Where Does That Katharine Hepburn Accent Come From?

Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant have a few things in common; not only were they popular actors during Hollywood's Golden Age, but they both used a way of speaking known as the Mid-Atlantic or Transatlantic accent. Although Hepburn was American and Grant was from England, you wouldn't know it by the way they spoke. By using the Mid-Atlantic accent, the top actors of Hollywood's Golden Age, like Hepburn and Grant, hid the dialect of their natural voice and adopted a fabricated accent that is hard to place.
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#accent #hollywood #weirdhistory

[@josephmassaro]

Legendary black actor, Roscoe Lee Browne, spoke with a Mid-Atlantic accent. When a critic once told him he sounded very "white," he reportedly responded, "I'm sorry, my family had a white maid."

[@lumare]

That’s amazing I love it

[@jlshel42]

Hot damn

[@briansullivan5908]

Touche

[@garycarpenter6433]

Hahaha hahaha he's hilarious...a white maid

[@TheVelvetLoungeLife]

L❤VE it 😂😂😂😂😂😂❗👍🏽

[@StumpyNubs]

Making a 10-minute video about a specific accent without including a sample of that accent is a bold move.

[@lijohnyoutube101]

Lets be honest though who hasn’t heard it? Unless a person is perhaps really young or grew up in poverty/were extremely ill educated etc. Many of these films and certainly the stars are giants of that industry.

[@colleenhonderich1598]

What a kind and diplomatic way to put your criticism. I agree with you that sound clips would have illustrated the point far better than just assuming we all knew the particular accents.

[@terristroh3965]

Likely this channel can’t afford royalty fees. This isn’t the first video where films, actors, or musicians/bands were featured without sound clips.

[@StumpyNubs]

@@terristroh3965 You don't have to pay royalties if you use small clips for the purpose of commentary. It's called fair use.

[@bcamplite621]

You saved me 10 minutes. I just wanted to hear the accent.

[@RadzKiram]

As someone unfamiliar with old timey flicks, hearing those accents be described without samples is akin to a person born blind being described the sky.

[@lesanimaux4416]

I kept hoping for clips too! One that comes to mind is Jean Harlow saying "I've told you a million times not to interrupt me while I'm doing my layshious!"

[@debbylou5729]

Really? You’re blind?

[@mannysr67]

😂 Valid point!

[@laurasmith14]

Yup!

[@mikeseier4449]

Duh!.. You’ve never watched an old movie?!.. Are you 5 years old?

[@lesanimaux4416]

I honestly thought that was how people spoke back then! I'm not from America though. Man, you really learn something new every day

[@briansullivan5908]

My grandmother and her friends were all born in the early 1900s and none of them spoke like that.

[@lesanimaux4416]

@@briansullivan5908 It all makes so much more sense now

[@jamesmcinnis208]

"Honestly"

[@brutusvonmanhammer]

No, you don't. So much of this video is absolute trash. This isn't a "fabricated" accent.

[@jackiec498]

My 93 y/o grandmother still sounds like this; very posh and proper sounding to me😊❤.

[@brickrose9756]

"Cary Grant being waterboarded in a comic book shop" is perhaps the most welcome phrase I've ever heard 😂😂 well done!

[@BeyondDaX]

Probably one of the most random in a good while

[@ladysparkymartin]

Yes Katherine Hepburn’s accent is theatrical Mid Atlantic. But Cary Grant’s is actually a watered down natural British accent. Talkies killed many but then we got beauties later like Audrey Hepburn with her WWII hybrid. Marvelous! 💃

[@ellenchavez2043]

Cary grant was British. My guess is he was trying to lose the accent since Americans at the time, were not the Anglophiles they became during the time Princess Elizabeth morphed into Queen.

[@carolefreeman2544]

My accent too is a watered down British (English) and Canadian. I came to Canada at the age of 10, but I still say words like, Clear, Butter, Aunt, Bath, Wall, Paul, Tomatoes, Dance etc., very much as they do South of London.

[@candyman5912]

Cary Grant was from a working class background. His natural accent would not have sounded anything like Mid Atlantic. Listen to Ricky Gervais' The Office co writer Stephen Merchant speak, to get an idea what Grant once sounded like.

[@TheCandiceWang]

Youre right. Almost forgot that Cary was a Briton!

