I can't place Lauren Bacall's accent

Brooklyn. But it was TransAtlantic all the way, with New Yok finish.

One of the great self-invented accents. in my opinion.

She’s old. A product of the Hollywood studio system. Ava Gardner is from North Carolina, near where Kellie Pickler is from.

...Kellie Pickler talking for reference.

Imagine Ava Gardner becoming a huge classic movie star with this sort of dialect. She couldn’t even get an instant coffee commercial talkin’ like this back then.

She had that Mid-Atlantic accent that was blend of US and UK (received prononunciation, of course) that was all the rage in movies from the 30s and 40s.

Drinking lots of Folger's daily causes the vocal cords to tighten, which is why her voice sounds different from other humans.

Mid-Atlantic/Trans-Atlantic was a business decision to create a dialect that wouldn’t feel foreign to people in the US or the UK because American and British actors were mixed together in movies, and Hollywood producers thought that featuring either accent would limit the moviegoing audiences. This was done to open up audiences. It had the effect of creating a haughty Hollywood magic that wasn’t to be found anywhere in real life, and so movie stars became an otherworldly, untouchable royal class. It’s a pretty fantastic thing to have happened.

Mid-Atlantic French should be an option since I don't get a single word of what these French Canadian are going on about. Especially Celine.

Sorry but I had to rant about that.

The other reason this happened was that the talkies destroyed the careers of silent movie stars with lousy voices. Every studio brought in vocal coaches who smoothed out the dialects of all the contract players.

By the mid 30s most actors had the affected speech pattern. There were those though, like Edward G. Robinson who made a career with a very distinct not Hollywood correct dialect.

R5 I drank High Point bitch. Full of flaaavah!

Welcome to High Point Coffee!

You FOOL, you love it soooooooo...........

Was that commercial shot in Alexis’s painting studio? Pretty sure it was...

R8, I think Mary Steenburgen has a terrible voice. She seems like a lovely person, but her voice grates.

This is my favorite commercial for High Point. That fake "thank you." That goddamn thermos which is in every commercial and that glamorous get up and car....

FLAVVAH! Deep-BRREWED FLAVVAH!

AND LOOK AT THIS DEEP RICH KALAH!

They beat regional and ethnic-urban accents out of starlets at the modelling agenies and "schools" even before they made it to the studio coaches.

R12 if it makes you feel any better, I've met her and she's a total bitch.

R17 She deepened her voice by screaming and yelling at underlings.

And smoking a couple of packs a day too. Keeps the weight off and keeps me regulahh!!

She worked very hard to change her voice. "At Hawks' suggestion, Bacall was also trained to make her voice lower and deeper, instead of her normal high-pitched, nasal voice. Hawks had her, under the tutelage of a voice coach, lower the pitch of her voice."

[quote]The other reason this happened was that the talkies destroyed the careers of silent movie stars with lousy voices. Every studio brought in vocal coaches who smoothed out the dialects of all the contract players.

The hell you say!

[quote]The other reason this happened was that the talkies destroyed the careers of silent movie stars with lousy voices. Every studio brought in vocal coaches who smoothed out the dialects of all the contract players.

The hell you say!

Mid-Century Dakota. The building, not the territory.

Accent! What bloody accent?

She had what was known as an "MGM Dialect" - the product of many years of schooling with Hollywood vocal and dialect coaches.

Carrie Fisher used to joke that she and her mother Debbie Reynolds were two of the last living speakers of the "MGM Dialect", because Debbie was a product of the Warner Brothers and MGM Studio finishing school. Carrie inherited the accent from Debbie.

I wonder if there are any living speakers of the "MGM Dialect" now. Are there any linguist working to preserve this dialect?

fascinating

Jessica Savitch used to try so hard to talk like this. Really she was South Jersey trash.

Like most movie stars, her whole demeanor including her accent was one big affectation.

Although the above is all true of Hollywood, it was also true of the Ivy League as they began to admit people outside of the WASP elite. A college friend of mine's father attended Columbia - and as a young Jewish man from NYC was encouraged to take elocution lessons that left him with a very grand, slow, formal way of talking that made him sound like an even more arch Addison DeWitt. The same is true of nearly any non-WASP graduate from the '30s through the '50s.

The Hudson River Valley accent evidently is the model for Transatlantic, as FDR and Elanor, both cultured people, spoke with shades of Dutch Colonial influence that gave them a broad, rather blaring cadence.

I remember reading a comment in an article that spoke dismissively of "Transatlantic accents an ocean-wide."

She is a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, where that way of speaking was taught. It is indeed called "Mid Atlantic." Other graduates include Roz Russell and Grace Kelly.

What the hell is wrong with a few affectations? Why does everything have to be “realistic” and “true to life”? How tedious and boring...

I couldn't stand Debbie Reynolds' accent.

A few male leads in the 30s and 40s still had obvious traces of their regional accents: James Craig and John Garfield to name two,

Are there still voice coaches out there who teach Mid Atlantic, or work to get rid of accents?

there are - but midatlatic is dead

I wish I had--or could even imitate, say, for parties--one of those patrician accents. My non-accent pegs me immediately as nondescript suburban trash. I had a friend with the most amazing unplaceable accent--prep school? old money? He was borderline "Monster Mash" when he spoke.

Benneton.

Betty's accent was Cuntasian