George Plimpton

For the publisher and grandfather of the author, see George Arthur Plimpton.
George Plimpton

George Plimpton in 1993
Born George Ames Plimpton
(1927-03-18)March 18, 1927
New York City, New York, U.S.
Died September 25, 2003(2003-09-25) (aged 76)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Education St. Bernard's School
Phillips Exeter Academy
Daytona Beach High School
Harvard University
University of Cambridge
Occupation Journalist, writer, literary editor, actor
Notable credit(s) The Paris Review
Spouse(s) Freddy Medora Espy (1968–1988)
Sarah Whitehead Dudley (1991–his death)
Children Medora Ames Plimpton Harris
Taylor Ames Plimpton
Laura Dudley Plimpton
Olivia Hartley Plimpton

George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 – September 25, 2003) was an American journalist, writer, literary editor, actor and occasional amateur sportsman. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found The Paris Review. He was also famous for "participatory journalism" which included competing 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.

Early life

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.[3] During the summers, he lived in the hamlet of West Hills, Huntington, Suffolk County on Long Island.[3][3]

He was the son of Francis T.P. Plimpton,[4] and the grandson of Frances Taylor Pearsons and George Arthur Plimpton.[5][6][7][8][9][10] His grandfather was the founder of the Ginn publishing company and a philanthropist.[11] 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 1961-65.[12]

His mother was Pauline Ames,[13] the daughter of botanist Oakes Ames and artist Blanche Ames. Both of Plimpton's maternal grandparents were born with the surname Ames; his mother was the granddaughter of Medal of Honor recipient Adelbert Ames, an American sailor, soldier, and politician, and Oliver Ames, a US political figure and the 35th Governor of Massachusetts (1887–1890). She was also the great-granddaughter on her father's side of Oakes Ames (1804–1873), an industrialist and congressman who was impeached in the Crédit 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.[14]

George had three siblings: Francis Taylor Pearsons Plimpton Jr., Oakes Ames Plimpton,[15] and Sarah Gay Plimpton.

Education

Plimpton attended St. Bernard's School, Phillips Exeter Academy (where he was expelled just shy of graduation), and Daytona Beach Mainland High School, where he received his high school diploma[16] before entering Harvard College in July 1944. He wrote for the Harvard Lampoon, was a member of the Hasty Pudding Club, Pi Eta, the Signet Society, and the Porcellian Club. He majored in English. Plimpton entered Harvard as a member of the Class of 1948, but did not graduate until 1950 due to intervening military service. He was also an accomplished birdwatcher.

Plimpton's studies were interrupted by military service lasting from 1945 to 1948, during which he served as a tank driver in Italy for the U.S. Army. After graduating from Harvard, he attended King's College at Cambridge University in England. He studied there from 1950–52 and graduated with third class honors, BA in English.[17]

Career

Literary criticism

In 1953, Plimpton joined the influential literary journal The Paris Review, founded by Peter Matthiessen, Thomas H. Guinzburg, and Harold L. Humes, becoming its first editor in chief. This periodical carries great weight in the literary world, but has never been financially strong; for its first half-century, it was allegedly largely financed by its publishers and by Plimpton. Two articles by Richard Cummings, "An American in Paris" (The American Conservative) and "The Fiction of the State" (Lobster), disclose that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) provided funds for The Paris Review, using publisher Sadruddin Aga Khan's foundation as a conduit, and that Plimpton was an "agent of influence" for the CIA. Peter Matthiessen took the magazine over from Harold Humes and ousted him as editor, replacing him with Plimpton, using it as his cover for his CIA activities. Plimpton was associated with the literary magazine in Paris, Merlin, which folded because the State Department withdrew its support. Future Poet Laureate Donald Hall, who had met Plimpton at Exeter, was Poetry Editor. One of the magazine's most notable discoveries was author Terry Southern, who was living in Paris at the time and formed a lifelong friendship with Plimpton, along with future classical and jazz pioneer David Amram.

Sports journalism

Outside the literary world, Plimpton was famous for competing in professional sporting events and then recording the experience from the point of view of an amateur. 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. His experience was captured in the book Out of My League. (He intended to face both line-ups, but tired badly and was relieved by Ralph Houk.) Plimpton sparred for three rounds with boxing greats Archie Moore and Sugar Ray Robinson, while on assignment for Sports Illustrated.