[@MontanaMaven]

That’s right. After World WAr I, Americans became even more strongly pro-American. American writers starting really coming into their own in the 1920s. Many went to Hollywood to write scenarios for the Silents. Some linguists starting working on something called “World English” that would bring nations together and not so la-de-da as British upper class. It didn’t catch on, but it was amiable and positive in its intentions. Cary Grant came over here at 16 and just naturally softened his British. He never spoke RP or received pronunciation spoken in the Southeast of England and in boarding schools. I’ve heard his dialect described as transatlantic which is about British citizens who have come to America. @@ellenchavez2043

[@auapplemac2441]

Cary Grant was British. His accent although altered to smooth out the rough edges came with his Birth Certificate. Kate Hepburn came from New England with an upper crust accent. At one time what was called the mid-west accent was the road to radio broadcast and news announcers. I'm always amazed when British actors play American roles and do it perfectly.

[@MontanaMaven]

Most of the present day British actors have dialect coaches.

[@MrBruce5437]

Wrong... Catherine Hepburn was from Connecticut and not New England

[@HuntingViolets]

@@MrBruce5437 New England comprises Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. (Wikipedia). I'm not sure what you think New England means.

[@DrSpaceman69]

@@MrBruce5437 lol that's in new england

[@skyden24195]

What do I think? I think it should be noted that one of the greatest villains of all time speaks with a mid-Atlantic accent, that villain being the Sith Lord Darth Vader! Or rather, James Earl Jones, who grew up extremely shy and not very articulate in speaking, learned how to become a better speaker by learning and adopting the mid-Atlantic accent. James Earl Jones' speaking voice is one of the most recognizable mid-Atlantic accented voices of the modern era.

[@girlnextdoorgrooming]

Morgan Freeman

[@WaywardPondering]

That’s some mind blowing trivia, thanks! I never imagined learning an accent as a way of overcoming shyness.

[@MontanaMaven]

James Earl Jones may have been shy, but he also studied drama at the U of Michigan about 15 years before me. We studied voice and speech with the same teacher, Claribel Baird.. I think it was called American Theater Standard. Never heard of Mid-Atlantic until lately. We were taught to soften or get rid of our “Rs” in order to reach the back of the auditorium and have a rich resonant voice for the same reasons. Nowadays, actors are mic’d so this kind of speech isn’t taught much anymore. Katherine Hepburn’s parents had a Northeastern dialect and she honed theater speech at Bryn Mawr. Bette Davis was from Boston and then studied drama in New York before doing summer stock on Cape Cod. Bogart asl worked on Cape Cod and came from the Upper East Side of New York.

[@skyden24195]

@@MontanaMaven cool bits of extra info on the topic and these actors. It's funny how studying drama, in general, can help someone overcome shyness. I was quite shy myself throughout my primary school years, but towards the end of high school I began to get over my shyness when I started getting involved in the overall entertainment industry. That started as being a freelance mobile DJ. Of course, being a DJ requires relatively little public speaking, but it does involve a bit for making announcements and such, so I started to get accustomed to hearing my own voice somewhat regularly on a loudspeaker. Eventually I would start writing and performing rap-songs before finally deciding to enroll in acting classes/school. I'm much less shy nowadays. lol.

[@cag19549]

I couldn't help but think of Larry Hagman, who when he got the role of JR Ewing in "Dallas" said that one of the best things was not having his Texas accent "fixed". Apparently, his Texas accent was an issue in his previous roles.

[@Kuula98]

Just like Jonathan Hillerman from Magnum PI, played Higgins. He'd disappoint fans he would meet since his accent was phony. He said he was just a hick actor from Texas.

[@lisabrightly]

I love Larry Hagman, he's unforgettable.

[@Gobble_de_Goop]

Ava Gardner had to "relearn" how yo speak when she was discovered, because her deeply Southern twang was nearly indecipherable.

[@scot60]

His mother was a Texan. Mary Martin

[@robbinruffino1201]

I met Katherine Hepburn’s sister, Margaret, who was a librarian in Canton, CT and I didn’t believe that she was because she didn’t have the accent..she was lovely and there’s a memorial bench at the library for all her years as the librarian.

[@JuhiSRK]

Claire Bow may not have been able to make it in "talkies," but she was a hell of an actress in silent films.

[@94Trish]

This was interesting. Last year a British accent coach did a good video on specifically how the accent mimics British and American accents but is also very unique in its pronunciations.

[@NIGHTGUYRYAN]

yeah, the transatlantic accent was pretty much literally what the name implies - reaching across the pond and meeting the english halfway

[@junemacauley6813]

Well, I like it.

