The Mid-Atlantic accent was artificially created and popularized to project eloquence and grandeur in Hollywood. Prominent figures like Katharine Hepburn upheld the accent's prestige in the film industry. The birth and eventual decline of the Mid-Atlantic accent reflect shifting societal values in post-WWII America.
Katherine Hepburn suffered from essential tremor, which affected her head and larynx and was the reason for the distinct sound and nature of her voice.
Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003) was an American actress. Her career lasted 66 years. She is thought of as one of the top screen actresses in movie history.
After the accent's decline following the end of World War II, this American version of a "posh" accent has all but disappeared even among the American upper classes, as Americans have increasingly dissociated from the speaking styles of the East Coast elite; if anything, the accent is now subject to ridicule in ...
Where Does That Katharine Hepburn Accent Come From?
Why did us lose British accent?
The first is isolation; early colonists had only sporadic contact with the mother country. The second is exposure to other languages, and the colonists came into contact with Native American languages, mariners' Indian English pidgin and other settlers, who spoke Dutch, Swedish, French and Spanish.
Throughout the Golden Age of Hollywood, stars including Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Bette Davis, and Orson Welles employed what's known as a “Mid-Atlantic accent,” a sort of American-British hybrid of speaking that relies on tricks like dropping “R” sounds and softening vowels, in order to convey wealth and ...
On June 29, 2003, Katharine Hepburn—a four-time Academy Award winner for Best Actress and one of the greatest screen legends of Hollywood's golden era—dies of natural causes at the age of 96, at her home in Old Saybrook, Connecticut.
Audrey was born in Brussels, Belgium. Her mother was Dutch and father an English man. She spent her early childhood days in Belgium and was later sent to England for schooling, where she acquired the non-rhotic skill.
Nevertheless, along with Katharine Hepburn, Grant is widely regarded as the quintessential example of Mid-Atlantic speech. Grant was born in 1904 in Bristol, England, and moved to the United States at the age of 16. Thus, his accent was a British and American blend, infused with one-of-a-kind pizzazz.
Who inherited Katharine Hepburn's money after she died?
This charitability continued after her death as she specified $10,000 (£8,200) for the Actors Fund of America in her will. For her remaining family, Hepburn gave $100,000 (£82,000) to her nephew and grandniece and requested that her homes in Connecticut and New York be sold.
The brownies are made with unsweetened chocolate, which is also known as baking, plain or bitter chocolate. It is chocolate in its rawest form and this means that unsweetened chocolate is just ground cocoa nibs that have been refined and contain between 50-55% cocoa butter (cacao fat).
Katherine Hepburn never had children. She was married once briefly, but then only had affairs, the most famous being with Spencer Tracy who was married. She personally felt that she would have been a terrible mother because she was unashamedly “selfish.” She was dedicated to her career.
Audrey's stage name 'Hepburn' was taken from her father's name. He was born Joseph Victor Anthony Ruston (1889–1980), but later double-barrelled the surname to the more aristocratic-sounding Hepburn-Ruston.
The "Transatlantic" accent, a deliberate construct that blended American and British English, emerged as a hallmark of sophistication and authority. Predominantly adopted by the American upper class in New York around the 20th century's turn, it found a natural home in theater, a realm patronized by society's elite.
What did Dorothy Parker say about Katharine Hepburn?
She hated Katharine Hepburn? In fact she believed there was no “finer actress” and only joked that Hepburn “ran the gamut of human emotions all the way from A to B” because “people expect you to say things”.
She came from a wealthy and highly educated family. Her father, Thomas Hepburn, was a successful doctor. Her mother, Katharine Martha Houghton, was a great supporter of women's rights issues including the right to birth control.
I thought my neck was too scrawny so I covered it up with a turtleneck. I have a little face, and I didn't want a great big collar with a little face coming out of it, so I had little collars. Practical.
Though hampered by a progressive neurological disease, Hepburn was nonetheless still active in the early '90s, appearing prominently in films such as Love Affair (1994), which was her last movie. Hepburn was married once, to Philadelphia broker Ludlow Ogden Smith, but the union was dissolved in 1934.
Essential tremor is less well known than Parkinson's disease, but it's far more common. For many, the late actress Katherine Hepburn provided an indelible public image of essential tremor. Her quavering voice and trembling hands unmistakably betrayed the disorder.
Any actor or actress of her period would have spoken in much the same accent, the mid-Atlantic accent, as that is the accent actors would have been trained in at the time. Grace Kelly needed lessons to get rid of her Philadelphia accent, not a British accent.
Audrey Hepburn was pretty well consistent with non-rhotic. and spoke refined English. Her accent can be characterized as British with somewhat of Flemish or Dutch blend because of her Belgian and Dutch roots. Audrey was born in Brussels, Belgium.
