# Vincent Price's voice: how and why? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 31, 2015, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vincent-prices-voice-how-and-why/741804 "2015-12-31T08:37:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HarryTheHat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@HarryTheHat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HarryTheHat)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2015, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vincent-prices-voice-how-and-why/741804/1 "2015-12-31T08:37:25Z")
How did Vincent Price’s wonderfully distinctive way of speaking (I hesitate to call it a dialect) come about? Has there ever been anything like it? I know he came from St Louis, Missouri. Did people there speak that way when he was growing up? Does anyone there speak that way now and not get sent away for psychiatric evaluation? ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2015, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vincent-prices-voice-how-and-why/741804/2 "2015-12-31T09:16:50Z")
I’m going to go with a WAG that he had elocution training when he becamean actor. Radio in those days was not particularly forgiving of lazy speaking habits. ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2015, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vincent-prices-voice-how-and-why/741804/3 "2015-12-31T09:45:04Z")
I’m not sure I’ve never heard him speak in like an interview or anything, so I wonder if it sounds exactly the same or if it was somewhat an affectation for his films and voice work, I love his voice though. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2015, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vincent-prices-voice-how-and-why/741804/4 "2015-12-31T09:51:58Z")
He had a unique voice, in the way that Morgan Freeman or James Earl Jones does, but he doesn’t have any distinct dialect or accent. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2015, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vincent-prices-voice-how-and-why/741804/5 "2015-12-31T10:04:43Z")
…also in the way that Morgan Freeman and James Earl Jones don’t, IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2015, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vincent-prices-voice-how-and-why/741804/6 "2015-12-31T11:42:22Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Radio in those days was not particularly forgiving of lazy speaking habits. Actually, it was more forgiving of lazy speaking habits than the previous form of mass entertainment, which involved yelling out into an audience with no electrical amplification. The invention of the microphone allowed people to talk at a normal volume, with normal breathing, and still be heard: For the first time, people could whisper and it would carry to an almost arbitrary distance, without the need for architectural contrivances. You can understand this when you realize the rise of the crooners (most famously Bing Crosby) was tied intimately to the invention and popularization of the microphone, which was directly tied to radio, because if you can build a microphone and an amplifier you can build a radio network which can carry arbitrary sound, not just Morse code. All that said, Vincent Price (Vincent Price) began in the theater, where he likely learned all of the stagey elocution techniques used to enable voices to carry to the peanut gallery without the audience being aware you’re yelling at them. Keep the overly-careful enunciation but lose the volume, throw in a flair for the dramatic and a truly impressive evil laugh, and you have Vincent Price’s famous voice. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2015, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vincent-prices-voice-how-and-why/741804/7 "2015-12-31T12:30:55Z")
I tend to attributed his speech and deportment to his somewhat aristocratic background. The wiki might be wrong on this though. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2015, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vincent-prices-voice-how-and-why/741804/8 "2015-12-31T16:32:37Z")
> [@pool](#): > > I’m not sure I’ve never heard him speak in like an interview or anything, so I wonder if it sounds exactly the same or if it was somewhat an affectation for his films and voice work, I love his voice though. I saw him speak at my college around 1975. Exactly like he did in the movies, although he could have treated it as a performance. Jonathan Harris (“Lost in Space”) adopted his unique speaking style to overcome his native Brooklyn “dem and dose” speech. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2015, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vincent-prices-voice-how-and-why/741804/9 "2015-12-31T16:37:12Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > Jonathan Harris (“Lost in Space”) adopted his unique speaking style to overcome his native Brooklyn “dem and dose” speech. OT: I think it’s sweet that Jonathan Harris married his childhood sweetheart in 1938, and they stayed married until he died in 2002. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2015, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vincent-prices-voice-how-and-why/741804/10 "2015-12-31T16:55:27Z")
