Besides, third is a very respectable showing! He just did it because Columbia was another literary magazine. 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. . It was then that the majority of audiences first heard Hollywood actors speaking predominantly in Mid-Atlantic English, British expatriates John Houseman, Henry Daniell, Anthony Hopkins, Camilla Luddington, and Angela Cartwright exemplified the accent, as did [a long list of North Americans, from Elizabeth Taylor and Grace Kelly to Richard Chamberlain and Christopher Plummer]. 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). Peter even came with us on our honeymoon in Ravello, though George didnt. I always thought it sounded similar to the accent of William F. Buckley, Jr., who I believe was not reared in Boston. (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? George Plimpton: what kind of accent? Actually, thats not far off from how my mom felt when she first met him. George was the one who read my name out to the commissioner. In another cartoon in The New Yorker, a patient looks up at the masked surgeon about to operate on him and asks, "Wait a minute! Alan Alda, portraying my dad in the movie version of Paper Lion (his book on playing quarterback for the Detroit Lions), didnt bother with his voice at all. 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. 2) Truman v. Kaltenborn, 1949. So it was that George Plimptons accent could not be imitated. Next up: some sociological explanations of why someone like George Gershwin might have tried to speak like Westbrook Van Voorhis. BTW, I cant imagine a presidential candidate today getting anywhere close to a nomination with FDRs accent, cigarette holder, and aristocratic bearing. George Plimpton - Wikipedia George Plimpton (1927-2003) George Plimpton was the editor of The Paris Review from its founding in 1953 until his death in 2003. 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. You heard it and it could only be him. George Plimpton : Movies - CinemaOne So we got together and, after some preliminaries, he popped the question that he was really there to ask. 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. Discussing the accent he used for Washington in an interview with The Onion AV Club, he explained: The accent back then was probably nothing like what we think of as a Southern accent now or a New England accent now, so we tried to find the root of the accents. Plimpton entered Harvard as a member of the Class of 1948, but did not graduate until 1950 due to intervening military service. He was previously married to Sara Whitehead Dudley and Freddy Medora Espy. History / Biographical Note Biographical Note. Being, And Appreciating, George Plimpton : NPR Jean Stein became his co-editor. What exactly is a Boston Brahmin accent? Mid-Atlantic accent - Wikipedia Jean Harlow, one of my favorites, is all over the map with this, sometimes sounding like a tough streetwalker, other times like a society matron, and, oddly, slipping in and out of both dialects in the same role, or even in one sentence. Plimpton sparred for three rounds with boxing greats Archie Moore and Sugar Ray Robinson while on assignment for Sports Illustrated. 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. On one website, I read about a Choate alumn saying one can still hear the LL (see above thread) accent on campus. His father co-founded the law firm Debevoise Plimpton. Now, in George, Being George, 200 friends, lovers and rivals detail Plimpton's remarkable exploits. Ive lived in Boston for 30 years and have never heard a George Plimpton accent; so I guess it must be a Larchmont accent, *Originally posted by Carnac the Magnificent! He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found The Paris Review, as well as his patrician demeanor and accent. George Plimpton Detroit Lions | The Pop History Dig Famed participatory journalist George Plimpton (1927-2003) was a writer, editor, amateur sportsman, actor, and friend to many. The Dudleys established the 36-acre (15ha) Highstead Arboretum in Redding, Connecticut. He smiled broadly, signaled for the coach to send Lupica in to run for him, and trotted back to the sidelines. 1 draft choice of the Lions in 1965. Vault. Oh now, Im joking, Carnac ( see? Look out, Wilson! What fine manners he had! He was "George Plimpton"-editor, host . He was also an accomplished birdwatcher. The clipped, non-rhotic English accents of George Plimpton and William F. Buckley Jr. were vestigial examples. He plays the 'fancy pants' to our outhouse Americana," Flaherty asserted. (A variation is the Locust Valley Lockjaw.). When George Plimpton Met the Best Bartender in Brooklyn As an old film buff, I am used to this voice, though it figures unevenly in old movies. [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]. George Ames Plimpton (1927 - 2003) - Genealogy - geni family tree 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. Family (1) Spouse Hes just trying it out and will come back and write a book about his experiences. Announcer-Speak: The Video Highlights Reel - The Atlantic George Plimpton. Charles McGrath, editor of the New York Times Book Review:I dont think George had played golf in years, but he used to save up oddball tips for me and others. He was 76. The Wikipedia entry for it is quite detailed. 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. No one realized till the next day that this was the weather that created the extreme blue skies of Sept. 11a condition I since learned that pilots call severe clear. The next day, friends called and said, That was the last party. 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. That Weirdo Announcer-Voice Accent: Where It Came From and Why It Went When Plimpton, the co-founder of The Paris Review, died in 2003 at age 76, The New York Times . These interviews are a collaborative effort, and, I believe, a fascinating contribution to literary history. Revolutionary musket, a stairwell and a housemaster), How to find out, and whether you should care. Yes indeed, George Plimpton is a man for all seasons. Plimpton, along with former decathlete Rafer Johnson and American football star Rosey Grier, was credited with helping wrestle Sirhan Sirhan to the floor when Kennedy was assassinated following his victory in the 1968 California Democratic primary at the former Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California. Plimpton also appeared in a number of feature films as an extra and in cameo appearances. The journal, which had operated out of his home, moved downtown. He majored in English. Daniel Kunitz, managing editor of the Paris Review from1995-2000: I once heard George joking with William F. Buckley on the phone about how they had the last affected accents in New York. [23] He was also notable for his appearance in television commercials during the early 1980s, including a memorable campaign for Mattel's Intellivision. Articles by George Plimpton - Sports Illustrated Vault | SI.com By George Plimpton. With a little more practice, you could give us boys in the big leagues a run for our money. [45], Plimpton is the protagonist of the semi-fictional George Plimpton's Video Falconry, a 1983 ColecoVision game postulated by humorist John Hodgman and recreated by video game auteur Tom Fulp.[46]. So it went in late 1960 at one of George Plimpton's legendary soirees at 541 E. 72nd St., New York. 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. (The filmmakers assembled his voice-over from recorded speeches and other archival footage.) While I don't normally think of Lithgow as speaking with a Mid-Atlantic accent, he does a great job affecting one for the role. If he couldnt be taken quite seriously, that was fine with him (he took himself lightly, and relished being in on the joke). How widespread, numerically and geographically? Off screen, George Plimpton and Gore Vidal come to mind. The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. (Why do I even bother?) Showdown in the Pits. George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 - September 25, 2003) was an American journalist, writer, literary editor, actor and occasional amateur sportsman. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2007. George Plimpton | Sport | The Guardian 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. Vault. Hed ask what was new in fireworks business and doodle around the facility with my dad, and he would always leave with a package of fireworks, to put on his own show. 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. Id like to offer a speculation, for what its worth. He was equally at home on a bicycle or getting out of a limousine with a Saudi Arabian prince. He was very understanding of what we did and how we did it. "He speaks with an oddly mannered accent, sounding as though on the verge of a stammer, polite, genteel, perhaps just a little Woosterish. This speech pattern might be common among US expatriates in the UK, of which Grossman would seem to represent just the most ostentatious example. A few days after, I went to a Paris Review party and showed off my damaged nose and two black eyes to George. Isnt that what they call it. silk-stockinged New Englander - private schools (he was 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.