[@TheCandiceWang]

​@@NIGHTGUYRYANvery cool!

[@MontanaMaven]

It was the other way around. It means British coming over here. But, of course, a Brit would say our Northeast accent mimicked them. That’s their perspective. The speech of the Roosevelts, Buckley’s etc was an American dialect of the Northeast influenced early on by the Dutch and the British. Also, before movies, there were people who went around the U.S. reciting books and poems. They were “reciters”. They studied at schools in order to make themselves understood clearly. There is a book called “The History of Speech Education in the United States” that has all kinds of info. A little heavy going. There is also a book called “Modern Acting” by Cynthia Baron which chronicles the many teachers who taught voice and diction in early Hollywood. Edith Skinner was never in Hollywood and mainly taught voice and speech in Pittsburgh. @@NIGHTGUYRYAN

[@MontanaMaven]

Me too. I watched those 1930s and 1940s movies with my mother on a tiny screen on a tiny TV in the 1940s. My favorite comedy actress was Carole Lombard. And loved all of Bette Davis, “Now Voyager” always makes me cry. I am always a little puzzled by how much play Hepburn gets. Maybe it is longevity. I do love the “Philadelphia Story” , “Bringing Up Baby” and “Adam’s Rib”. Great co-stars. @@junemacauley6813

[@Alex-zs7gw]

This topic is something that has fascinated me since forever. Like wigs in the 18th century... Its a man-made phenomenon that died quicker than it lived, yet we will ALWAYS now connotate the wars with this accent! And that says so much psychologically I can't even think how to put it into words

[@GummyBearWA]

My mother was taught the MA accent as a child. My father is 100% British and when they first met and he told her to drop the fake accent, and she did.

[@yuki-sakurakawa]

I would've responded "you first." 😋

[@btetschner]

I would love the see a resurgence of classic Hollywood, starting with putting the classic films back in the theater!

[@cathoderay305]

Yes, but in the original black and white, not colorized by some buffoon who doesn't understand the artistry of the medium.

[@perceivedvelocity9914]

Ah yes! The golden age of the casting couch.

[@Trombonology]

@@perceivedvelocity9914 I would say that's a generalization. ... And does this mean you see no merit in the acting of earlier decades?

[@asmrcherisvarietyshow1878]

I agree🍿

[@SpaceOutlaw_]

@@perceivedvelocity9914you must be fun at parties

[@ditzygypsy]

“In order to sound good, you’ve gotta sound like you’re from no place.” That made me laugh very loudly. 🤣 But this video topic is oddly timely for me, because I am reading Ava Gardner’s “My Story” right now, and I just got through the part where she talks about the Consent Decree in 1948 and how when she began her contractual career with MGM in 1941, it was already the beginning of the end of the studio system. Thanks for posting this!!

[@kevinfitzgerald1010]

When I started legal practice 35 years ago, one of the partners I worked for had that accent. She was a GMILF before there were such things. I could listen to her all day, and I loved every minute of working for her.

[@TheCandiceWang]

Grandmother I'd like to?

[@gail7384]

This is why I LOVED Captain Janeway in Voyager.

[@IntrepidFraidyCat]

Hello, fellow Trekkie 🖖🏻

[@briansullivan5908]

I hated her since she played Mary Ryan.

[@gail7384]

@@briansullivan5908 I can respect that she’s not for everyone. I’m much too young to have known her as Mary Ryan, but I’ve heard that was her first role (wasn’t she only 19 when she started?).

[@briansullivan5908]

@@gail7384 something like that, but she wasn’t any more enjoyable as Mrs Colombo

[@gail7384]

@@briansullivan5908 That show was poorly written anyway. I don’t think there was anything wrong with her acting from the clips I’ve seen. (And nothing can compare to the original Columbo.)

[@larrydirtybird]

It was still being taught in the 1990s. When I was at NYU, from 1990 to ‘92, I took acting classes at the Stella Adler Conservatory. Our speech teacher Barbara Colton taught us this accent. We all thought it was so ridiculous because nobody in the English-speaking world speaks that way and only fish live in the Mid Atlantic. I remember her teaching us that “day” in the days of the week should be pronounced “dee”- Mondee, instead of Monday. I remember that day because it was the only day that our class came close to having a revolt. She also told us to use the “liquid u,” so the “Tues” in Tuesday was pronounced “Tyoos.” Therefore, Tuesday was pronounced “Tyoosdee.” Even though I still think teaching us to talk that way was a complete waste of time, I do still use the liquid u with certain words. 🤣

[@jamesmcinnis208]

The liquid "U" is useful for singing. The Brits overdo it to the point where most of them say Chewsday.

