOT FAR AWAY. George Plimpton (1927-2003) was a journalist and the first editor-in-chief of The Paris Review. I remember getting the news: It was my wife Madeleines birthday, Aug. 7. How to find out, and whether you should care. Sidd Finch was a fictional character George had created for a Sports Illustrated story, supposedly the greatest and fastest pitcher in the world. 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. He was so open to life and all its new and unexpected situations. He got the personality totally wrong, too. 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. I didnt know he was from the Larchmont area. [26] He also appeared in an episode of the NBC sitcom Wings. Your transparent jealousy is very unbecoming, Carnac. His friendships testified to what an eclectic man he was. See below!) Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2007. It was so violent that it brought a lot of people to the windows. The clenched jaw tight-bite bit: the lockjaw dentiloquist. He wrote for the Harvard Lampoon, was a member of the Hasty Pudding Club, Pi Eta, the Signet Society, and the Porcellian Club. He has the same type of patrician upper-class New Yorker accent as Jane Wyatt. Ill try to give a representative range, and I am grateful for the care and thought that have gone into these responses. By George Plimpton. But for now, just one more category: 3) Changing technology, changing voices. Prestigious prep schools and ivy league institutions (though Gore Vidal never went to college). 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. [citation needed], Plimpton's studies at Harvard were interrupted by military service from 1945 to 1948, during which time he served in Italy as an Army tank driver. Plimpton was an optimist, a teller of amusing and amazing stories. Actors Nathan Lane (from Jersey City, NJ) and Robin Williams (grew up in SF Bay area) often adopt this accent. George Plimpton. I think the term Old Money or patrician pretty much says it. The wife is also old money, as Phlosphr mentions, and she talks exactly the same way. 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. 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. [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. George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 - September 25, 2003) was an American journalist, writer, literary editor, actor and occasional amateur sportsman. Dan Rather certainly marks the definitive end of the newsreel style and the ascendance of the folksy vernacular: those rustic analogies! He was going to put on a reading of his play Zelda, Scott, and Ernest. The Paris Review was a testimony to his literary taste and his sense of glamour. The opposing team: the Detroit Lions. The title of the PBS documentary - "Plimpton! Anyhow, I asked Terry Gross from Fresh Air and George Plimpton to be auctioneers. 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. He had a small role in the Oscar-winning film Good Will Hunting,[22] playing a psychologist. One night Joe DiMaggio was here, and they had never met, so I introduced them. I thought they were terrific. 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. The clipped, non-rhotic English accents of George Plimpton and William F. Buckley Jr. were vestigial examples. Jonathan Ames, author:Back in the fall of 1999, in preparation for my one and only boxing match, I read George Plimptons great book, Shadow Box, where he recounted his foray into the world of boxing and his famous encounter with Archie Moore. Queen Elizabeth doesnt say car, and neither did Franklin D. Roosevelt, nor did the newsreel announcers or movie actors of his day. 2023 Cond Nast. Slate is published by The Slate Group, a Graham Holdings Company. 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. I just heard that George Plimpton has died. Spoke in a mid-Atlantic accent, reflecting a privileged Upper East Side (in New York City) upbringing. With a little more practice, you could give us boys in the big leagues a run for our money. Ill pick you up., I had a hard time sleeping that night, as you might imagine. People two or three deep stood looking out at the East River. Oh, I suppose we should all just lavish praise upon Carnac the Magnificent now for bringing this to your attention, is that it? From what other people had told me, I knew a little bit about itthat my father (and mother) had been right by Bobbys side in California when he was shot, that my father had tackled Sirhan Sirhan to the ground, and wrestled the gun from his handbut not a word of it came from my dad himself. He joined us in Monte Carlo when we won the international [fireworks] competition. The Curious Case Of Sidd Finch. Typical of George to laugh about something others saw as a defining traithe never took himself all that seriously. He never went all the way, though his authenticity and newly-downstyle speaking could probably be marked in the crisis/triumph stages of his reporting: the death of JFK; the Vietnam report; the moon landing. 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. He was smooth. Even in the UK we sometimes subtitle various Scots dialects on the news and TV and whatnot, so it makes sense that he wouldn't go full Dundee for the show. On Sept. 26, George Plimpton died in his sleep, at the age of 76. Friends were almost always happy to see him because you knew he was bound to improve your mood. After returning to New York from Paris, he routinely launched fireworks at his evening parties. George Plimpton boxed with Archie Moore, played quarterback for the Detroit Lions, and played percussion for the New York Philharmonic. What will you be mad about ten years after youre gone?). 