Ah, there’s nothing like watching an old movie.
The acting was top-notch, there were many films in genres that aren’t as popular anymore
like classic westerns and musicals, and the black-and-white style somehow adds to the
experience.
It’s the perfect way to spend a lazy evening at home.
There’s just one thing that keeps bugging you.
Why does everyone in these old movies talk so weird?
No matter how many old movies you watch, in all sorts of genres, you notice the same thing.
You can’t put your finger on it, but there’s a very distinct style of speaking that you
don’t notice anywhere else - and you certainly don’t see it in today’s movies or TV,
or in everyday life.
The only other time you can remember hearing it is when you were over at your grandfather’s
house as a child.
He liked to listen to the radio - no need for that newfangled television box - and the
old radio drama repeats he listened to sometimes had that same odd accent.
It went away at some point, but what was it?
And where did it go?
You can’t put your finger on it, but you do notice certain repeated patterns when the
actors in these old films speak.
They seem to drop the Rs in their words, so words like “winner” come out as “winna”.
On the other hand, the Ts in words seem to be strongly emphasized.
The vowels seem to be a bit softer than when you usually hear people speak, so common words
come out just a little bit different.
It reminds you of a British accent in places - but it’s not, because you’ve watched
plenty of British films and those sound different.
How widespread was this accent in the era, and where did it start?
The answer can be found in the Golden Age of Hollywood, where movies went from being
a small experimental industry to one of the most powerful forces in entertainment.
From the 1890s to the 1920s, film was largely the province of those interested in visuals.
The earliest films mostly centered around one stunning visual, like a rocket to the
moon or a train racing right at the screen.
They got longer and added complex stories, but they were still silent films where you
read the dialogue on the screen as a separate soundtrack played.
Then came the talkies, and everything changed.
As classic films moved into the era of spoken dialogue, some of the most famous films of
all time were made.
The Wizard of Oz.
Casablanca.
Citizen Kane.
It’s a Wonderful Life.
Just saying their names brings to mind some of the most distinct dialogue from them.
It’s impossible to imagine these films without hearing “There’s No Place Like Home”
or “Rosebud…” in your head.
And with these iconic films came that distinctive accent, spoken by some of the most famous
names in Hollywood.
But actors as different and Orson Welles and Judy Garland certainly didn’t have the same
background.
So how did they pick up the same accent?
Most accents come from a distinct location, either a different country or a specific location
within one.
Those who live down south know that a Texas southern accent and a Louisiana southern accent
aren’t the same things!
But this accent doesn’t seem tied to any specific location, and it’s spoken by actors
from all around the country and the world in this old film.
That’s because it’s an accent designed to bridge the gap between the two cultures
that influenced the Golden Age of Hollywood the most.
Meet the Mid-Atlantic Accent.
Wait, how does that make any sense?
No one lives in the middle of the Atlantic ocean unless we’re talking about the unique
accent spoken by whales.
That’s because this isn’t a traditional accent reflecting a shared heritage.
Rather, it’s an accent designed to bridge the gap between an American accent and a British
one.
This might be the only accent in history that no one spoke unless they were taught to do
so.
It became popular in the first half of the twentieth century, as preparatory schools
around the country taught their studies to speak in a specific style to appear cultured.
The students were given formal public speaking training that included a song-like intonation
and longer vowels, which combined to a greater resonance.
This meant that sometimes words lost the sound of some consonants, especially R. That didn’t
seem to stop the accent from becoming more and more popular among the elites.
So when did this accent start making its way into the world of acting?
By the mid-1920s, the Mid-Atlantic accent was a staple of the wealthy and educated,
particularly in the Northeastern United States.
President of the United States Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his wife were the only first
couple to speak in this fashion, but First Lady Jackie Kennedy would bring it back into
fashion in the 1960s.
Prominent authors and journalists were associated with it, with the majority being educated
at private schools in New England.
The boarding school Groton was considered the epicenter of this trend, and as a generation
of actors came out of elite schools, they brought it to Hollywood.
And with them, came a sea change in the way actors spoke.
Traditionally, actors in the United States trained in imitating upper-class British accents.
That’s because they were primarily training for stage plays, with the most popular including
the classic dramas of William Shakespeare and the mysteries of Agatha Christie.
These perennials were set firmly in the world of London’s upper-class or the royal courts
of bygone eras.
Then came the silent films, and that allowed actors with very different voices to find
a place in the pictures.
No one cared what Charlie Chaplin’s voice sounded like when he was defined by his inventive
pantomime routines.
Then came a woman named Edith Warman Skinner.