In 1963, Plimpton attended preseason training with the Detroit Lions of the National Football League as a backup quarterback, and ran a few plays in an intrasquad scrimmage. These events were recalled in his best-known book Paper Lion, which was later adapted into a feature film starring Alan Alda, released in 1968. Plimpton revisited pro football in 1971,[18] this time joining the Baltimore Colts and seeing action in an exhibition game against his previous team, the Lions. These experiences served as the basis of another football book, Mad Ducks and Bears, although much of the book dealt with the off-field escapades of football friends such as Alex Karras and Bobby Layne. 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.

Plimpton's classic The Bogey Man chronicles his attempt to play professional golf on the PGA Tour during the Nicklaus and Palmer era of the 1960s. Among other challenges for Sports Illustrated, he attempted to play top-level bridge, and spent some time as a high-wire circus performer. Some of these events, such as his stint with the Colts, and an attempt at stand-up comedy, were presented on the ABC television network as a series of specials. After being demolished at tennis by Pancho Gonzales, he wrote that he considered himself to be a fairly accomplished tennis player and that the drubbing by Gonzales was the most surprising of his ventures against the great athletes of his time.

In 1994 Plimpton appeared several times in the Ken Burns series Baseball where he shared some personal baseball experiences as well as other memorable events throughout the history of baseball.

Sidd Finch

In the April 1, 1985 issue of Sports Illustrated, Plimpton pulled off one of the greatest April Fool's Day pranks of all time. With the help of the New York Mets organization and several Mets players, Plimpton wrote a convincing account of a new unknown pitcher in the Mets spring training camp named Siddhartha Finch who threw a baseball over 160 mph, wore a heavy boot on one foot, and was a practicing Buddhist with a largely unknown background. The prank was so successful that many readers believed the story, and the ensuing popularity of the joke resulted in Plimpton writing an entire book on Finch.

Other writing

A personal friend of the New England Sedgwick family, Plimpton edited Edie: An American Biography with Jean Stein in 1982. He also appeared in a brief interview footage about Edie Sedgwick in the DVD extra for the film Ciao! Manhattan. In addition, he appeared in the PBS American Masters documentary on Andy Warhol. Plimpton also appeared in the closing credits of the 2006 film, Factory Girl.

Shortly before his death, Plimpton wrote the libretto to a new family opera-musical Animal Tales, in collaboration with director Grethe Barrett Holby. The piece had been commissioned by Grethe Barrett Holby's Family Opera Initiative with composition by Kitty Brazelton. George explained Animal Tales by saying "I suppose in a mild way there is a lesson to be learned for the young, or the young at heart – the gumption to get out and try one's wings." The creative team also included set designer Franco Colavecchia and costume designer Camille Assaf. The received three major workshops: Act One at the Atlantic Center for the Arts; Act Two at Peak Performances, Montclair State University, NJ under Jed Wheeler; and a semi staged on-book concert reading in NYC in a week run in November 2008.

Acting

Plimpton also appeared in a number of feature films as an extra and in cameo appearances. He had a small role in the Oscar-winning film Good Will Hunting, playing a psychologist. Plimpton played Tom Hanks's antagonistic father in Volunteers. He was also notable for his appearance in television commercials during the early 1980s, including a memorable campaign for Mattel's Intellivision. In this campaign, Plimpton aggressively touted the superiority of Intellivision video games over those of competitors such as the Atari 2600.

He hosted Disney Channel's Mouseterpiece Theater (a Masterpiece Theatre spoof which featured classic Disney cartoon shorts). He appeared in an episode of The Simpsons, "I'm Spelling as Fast as I Can", as host of the "Spellympics". He attempts to talk Lisa Simpson into losing the spelling bee with the offer of a college scholarship at a Seven Sisters College and a hot plate, claiming "it's perfect for soup!" He also had a recurring role as the grandfather of Dr. Carter on the long-running NBC series ER.

Plimpton appeared in the 1989 documentary The Tightrope Dancer which featured the life and the work of the artist Vali Myers. He was one of her original supporters and had published an article about her work in The Paris Review. He also appeared in the 1996 documentary When We Were Kings about the "Rumble in the Jungle" 1975 Ali-Foreman Championship fight opposite Norman Mailer crediting Muhammad Ali as a poet who composed the world's shortest poem: "Me? Whee!!"