[@jamesslick4790]

I'm from Pittsburgh (a place with its OWN accent) I say Mondee, Tuesdee, (not Tyoodee) Wednedee..etc LOL.

[@waynemartinmartin4128]

Born and raised in New England. I'm 60 years old and still say Tyoosday.

[@jamesmcinnis208]

@@waynemartinmartin4128 And "avenyoo," too, n'est-ce pas?

[@tula1433]

Edie Beale had the BEST mid Atlantic accent ever! As did my aunt who was born in the 1930s!

[@pamelamays4186]

Suggestion: The Weird History of the Lassie film and TV franchises. Fun fact: Rudd Weatherwax, the original owner and trainer of the collies who portrayed Lassie, was the uncle of Ken Weathewax, who portrayed Pugsley Addams on the original The Addams Family TV series.

[@ethelryan257]

Elizabeth Montgomery incorporated many elements of the Mid-Atlantic accent into her role as Samantha. It gave her a touch of class and ageless sophistication.

[@KellyAnn1997]

I feel like James Earl Jones’ accent doesn’t fit where he came from either. Just another of many amazing voice actors.

[@fnjesusfreak]

That's this.

[@flashhughes1675]

I'd like to know about the actors that lost their jobs when the move from silent films to talkies happened.

[@mattyt1961]

They don't really have much to say :) I will show myself out

[@gohawks3571]

That would be interesting... I thought it was the exaggerated physical acting, but voices makes sense too

[@rileyra2009]

@@mattyt1961hahaha!

[@rileyra2009]

Same! I would to see that video

[@debbiec7145]

I heard somewhere that many of them spoke in foreign accents or other speak problems= stutter, whatever and the ones that took speech/ dialect training then went on the talkies. id k

[@anastasiabeaverhausen8220]

I always heard Kate's referred to as a Bryn Mawr accent. Akin to the other '7 sisters' school Vassar accent, so memorably spoofed by Joanna Barnes as the Upson progeny in the film of "Auntie Mame."

[@MontanaMaven]

Yes, great example. Roz Russell is doing her version of “good American” which is very natural while Joanna Barnes does the over the top version for comic effect. It’s a dialect of hoity toity. Auntie Mame is supposed to be the epitome of authenticity albeit eccentric. So authentic versus phoney.

[@johnkrieger185]

Bryn Mawr is in Philadelphia, and no one in Philadelphia speaks like Katherine Hepburn.

[@PaoloGiovanni]

The “Mid-Atlantic” accent may have disappeared, but it’s been replaced in Hollywood by what some call “General American” that I’d say actually leans closer to the near regionless accent spoken by those on the west coast of North America.

[@coolaunt516]

The actress Elizabeth Montgomery used a Mid-Atlantic accent in the tv show "Bewitched" (especially obvious when she broadened her "a"). Maybe she got it from her father, who was an actor.

[@leejay2418]

Elizabeth is from a wealthy background. She may have been taught to speak like this at school.

[@btetschner]

That image of Scarlett O'hara (Vivien Leigh) at 2:10 is STUNNING!

[@JuhiSRK]

Scarlett's infamous red dress of shame.

[@user-ci7vu7eo9w]

​@@JuhiSRK what shame?

[@robertdoherty2001]

She and Cary Grant took that accent to new heights - the two of them in the same scene is like watching two alien lifeforms.

[@SallySallySallySally]

Grant was born and grew up in Bristol, so his accent was genuine.

[@MontanaMaven]

British would say she sounds American. And Americans would say he sounded British. I betcha.

[@ACKamikaze]

Vincent Price... He was born in f'n Missouri, but had the Mid-Atlantic Diction... Almost certainly due to his theater background and portrayals of Richard III, or any other Shakspearian play he was involved in...

[@briansullivan5908]

and Hawthorn

[@btetschner]

Love the film The African Queen (1951) (image at 6:34). Katharine Hepburn AND Humphrey Bogart are in the film, both who are rated the #1 actors (#1 male actor and #1 female actress) of classic Hollywood by the American Film Institute. I watched the film with my father twice.

