Jay McInerney, author:Arriving in Manhattan as a young writer, nothing was more thrilling or daunting than attending my first Paris Review party at Georges townhouse on East 72nd in the fall of 1984. Are you saying that the denizens of Larchmont sound like Plimpton did? 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. "[27], Plimpton was a member of the cast of the A&E TV series A Nero Wolfe Mystery (200102). Plimpton was an omnipresence for much of American cultural lifeboth high and lowin the last third of the 20th century. He got the personality totally wrong, too. Hed have that and a scotch on the rocks, his favorite drink. From looking at Labovs study, I know today, as I didnt know yesterday, that linguists use the term rhotic to describe whether a person pronounces, or doesnt, the R sound before a consonant or at the end of a word. 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. Hearing the words Dammit, Im mad as a hornet! uttered in George Plimptons voice made anger sound totally ridiculous, which is exactly what it most often is. On Sept. 26, George Plimpton died in his sleep, at the age of 76. After several problems with transporting and preparing the fireworks, Plimpton and Grucci became the first competitors from the United States to win the event. In all my years, Ive never heard this accent in person. You should be very grateful. On one website, I read about a Choate alumn saying one can still hear the LL (see above thread) accent on campus. What will you be mad about ten years after youre gone?). Between 1945 and 1948, Plimpton was a soldier in the United States Army. Description above from the Wikipedia article George Plimpton, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of . To me, Mid-Atlantic English is the nom juste for a related but distinct phenomenon (which is also mentioned in Wikipedia). Hed go on to move freely through so many worlds and circles, without ever not speaking in that singular accentthough it probably would have made life easier for him if hed adopted a new way of talking (after all, as a journalist in the locker rooms, where slang and cursing were art-forms, my dads stiff, formal tongue made him stick out like an egret among ducks). [2], 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." A friend of the New England Sedgwick family, Plimpton edited Edie: An American Biography with Jean Stein in 1982. Is it in evidence among the Gen X set of Boston, or a passing phenomenon? Above all, he was a gentleman, one of the lasta figure so archaic, it could be easily mistaken for something else. It was a hot, sweltering day. 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. This was his habit. My dad could never say what he feltnot reallyand neither can any of us. George Plimpton: what kind of accent? He smiled broadly, signaled for the coach to send Lupica in to run for him, and trotted back to the sidelines. And the answer may explain partly why it has gone out of fashion: Jonathan Harris, the actor who played Dr. Smith on the television show "Lost in Space.". Oh, I suppose we should all just lavish praise upon Carnac the Magnificent now for bringing this to your attention, is that it? Whee!! George Plimpton, who died last week at his town house, on East Seventy-second Street near the river, was a serious man of serious accomplishments who just happened to have more fun than a van. Think of the accent of Jane Hathaway on the Beverly Hillbillies. Several readers wrote in with specimens of Americans who had gone to England and ended up speaking in this mid-Atlantic way. But Labov said that in post-World War II New York, fancier people started becoming rhotic, and recovering their Rs. 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. [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. But the average person never talked that way. The Wikipedia entry for it is quite detailed. **, In this case, Mid-Atlantic refers to speech in which the attributes of British English and American English meet halfway. Plimpton was a writer-raconteur and dilettante in the best sense of the word: He co-founded an important literary magazine, the Paris Review, and tried his hand at everything from quarterbacking for the Detroit Lions (which he wrote about in Paper Lion), boxing with light-heavyweight champ Archie Moore (which became Shadow Box), and becoming New Yorks unofficial official fireworks commissioner. His exploits were such that at one point, The New Yorker ran a cartoon in which a patient eyed a surgeon with misgiving and said, But how do I know youre not George Plimpton?, But perhaps foremost among his accomplishments was his elevation of the interview to a literary form, both in the Paris Review and in his two superb works of oral history, Truman Capote: In Which Various Friends, Enemies, Acquaintances and Detractors Recall His Turbulent Career, and Edie, a biography of Edie Sedgwick, which he and Jean Stein compiled. And I felt such love for my sweet old excited dad at that moment that I thought I would do him the favor of not telling him so, of leaving it unsaid. Spoke in a mid-Atlantic accent, reflecting a privileged Upper East Side (in New York City) upbringing. 