Death of an Accent

Have you ever wondered about that old timey accent so many actors used in black and white movies? Hollywood stars like Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis and Orson Welles, who sounded sort of British … but not quite. Was it all a put on or did people back then talk that way in real life? Mo investigates the emergence and disappearance of the accent commonly known as “Mid-Atlantic” with the help of linguist John McWhorter. Plus Hollywood dialect coach Jessica Drake tries her best to teach Mo how to talk that way.

You can listen to Death of an Accent online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Death of an Accent is an episode from Mobituaries with Mo Rocca by iHeartPodcasts.

This episode is 48:28 long.

This episode was published on Oct 25, 2023.

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