# Who Was The Last Person To Hear Lincoln's Voice?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-person-to-hear-lincolns-voice/640590
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [November 10, 2012, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-person-to-hear-lincolns-voice/640590 "2012-11-10T17:39:18Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2012, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-person-to-hear-lincolns-voice/640590/1 "2012-11-10T17:39:18Z")
The Rex Reed review of the new “Lincoln” film is not positive-he says the film drags, and the portrayals are dark and dreary. That said, Lincoln (as played by D day Lewis), has a very high, nasal vopice. What did the last man to hear Lincoln have to say?
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### Author:  [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2012, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-person-to-hear-lincolns-voice/640590/2 "2012-11-10T18:01:27Z")
I don’t think there is any evidence he regained consciousness (or spoke) after being shot. I have heard that he made a comment to Mary just before JWB pulled the trigger; there are different reports of what it was, including endless bad-humor ones.
Or… did you mean who was the last living person who could recall Lincoln’s voice? I think the written record of those who knew him said his voice was high-pitched, and somewhere between nasal and unpleasant. (I’ll keep a grand Hal stentorian interpretation in mind, thanks very much.)
As for ‘dark and dreary,’ it was a dark and dreary time. I would have expected much worse from Spielberg’s ham-handed record of historical films. Like, a few black generals here and there.
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### Author:  [@Uncle\_Jocko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncle_Jocko)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2012, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-person-to-hear-lincolns-voice/640590/3 "2012-11-10T18:15:49Z")
Rex Reed is still alive?
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2012, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-person-to-hear-lincolns-voice/640590/4 "2012-11-10T18:22:49Z")
As I remember reading in David Herbert Donald’s excellent one-volume bio _Lincoln_, the First Lady flirtatiously joked, “What will the people think to see you holding my hand like this, Mr. Lincoln?”, and he joked back, “My dear, they will think nothing of it at all.”
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### Author:  [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2012, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-person-to-hear-lincolns-voice/640590/5 "2012-11-10T19:00:01Z")
> [@NitroPress](#):
>
> I don’t think there is any evidence he regained consciousness (or spoke) after being shot. I have heard that he made a comment to Mary just before JWB pulled the trigger; there are different reports of what it was, including endless bad-humor ones.
>
> Or… did you mean who was the last living person who could recall Lincoln’s voice? I think the written record of those who knew him said his voice was high-pitched, and somewhere between nasal and unpleasant. (I’ll keep a grand Hal stentorian interpretation in mind, thanks very much.)
>
> As for ‘dark and dreary,’ it was a dark and dreary time. I would have expected much worse from Spielberg’s ham-handed record of historical films. Like, a few black generals here and there.
Like Schindler’s List, Munich and the Amistad? You consider those ham-handed?
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2012, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-person-to-hear-lincolns-voice/640590/6 "2012-11-10T20:02:43Z")
“This play sucks. Let’s duck out at intermission.”
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### Author:  [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2012, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-person-to-hear-lincolns-voice/640590/7 "2012-11-10T20:10:49Z")
> [@Gangster\_Octopus](#):
>
> Like Schindler’s List, Munich and the Amistad? You consider those ham-handed?
No, I mean the other Spielberg historical films like _Red Tails_. :smack:
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2012, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-person-to-hear-lincolns-voice/640590/8 "2012-11-10T20:37:43Z")
> [@Uncle\_Jocko](#):
>
> Rex Reed is still alive?
Yes, and he’s old enough to have heard Lincoln.
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### Author:  [@Fiddle\_Peghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiddle_Peghead)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2012, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-person-to-hear-lincolns-voice/640590/9 "2012-11-10T20:44:24Z")
> [@NitroPress](#):
>
> I think the written record of those who knew him said his voice was high-pitched, and somewhere between nasal and unpleasant. (I’ll keep a grand Hal stentorian interpretation in mind, thanks very much.)
A brief [article](http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2012/09/18/lincoln_s_voice_was_it_as_whiny_as_daniel_day_lewis_s_in_the_lincoln_trailer_.html) about the accuracy of Day-Lewis’s voice interpretation.
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### Author:  [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2012, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-person-to-hear-lincolns-voice/640590/10 "2012-11-10T21:27:13Z")
The same scholar in the previously linked article states in [this article](http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Ask-an-Expert-What-Did-Abraham-Lincolns-Voice-Sound-Like.html):
> [@](#):
>
> “Lincoln’s voice, as far as period descriptions go, was a little shriller, a little higher,” says Holzer. It would be a mistake to say that his voice was squeaky though. “People said that his voice carried into crowds beautifully. Just because the tone was high doesn’t mean it wasn’t far-reaching,” he says.