[@cristinagibson3157]

I love that movie too as well as Bringing Up Baby 😊

[@btetschner]

@@cristinagibson3157 Great film! It's such a great day to see Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn in the same film too!

[@scot60]

My favorite movie line of all time Mr Allnut: “it’s only human nature” Katherine Hepburn as Rosie in a heavy MA accent: “human nature is what we were put on this earth to rise above”

[@WaiferThyme]

LMAOOO id LOVE to see you talk about the Nova Scotian and Newfoundland accent 😂😂

[@chipskylark172]

Some of my favorite movies are from the 1950s and you can hear it when they speak lol I just imagine them sitting around chilling with monocles and top hats 😂😂

[@cathoderay305]

Mustn't forget that there was also a time when people could write properly, in cursive and correspondence was an art form all its own.

[@jsully8076]

Very sad that those days are over isn't it?

[@Katini_]

very pretentious

[@jsully8076]

@@Katini_ You must be jealous. Nice grammar and punctuation by the way, or lack thereof. Thank you for proving the op's point.

[@Katini_]

just as I said

[@gohawks3571]

@@jsully8076 That's a bit much, isn't it? I mean, it is weird these things are going by the wayside (maybe), but we don't have to be rude☹️

[@Ravyne]

I am a huge fan of Classic movies and adore those accents. No, they wouldn't work now, so I am grateful that the old classics are still around.

[@Gobble_de_Goop]

I wish the modern-made period films in Hollywood would use them, but most of them don't.

[@WJC981]

I wish they'd bring it back. it was so elegant.

[@pankajshah3422]

Arguably one of the talented n celebrated actress of golden era.Privileged to watch her in movie African Queen opposite great Humphrey Bogart.

[@justincraig398]

The stewie griffin accent.

[@freespirit1975]

Now that I think about it, also the accent of Mrs. Drysdale in The Beverly Hillbillies...and Miss Hathaway.

[@pamelamays4186]

Suggestion: Why is the British accent the "go to" accent in films? For example, German or other European characters speaking with a British accent. Another example, people from outer space speaking in a British accent, i.e. Marlon Brando in Superman. The British accent is also used in films to emphasize a high level of education, class, wealth and sophistication. In the film Gone With The Wind, while Vivien Leigh's Scarlett O'Hara spoke with a Southern drawl, Leslie Howard's Ashley Wilkes, son of a Southern plantation ower, spoke with a very uppercrust British accent. Once in awhile during the film, Vivien Leigh slipped back into her native accent.

[@Alex-zs7gw]

I can't speak for all Brits obviously so feel free to consider this as just chatting shit... But whenever we want to indicate something as trivial/airheaded/vain/simple... You'll hear us in the UK use that Paris Hilton, Simple Life style accent to denote it. It's completely unfair because my northern accent makes me sound dumb as fuck... But it's just the go to and I have no idea why

[@wandamontgomery6030]

In almost all the hallmark movies that involve a prince, even though it's a made up country, they sound English.

[@JuhiSRK]

​@@Alex-zs7gwAw. I love the Northern Brit accent. Had a friend from Scunthorpe & loved to hear him talk.

[@anthonyanderson2405]

And with what kind of southern accent does Clark Gable speak in GWTW?

[@kathyingram3061]

​@@anthonyanderson2405 ~I remember reading somewhere that he refused to do an accent in the movie~

[@Merylstreep1949]

Awesome, perhaps you can do a similar one on Bette Davis as she too adopted an odd way of speaking

[@briansullivan5908]

And no one had the nerve to tell her that.

[@NIGHTGUYRYAN]

​@@briansullivan5908😂😂😂 im sure joan might have said something, but bette wasnt having it (i heard she hit her with her car on purpose!)

[@steve3131]

@@NIGHTGUYRYAN Crawford herself used a version of the MA accent. You surely don't think Lucille LeSueur, of San Antonio, Texas and Lawton, Oklahoma sounded like her later incarnation Joan Crawford?

[@MontanaMaven]

Bette Davis was from Boston, so easy for her not to have Rs. She and her mother moved to NYC after her father left them and she had to make some money. She studied drama and said she learned different dialects. she studied with George Arliss and Martha Graham. Then she did summer stock in Provincetown before going to Hollywood. So, she, Hepburn, Tallulah Bankhead and many others arrived in Hollywood with those wonderful luscious accents. All of them were slightly different. And they were not “fake”. They were their own. The acting teacher and actress Maria Ouspenskaya said that “People are always afraid of using artificial speech, but only the process of learning is artificial….Correcting speech does not kill your personality.”. This dialect was taught at the studios because it was a WORKPLACE dialect. It was needed to play middle and wealthy characters and it was easier for the sound people to record. It was not to fit in at dinner parties. Sure for some regular people, it was to help with upward mobility which is a very American thing.

