By George! Plimpton on the Flying Trapeze

There’s a wonderful reason for all this, bear with me.
 
I’ve long been a big admirer of George Plimpton, who was the erudite editor of the Paris Review and a serious writer – a compatriot of Ernest Hemingway, Norman Mailer and many others, but was most-known for his participatory journalism, and the books that resulted from that.  His most famous book, Paper Lion, dealt with his time at training camp with the Detroit Lions, practicing with the NFL team as quarterback, all of which led to him getting a chance to run four plays during an exhibition intersquad game – which was a total, disastrous flop.  If you consider losing 35 yards a total, disastrous flop.
 
(The book was made into a pretty good movie that starred Alan Alda as Plimpton, a very respectable look-alike.  My only quibble with the otherwise terrific film is that for his four plays, the movie – to be more comically dramatic – far over-exaggerates his failure, having him backpedal into the goalpost.)
 
But he did much more than just football.  I have five of his books, including his first Out of My League (that began life as an article for Sports Illustrated magazine) when he pitched to the American League and National League all-star baseball teams.  But also Open Net, for which he played goalie for the NHL’s Boston Bruins, and a book on his brief experience trying the PGA golf tour, Bogey Man.  Among his many other efforts, which lead to articles, were playing basketball with the Boston Celtics, auto-racing, boxing light-heavyweight champ Archie Moore for three rounds, and (in a much safer, though still personally harrowing exploit) playing percussion in two concerts with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Leonard Berstein.
 
Though he was, of course, at the center of all his books and articles, what made his work so wonderful is that they weren’t really about him – those tales added a fun, dramatic structure to the stories – but rather dealt into the people around him who he was “competing” with and what their lives were like as real people with egos and insecurities trying to make a career in those fields, insight into what training and practicing was really like.
 
A few years back, there was a terrific documentary about him, called, Plimpton!  Starring George Plimpton as Himself.  I wrote about it here.  What made the documentary so wonderful was that, unlike most similar movies, is that there is so much film footage of him in action.  And much of that is thanks to a series of, I believe, six TV documentaries produced by David Wolper for ABC in the early 1970s.  There was Plimpton!  The Man on the Flying Trapeze – in which he trained with the circus to perform on – yes, really – the flying trapeze.  As well as Plimpton!  Did You Hear the One About…? where did trained to be a stand-up comic in Las Vegas, as opening act for Paul Anka.  (There’s the hilarious advice I’ve always remembered Jonathan Winters giving him, telling Plimpton to peek around the curtain before coming on stage and, in a high-pitched childlike voice say, “Hi!  We’re going to have some fun!”)  And one – Plimpton!  Shoot-Out at Rio Lobo -- where he went behind-the-scenes about making movies and got a one-line role in a John Wayne movie, Rio Lobo.  (The big joke in that one is that he spends the whole film practicing his one line, “I got your warrant right here, sheriff,” pulling out a rifle – and right before filming the scene, the director Howard Hawks, changed the line, to “This here’s your warrant, mister”.  After which he’s beaten up and then shot by Wayne.)  But my very favorite of those TV films was one where Plimpton himself (rather than the Hollywood movie, good as it was) sort of re-created his famous Paper Lion experience.  Not with Detroit, but with then-Baltimore Colts. They called it Plimpton!  The Great Quarterback Sneak.
 
Here's the trailer of the documentary, which is a nice set-up for the point of all this, which is coming.

​By the way, later in his life, Plimpton actually appeared in quite a lot of movies and TV shows in small, but more substantial roles, most notably Good Will Hunting, Volunteers (as Tom Hanks’ father), Steve Martin’s L.A. Story and even two episodes of ER.  In fact, the iMDB lists 43 credits for him.
 
I bring all this up (most especially the ABC documentaries) for a specific reason.  And here’s the point of it all –
 
I’ve found all six of Plimpton’s TV documentaries online.  And, presuming they stay available, will be embedding each of them, over time. 
 
After all these years, they’re still a great treat.  And to start things off, we have that TV documentary when Plimpton decides to run away and join the circus.  But being Plimpton, he doesn’t take it easy.  For while he goes around, talking to everyone and finding out about people’s lives, what got them to make a circus life and their fears and joys – he trains, not for something simple and fun, but…well, as the title says -- Plimpton!  The Man on the Flying Trapeze
 
(Contrary to what the video says, this only runs about 51 minutes.)