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]. After the technology improved the need to speak so histrionically went away, and so did "announcer English.". I have worked as poetry editor with editors on other magazines; only with George has the experience been entirely agreeable. In fact, my dads farewells seemed loquacious in comparison to his mothers. In the April 1, 1985 issue of Sports Illustrated, Plimpton pulled off a widely reported April Fools' Day prank. In the 50s Plimpton and staff came to New York, where they kept the Review going for half a century. What exactly is a Boston Brahmin accent? Suddenly, a New York cop remembered a long-ago murder. He was respected by all. To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories, To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. Back to Plimpton I dont remember the LL affect at all. [33] A later attempt, fired at Cape Canaveral, rose approximately 50 feet (15m) into the air and broke 700 windows in Titusville, Florida. [17], In 1953, Plimpton joined the influential literary journal The Paris Review, founded by Peter Matthiessen, Thomas H. Guinzburg, and Harold L. "Doc" Humes, becoming its first editor in chief. Shadow Box. George Plimpton writer, publisher, amateur lion tamer died in 2003 after 50 years as the founding editor of The Paris Review. Even the manliest actors, such as Humphrey Bogart and Clark Gable sometimes slipped into this voice-coach mode. December 17, 2022 Rafael Garca. Plimpton was married twice. I believe the accent was at one time known as Larchmont Lockjaw. George Plimpton, journalist extraordinaire, trains with and then performs as Quarterback for the Baltimore Colts. This book is the party that was George's life-and it's a big one-attended by scores of famous people, as well as. 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. For it was George Plimpton the writer, not the editor nor the celebrity, who was honored here . I havent heard that he is dead, but if so RIP George. Norman Mailer said that George Plimpton was the best-loved man in New York. History / Biographical Note Biographical Note. News children today have no concept of the Mid-Atlantic accent. 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. 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. 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. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to these men speak. Macklem . You heard it and it could only be him. 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 160mph, wore a heavy boot on one foot, and was a practicing Buddhist with a largely unknown background. I thought they were terrific. By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. Another entertainment-related explanation for the shift, right about the time of the Eisenhower-Kennedy transition: The plumby announcer voice that hovers over the Atlantic midway between the Eastern Seaboard and England was mortally wounded in 1959. Here's a look inside the space, where the Paris Review editor hosted legendary parties. $ 9.19 - $ 32.19. Firstly, then-managing director of SI, Mark Mulvoy, gave Plimpton the liberty to create a hoax.Secondly, SI photographer Lane Stewart recruited his friend, Joe Berton to play the part of Sidd Finch. 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. They all gathered there. The Scout Is a Lonely Hunter. But he came right down to our level. 3: Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". He modestly shrugged off the compliment, but his bright smile betrayed his pleasureand ours. Here are five things you may not have known about him. Off screen, George Plimpton and Gore Vidal come to mind. The clipped English of George Plimpton and William F. Buckley, Jr. were vestigial examples.. A heuristic approximation! After St. Bernard's School, Plimpton attended Phillips Exeter Academy (from which he was expelled just shy of graduation), and Daytona Beach High School, where he received his high school diploma,[16] before entering Harvard College in July 1944. Were taking off from Teterburo, N.J., at 4 a.m. tomorrow. Plimpton was .the public face of the New York intellectual: tweedy, eclectic and with a plummy accent he himself described as "Eastern seaboard cosmopolitan." . Revolutionary musket, a stairwell and a housemaster), 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. I want you to go [to the shop] pull out the biggest firework you have and go out and light it up, because you just won the firework contest in Monaco!, I was so stunned, all I could think to say was, I dont think I can get a permit that fast!, Alice Quinn, director of the Poetry Society of America, poetry editor, The New Yorker:When I was an adviser at Columbia Magazine [a journal run out of Columbia University], we were scraping barrel, with no money in the bank, and I said to the students we should have a benefit auction. [47][48] Plimpton's remarkable life is showcased in a documentary that is. To me, it meant admission to this little exclusive club at the Paris Review. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found The Paris Review. My suspicion is that the shift might have begun in the switch away from the two paired styles in American movies, the classical acting of the British School and the rapid patter of popular American actors (Marx Brothers, Cagney, Powell and Loy, etc), and over to the Method Acting style of the Strasberg/Brando/Dean school. ), this isnt some kind of morbid contest to see who can be the first to inform the board of some celebritys death. At least, not to me, nor even to my sister, a fact she mentions in the movie. Read more in this thread (long). When he was on the scene, everything was a big happeningan event. If you are in the big league, God help us all. George Plimpton. They spoke in this manner, and it seemed perfectly natural, evocative of a background spent among the gentry of the northeast. His friendships testified to what an eclectic man he was. *Originally posted by j.c. * You heard it and it. He's a pitcher, part yogi and part recluse. 26 Feb 2023 12:18:23 Starring George Plimpton as Himself, directed by Tom Bean and Luke Poling, was released. Big, tall, good-looking guy, easy-going. LL is typified, I think, but an almost clenching of the teeth while talking, producing a mushy sound, if you will. "[34] A feature in Mad 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 week with Jerry Lewis. We had the book party for my selected poems, Sailing Alone Around the Room, at Georges house on Sept 10, 2001. Whether on the football field or on a golf course or in a poem or an essay, the notion of human talent in whatever form excited him. His response was "no, just affected.". Update: This post is #2 in the announcer-speak series. Whom is it spoken bymerely the elite, old-money types? The Sidd Finch story was accompanied by a series of photos which managed to convince even the eagle-eyed fans . It includes clear pronunciation of each and every consonant cluster. Oh now, Im joking, Carnac ( see? :rolleyes: Ive got news for you, buddy, youre not even second in line! George Plimpton is beautifully connected. The coach for the Writers team announced that Plimpton would pinch-hit for the first batter of the game, Daily News sports columnist Mike Lupica, and the crowd roared. 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. Here's how Geroge Plimpton and his team created a prodigious pitcher out of thin air. Think of the accent of Jane Hathaway on the Beverly Hillbillies. Shoot! hed hiss, when he was mad. Truman Capote: In Which Various Friends, Enemies, Acquaintances, and Detractors Recall His Turbulent Career. Did he have the celebrated Boston Brahmin accent, or was it a psuedo-Brit affectation? The journal, which had operated out of his home, moved downtown. 2023 Cond Nast. That life couldnt contain him, hed burst its seams like it was an old coat two sizes too small. Old money, would never say the word spanky, and certainly had more money than God could count. [citation needed], In the movie Plimpton! So it went in late 1960 at one of George Plimpton's legendary soirees at 541 E. 72nd St., New York. We were bound to play the roles of father and son, unable to simply be ourselves. Okay, then, are you saying that Plimpton has such as accent? *Originally posted by Phlosphr * Bill and I met in Rome, several months after the Paris Review was startedwe were, as they say, courtingand he drove me to Paris so George and Peter [Mathiessen] could look me over. The 16th at Cypress Point is one of the famous golf holes of the world, certainly one of the most difficult and demanding par 3's. He was previously married to Sara Whitehead Dudley and Freddy Medora Espy. That is, until I saw the documentarythe assassination of his dear friend Bobby Kennedy. George Plimpton, who has died aged 76, became a best-selling author by not only writing about sporting heroes but by participating in those sports as well. Isnt that what they call it. Peter Matthiesen, author, co-founder of the Paris Review:I was in Liberia, of all places, and George met me in Monrovia. He wrote, "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". [31][32][33] His firework, a Roman candle named "Fat Man",[31][32][33] weighed 720 pounds (330kg)[31] and was expected to rise to 1,000 feet (300m)[33] or more[31] and deliver a wide starburst. One night Joe DiMaggio was here, and they had never met, so I introduced them. He once said that, in writing Paper Lion, he wanted to reveal the "humor and grace" of football. Plimpton appeared in the 1989 documentary The Tightrope Dancer which featured the life and the work of the artist Vali Myers. When he found a story to be short of the mark, he rejected it no matter who the author wasan old friend, a Pulitzer winner, an unknown. Orson Welles also comes to mind, though I noticed he spoke in this mode more often during his early days, on and off screen. Youll get another shot at the big time, trust me. A little before my time, but Kennedy certainly didnt, even if his vernacular was more formal than Brandos. But its clear that the diction I call Announcer Voice has been the object of close linguistic study. [3], He was the son of Francis T. P. Plimpton[4] and the grandson of Frances Taylor Pearsons and George Arthur Plimpton. . Its a shot from a YouTube video that itself is a fascinating time-capsule portrait of language change. Its our anniversary. Larchmont Lockjaw? And so it seemed only fitting to commemorate his death with the form he made his own.Meghan ORourke. 