[@paulaswanson13]

I, for one, love the old movies and the way they speak. 📽️💖

[@TheKidFromYTown]

Speaking of elocution, the narrator must have studied under Mr. Peabody (Peabody's Improbable History) from the old Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends show. He does a good imitation of Bill Scott.

[@five_degreesoff8985]

My great aunt sounded just like Katherine Heburn. She grew up in S.D. in the early 20th century but lived all over the world.

[@btetschner]

"it would sound like Cary Grant getting waterboarded in a comic book store" - Hahaha! Great one!

[@shaynewhite1]

Of course, the best example of the Mid-Atlantic accent was when Bugs Bunny mimicked Katherine Hepburn in "What's Cookin' Doc?"

[@richie7201]

Thank you for answering the question that I’ve always wondered about. 🙏

[@leifharmsen]

It is still taught at the Juilliard School, at least it was when my brother studied there. It is used still to erase regionalism in your accent, and then there are tried and true methods for going from it to many many accents. This explains how so many Juilliard graduates (like my brother) manage to do so many accents so well.

[@amyfisher6380]

This reminds me of the classic exchange from the movie Auntie Mame: Patrick Dennis: Is the English lady sick, Auntie Mame? Mame Dennis: She's not English, darling... she's from Pittsburgh. Patrick Dennis: She sounded English. Mame Dennis: Well, when you're from Pittsburgh, you have to do something.

[@anthonyanderson2405]

It’s a limitation of Hepburn’s acting that no matter what role she was playing, she could not get rid of that accent of hers.

[@jsully8076]

Yep, incredibly irritating

[@joanreynolds955]

She was limited to only four Oscars.

[@anthonyanderson2405]

@@joanreynolds955 That is an accomplishment but as an actress her unwavering Mid Atlantic accent for virtually every role is a problem. Compare her to Meryl Streep who can so richly modulate her voice (and accent) to whatever role she is playing. Streep’s vocal range is amazing, Hepburn’s is not.

[@lijohnyoutube101]

True in a way but we are judging her from our point in history. In hers it was valued, respected and even desired.

[@jsully8076]

@@lijohnyoutube101 Perhaps, but it was a disadvantage when it came time for her to try other accents. She couldn't, and she's an actor. Kind of a problem.

[@cathoderay305]

This makes me fondly remember when the BBC broadcasters spoke proper English and could be understood by everyone.

[@nedludd7622]

What is "proper" English?

[@fnjesusfreak]

@@nedludd7622 Received Pronunciation

[@jamesmcinnis208]

Now we've got Ruth Sherlock.

[@btetschner]

Great dialect impression at 1:39! Great voice acting!

[@btetschner]

A+ video! Awesome topic, I have always wondered where that accent came from!

[@bevinboulder5039]

Very interesting! I could never place where Hepburn's accent was from.

[@JuhiSRK]

I always thought it was just her New England accent. 😏

[@Oonagh72]

I have always wondered about this. Thanks

[@JN-vt7mz]

Very interesting. Always noticed it but never knew what was behind it and thankfully why it disappeared. Thanks for not playing any audio clips either.

[@btetschner]

The character of the Godfather (in the 1972 film) was played by Marlon Brando, who is from Omaha, Nebraska. There is a pizza franchise that originated in Omaha called Godfathers, which started in 1973 and is still going today.

[@trevorfletcher6335]

Grew up in Des Moines, Iowa and definitely had my fair share of Godfathers growing up. Never knew that story though! Thanks for the weird history 🎉

[@Johnnycdrums]

Funny as hell, and answers a question I've often wondered about. Too bad you didn't show examples for laughs.

[@emmgeevideo]

"So what do you think?" I think Weird History is fantastic. It's real history told in a fun, engaging way.

[@btetschner]

Being scared of swimming in the water was a common 70s and 80s childhood fear because of the film Jaws (poster at 9:20).

