It’s movie night. You sit down with a big bowl of buttery popcorn and spend about 30 minutes picking the movie. It’s decided that you want to delve into a classic film, so you pick something like Rear Window. As you settle in, a couple of questions quickly arise: what the heck are these accents? Nobody sounds like that! It’s almost…silly.
This peculiar accent is called the Transatlantic accent. It is a blend of British and American English, heavily emphasizing over-articulation and a sing-songy deliverance.
Here is a clip of Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn perfecting the accent:
The accent was everywhere in film during the 30s and 40s, and you cannot help but wonder if ALL Americans at the time were speaking so eloquently.
They were not.
The rise of this accent began in boarding schools across the country. It was of high importance that children of wealthy families also spoke with grace and etiquette, so public speaking was a crucial part of boarding schools’ education. It was taught that this accent, with its exaggerated enunciation, was associated with “good society.” Anyone who spoke like this came from money, and they wanted you to know. It was often bragged at the beginning of its popularization that transatlantic accents were educated, not adapted. Having the accent associated with this “good society,” it quickly spread to the arts.
Decades ago, theatre was seen as prestige. The arts were not to be tampered with, and it was held to the highest standards. Because of its regality, the theatre was quickly exposed to this new and proper accent. Up until then, they were using full-on British English. This new change alerted phoneticians, and a few started teaching the Transatlantic accent in Northeastern schools.
Once talkies (movies with sound) started being introduced onto the silver screen, there was a demand for actors and actresses who could talk Transatlantic. The characters in old movies needed to be respected and well-regarded by the audience, as these decades were the glitz and glamor of Hollywood. Every actor was graceful, every action was romantic, and the etiquette was through the roof.Â
Not only did the accent help with cementing a favorable character, but it also helped aid in enunciating actors’ words. Talkies were in their baby era, and microphones and sound production had a ways to go. If you were not directly standing under the boom mic, you could not be heard. There was no time, money, or patience for mumbling during filming. It seemed like the Transatlantic accent was perfect in its phonetics.
The transatlantic accent began its decline around the same time that theatrical acting did. Audiences craved something relatable, and society was furthering itself from the British posh by day. We started seeing raw performances entering the forefront, with no phony Transatlantic accent needed. The biggest performance I can reference is Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire. We see him immerse himself into the character, not afraid to mumble, move around, and be real. While his screen partner, Vivian Leigh, chooses to employ the Transatlantic accent, we can tell that it is not needed anymore.Â
Here he is with Vivian Leigh:
The death of the transatlantic accent gave way to butterfly into the films we know and love today. If we still kept a grip on this accent, we would have never switched over to more naturalistic acting, and therefore method acting would not have been as popular. This death brought the birth of better and more relatable films to the forefront, which I am always glad for. This accent was a sign of the times; it is astounding to see how far we have come from then, and how far we will continue to go.
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