Sorry for the awful explanation…
In: Technology
The Mid-Atlantic accent, or Transatlantic accent, is a purposefully-cultivated accent of English that blends together the most prestigious features of American and British English (specifically Received Pronunciation for the latter). Adopted in the early 20th century mostly by American aristocrats and Hollywood actors, it is not a native or regional accent; instead, according to voice and drama professor Dudley Knight, it is an affected set of speech patterns “whose chief quality was that no Americans actually spoke it unless educated to do so”.
Primarily fashionable in the first half of the 20th century, the accent was embraced in private independent preparatory schools, especially by members of the Northeastern upper class, as well as in schools for film and stage acting.
The accent’s overall use sharply declined following the Second World War.
It was popularly used in movies, television, etc. as a “non-accent,” meaning something in any English-speaking country could readily understand but not tie directly to a specific place.
My 2c…
Early movies followed the tone of stage plays, as this is what early movie actors were trained in and this is the tone the audience expected and understood.
Stage actors need to speak loudly and clearly, as there was little or no audio setup. They had no microphones, there were no speakers. Just loud, clear actors.
There are also no close-ups in stage plays. Actors had to exaggerate their reactions to make it clear what the character felt.
Over time, the tone of movies evolved. Acting generally became more natural. Actors no longer had to shout to the back of the theater, instead they had to act as real people would behave in real situations. Actors reactions became minimal. The camera did the work.
I’d like to think old movie audiences would have a hard time understanding a modern movie. Sudden scene changes, unnatural camera angles, actors in the far distance being heard clearly. It may seem very artificial to them.
In addition to the other replies, I would take into account practical effects and other low technology solutions. A lot of filming was done by hand, so framerates could vary throughout the scene. Played back, it would look like some parts moved faster or slower than others.
They shall not grow old had to deal with this when restoring films
Also noteworthy.
In europe most tv’s used PAL standard. which runs at 25 frames per second. Americans used a 30 Frames per second standard (NTSC)
As a result a lot of american series were sped up by 4% when displayed in europe. Which gave a slight but notable higher pitch to voices. (could be adjusted in processing, but often wasn’t )
There were a couple of accents that were considered acceptable/mainstream, and pretty much anyone who was on film/tv/radio used those – in the US, the main one was a “Mid-Atlantic” accent (a blend of received pronunciation and New England “upper crust” speech patterns), while in the UK, the standard was received pronunciation.
Over time, there’s been more acceptance of regional dialects/accents, but the “generic” accent for American film has shifted to much more of a Californian accent (perhaps with slightly crisper enunciation than the average person uses day-to-day).
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