Plimpton was a member of the cast of the A&E TV series A Nero Wolfe Mystery (2001–02). In 2013, the documentary Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton as Himself was released. It was directed by Tom Bean and Luke Poling. The film used archival audio and video of Plimpton lecturing and reading to create a posthumous narration.

Fireworks

Plimpton was a demolitions expert in the post-World War II Army. After returning to New York from Paris, he routinely fired off fireworks at his evening parties.[19]

His enthusiasm for fireworks grew, and he was appointed Fireworks Commissioner of New York by Mayor John Lindsay,[19][20] an unofficial post he held until his death.[2]

In 1975, in Bellport, Long Island, Plimpton attempted to break the record for the world's largest firework.[21][22][23] His firework, a Roman candle named "Fat Man",[21][22][23] weighed 720 pounds (330 kg)[21] and was expected to rise to 1,000 feet (300 m)[23] or more[21] and deliver a wide starburst.[22] When lit, the firework remained on the ground and exploded, blasting a crater 35 feet (11 m) wide and 10 feet (3.0 m) deep.[23] A later attempt, fired at Cape Canaveral, rose approximately 50 feet (15 m) into the air and broke 700 windows in Titusville, Florida.[19]

With Felix Grucci, Plimpton competed in the 16th International Fireworks Festival in 1979 in Monte Carlo. After several problems with transporting and preparing the fireworks, Plimpton and Grucci became the first competitors from the United States to win the event.[20] Plimpton later wrote the book Fireworks, and hosted an A&E Home Video with the same name featuring his many fireworks adventures with the Gruccis of New York in Monte Carlo and for the 1983 Brooklyn Bridge Centennial.[2]

Parodies of Plimpton's career

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." 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! How do I know you're not George Plimpton?"[24] A feature in Mad Magazine titled "Some Really Dangerous Jobs for George Plimpton" spotlighted him trying to swim across Lake Erie, strolling through New York's Times Square in the middle of the night, and spending a day with Jerry Lewis.

Personal life

Plimpton was married twice.[2] His first wife, whom he married in 1968[25] and divorced in 1988, was Freddy Medora Espy, a photographer's assistant. She was the daughter of writers Willard R. Espy[26] and Hilda S. Cole, who had, earlier in her career, been a publicity agent for Kate Smith and Fred Waring.[27] 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.

In 1992, he married Sarah Whitehead Dudley, a graduate of Columbia University and a freelance writer.[28] She is the daughter of James Chittenden Dudley,[29] a managing partner of Dudley and Company, a Manhattan-based investment management firm and geologist Elisabeth Claypool. James and Elisabeth established the 36-acre (15 ha) Highstead Arboretum in Redding, Connecticut. George and Sarah were the parents of twin daughters, Laura Dudley Plimpton and Olivia Hartley Plimpton.

Friendship with Robert Kennedy

At Harvard, Plimpton was a classmate and close personal friend of Robert Kennedy. Plimpton, along with former decathlete Rafer Johnson and American football star Rosey Grier, was credited with helping wrestle Sirhan Sirhan to the ground when Kennedy was assassinated following his victory in the 1968 California Democratic primary at the former Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.

Death and tributes

Plimpton died on September 25, 2003 in his New York City apartment from an apparent heart attack. He was 76.[2]

An oral biography titled George, Being George was edited by Nelson W. Aldrich Jr., and released on October 21, 2008. The book offers memories of Plimpton from among other writers, such as Norman Mailer, William Styron, Gay Talese and Gore Vidal, and was done with the cooperation of both his ex-wife and his widow.

In the movie Plimpton! 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."[30]

In 2006, the musician Jonathan Coulton wrote the song entitled "A Talk with George," a part of his 'Thing A Week' series, in tribute to Plimpton's many adventures and approach to life.

