I have another idea. Does the “reporter” thing sound anything like Lenny from the Simpsons?
I think I’ve noticed a tendency to draw out the last word of a sentence: “Now see here, youuu!”. Maybe it was a stage technique that was carried over to film for a while? Anyway it seems to me it was pretty much gone by the late thirties.
Regarding the midadlantic accent - some actors liked to affect that accent in their regular lives even when they didn’t use it on-screen. For example, Claudette Colbert talks like an American in here movies, but I saw here in a TV appearance (Steve Allen Show) and she was talking in a weird upper-crust-y pseudo-british accent.
For a Simpsons reference, think Lenny + Chief Wiggum - whining.
Lenny + Chief Wiggum - whining + aneedtogetalotofwordsoutinhurry,youhearwhatI’msayingSimpsonsboy?
Chief Wiggum is definitely based on the accent in question, probably on Edward G. Robinson’s voice.
I don’t know how to express it, but the tempo was faster, both in the individual speech pattern and in the conversation, there would be a lag between “Whattaya hear, whattaya say?” and “Nothin’ and nothin’ good about you, ya bum”, but it would be a lot shorter than in recent speech, almost as if the actors were just waiting to be sure that the other guy had finished his line before they got theirs in.
Think of a guy from the deep south (I know, it’s like saying a guy with an English accent, but you get the point) or a New England yankee, and picture him not in much of a hurry to get to the point of what he’s saying. The backwards of that is the tempo in the Reporter accent.
You could probably save some time on the mental imagery by finding a movie from the '40’s with Cagney and anyone described as a “plucky girl Friday”.
Does no one remember the fabulous diction training scenes in “Singing in the Rain?”
Okay, I’ll volunteer some bandwidth for the cause. Here’s a good example of a melodious 1940s accent; it doesn’t have that “hey there, sonny boy” nasal quality, but it’s definitely an inflection you don’t hear today.
Warning: it’s a typical “remember Pearl Harbor” rant of the day, and it’s quite un-PC by today’s standards.
Here’s another example, only with more nasal 1940s goodness.
Remember, four out of five doctors recommend Chesterfields for relief of asthma and hay fever. Chesterfields, with more tar than the other leading brands. Chesterfield … a man’s cigarette! Smoke Chesterfields … for victory!
Okay, another one. Mods … please feel free to merge this message into the previous one; post padding wasn’t the intent.
I am willing to guess that accents can be just as much a “fad” as clothes or slang. I seem to remember hearing a lot more people speaking in the Cheech and Chong style hippie speech early in the 1970’s than I do now. In the 80’s I seem to remember hearing a lot more people talking with valley girl accents or Jeff Spicoli accents than I do now. I would guess like any fad, there are a few holdouts, but eventually the manner of speaking fades away as the speakers get older and the accent goes out of style. Maybe 70 years from now some one will wonder “Did anyone really talk funny like that Eminem guy from that movie 8 Mile or was it just made up for the movies because I never have heard anyone talk like that in real life”
I always get a James Cagney vibe when I think of this accent. But it really needs the Slang of the Day to get the full effect. One must refer to a woman as “Sister”, and you’ve got to tell people that you’ve “got their number, buster” and such. And you have to “give a girl a break, mister!” And dead guys are always “pushing up daisies”.
Channel-surfing this afternoon, I found a William Powell - Myrna Loy movie (NOT a Thin Man movie; probably older than the Thin Man movies). Both of them are perfect examples of what I’m talking about.
I was thinking the same thing on the way home from work, after hearing a “caring, sensitive therapist” accent on NPR; the accent would seem completely accent in 1940. Same thing with the Dell Dude’s stoner inflection or Jim Rome’s jock accent; drop 'em into a newspaper office in 1942, and folks would think they’re German spies who had inadequate English diction training. Also consider the evolution of the African-American accent in the last 30 years; a rap artist’s strong-O inflection would sound strange in a blaxploitation film.
Still, though, I remember seeing newsreels from the era, with “man on the street” interviews. EVERYBODY had that nasal, clipped “why, I oughtta’” accent.
Preview, you wise guy! I meant "the accent would seem completely alien in 1940.
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** Scarlett67**, the comic you’re thinking of is Steve Sweeney. I remember seeing that bit on “Evening at the Improv” about a zillion years ago, and it’s stuck in my brain. That and the bit about Olivier (I think) talking about Raisinets. Anyway.
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Jane Wyatt from FATHER KNOWS BEST, LOST HORIZON, and a ton of Broadway shows nobody now remembers, is another accessible example. She was born at the family’s summer home in NJ but she’s from an ancient Hudson Valley family of Dutch and British Catholics and was raised wealthy in Gramercy Park. She actually has had quite and interesting life.
My mom was born in 1939 in Brooklyn and also learned a version of this accent in her relentlessly striving family–if you heard her say “at all” or “father” she sounds a little like Jane. And hey, the striving paid off–neither of the parents were able to finish HS due to having to leave school and work, and all of their kids went to college. Not fancy ones, but still.
Grandpa died in 2001 and was also Brooklyn-born, but could declaim in the Forties accent–not the CT Lockjaw one–almost until he died. He was a very cute and well-spoken little boy and was taught speeches to give for War Bonds. His lung power and diction were impressive, and he remembered long classical speeches he’d been taught in 1916. That’s the mileau these folks were raised in.
I had always assumed that the actors spoke that way in older films and recordings partly due to the recording process itself, which tends to slightly speed up the sound, just as movements appear sped up and jerky in earlier silent films. Perhaps the diction of actors had to adjust to this, as sound recording was probably far more complicated than plopping a cassette in a tape deck. In the later 1940’s, improved sound fidelity lead to more “realistic” sounding speech and dialogue.
Those are interesting accents, but I think the OP refers to a more Brit sound. I’m thinking of Betty Davis saying “we’re all just busy little bees, making honey, aren’t we darling”. Or something like that. The “r” is softer.
Sorry, that should be “Bette Davis”
Try this
http://www.dailywav.com/1101/busybees.wav
Or this one, listen to the way George Baxter says “for” in
“what do you take me for?” in “All about Eve”, 1950
As long a this whole threads on accents, so I don’t have to start another one.
WHat was up with that wierd-ass thing Donald Sutherland was doing in Kelly’s Heroes. Was he trying for some accent of speech patern? or was he just making something up for the hell of it.
I keep thinking of the lead actor in “It’s A Wonderful Life” while reading this… is that the sort of accent people are talking about?