{"id":75190,"date":"2014-08-11T13:10:44","date_gmt":"2014-08-11T17:10:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=75190"},"modified":"2014-08-11T13:10:44","modified_gmt":"2014-08-11T17:10:44","slug":"the-mystery-of-the-plaster-plimpton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/08\/11\/the-mystery-of-the-plaster-plimpton\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mystery of the Plaster Plimpton"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"IMG_2324-2\"<\/a>

Hailey Gates holding our plaster Plimpton, a donation from Duncan Sahner and Rodney Cook.<\/p><\/div>\n

By the largesse of Duncan Sahner and Rodney Cook, The Paris Review<\/em> has come to possess a handsome bust of our late founding editor, George Plimpton. Specifically, this is a plaster maquette\u2014the sculptural equivalent of a draft or sketch\u2014by George M. Kelly, a sculptor of some<\/a> renown<\/a>. When Sahner and Cook heard that Kelly was soon to be evicted from his studio in Astoria, they \u201cput together a team of Monuments Men\u201d to rescue some of his work. This maquette was among their bounty.<\/p>\n

And yet so much of the story remains untold. For starters, how did Kelly and Plimpton know each other, and who prevailed on whom to have Plimpton sit as a subject? Furthermore, if our bust is only a preliminary model, then where\u2019s the final version?<\/p>\n

The Times<\/em> offers tantalizing evidence of its existence. Back in 2003, on the occasion of Plimpton\u2019s death, the paper reported that Elaine\u2019s\u2014the restaurant and New York City institution, shuttered in 2011 after more than forty-five years in business\u2014had \u201ca plaster bust of Mr. Plimpton<\/a> \u2026 on a shelf in the back room.\u201d There\u2019s even a photo of him standing beneath it<\/a>. Elaine Kaufman, the proprietor, told the Times<\/em>,<\/p>\n

\n

A couple of years ago a guy named Kelly did a bust of George in brass \u2026 The guy wanted a lot of money, $35,000. I don\u2019t have that kind of\u2014BLEEP!\u2014money. So we ended up with the plaster cast.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

That cast remained on display until the restaurant closed. Photographs<\/a> suggest that it\u2019s not the same cast presently in our office. Ours has a visible seam just behind the Plimp\u2019s ear; the model in Elaine\u2019s is a more polished affair. And if there are already two of these plaster Georges, might not there be others, too?<\/p>\n

If you or your loved ones have any clues as to the whereabouts of the bronze Plimpton, or of any further plaster Plimptons, or perhaps even of a marble or Plasticine Plimpton, please let us know. In the meantime, we\u2019re delighted to show off our plaster Plimp, who is, as you can see, eminently photogenic:<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0747\"<\/a>

Plaster Plimpton avails himself of a cab.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"IMG_2301\"<\/a>

Plaster Plimpton gazes approvingly at The Paris Review<\/i>\u2019s offices.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By the largesse of Duncan Sahner and Rodney Cook, The Paris Review has come to possess a handsome bust of our late founding editor, George Plimpton. Specifically, this is a plaster maquette\u2014the sculptural equivalent of a draft or sketch\u2014by George M. Kelly, a sculptor of some renown. When Sahner and Cook heard that Kelly was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13633],"tags":[13886,14033,14925,14926,14,125,14924,964],"class_list":["post-75190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-department-of-tomfoolery","tag-bronze","tag-busts","tag-elaines","tag-george-m-kelly","tag-george-plimpton","tag-new-york-city","tag-plaster","tag-sculpture"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Mystery of the Plaster Plimpton<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If the bust is only a preliminary model, then where\u2019s the final version?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/08\/11\/the-mystery-of-the-plaster-plimpton\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Mystery of the Plaster Plimpton by Dan Piepenbring\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"August 11, 2014 \u2013 By the largesse of Duncan Sahner and Rodney Cook, The Paris Review has come to possess a handsome bust of our late founding editor, George Plimpton.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/08\/11\/the-mystery-of-the-plaster-plimpton\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-08-11T17:10:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/img_2324-2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"3264\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"2445\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dan Piepenbring\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dan Piepenbring\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/08\/11\/the-mystery-of-the-plaster-plimpton\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/08\/11\/the-mystery-of-the-plaster-plimpton\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Dan Piepenbring\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/6b16ca558fc538230f135c3220dfd3c8\"},\"headline\":\"The Mystery of the Plaster Plimpton\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-08-11T17:10:44+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/08\/11\/the-mystery-of-the-plaster-plimpton\/\"},\"wordCount\":416,\"commentCount\":3,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/08\/11\/the-mystery-of-the-plaster-plimpton\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/img_2324-2.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"bronze\",\"busts\",\"Elaine's\",\"George M. 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