That mid-Atlantic accent was pretty common in actors of his era; I also wonder if the fact that his first stage appearances were in London influenced that. I do have to say, he put on an awful Southern accent in “Laura”. > **[Mid-Atlantic accent](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Atlantic_accent)** > > The Mid-Atlantic accent, or Transatlantic accent, is a consciously learned accent of English, fashionably used by the late 19th-century and early 20th-century American upper class and entertainment industry, which blended together features regarded as the most prestigious from both American and British English (specifically Received Pronunciation). It is not a native or regional accent; rather, according to voice and drama professor Dudley Knight, "its earliest advocates bragged that its In the... ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2015, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vincent-prices-voice-how-and-why/741804/11 "2015-12-31T17:29:02Z")
Oddly, I was just thinking of the weirdness of Conversion — as in _'If I thought christianity, the faith of my fathers, was nonsense, I sure as hell wouldn’t imagine Islam to be any kind of improvement_’ — and in the [**wiki**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_Price) I found a simultaneous double conversion: **He converted to Catholicism to marry her, and she became a U.S. citizen for him.** I can’t begin to imagine either without revulsion. Splendid voice though. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2015, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vincent-prices-voice-how-and-why/741804/12 "2015-12-31T17:41:12Z")
I saw something with Price conversing with people and that style was somewhat muted but clearly there. It appeared to be candid footage that I can recall, but perhaps he did know he was on camera. His voice is rich with little pitch changes and punctuation. ---
**Author:** ![PSXer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2015, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vincent-prices-voice-how-and-why/741804/13 "2015-12-31T17:42:33Z")
please keep the anti-Catholicism and anti-USA bigotry out of GQ ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2015, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vincent-prices-voice-how-and-why/741804/14 "2015-12-31T17:46:03Z")
If you Google ‘Vincent Price interview’ it will come up with a few, including [this one](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVGnWgxmHZk). ---
**Author:** ![Torontonian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/45deac/32.png) [@Torontonian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Torontonian)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2015, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vincent-prices-voice-how-and-why/741804/15 "2015-12-31T18:43:20Z")
> [@PSXer](#): > > please keep the anti-Catholicism and anti-USA bigotry out of GQ the world’s capital is Canada. shut up ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2015, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vincent-prices-voice-how-and-why/741804/16 "2015-12-31T18:58:27Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > I saw him speak at my college around 1975. Exactly like he did in the movies, although he could have treated it as a performance. > > Jonathan Harris (“Lost in Space”) adopted his unique speaking style to overcome his native Brooklyn “dem and dose” speech. I heard Price speak at college a couple of years later, and I agree. After Leonard Nimoy’s death, the PBS station ran an interview with him in which he said that he originally had a VERY heavy Boston accent\*, and he took voice training to “erase” it, resulting in his style of speech. \*They still use a recording of him to introduce the shows at the Boston Museum of Science’s Mugar Omni Theater. (Voice: “Leonard Nimoy! How’d they get him?” Nimoy: “He grew up three blocks from here.” Said, I might add, without a trace of his native Bostonian.) ---
**Author:** ![that\_darn\_cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/59ef9b/32.png) [@that\_darn\_cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/that_darn_cat)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2015, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vincent-prices-voice-how-and-why/741804/17 "2015-12-31T19:00:23Z")
Little rude for GQ, dontcha think? ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2015, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vincent-prices-voice-how-and-why/741804/18 "2015-12-31T19:28:58Z")
> [@PSXer](#): > > please keep the anti-Catholicism and anti-USA bigotry out of GQ I am not opposed in the least to either catholicism or America; certainly for those born in either: I mentioned that conversion ( to either, or to anything ) was _weird_. It’s like deciding one wants to be an Elf. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2015, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vincent-prices-voice-how-and-why/741804/19 "2015-12-31T20:05:21Z")
> [@Claverhouse](#): > > **He converted to Catholicism to marry her, and she became a U.S. citizen for him.** > I can’t begin to imagine either without revulsion. **Moderator Warning** **Claverhouse** , you are well aware that political and religious jabs are not permitted in GQ, since you have been warned for it before. Now you’ve managed both in the same post. This is an official warning. Your posting privileges will be under review. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2015, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vincent-prices-voice-how-and-why/741804/20 "2015-12-31T20:15:01Z")
> [@PSXer](#): > > please keep the anti-Catholicism and anti-USA bigotry out of GQ > [@that\_darn\_cat](#): > > Little rude for GQ, dontcha think? **Moderator Note** Let’s avoid junior modding. Report posts if you have a problem with them. No warnings issued. > [@Torontonian](#): > > the world’s capital is Canada. shut up I realize this is a joke, but let’s keep things civil in GQ. No warning issued. Colibri General Questions Moderator [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vincent-prices-voice-how-and-why/741804.md?page=2)