One of the most notable things about American movies made pre-1960s is the way the actors and actresses speak. They have this rather elegant way of dropping their R's and emphasizing their T's. This Transatlantic Accent was not a conventional accent, by any means; rather, it was taught in theater classes and most boarding schools prior to the sixties.
As an example: the narrator in the video above blends a more neutral accent with an upper-class British accent seamlessly. Actors and actresses, especially those who began in theatre, were taught to speak this way as it sounded vaguely universal in origin. It also added a heightened sense of glamour to these idolized movie stars.
A cursory overview of linguistics explains that accents, not to be necessarily confused with dialects, develop over time according to one's geographic location, ethnicity, social class, etc. Accents naturally develop in people's speech patterns over a course of time. The accent a person has isn't something permanent, but is constantly evolving and is reflective of what has influenced them. In high school, I spoke in a way that I imagined Holden Caulfield speaking: prep-schoolish and new yorkese, with plenty of words and phrases like "phony", "g. damn", and "for chrissake" thrown in. Now, I'd be a little embarrassed (only a little, mind you) speaking that way. I think I've developed a full California accent, complete with lazy vowels and dropping off of syllables.
This American speaker emerged only approximately 50 years after the narrator in the first video. What caused this sudden shift from a highly stylized, elegant way of speaking to a more casual, almost lazy, way of communicating?
