The simple explanation: The Transatlantic accent, as this accent is called, was often taught in upper-class boarding schools in New England. But it was also hard to place geographically -- a great thing for geographically ambiguous talkies!
It's not just actors from the time period, but also anyone from higher class society at the time: This type of pronunciation is called the Transatlantic, or Mid-Atlantic, accent. And it isn't like most other accents – instead of naturally evolving, the Transatlantic accent was acquired.
The Trans-Atlantic Accent (or the Mid-Atlantic Accent) was a style of speech taught in affluent schools along the East Coast and in Hollywood Film Studios from the late nineteen tens until the mid-forties.
BrainStuff explains that the plummy, upper-crust accent is reminiscent of British aristocracy and was actually the style of speaking taught to students in New England boarding schools. The style includes enunciated T's -- in words like water or writer -- and dropped R's -- in words like winner or clear.
Mid-Atlantic English was the dominant dialect among the Northeastern American upper class through the first half of the 20th century. As such, it was popular in the theatre and other forms of elite culture in that region…. With the evolution of talkies in the late 1920s, voice was first heard in motion pictures.
Was everyone in America talked like that in the 50-60s? It's called a mid Atlantic or transatlantic accent. It was a common accent for upper class northeastern Americans, I guess a lot of people really liked the sound of it, so it was used a lot in theatre and taught in acting schools.
The Mid-Atlantic accent was carefully taught as a model of "correct" English in American elocution classes, and it was also taught for use in the American theatre prior to the 1960s, after which it fell out of vogue. It is still taught to actors for use in playing historical characters.
Hollywood depicts the real-life phenomenon of movie studios training young actors in tasks like speaking in a Mid-Atlantic accent. The Mid-Atlantic accent was important to include in the series, Brennan says, because “it denotes a kind of upper crust, East Coast wealth—but it's an affectation.
They also are a reminder of the past and life at the time. For many people, old movies are a beautiful reminder of a time when things were simpler. These movies don't rely as much on technology to wow and shock the viewer, the story lines are clear and straighter forward, their plots simpler.
The Motion Picture Production Code was the set of industry moral guidelines that was applied to most movies released by major U.S. studios from 1930 to 1968. One of the Code's prohibitions was against excessive or lustful kissing, particularly when one character or the other is a "heavy" (villain).
Pinto Colvig, the creator of Goofy's voice, was once asked where he got the accent, and he said he was just speaking the way people did in his hometown of Gresham, Ore. "This is an accent noted for the use of 'r' sounds after long a's or o's -- as in 'Warshington' rather than Washington, and 'gawrsh' instead of gosh.
Geordie. As the oldest English dialect still spoken, Geordie normally refers to both the people and dialect of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in Northeast England.
Why do all foreigners have British accents in the movies?
Thus, this explains that the reason why the film industry relies on the British accent is because it's most familiar to English speakers, which makes up the majority of viewers. “The idea of learning a bunch of different languages when we were very young [lets us] have the ability to understand what someone is saying.
The real cause of jet-engine level noise blasting at us during movies, though, isn't technical. Directors, sound mixers, film editors and theatres use sound to force the viewer to pay attention. Their purpose is to make the film seem more exciting, more vivid.
That textured, “noisy” look of old movies was a side effect of shooting and recording onto celluloid film. It was a natural part of the process, and so it became something people automatically associated with watching a movie.
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, when necessary, be conveyed by the use of inter-title cards.
Some people say they 'fall asleep' during older movies due to the slow pace. In reality, this is just because older movies tend not to rush things and provide much more explanation. Conversations were longer and usually filmed from the same angle, which is unsurprising why it might bore some millennials.
Many of the films of the '90s incorporated new technologies and tackled issues that were previously thought of as taboo on film. It was another golden decade for Hollywood, as it seemed like there were more and more classic dramas, comedies, action thrillers, and documentaries coming out every year.
Geordie, an English dialect and the people who speak it, is the oldest English dialect still spoken. If you're not a Geordie, it's also probably the hardest for you to understand.
As a result, although there are plenty of variations, modern American pronunciation is generally more akin to at least the 18th-Century British kind than modern British pronunciation. Shakespearean English, this isn't.
Virtually all Hollywood musicals – from West Side Story (1961) and Grease (1978), to Chicago (2002) and High School Musical (2006) – are shot with the actors lip-syncing while on camera to a vocal track they pre-recorded in a studio weeks or months prior.
You see, at that time, people acted in tv and film as if they were acting on stage, since that's where a lot of the actors had started, practised and learned, so they enunciated and spoke differently because they needed to speak to people in a theatre, and that carried over to television acting.
According to Bay, “In Hollywood, [the Transatlantic accent] got picked up as the sound of high status.” Part of the reason why the Transatlantic accent came into fashion in the late '30s and '40s, he adds, is because actors trained in its use were finally ready to enter the spotlight.
