Whence Came Faux "Dialect" in Early Movies/Newsreels?

[Guest ncm2169]

Anyone with other than a pair of tin ears can listen to conversation in American movies from the advent of the talkies until the mid-to-late-20th Century, or the newsreels seen before the Movie Features, and pick up on the obviously feigned/acquired pretension of superiority by those speaking.

 

I've wondered for years about the origin of that manner of speech.

 

Is anyone here a good enough historian to enlighten me?

[jackhammer91406]

My guess is there are several things at work here;

 

One is that unless the "voice" was already known, there was a desire to not have "regional" voices..that is, not to have an accent that was recognizable to a specific region. In the early days of recording, the clear diction recorded better and was easier to understand.

 

As a result, (and the other thing at work here in your example) is that in the early days the industry was peopled with professional speech coaches.

 

Often the accepted model for professional speech coaches was "Shakespearean" in sound. With a pronounced "clarity" in how words are pronounced, comes a certain "attitude" in the result which can be construed as superior sounding.

 

At least that's my take on the question you raised.

 

Duz dat work fo you'all?

[jakobsen]

It's called cut glass, clipped, posh or RP (or received pronunciation). It's the accent of the English upper class or aristocrats (hence, Queen's or King's English) and radio (hence, BBC English). This was the accent "of the day" when travel was limited and only the upper classes can afford it. But as the United States rose to power after WWII, along with the advent of American television and films, American English became universal. Nowadays, American rather than British accent is preferred is India (call centers may have something to do with this). Ditto in Asia and South America.

 

Even in the UK, BBC English was abandoned in favor of British regional accents. The Queen's and Prince of Wales' accents have changed too. You can listen to earlier and recent recordings of The Queen and the PoW on YouTube.

 

What's sad about recent Cronkite's passing is we're also losing that generation of radio announcers and news readers: Paul Harvey, Vin Scully, Bob Barker, etc., all of whom have that "distinct" voice of a certain era.