[@Beryllahawk]

Speaking as a person who did a little theater in college and a LOT of vocal training (music major and choir nerd!) - Skinner really did have a fair point, when you're trying to make yourself heard at the back of a theater - and remember, there were no microphones, no audio set up at all. Try making yourself not only heard but UNDERSTOOD over a whispering crowd of just 150 people. Trust me, the lady on the left end of the back row has no idea what you just said UNLESS you're chewing your consonants! Though the dropping R is no longer taught so much, Midatlantic still has its uses for stage and certain kinds of recordings. It IS true that it's quite affected and entirely unnatural but it's also true that it's damn easy to understand every word of every line. It only seems odd to us these days because there's a hundred-ish years between the time when it was MOST useful, and now. Sometimes we forget how much actors can get away with "cheating" nowadays, with audio processing and post-production audio just to name two. Personally I always adored how Hepburn sounded, but that had as much to do with the quality of her voice as with her diction; she's always linked in my mind with the sort of woman I always wanted to be - strong, beautiful, and a badass who didn't have to tolerate anybody's bullshit (though sometimes she did it anyway).

[@nikkiloren4009]

I went to an acting school in LA called AADA and we had to learn this. I hated this class so much. No one talks like this in film anymore, so I have no idea why I had to learn it. And it is not based on Mid-Atlantic state accents like the video said. Because I am from the DMV and they chewed me out. They were like you are so country!

[@fad23]

As another actor, you do see this in period films about Hollywood. I always cheer when I hear it!

[@borivoy]

The video specifically stated that it was not based on any accent from the Mid-Atlantic states and had nothing to do with those states. It's called "Mid-Atlantic" because it is halfway between British and American speech two countries separated by the Atlantic ocean so the midpoint between the two would be somewhere "Mid-Atlantic".

[@btetschner]

Great image of the film The Kid at 5:43, that is such a classic! I immediately thought of the street fight of the kid and how the crowd was circled around them (on that film). "Kid" was my nickname for my freshman year at college.

[@thetruth1862]

I love old movie's like Bringing up Baby, Captain Courageous,

[@lucaswitherspoon]

I've always wondered this. I appreciate this video.

[@TracySmith-xy9tq]

I'd always wondered about this. Thanks.

[@btetschner]

I recognized the image at 0:05 instantly, North by Northwest is fantastic!

[@btetschner]

Those typing classes at 7:25 would be fun. Tom Hanks is a huge typewriter fan, he apparently has an enormous amount of typewriters.

[@nedludd7622]

David Mamet is also a fan of typewriters.

[@btetschner]

@@nedludd7622 I need to check out Glengarry Glen Ross sometime, that film is referenced a lot.

[@btetschner]

Casablanca is such a great film (Syndey Greenstreet and Humphrey Bogart image 10:21). For a while, my father would watch it almost every night when he picked a film.

[@allieeverett9017]

Thanks...I always wondered what that affected way of speaking was all about! Truthfully though, the old movies just wouldn't be the same without it 🤩

[@mikevale3620]

Not having heard even one word from Hepburn in this, are we any the wiser?

[@shanalynnex3]

I’ve always wondered about this!!

[@jchow5966]

Thank you!!! I have always wNted to know where that movie accent came from. My favorite version of this is the mom on the TV show “father knows best”.

[@jacquelinedeigan776]

Great Video.. Thank you 😅

[@zach7193]

Man, that's something. The accent sounded more English than American. Found Frasier's voice to be funny.

[@steve3131]

I just thought the Crane Brothers were gay as pink mink.

[@LavenderJack540]

I've always found the Mid-Atlantic accent interesting. I knew most of this, but I also learned a few things. Cheers. Lavender Jack...Swooping On Down.

[@cleverusername9369]

Shout out to the narrator for putting in the effort and commitment to try and get the accent right, excellent job, he really went above and beyond. Not just doing a silly impression, you can tell the was effort out forth, that's awesome.

[@waynegray5568]

It came from her days on Main Line Philadelphia at Bryn Mawr and her husband

[@SouthJerseyMatt]

Indeed!

[@G0rgo]

It’s the Thurston Howell the third accent.

[@lindseyspuria424]

I wish actors still talked like this I love it

[@ceegee1706]

Whenever anyone asks me what I'm thinking from now on, I'm just going to say, "Cary Grant getting waterboarded in a comic book store."

