Hooo boy, is this an old one. It is actually as old as talking pictures themselves. The myth goes like this: So-and-so (often John Gilbert) was a famous film star in the silent era but what people didn’t know is that he sounded like Mickey Mouse! Hilarious!
All of these beautiful people with one fatal flaw that is exposed by new technology… And the movie audiences finding out that their idols had feet of clay, or in this case, nails-on-chalkboard voices. Of course, films like Singin’ in the Rain only serve to make the myth more plausible.
Adding to the myth is the fact that a very large number of silent stars were not visible after the 1930s when, for the most part, talkies were the only kind of movie playing in America. Instead, a whole crop of newly minted stars were in charge.
That being said, I really find it odd that folks fixate on this myth so doggedly. What is the point of all this meanness and negativity toward people who have been dead for decades? So, if your purpose in asking this question is to snicker at dead people, don’t let the door hit you on the way out. This article is not going to give you what you want.
On the other hand, if you are motivated by curiosity or you just saw a movie or read an article that tried to tell you silent stars had weird voices, you have come to the right place. In fact, I have a whole series, After the Silents, dedicated to covering the careers of silent veterans in sound films.
Before we begin with the debunking, let’s lay the whole “John Gilbert had a squeaky voice” thing to rest. The poor man has been the target of more than his share of nastiness and petty rumors.
There you have it. A real, live recording of John Gilbert sounding completely normal. Thank you. Good night.
(Oh, and this also kills the equally ridiculous myth that MGM studio head Louis B. Mayer arranged to have sound techs fiddle with the knobs and make Gilbert’s voice sound silly. Some enthusiastic writers even suggest that Mayer used his heretofore unknown skills as a sound technician to do the job personally. Presumably while stroking a white Persian cat and attempting to kill James Bond. Thing is, Gilbert hated Mayer and Mayer hated Gilbert. Why the heck would the star keep quiet about this obvious sabotage?)
Most Hollywood silent film stars fell into one of a dozen categories when talking pictures took over and some fit into more than one category.
1. They transitioned just fine
Some of the most famous talents of the 30s actually did start out in silent films. William Powell and Myrna Loy were typecast as villains but their voices allowed them to be wisecracking comedic stars. Boris Karloff was a silent character actor. Laurel & Hardy were equally excellent in both sound and silence. Carole Lombard was a Sennett comedienne. Ronald Colman was an unremarkable leading man in silents but he became a superstar once the public heard that honeyed velvet voice. And of course, as we all know, Garbo talks!
In fact, most silent stars had at least some stage experience and/or singing ability.
2. They could not speak English
The silent cinema meant that a Swede could play a Texas cowpoke, a Hungarian could play a California rancher and a Dane could play an American doughboy. Some stars, such as Conrad Veidt, Emil Jannings and Lars Hanson, had successful careers in Europe and chose to return to their native lands. Hanson made The Informer in which he was dubbed but subsequently returned to Sweden. Veidt later picked up English and made his return to English language cinema. (He hated Nazis and they hated him, which made a change of location imperative in the 1930s.)
Please note that these actors did not fail in the talkies, they simply returned to their home countries.
This problem was not exclusive to Hollywood either. For example, France had a large community of Russian performers who had fled the revolution in their home country. Sound severely limited the parts these talented performers could play as they either did not speak French or did so with a Russian accent. And, of course, going back to Russia was simply not an option for many.
3. They had been acting for 20+ years and were entering the third decade of their careers
Some stars had been in pictures since the early 1910s or before. It is extremely difficult to remain on top for 10 or 20 years, let alone 30! Mary Pickford had been a successful film actress since her debut in 1909. She made a few talkies, picked up her Oscar and retired in 1933, thank you very much.
Add to that the fact that a crop of newer talent was being drawn to the talkies. Tough-talking gangster actors like George Raft and James Cagney, the anarchic Marx Brothers, cute Shirley Temple… The movie-going public is always looking for something or someone new.
4. Talkies were an entirely new medium
People sometimes assume that making silents and making talkies are the same thing, just add microphone. Actually, silents and talkies were made in a totally different manner. Silent actors could be coached by the director while they acted. They could have mood music. Suddenly, it was quiet on the set. Is it any wonder that Lillian Gish took a three year break after her first talkie and a nine year break after her second? And what if a star could not sing in the musical-obsessed 30s? And don’t even get me started about the stiff direction and dull pacing of many early talkies.
