I’ve tried valiantly to find a Youtube clip of what I’m talking about, and have come up bubkus, so I’m just going to have to trust that you know what I’m talking about. If you’re still drawing blanks, think back to how Mr. Howell spoke on Gilligan’s Island. And if that doesn’t help - I got nothin’.
A recent episode of Wipeout made use of this stereotype; a prep school student was a competitor, and whenever he was on John Henson would channel Mr. Howell and say things like “Muffy, let’s have tea on the south wing verandah afterwards, hmmm?”
Having never met an old-money East-coast type, I have no idea if this is what their speech is like.
Damn! I was going to quote that, too. I’ll just add that I worked with a blond, Dina Merrill type whose family tree made the Daughters of the Mayflower look like nouveau riche. She didn’t normally talk like that, but could fall into the pattern instantly.
She also had an affection for pleated plaid skirts.
William F. Buckley provides an example of somebody actually talking that way, not as a parody:
Of course, Buckley himself was widely parodied.
ETA:
It’s worth noting that Buckley wasn’t actually born into that manner of speaking, but he adapted to a degree that he is usually given as an example of " **** Lockjaw".
I’ve heard it called ‘Long Island Lockjaw’, but in my five plus decades here I’ve never heard it. We’re closer to a mix of NewYawker with a slight touch of Bahston.
Although today we often think of the San Gabriel Valley as the place where the smog is thickest, Pasadena and San Marino have traditionally been the old money suburbs of L.A. culturally closest to those in the Northeast–basically WASPs with money. As for Julia Child herself, her parents were both from the Northeast, and more or less from upper crust backgrounds. I think this is partly where her “accent” came from.
Even today, with the smog, the two cities carry significant cachet, and definitely have their share of the wealthy, who tend to live in large, two-story, traditionally styled houses rather than the more modern designs you see in similarly large houses on the West Side.
FWIW, though, I live near his family compound in Connecticut – it’s pretty darned impressive. It looks to me as if he was to the manner born, and therefore may have been to that manner of speaking born. Never met his parents, though, so don’t know for sure.
Where on Long Island are you, postcards? I explain here how the Lawn Guyland accent heard on the South Shore developed from the Noo Yawk accent. (Mods: If such self-linking is disallowed, feel free to delete it.)
I’ve heard Locust Valley lockjaw spoken exactly once in my five-plus decades, at a ladies’ club meeting in Locust Valley. William F. Buckley sounded like the wide-mouthed frog next to that lady.
I can’t tell if you’re kidding, but it’s oft cited that English was Buckley’s third language, but who knows what that really means, as he was born in NYC and lived in Mexico early on.
Besides William F Buckley,I think George Plimpton talked like that and was a a well off family.He does appear in the Tom Hanks film “Volunteers”.Probably both Theodore and distant cousin FDR as well. I wish I could remember it but when TR went to the Dakotas following the death of his wife and mother in a 24 hour period,he initially talked in some Thurston Howell manner that cracked the cowboys up about this New York tenderfoot.
The subject of Buckley’s accent is interesting. Having spent his early years in Mexico, Spanish was Buckley’s first language (in his memoir, Losing Mum and Pup, Buckley’s son Christopher said that WFB always spoke in Spanish to the household’s Hispanic help, and in fact spoke primarily in Spanish when he was at home). Buckley was also partially educated in England, and then exposed to old money east coast types when he moved back home to join his family there. Thus his accent was unique, and, due to their different experiences growing up, none of his siblings spoke with the same accent that Buckley had.
Slightly on-topic, there’s a brief moment in Bonfire of the Vanities where the protagonist introduces his (downtown, outer-borough) criminal lawyer to his (old-money, Upper East Side) neighbor. The lawyer says, “Howaya,” while the neighbor says, “Howdj’do.”
Can’t check out any of the examples from here, but I’m curious if you’re referring to the Boston Brahmin dialect. It’s an American dialect that sounds pretty British.