A famous vocal coach, she was a student of linguist William Tilly and the author of a
famous book called “Speak with Distinction”.
She had studied the Mid-Atlantic accent herself, and called it “Good American Speech”.
Her book became required reading in many theatrical training programs and soon aspiring actors
were adopting this distinctive pronunciation.
She believed it was the appropriate way to speak in what she described as “classic
and elevated texts”.
Goodbye British accent!
She went on to teach at the Carnegie Institute of Technology and later at Juilliard, where
countless of the world’s most famous actors graduated - all sounding the same.
But did the technology of early films and radio have anything to do with how odd these
actors sound?
It’s a chicken-and-the-egg question, but the earliest days of radio and “talkies”
had a problem with fully replicating the full range of human speech.
The human bass tones couldn’t be conveyed fully, which led to voices sounding more nasally
and clipped.
These are traits already found in the Mid-Atlantic accent, so when you watch an old film or listen
to a recorded program on the radio from the era, these traits might be magnified by the
sound quality.
So how did this northeastern speaking style make its way all across the country to Hollywood?
That’s because the American movie industry didn’t start out in Hollywood.
California was still up-and-coming in the early 1900s, while New York and Philadelphia
were industry powerhouses.
So most of the actors initially came out of the Northeast before the studios packed up
and headed off to Los Angeles in the 1910s.
It wasn’t until they shifted to the talkies that people ever heard an actor’s voice
off a live stage - and they were surprised to hear that they all talked the same way.
If there was a legendary actor of the era, they probably had this accent.
Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis, Cary Grant, even horror master Vincent Price all spoke
in this style.
For a long time, it seemed to be everywhere - and then it wasn’t.
Where did the Mid-Atlantic Accent go?
Hollywood continued to encourage actors to learn this accent into the 1940s, but then
the focus of Hollywood started to shift.
Sound improved, and actors were better able to get across their natural bass.
Directors started focusing on more authentic films, telling stories from around the world,
and having their actors learn authentic accents from those regions.
No longer would a cowboy roaming the Texas border sound like he had just come from crew
practice at a Boston boarding school!
The decline started at the end of World War II, and increased immigration to the United
States and a more diverse population led to the more distinctive American accents that
we all know today.
Our world was less defined by our connection to the United Kingdom, and an accent that
bridged the gap wasn’t as necessary.
So did the Mid-Atlantic Accent simply fade away?
Yes and no.
While it’s not traditionally taught as a critical part of vocal training for all actors
now, you can still learn it from many of the top vocal coaches and at prominent acting
schools.
That’s because the Golden Age of Hollywood, and the era that surrounds it, are now part
of American history.
And that means only one thing in Hollywood - it’s time to make movies about that era.
Hollywood prides itself on historical accuracy now like never before, with a big push for
accurate casting and directors often consulting with historians while making their films.
They want everything to fit the time period - including the way the actors speak.
The accent stayed for certain characters even after it fell out of use in the 1950s and
1960s, mostly for characters who were supposed to be stuffy, upper-crust New Englanders.
Soon enough, the accent went from a sign of elites to a sign of comedy characters.
Famous characters like Thurston and Lovey Howell from Gilligan’s Island or the Crane
brothers from Frasier used the accent long after it was common.
The most famous later user of the accent, though, didn’t come from Earth at all.
It was menacing galactic tyrant Darth Vader, voiced by James Earl Jones.
The Imperial overlord spoke with a deep bass voice and a Mid-Atlantic accent, and it obviously
worked.
Can you imagine the iconic “I am your father” line being delivered with a California accent?
So where does the Mid-Atlantic accent show up today?
Mostly in movies taking place in the era where it was most popular!
Netflix’s new film Mank, about the creation of Citizen Kane, recreates the era faithfully
down to the speaking tone of the actors and executives involved.
When director Paul Thomas Anderson was making The Master, a 2020 film starring Joaquin Phoenix,
Amy Adams, and the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, the notoriously detail-obsessed director wanted
to immerse his viewers in the era.
The late 1940s-era story set among a New England religious cult is considered the most accurate
recreation of the Mid-Atlantic accent era by film critic Richard Brody.
Everyone comes off a little stiff and speaks in a specific cadence - exactly as they would
have back then.
So while the Mid-Atlantic accent may be a thing of the past and today’s actors don’t
have that distinctive speaking style, the art of that style will continue to be taught.
After all, Hollywood loves movies about movies.
For more on the complexities of language, check out “This Is the Most Difficult Language
in the World”, and for more on the strange history of Hollywood, check out “The Most
Surprising Historical Celebrity Deaths”.