[@Edowin-jz2sj]

This is something that I've honestly wondered about for decades and I'm glad that you mentioned FDR because after hearing archived audio of his speeches, I just assumed this was a legitimate accent. The effect of the limited audio technology of the time makes a lot of sense for not only the mid-Atlantic accent, but also some of the other odd accents/affectations that were more common in older movies (many actresses used to use a fearful, whining voice-effect up through the 70s and into the early 80s which springs to mind). Funny enough, the first time I noticed this accent was in the original Star Wars from both Princess Leia and Darth Vader during their dialogue exchange on the Death Star. Now, I don't know that I would regard Jimmy Stewart's accent as "realism", I think he did his own cartoonish thing with his voice, but it worked for him!

[@jeff__w]

The connection between FDR and the Mid-Atlantic accent is never really made clear. Obviously, FDR wasn’t taking his cues from Hollywood speech coaches. In fact, the upper-crust East Coast (and Southern coastal) families had been emulating RP accents throughout the 19th century. The two versions of a type of theatrical English were based on these accents. Australian phonetician/Columbia professor William Tilly actually first brought one version, which he called “World English,” slightly more English, to prominence in the late 1910s, and a later one, a bit more “American” was codified by Tilly’s student, Margaret McLean, in the latter part of the 1920s. (The McLean version is the “Mid-Atlantic” version that Edith Skinner brought to the theater and to Hollywood. The Tilly version, which is found in pre-Code/pre-1934 Hollywood, was mocked by the press as too pretentiously fake RP.) So, while “World English” and the “Mid-Atlantic” version of English were somewhat contrived varieties of English that were taught and that no one spoke naturally, they were based on the accents of the aristocratic East Coast families who had spoken that way for decades.

[@Edowin-jz2sj]

@@jeff__w Thank you! It makes more sense to me that these accents came from somewhere before they became prominent in Hollywood; I always imagined the characters in The Great Gatsby speaking this way and that lines up with Tilly's "World English". It's interesting how the upper class used to intentionally use accents to separate themselves from the common people, but in the modern era, they do the exact opposite and emulate common speech to better appeal to the masses.

[@btetschner]

Great impression of Clara Bow at 5:28! Hahaha!

[@J-_-]

How about Christopher Lambert's accent in 1986's Highlander? That's an example that came to mind of this kind of thing.

[@garycarpenter6433]

I just loved to hear Katherine Hepburn,Cary Grant, Spencer Tracy and Ethel Merman talk or sing and I loved John Wayne and his accent

[@DawnOldham]

This was so interesting to me because I had wondered where the actors/actresses were supposed to be from with that mid Atlantic accent. (And thanks for explaining how they chose the name for the speech pattern!) There's always a story behind everything we wonder about, isn't there?

[@lindaaphillippi7015]

Love Katherine, but did always wonder about her accent. Thanks

[@btetschner]

Great image of Gareth The Goblin King (David Bowie) at 4:06. Labryinth is such a great film!

[@ridureyu]

My grandmother had that accent, too! And she was Puerto Rican!

[@btetschner]

Norrington: You are without doubt the worst pirate I've ever heard of. Jack Sparrow : But you have heard of me.

[@vorkosigrrl6047]

First time viewer here. I loved the video, but would have liked hearing some audio samples of the voices you were talking about.

[@btetschner]

Austin Powers (image at 9:56) is such a funny film, it has to be the one of the most quoted films. I have a cat named Mojo, though I decided on the name after meeting a University of Nebraska baseball player nicknamed Mojo.

[@btetschner]

Great image of His Girl Friday at 1:25, great film!

[@voceval1]

When talkies came, Clara Bow kept her position as the top box-office queen of Hollywood. The quality of Bow's voice nor her Brooklyn accent was not an issue. It was her growing disinterest in filmmaking and she decided to quit films. Clara decided she'd rather be in the arms of cowboy star, Rex Bell, who she later married.

[@katherinekhan6892]

Thanks for the info. I had no idea. Now I know the origin of Thurston Howell III.

[@GonzoTheRosarian]

You could understand the dialogue very well, a plus.

[@noirlily3413]

Ive ALWAYS thought this!

[@Pocketfarmer1]

I grew up in a community that spoke with the mid atlantic accent as a natural form of speech.

[@danm9006]

Rosalind Russell has a great Mid-Atlantic/trans-Atlantic accent. Great films: His Girl Friday, Auntie Mame, A Majority of One, etc.

[@habituallearner7680]

I love hearing this accent.

[@btetschner]

Another great film is The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962, with Jimmy Stewart and John Wayne).