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### Author:  [@lawbuff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawbuff)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2012, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-person-to-hear-lincolns-voice/640590/11 "2012-11-10T21:46:17Z")
About President’s, not Lincoln though, there is, and it is online, a rare wax cylinder recording of Benjamin Harrison speaking in 1889.
Also, I live in Ohio and have toured Warren Harding’s home in the city of Marion, and as part of the tour they play a recording of his voice during a speech, and he died in 1923. They do not say what year it is though, but he was only in office 1921-1923.
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### Author:  [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2012, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-person-to-hear-lincolns-voice/640590/12 "2012-11-10T22:28:34Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#):
>
> As I remember reading in David Herbert Donald’s excellent one-volume bio _Lincoln_, the First Lady flirtatiously joked, “What will the people think to see you holding my hand like this, Mr. Lincoln?”, and he joked back, “My dear, they will think nothing of it at all.”
Then immediately, BANG!
For some reason I laughed and laughed at this juxtaposition.
No wondet the poor woman went crazy.
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### Author:  [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2012, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-person-to-hear-lincolns-voice/640590/13 "2012-11-10T22:37:15Z")
Robert Todd Lincoln, I believe, said that Raymond Massey had a voice (at least early in Massey’s career) like his father’s.
Don’t know how reliable that is considered to be considering he’d have heard Massey 60 or so years since he’d last heard his father speak.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [November 11, 2012, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-person-to-hear-lincolns-voice/640590/14 "2012-11-11T00:28:57Z")
> [@Gangster\_Octopus](#):
>
> Like Schindler’s List, Munich and the Amistad? You consider those ham-handed?
Yeah, kinda.
Spielberg does like to take genuine historical events and polish them so they’re shinier. There’s still truth there but it’s not raw truth.
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### Author:  [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [November 11, 2012, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-person-to-hear-lincolns-voice/640590/15 "2012-11-11T03:58:32Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#):
>
> Yeah, kinda.
>
> Spielberg does like to take genuine historical events and polish them so they’re shinier. There’s still truth there but it’s not raw truth.
That’s true, but in my original comment I was thinking of the other Spielberg, that Lucas guy.
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2012, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-person-to-hear-lincolns-voice/640590/16 "2012-11-12T06:17:05Z")
In Gary Wills’s _Lincoln at Gettysburg_, he notes the President had a high, reedy voice; contemporary reports say that it carried well into the crowd at the dedication ceremony.
Lincoln was a Kentucky native, so I would assume he had something of an accent even after living for some time in Illinois. His stepmother Nancy certainly did; her response when she was told he’d been assassinated was “I knowed they’d kill him!”
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### Author:  [@Washoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Washoe)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2012, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-person-to-hear-lincolns-voice/640590/17 "2012-11-12T06:26:03Z")
> [@panache45](#):
>
> Yes, and he’s old enough to have heard Lincoln.
God, he must have stretch marks on his mouth by now.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2012, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-person-to-hear-lincolns-voice/640590/18 "2012-11-12T13:43:33Z")
> [@obfusciatrist](#):
>
> Robert Todd Lincoln, I believe, said that Raymond Massey had a voice (at least early in Massey’s career) like his father’s.
>
> Don’t know how reliable that is considered to be considering he’d have heard Massey 60 or so years since he’d last heard his father speak.
I’d be surprised if he ever heard Massey. Lincoln died in 1926, before sound films, and Massey was working in the UK at the time. He didn’t play Lincoln until 1938.
Perhaps Massey was being mistaken for Boris Karloff. Happens all the time. 😉
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### Author:  [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2012, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-person-to-hear-lincolns-voice/640590/19 "2012-11-12T13:59:10Z")
I certainly have no problem with the idea that this bit of trivia is just folklore that got attached to Massey. I just know it as something that I see said every other time Massey’s name is mentioned. Such as in [this biography](http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/124399%7C128219/Raymond-Massey/) of Massey on TCM’s website. But doing a quick search I see that nobody ever gives any hint of where Lincoln supposedly said this. Just that he had seen Massey early in his career.
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### Author:  [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2012, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-person-to-hear-lincolns-voice/640590/20 "2012-11-12T16:19:10Z")
An eyewitness to the assassination in Ford’s Theater survived to appear on [I’ve Got a Secret](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_iq5yzJ-Dk) in 1956. NPR airs the recollections of an [Gettysburg Address eyewitness](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1045619), which was recorded in 1938, every February. Amazingly, this is apparently the only known audio recording of a Gettysburg eyewitness.