You see, asking a silent performer to suddenly switch to the talkies is like asking a sculptor to exclusively take up painting. Silent performers projected emotion using only their bodies. With the talkies, they had to rebalance their style for the addition of voices.
5. Their voices were fine, just not right for the parts they played
Reginald Denny took a while finding his niche. Initially known for boxing pictures, he later discovered a gift for subtle, everyday comedy. Denny played very American roles: suburbanites, wage slaves, general middle class everymen and the occasional spunky rich eccentric. (One article described Denny’s parts as “corn-fed American boys” which is wrong on so many levels. A Denny hero was urban or suburban.) After the talkies, with his English accent on display, those parts were no longer part of his main repertoire. Note that his career was not really damaged, he simply had to switch gears.
Vilma Banky’s Hungarian accent is blamed for her demise but the real problem was the American perception of foreign stars and the roles in which she was cast. Banky’s accent was no thicker than Garbo’s but Garbo was cast as exotic temptresses and tragic literary characters. Banky swung between princesses, wholesome sweethearts and all-American girls. She made exotic romances (Son of the Sheik, Night of Love) but she was not the exotic one. American audiences wanted their sweet heroine to sound like she was from Massachusetts, not Budapest. Garbo was already considered foreign and so her accent was accepted.
Author Scott Eyman does a wonderful job of explaining the Garbo/Banky conundrum in The Speed of Sound: Hollywood and the Talkie Revolution 1926-1930. He also points out the only rule of successful sound transition: There were no rules.
6. The parts they played were no longer stylish
People sometimes forget that the dominance of talking pictures coincided with the start of the Great Depression. Studios released their last silents in 1929 and the same year the economy collapsed. The taste of the American public changed too. No more flappers, please. No more lusty sheiks.
Harold Lloyd had a good voice and it suited his go-getting college boy character. He had hits but he was playing a 1920s character in a 1930s world. (One could also argue that Lloyd’s age– he was in his late thirties when sound arrived– also made his college kid persona less suitable.)
John Gilbert’s demise can be blamed on studio in-fighting and alcoholism but also on the fact that the romantic melodramas he specialized in simply did not work as talking pictures. Colleen Moore’s flapper pictures died with the twenties. She had been trying to make the jump to serious drama but it didn’t quite pan out and, anyway, she was losing interest in films. She retired but remained an active and successful businesswoman.
7. Their personal lives interfered with their careers
Clara Bow endured the double-whammy of the decline of the flapper genre and the nasty rumors circulated about her by a bitter former friend. She quit the movies but it wasn’t because of her working class accent. (Tales of her “Noo Yawk” accent, as well as those of the Talmadge sisters, are greatly exaggerated. And, no, New York accents were not banned and not everyone had to speak in a “Mid-Atlantic accent. Did you miss the entire generation of gangster actors?)
Marriage (or lack thereof) was another issue that damaged careers. William Haines transitioned to sound but was cut off from his contract when he refused to enter into a so-called lavender marriage. Pola Negri and Mae Murray both received disastrous career interference from their husbands, two brothers in the “Marrying” Mdivani family. (The Mdivanis were Georgian “royalty” who specialized in marrying into the Hollywood elite and spending their spouse’s fortunes.)
Most tragic of all were the careers cut off by death. Lon Chaney made only one talkie before succumbing to cancer. Milton Sills died of a heart attack before the release of The Sea Wolf. Douglas Fairbanks made four talking pictures and was discussing a collaboration with his son when he too died from a heart attack. Renee Adoree succumbed to tuberculosis.
8. They got caught up in studio politics
Poor voice quality was a great excuse for eliminating contract performers who were difficult, rebellious or expensive. During the upheaval of the sound transition, performers like Mary Astor, Bebe Daniels and Wallace Beery were cut from studio rosters to make way for the new talking stars. All three made comebacks and found enormous success in the new medium. (Bebe Daniels had particularly sweet revenge when her 1929 musical Rio Rita turned out to be a blockbuster.)
John Gilbert absolutely did not get along with his boss at MGM, Louis B. Mayer (though the oft-repeated story of them coming to blows in the men’s room at King Vidor’s wedding is a complete fabrication) but Gilbert’s fall from grace was a complicated blend of changing tastes, bouts of alcoholism and a very stiff, affected way of speaking in his earliest talkies. Nothing wrong with the pipes themselves but his delivery was not quite right for a while. (He pronounced “cruel” as “crew-ell” for example.)