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 think that perhaps Harris' portrayal of Dr. Smith made the accent so identified with cowardly buffoonery that no one in the baby boom generation and later would want to use the accent as anything other than a joke. His high Boston accent might have been heard as an influential transitional hybrid, and its interesting how prominent parodies of the speech of Brando, Dean, and Kennedy were at the time: seems a sign that we were noticing a marked change. Truman Capote: In Which Various Friends, Enemies, Acquaintances, and Detractors Recall His Turbulent Career. If you are in the big league, God help us all. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found The Paris Review, as well as his patrician demeanor and accent. [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]. 2) The Role of Broadway and Hollywood, and the Shift from Jimmy Cagney to Marlon Brando. Vault. 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. Would you like Mike to run for you, George? the coach asked. "[27], Plimpton was a member of the cast of the A&E TV series A Nero Wolfe Mystery (200102). Off screen, George Plimpton and Gore Vidal come to mind. Peter Matthiesen, author, co-founder of the Paris Review:I was in Liberia, of all places, and George met me in Monrovia. Those of us whose families are from Larchmont (that would be me) just call it lockjaw. Kim Noble, one of the announcers on the NPR affiliate in Kansas City, KCUR, speaks with a very affected Connecticut Lockjaw accent. Between 1945 and 1948, Plimpton was a soldier in the United States Army. He modestly shrugged off the compliment, but his bright smile betrayed his pleasureand ours. His experience was captured in the book Out of My League. (And, OK, Im not a linguist, but Im married to one!) Plimpton himself described it as a "New England cosmopolitan accent"[36] or "Eastern seaboard cosmopolitan" accent. Youll get another shot at the big time, trust me. They spoke in this manner, and it seemed perfectly natural, evocative of a background spent among the gentry of the northeast.. Thats where there was that cross-section you once found in Parisof literary people, of people who were illiterate, of people down on their luck, and people of status. (My dads been dead nearly ten years: not that he held many in his life, but what grudges could he possibly be holding on to now? He knew we were just as good as he was, but in a different field. 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. This brings us back to the why things changed question. 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. Peter even came with us on our honeymoon in Ravello, though George didnt. In fact, my dads farewells seemed loquacious in comparison to his mothers. George also approved, I think, of the fact that I lost. He came from a family where such endearments were not expressed, and phone conversations were curt. 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. He was one of her original supporters and had published an article about her work in The Paris Review. But he would do this in the most charming and agreeable way. Isnt that what they call it. George Plimpton was an upper-class guy with a patrician accent who partied his way through life . These interviews are a collaborative effort, and, I believe, a fascinating contribution to literary history. Jean Stein became his co-editor. 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 always a surprise. He was an actor and writer, known for Good Will Hunting (1997), Nixon (1995) and Just Cause (1995). [citation needed]. I can understand your frustration, but celebrities die every day. By George Plimpton. He also served as editor of the Harvard Lampoon. That phony-baloney feigned British pronunciation thing. Of the Murrow Boys, Eric Sevareid held on to the newsreel style the longest; relying on memory, Im betting that we could actually watch the transition away from that to a more vernacular style in the long career of Walter Cronkite. 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. The clipped English of George Plimpton and William F. Buckley, Jr. were vestigial examples.. He rounded first as if he were about to go for a double, then glided back to the base, with fans waving and cheering. $ 4.19 - $ 17.92. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found The Paris Review. Is it in evidence among the Gen X set of Boston, or a passing phenomenon? Her mother, a writer and critic for Commonweal and Catholic World. These are some of the things my father could not say: Shit. Fuck. I love you. His curses were never actually curse-words, though it was perhaps because of this that they held such weight. 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." I have decided, he said, that I have got to jump from a plane. You should be very grateful. Shadow Box. Now the interview is perfect!. H.V. Talking about sports with Georgeor, even better, reading George about sportswas more fun than sports themselves. Besides, third is a very respectable showing! It was as if some old gentlemans code prohibited us from interacting as human beings. I have worked as poetry editor with editors on other magazines; only with George has the experience been entirely agreeable. *Originally posted by Phlosphr *