George Plimpton

George Plimpton who died in 2003 was the long time editor of the Paris Review and a man who believed in "participatory journalism". As such he was curious how an amateur would perform in a professional setting. So began a long list of performances - sometimes on his own and often on assignment by Sports Illustrated.
 - He sparred in the ring with Archie Moore and Ray Robinson.
- In 1963 he went to training camp with the Detroit Lions football team whose stars included Bobby Layne and Alex Karras - both noted for their highjinks. Plimpton went in for four plays at quarterback and "got smeared". Also on that team was a halfback named "Night Train" Lane who was married to the singer Dinah Washington and played her records in the training camp at night. (Her rendition of "Manhattan" with a flute background runs over four minutes and is a gem.) But I digress. In 1971 Plimpton actually played in an exhibition game for the Baltimore Colts.
-He later donned pads and mask and played goalie on the ice with the Boston Bruins. He tried his hand at high level bridge, hit tennis balls with Pancho Gonzales and even worked with a high wire circus act.
He wrote thirty books, had eighteen cameo movie roles and eleven TV appearances. A documentary on him is due out this year. He even got a rare interview with Ernest "Papa" Hemingway on his fishing boat in Cuba. But of all his exploits the most daunting one was playing percussion with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under Leonard Bernstein.  While there are time-outs in football and hockey there are none when the music starts and you CAN'T make any mistakes. He played the bells, the gong and the one that really scared him was the "triangle". Bernstein tolerated him for a month on the road. Plimpton was a unique literary character and he wrote of his experiences in his many books. His advice to writers was in three words "Keep a journal."
tjs
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