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. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found The Paris Review, as well as his patrician demeanor and accent. Get a life. 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. See below!) Angelo Dundee, trainer for Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard:George was such a great guy. 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. Please educate me. He saw athletes as heroes he. Yes he is gone. But he has never employed that voice professionally, and certainly does not speak that way in real life. Plimpton appeared in the 1989 documentary The Tightrope Dancer which featured the life and the work of the artist Vali Myers. 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. Almost twenty years ago, writing quirky sports pieces for the Village Voice, I decided to enter the world of championship arm wrestling.Like many young writers, I was inspired by the sports adventures of the gaunt but game George Plimpton, who had made a literary career out of placing himself in . The conservative thinker may have shared an accent with some other men of the same age and social class, but his mannerisms and gestures made him entirely uniqueand occasionally prone to. George was the one who read my name out to the commissioner. his prose, and his down east, cultivated accent, although perhaps a bit pretentious, will remain with me as I reread one of my favorite books. He was going to put on a reading of his play Zelda, Scott, and Ernest. We made $15,000-20,000. George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 - September 25, 2003) was an American journalist, writer, literary editor, actor and occasional amateur sportsman. He was immensely generous in every waygenerous about sharing the work and about giving one a chance to edit things. The Paris Review was a testimony to his literary taste and his sense of glamour. The Dudleys established the 36-acre (15ha) Highstead Arboretum in Redding, Connecticut. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. So think of Margaret Anderson or Amanda and you can place George. Even if it had nothing else going for itsomething very far from the truth Shadow Box by George Plimpton will forever remain a bastion of boxing literature because of the image it contains of the "Near Room," a place of dreadful foreboding which Muhammad Ali once described to the famed . [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. 2) Truman v. Kaltenborn, 1949. Yes indeed, George Plimpton is a man for all seasons. [41] She is the daughter of James Chittenden Dudley,[42] a managing partner of Manhattan-based investment firm Dudley and Company, and geologist Elisabeth Claypool. It evoked a sense of Paris from a time when Paris was still the literary capital of the world, publishing literary giants who were considered obsceneHenry Miller, D.H. Lawrence. George Plimpton boxed with Archie Moore, played quarterback for the Detroit Lions, and played percussion for the New York Philharmonic. People two or three deep stood looking out at the East River. All contents 2023 The Slate Group LLC. If he couldnt be taken quite seriously, that was fine with him (he took himself lightly, and relished being in on the joke). Robert Silvers, editor, the New York Review of Books:I met George on the Ile Saint-Louis in 1953 as I was leaving NATO headquarters. 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. A few days after, I went to a Paris Review party and showed off my damaged nose and two black eyes to George. After finishing at Harvard in 1950, he attended King's College, Cambridge, from 1950 to 1952, and graduated with third class honors in English. Eerily enough, one of the messages on my answering machine was from George, with that distinctive accent of his: Hallo, its George Plimpton. By George Plimpton. He also appeared in a featurette about Edie Sedgwick found on the Ciao! Cambridge. Sidd Finch was a fictional character George had created for a Sports Illustrated story, supposedly the greatest and fastest pitcher in the world. 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. 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. 3 people found this helpful . Peter even came with us on our honeymoon in Ravello, though George didnt. The Writer's Chapbook A Compendium of Fact, Opinion, Wit, and Advice from the Twentieth Century's Preeminent Writers. So it was that George Plimptons accent could not be imitated. (He intended to face both line-ups, but tired badly and was relieved by Ralph Houk.) 