And, of course, keep in mind that actors and actresses were at the mercy of sound technicians, some of whom did not yet know what they were doing. No wonder the coming of sound was so stressful!
9. They transitioned successfully– but their films were buried
Plenty of silent stars worked through the 1930s but their films were locked in vaults. Why? Well, in mid-1934, the Motion Picture Production Code began to be enforced in earnest. Many pre-Code films were denied re-release on the grounds of being too… too… well, you know.
So, if an actor gained popularity in, say, 1924, survived the coming of sound in 1927 and worked steadily in lead roles through 1934, that would be a solid decade-long career. Better than average. However, if their early talkies were denied re-release due to Code issues and their career started to decline soon after… well, it would look rather like they did not make the jump to sound.
Fortunately, many pre-Code films are enjoying a revival so we can once again see these silent stars and hear their voices.
Early talkies and part-talkies are not often so fortunate. Because of their relatively primitive look and feel, blessed few see the light of day unless they feature big names or have fallen into the public domain.
10. Their careers were on the rocks already and talkies were the final nail in the coffin
This is a particular pet peeve. Would-be historians want to write about a silent performer, they look up their filmography, see that there are no movies after, say, 1930 and then declare the performer to be a victim of sound.
Hold your horses! The trick is to look at the quantity and quality of films made by the performer. For example, Agnes Ayres was a popular leading lady best known as the heroine of The Sheik. She was also Paramount executive Jesse Lasky’s mistress. After she broke up with him, she briefly retired, came back, got involved in some messy divorces and lawsuits, battled mental illness and her career hit the skids. All of this occurred well before the talkie revolution. She tried to make several comebacks in the talkies but none really worked. Her leading role in The Donovan Affair is often listed as an example of her popularity in 1929 but Columbia was still considered a cheapie concern at the time. Anyway, she only had fourth billing and did not make another film for seven years. A victim of sound? No, but she is often listed as one.
Then there is Wanda Hawley. Another Paramount actress, her last credited film was in 1932. Surely she must be a victim of sound! Not really. You see, she left Paramount in a contract dispute in the early twenties and bounced around from studio to studio, quickly sliding into poverty row productions. Her cutesy comedies were no longer in style by the time the twenties really started to roar and she was unable to jump genres. A victim of sound? No, but she is often listed as one.
(You can read more about both Ayres and Hawley in the biographical collection Dangerous Curves Atop Hollywood Heels: The Lives, Careers, and Misfortunes of 14 Hard-Luck Girls of the Silent Screen by Michael J. Ankerich.)
11. Their talkie debut was awful but they recovered
There seems to be an idea that silent stars had one shot at the talkies and they were doomed if they failed it. In fact, many actors needed several films to get used to the new medium. For example, William Boyd’s talkie debut in High Voltage is just painful. He has the option of acting, speaking clearly for the microphone or suppressing his Southern accent. Pick two.
Boyd was also dealing with personal issues. Alcoholism and an u newspaper scandal had damaged his once-promising career. However, he made a comeback with the phenomenally popular Hopalong Cassidy series and became a beloved figure to generations of western fans.
If there is one lesson I can teach you, let it be this: There is an enormous difference between a bad voice and an untrained voice.
12. They made silent films– they just never mentioned the fact
Marlene Dietrich made her film debut in 1930 after being discovered as a school girl by Josef von Sternberg. At least that’s her version. In fact, Dietrich had been making films in Germany for most of the 1920s and a fair number of them survive.
The movies are obsessed with youth and we certainly cannot blame Dietrich for shaving a few years off her age. Further, silent films were seen as laughable relics by many. They would have done her career no good.
Finally, I guess I should admit there was one star who had an odd voice: Raymond Griffith. He had damaged vocal chords.
It should also be noted that Marion Davies had a stutter and Dolores Costello spoke with a lisp. However, both ladies were able to overcome their speech issues. Costello retired to raise her family (after making a good many talkies, by the way) and Davies made movies through the 1930s before she too retired.
So next time you read about the “high, squeaky voices” of silent film stars, sit back and feel smug that you know the real story. And if someone asks you to name the silent star with the squeaky voice, give them the same answer that I always offer: Mickey Mouse.
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