Katharine Hepburn on Buying Furniture

Kate gives us all some advice about the value of a beautiful object.

As seen on the Mid-Century Modernist:
http://www.midcenturymodernist.com/2007/09/katherine-hep-1.html

Category:

Comedy

Tags:

• furniture
• mid-century
• modern
• KatherineHepburn
• Hepburn
• DickCavett
• Cavett
• interiordesign
• televisionstudio

[Pipe61]

She was born in Connecticut and has a New England accent. It has a touch of Bryn Mawr to it as well.

[QueenMab057]

Trained movie actors back in the day learned a standard "mid-atlantic" dialect, which arguably doesn't really exist. They tried to keep their voices neutral, clear and articulate.

Ms Hepburn worked tremendously hard on her voice to give it character and memorability; she doesn't really have any "accent" but instead developed her own individual way of speaking.

[notdeadjustlazy]

I don't quite understand why american actors would care about "sounding" british to have more of an appeal when their normal accents are clear & stylish enough. Im british and have travelled to several spots in america & have never heard anybody with a Katharine Hepburn accent not even in New England or Connecticut. It sounds very strange to my ears, beautiful but strange.

[thefabulousone123]

@TolsmaLMC she has a trans-atlantic or trans-continental accent. People in tv, radio, or movies were taught to speak in that accent. The theory was that it sounds kind of like a mixture of a north american accent, and a british accent so that people on either side of the pond could understand clearly.

[cudaclan]

The dialect & linguists is "Old Connecticut Yankee". This in no way refers to our beloved Ms. Hepburn who is ageless.

[NFitalianGuy]

Back in the days of the Studio System, They all had a sort of "Britishy" accent. You can never put your finger on what accent those actresses had/used. They ll used the term " Darling, Marvelous, rather, my dear." etc. It sounded classy and the women in old hollywood if you watch them, all walk the same way. It was all about poise, proper english etc. When the women walked down stairs they always looked str8 a head never @ their feet or stairs. bette davis, Kate hepburn and the rest were alike

[DarthCormac]

She has a powerful accent. I love the sound of it.

[OneoftheImmortals]

She has a trained voice and I believe she talks about it in the complete interview.

James Earl Jones also has a trained voice. As a boy he had a terrible stutter.

The top British actors have trained voices as well.

[Jeffin90019]

The accent is called "affected elitist Northeasterer"

[renaccio]

She went to Bryn Mawr College. People in Bryn Mawr don't talk that way. And if they do it's the old timers..and it's fake something or other even at that.

Whatever, it sounds great. One of a kind.

[ConcertPianist]

her and I share the same middle name and last name... and have the same accent... I think it is just the Hepburn line.