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.[31]

Researcher and writer Samuel Arbesman filed with NASA to name an asteroid after George Plimpton; NASA issued the certificate 7932 Plimpton in 2009.[32][33]

Selected works

Publications

Author

Editor

Introductions

Film appearances

Television appearances

Commercial appearances on television

Literary characterizations

References

Notes

  1. ↑ The Best of Plimpton, p. 72
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Severo, Richard (September 26, 2003). "George Plimpton, Urbane and Witty Writer, Dies at 76". The New York Times. Retrieved May 25, 2010.
  3. 1 2 3 Aldrich, p. 18
  4. ↑ Margolick, David (July 31, 1983). "Obituary: Frances T.P. Plimpton, 82, Dies". New York Times.
  5. ↑ Chase, p. 140
  6. ↑ Chase, p. 110
  7. ↑ Chase, p. 86
  8. ↑ Chase, p. 85
  9. ↑ Calvin Gay Plimpton and Priscilla G. Lewis were the parents of George Arthur Plimpton. see Chase pp. 85–86
  10. ↑ Miller, pp. 31–33
  11. ↑ George Arthur Plimpton profile, findagrave.com; accessed October 26, 2015.
  12. ↑ Aldrich, p. 19
  13. ↑ Thomas, Jr., Robert McG. (April 17, 1995). "Obituary: Pauline A. Plimpton, 93, Author Of Works on Famed Relatives". New York Times.
  14. ↑ He was widely reviled for years after the war by Southern whites, who gave him the nickname "Beast Butler." He is also credited with saving Baltimore, Maryland during the Civil War.
  15. ↑ Plimpton, Oakes Ames (Spring 2007). "Milton at the Midpoint of the Last Century: One Collection of Memories" (PDF). Milton Academy. Retrieved May 14, 2010.
  16. ↑ "How Failing at Exeter made a Success of George Plimpton". Phillips Exeter Academy Bulletin. Spring 2002. Archived from the original on September 10, 2006.
  17. ↑ Aldrich, Nelson. George, being George. p. 80.
  18. ↑ Buttram, Bill (August 19, 1971). "Plimpton trying football again". The Free-Lance Star.
  19. 1 2 3 McBride, Stewart (August 13, 1981). "George Plimpton". Christian Science Monitor. Archived from the original on November 2, 2013. Retrieved 2013-11-02. External link in |website= (help)
  20. 1 2 Dowling, Kevin (August 27, 1979). "George Plimpton, Still Burning His Punk at Both Ends, Finds a Sport in Which He Can Sparkle". Archived from the original on November 2, 2013. Retrieved 2013-11-02.
  21. 1 2 3 4 Pile, Stephen (1979). "Two: Off Duty". The Book of Heroic Failures: The Official Handbook of the Not Terribly Good Club of Great Britain. Futura. p. 73. ISBN 0708819087.
  22. 1 2 3 McBride, Stewart (August 13, 1981). "George Plimpton profile". Christian Science Monitor. Archived from the original on November 2, 2013. Retrieved 2013-11-02. External link in |website= (help)
  23. 1 2 3 4 Creamer, Robert W., ed. (February 23, 1976). "SI Vault: Scorecard – 02.23.76". http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault. Time. p. 4. Archived from the original on November 2, 2013. Retrieved 2013-11-02. But Fat Man sat heavily on the ground, sizzled, smoked and then exploded, leaving a gaping hole 10 feet deep and 35 feet wide. External link in |website= (help)
  24. ↑ Clarke, Gerald (September 21, 1970). "George Plimpton: The Professional Amateur". Time.
  25. ↑ Curtis, Charlotte (March 29, 1968). "Plimpton Drops Singles for Doubles". New York Times.
  26. ↑ Thomas, Jr., Robert McG. (February 25, 1999). "Obituary: Willard Espy, Who Delighted In Wordplay, Is Dead at 88". New York Times.
  27. ↑ "Hilda Cole Espy, writer, 83". The New York Times. January 26, 1995.
  28. ↑ "George Plimpton, Writer and editor, Is Wed to Sarah W. Dudley, a Writer". New York Times. January 5, 1992.
  29. ↑ "Obituary: James C. Dudley, 77, Investment Adviser". New York Times. September 24, 1998.
  30. ↑ Ian Buckwalter (May 23, 2013). "'Plimpton!': A Fond Look At A Man Of Letters". NPR.
  31. ↑ http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/571422
  32. ↑ Arbesman, Samuel (September 27, 2009). "Naming the Sky: The true story of one man's quest to give George Plimpton a permanent presence in orbit". The Boston Globe. Retrieved October 26, 2015.
  33. ↑ 7932 Plimpton (1989 GP), ssd.jpl.nasa.gov; accessed October 26, 2015.

Further reading

External links

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George Plimpton at Find a Grave

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