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The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. He got the personality totally wrong, too. 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. And so it seemed only fitting to commemorate his death with the form he made his own.Meghan ORourke. As such, it was popular in the theatre and other forms of elite culture in that region. George Plimpton was born on March 18, 1927 in New York City, New York, USA. George was not vainhe didnt care a whit about his image. [Then] this August he showed up, pulled the shirt over his head, and said he was ready to bat. Plimpton also appeared in the closing credits of the 2006 film Factory Girl. He loved the ones that made a lot of noise and racket and excitement. I do believe his accent was decidedly Swamp Yankee. 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. 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 limited frequency response of the recording technology of the late 19th and early 20th centuries has left us with only a pale, and sometimes caricatural image of the original sound. He was one of her original supporters and had published an article about her work in The Paris Review. In early 1959, George Plimpton was preparing to watch an execution in Cuba. 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. In no way do I recall Plimpton talking in a way that is typically associated with LLa style which, as I understand it, is associated with unclear pronunciation of most consonant cluster. Plimpton had a quasi-Brit patrician accent, which in no way corresponds with the official descriptions of LL that Ive read on the Net. They spoke in this manner, and it seemed perfectly natural, evocative of a background spent among the gentry of the northeast.. I have worked as poetry editor with editors on other magazines; only with George has the experience been entirely agreeable. Read more. Others outside the entertainment industry known for speaking Mid-Atlantic English include William F. Buckley, Jr., Gore Vidal, George Plimpton, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Norman Mailer, Diana Vreeland, Maria Callas, Cornelius Vanderbilt IV. Congratulations Carnac, for posting about George Plimptons death at 3:44 PM. 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. But it didnt define him, much the way he refused to be defined by the stiff, upper-crust world from which hed come. Orson Welles notably spoke in a mid-Atlantic accent in the 1941 film Citizen Kane, as did many of his co-stars, such as Joseph Cotten. 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. When he was on the scene, everything was a big happeningan event. By George Plimpton. People two or three deep stood looking out at the East River. In this campaign, Plimpton touted the superiority regarding the graphics and sounds of Intellivision video games over the Atari 2600.[24]. With the evolution of talkies in the late 1920s, voice was first heard in motion pictures. Of course, my dad had tried out for the role of himself and not gotten it, though he would go on to have a steady film career playing one version or another of a striking white-haired figure with a distinguished, chivalrous voice in bit roles in some twenty or so movies, including Reds and Good Will Hunting. Fortunately, in the upcoming film Plimpton! With a little more practice, you could give us boys in the big leagues a run for our money. 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. George Plimpton. The book offers memories of Plimpton from among other writers, such as Norman Mailer, William Styron, Gay Talese and Gore Vidal, and was written with the cooperation of both his ex-wife and his widow. But its clear that the diction I call Announcer Voice has been the object of close linguistic study. 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. Besides, third is a very respectable showing! He was not himself interested in poetry, but he read all of the poems every quarter, and he would tell me what he thought of them. 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 was also known for "participatory journalism," including accounts of his active involvement in professional sporting events, acting in a Western, performing a comedy act at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, and playing with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra[1] and then recording the experience from the point of view of an amateur. Plimpton was an optimist, a teller of amusing and amazing stories. It was always a surprise. Its a joke to say 500 of my closest friends, but that would have been true with George1,000 of his closest friends, actually. Self-help author and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson has a unique accent that, . Whee!! He hosted Disney Channel's Mouseterpiece Theater (a Masterpiece Theatre spoof which featured Disney cartoon shorts). 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. He was very understanding of what we did and how we did it. Vault. Best-selling author George Plimpton shares his experience as a "Storyteller For Life" with Dean Nelson of Point Loma Nazarene University as part of PLNU's 5th Annual Writer's Symposium By The. In 1955 or 56, he went back to New York. 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. Its something different, and Ive not encountered that in the mid-Atlantic. Actors Nathan Lane (from Jersey City, NJ) and Robin Williams (grew up in SF Bay area) often adopt this accent. The film used archival audio and video of Plimpton lecturing and reading to create a posthumous narration. There was intellectual heft in the Plimpton genes too: one Ames was a Professor of Botany, another was Governor of Massachusetts, another relation was a publisher, and yet another a writer-philanthropist fascinated with the subject of how the great figures of the past were educated Young Georges educational path was precisely that of a The young Paris Review editor and other New York literary figures arrived during a period marked by hope for a democratic Cuba. And so when it was time to say goodbye, we did so simplyno awkwardness, no strangled expressions of affectionand this is why, even though it was the last time we ever spoke, and I would never get the chance again, I do not regret not telling him that I loved him. **Oh, I suppose we should all just lavish praise upon Carnac the Magnificent now for bringing this to your attention, is that it? Plimpton entered Harvard as a member of the Class of 1948, but did not graduate until 1950 due to intervening military service. 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. He liked the fact that I had broken my nose in defeat. I always thought it sounded similar to the accent of William F. Buckley, Jr., who I believe was not reared in Boston. *Originally posted by cuauhtemoc * 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." He was immensely generous in every waygenerous about sharing the work and about giving one a chance to edit things. It was scary, because he was never mad, and to see this normally benevolent, white-haired figure of civility fill with pink steam, to hear this gentle man, who loved nothing more than to tell lighthearted stories and laugh, suddenly shout-whisper Dammit at some injustice on the other end of the telephone was unsettling. And here for the full interview). After finishing at Harvard in 1950, he attended King's College, Cambridge, from 1950 to 1952, and graduated with third class honors in English. Plimpton scowled, and said he was perfectly capable of running for himself. [33] A later attempt, fired at Cape Canaveral, rose approximately 50 feet (15m) into the air and broke 700 windows in Titusville, Florida. He had it all going! 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. Queen Elizabeth doesnt say car, and neither did Franklin D. Roosevelt, nor did the newsreel announcers or movie actors of his day. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found The Paris Review. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2007. It's a Scottish accent that's been modified somewhat for a mainstream audience that tends to associate them with Groundskeeper Willie. On Saturday Night Live, even the great impersonator Dana Carvey couldnt get it quite right. On one website, I read about a Choate alumn saying one can still hear the LL (see above thread) accent on campus. 08:37 Dinner at Elaine's. by George Plimpton. George Plimpton, Out of My League: The Classic Account of an Amateur's Ordeal in Professional Baseball, 2016, Little Ive rarely heard this accent in real life but its often used by actors doing a stereotype character based on other actors impersonations! He died on September 26, 2003 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA. I believe the accent was at one time known as Larchmont Lockjaw. Bill Buckley, Gore Vidal, George Plimpton. I saw him [last] Wednesday night at a party; we rode home together, and he told me that he was planning to go down to Cuba, to revisit the site of his famous interview with Hemingway. I havent heard that he is dead, but if so RIP George. . At Harvard, Plimpton was a classmate and close personal friend of Robert F. Kennedy. "[25] He had a recurring role as the grandfather of Dr. Carter on the NBC series ER. 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 a Wasp (both of his parents came from old New England families, and had ancestors on the Mayflower). After returning to New York from Paris, he routinely launched fireworks at his evening parties. Angelo Dundee, trainer for Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard:George was such a great guy. 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.