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. He hosted Disney Channel's Mouseterpiece Theater (a Masterpiece Theatre spoof which featured Disney cartoon shorts). Plimpton, George 1927-2003(George Ames Plimpton) Source for information on Plimpton, George 1927-2003: Concise Major 21st Century Writers dictionary. So it was that my father played himself not just in movies and on TV, but in life, too. When I spoke to him my voice went up an octave and took on his formal tone and became careful and unnatural; his voice became like his fathersstern, authoritative, disciplinarianwhen his father was the last person in the universe he wanted to be. Whats the matter?, Well, he said. 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. #1 was Who Was the Last American to Speak This Way, #3 is Class-War Edition, and #4 is The Origin Story., Who Was the Last American to Speak This Way. With a little more practice, you could give us boys in the big leagues a run for our money. I only wish I could not tell him again, just one more time. But he could easily have said, Alice, I have enough trouble raising money for my magazine.. **. She was having lunch at P. J. Clarkes with the publisher Bennet Cerf and his son Chris, and my dad swooped over to the table (he was wearing a cape) and introduced himself in that ridiculously gallant voice: Bennet, Chris, what a pleasant surprise! I feel that his work on this and many other language-related matters should be far more widely known than it is. Few could give a toast or tell a story with equal humor. Isnt that what they call it. Billy Collins, poet:Im one of these people who went from crashing Georges parties in the 70s to being invited in the 80s. 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. If you say, I pahked my cah in Hahvahd Yahd, like some vaudeville version of a Boston accent, you are non-rhotic. I had George tell him the story of Sidd Finch. The Wikipedia entry is indeed delightful. OK? Plimpton also appeared in a number of feature films as an extra and in cameo appearances. How to find out, and whether you should care. By George Plimpton. NYC speech in the sixties, in some ways, flipped prestige markers. And they founded this thing called the Paris Review and published poetry and short story writers and did interviews. . He had been in the war, if briefly (stationed in Italy towards the end of it, hed missed action, but met the Pope, an early sign of the great good fortuneone of his favorite phrasesthat marked his life). **Mid-Atlantic. 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. Wed gone to dinner and the maitre d comes over and says, Felix, I got a call for you from Monaco., I pick up the phone, and I hear Georges Bostonian accent. (Why do I even bother?) 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! (What else happened that year??? Nevertheless, its a strange thing that one of the great voices of modern storytelling had limitations, restrictions, words, and phrases it was incapable of uttering, matters it could not express: death, love, tragedy. Losing, he knew, always makes a better story than winning. Hows your mom? hed always ask me. He died on September 26, 2003 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA. If you are in the big league, God help us all. The clipped, non-rhotic English accents of George Plimpton and William F. Buckley Jr. were vestigial examples. You can. [32] When lit, the firework remained on the ground and exploded, blasting a crater 35 feet (11m) wide and 10 feet (3.0m) deep. As such, it was popular in the theatre and other forms of elite culture in that region. When I eventually went back to be an editor at Harpers, I arrived at his flat, not having been in New York for eight years. He was an actor and writer, known for Good Will Hunting (1997), Nixon (1995) and Just Cause (1995). 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. He was a Wasp (both of his parents came from old New England families, and had ancestors on the Mayflower). He said, You better stay here, and I did, for a while. We were going to go looking for strange birds. Well, perhaps it's more accurate to say that the book provided entertaining confirmation to millions of people that they -- like the author . He had a small role in the Oscar-winning film Good Will Hunting,[22] playing a psychologist. George Plimpton was an upper-class guy with a patrician accent who partied his way through life . Slate is published by The Slate Group, a Graham Holdings Company. Kennedy died the next day at Good Samaritan Hospital. He was very understanding of what we did and how we did it. Im having a harder time coming up with clear examples from the other side of the Atlantic, but Ive heard Alfred Molina (Londoner), and Catherine Zeta-Jones (Welsh) put on a Mid-Atlantic accent from time to time.. Hear Stories By George Plimpton. After returning to New York from Paris, he routinely launched fireworks at his evening parties.