Terms Which Have Disappeared

[LizzieMaine]

Yep. One big factor was the invention of the camera blimp or "barney," (after Barney Google, whose horse wore a heavy blanket at all times) which enshrouded the camera and prevented gear noise from contaminating the soundtracks. Prior to this cameramen had to be cooped up in a soundproofed wooden booth with double-pane optical glass windows, which prevented the camera from moving around much, and forced a lot of those frozen two-shots of people standing there talking.

And, of course, the weeding out of the ill-equipped stage actors left a few behind who really could talk -- Cagney, Robinson, Warren William, and others of that school were among the few Broadway actors who caught on, perhaps because they each had very distinctive speech habits instead of the elocution-school "Kansas City British" that the producers thought talkie audiences wanted.

 

[Fading Fast]

...And, of course, the weeding out of the ill-equipped stage actors left a few behind who really could talk -- Cagney, Robinson, Warren William, and others of that school were among the few Broadway actors who caught on, perhaps because they each had very distinctive speech habits instead of the elocution-school "Kansas City British" that the producers thought talkie audiences wanted.

On the female side, I'd add Jean Arthur and Katherine Hepburn as woman with both distinctive voices and the ability to rapid-fire out dialogue seemingly effortlessly.

 

[LizzieMaine]

There was a woman in early talkies named Gladys Brockwell who would have fit in great in the thirties -- she was a silent picture veteran with a cast-iron Brooklyn accent that was perfect for the part she played in the first all-talkie, "The Lights of New York." "Sayyyyy," she sneers at greasy villain Wheeler Oakman. "Ya think ya can take any chicken ya want an' throw me back in tha deck?" She would have played the gum-chewing moll in every gangster picture made before the Code if she hadn't been killed in a car accident in 1929.

 

[Stanley Doble]

One silent movie actor who should have done well in talkies was Douglas Fairbanks. I was used to thinking of him as a silent movie action hero who faded out when talkies came in. Then I saw him in Reaching For The Moon, a romantic comedy. His voice and acting were excellent, much better than I would have expected. Yet for some reason he never made many movies in the new era though he lived until 1939 and was only fifty six when he died.

Reaching For The Moon is one of my favorite movies.

 

[HadleyH1]

In all truth....there is only one term that has disappeared and that I really like , and that term is "swell"


Apart from that one I would not give a fig? no.... for the rest.

 

[Zombie_61]

In all truth....there is only one term that has disappeared and that I really like, and that term is "swell"...

Percy Livermore: "We must rid our speech of slang. Now, besides 'okay' I want you all to promise me that there are two words that you will never use. One of these is 'swell' and the other one's 'lousy'."
Lucy Ricardo: "Okay, what are they?"
Percy Livermore: "One of them is 'swell', and the other one is 'lousy'."
Fred Mertz: "Well, give us the lousy one first."
Percy Livermore: "I don't believe you quite understand."
Ethel Mertz: "Uh, don't bother to explain Mr. Livermore, just tell us what the words are and we won't use 'em."
Percy Livermore: "But don't you see, the word...well, the other...may I have a glass of water, please?"
Lucy Ricardo: "Okay. I, I mean yes. Would you help me, Ethel, get a pitcher and some glasses? I would say 'okay', that's a swell way to get off to a lousy start."

"Lucy Hires an English Teacher", I Love Lucy

 

[HadleyH1]

^^

 

[Benny Holiday]

Waiting in traffic for a red light to change and the guy in front doesn't go when it's green, my dad always commented "What's he doing, waiting for a color he likes".

I think my wife is sick of hearing it.

My Dad used to say, "Come on pal, it's not gonna get any greener." Or if a car didn't turn a corner fast enough, "I could've got a semi-trailer around there in that time." I guess he would've known, he drove trucks for long enough himself!

 

[scottyrocks]

I was looking at my shoes today and thought that you don't hear the terms 'flat foot' and 'rubber-soled shoes' anymore.

No one calls police the derogatory 'flat-foot,' as most drive in cars now, and almost everyone wears either sneakers or 'Payless' or similar shoes which are all rubber soled, even if they are styled to look like leather.

Police were known to wear rubber soled shoes because they were on their feet so much, and needed traction in a chase, etc. Supposedly, underworldlings could pick out plainclothes cops by their rubber soled shoes.

 

[LizzieMaine]

"Ahh, ya cheap gumshoes are all alike."

 

[T Jones]

It's very entertaining to listen to broadcast recordings of politicans and clergymen from the Era, speaking at conventions and the like. You wouldn't think someone like Calvin Coolidge would be much of an orator, and he did have a very thin, nasal voice -- but he was an excellent speaker in the old-school tradition, and it comes thru when you listen to his 1925 inaugural address or his speech welcoming Lindbergh back to the US. Hoover, on the other hand, was everything bad about old-time stump speakers -- long-winded, orotund, and tedious, and he always went on about fifteen minutes longer than he should have. FDR, on the other hand, always left his audience wanting more -- his speeches came to a quick point, and then he was done.

For my money the most exciting orators to listen to on radio -- never mind their polnts of view, I'm just speaking of speaking style -- would be Father Coughlin and Judge Rutherford. Both of these guys had the whole 1890s William Jennings Bryan style of oration down pat -- start out slow and modulated and build to a dramatic crashing crescendo with each point expressed leading up to a thunderous climax at the end. They were about as diametrically opposed politically and theologically as two personalities could be, but they both came out of the same oratorical mold. They're very different from more modern clergyman-orators like Fulton Sheen or Norman Vincent Peale, who had a much more insinuating, low-key approach on the air.

The Evangelist, Billy Sunday was another one from the very late 1890s and early 1900s who had a fiery and explosive style of speaking. His style of preaching was one that was emulated by many others who came after him. Listen to Father Coughlin's speaking and compare it to Billy Sunday's. Both had very similar styles and content. This was Billy Sunday from 1932 when he was a much older man speaking against the ills of alcohol and against the repeal of prohibition. Another issue he mentions in his preaching is an issue that this country is debating even today in our time.

 

[tonyb]

My Dad used to say, "Come on pal, it's not gonna get any greener." Or if a car didn't turn a corner fast enough, "I could've got a semi-trailer around there in that time." I guess he would've known, he drove trucks for long enough himself!

"If it gets any greener it will grow."

Like your dad, I find myself grumbling at drivers who slow to a near stop before turning right. I mutter: "C'mon, pal, there's no one crossing the street, visibility couldn't be better. Put your foot in it."

Drivers are often oblivious to what's behind them.

 

[Upgrade]

It depends on the state law, in particular turning right against a red light where the driver is supposed to signal and come to a complete stop.

People have failed driving tests and gotten tickets for less.

 

[Zombie_61]

"If it gets any greener it will grow."

Like your dad, I find myself grumbling at drivers who slow to a near stop before turning right. I mutter: "C'mon, pal, there's no one crossing the street, visibility couldn't be better. Put your foot in it."

Drivers are often oblivious to what's behind them.

Drivers are often oblivious, period.

 

[Upgrade]

There’s that possibly apocryphal story that’s made its rounds on the internet about there only being two cars in XX state in 18XX that managed to have a car accident with each other.

 

[tonyb]

It depends on the state law, in particular turning right against a red light where the driver is supposed to signal and come to a complete stop.

People have failed driving tests and gotten tickets for less.

I'm referring to intersections on arterials without signals and where the cross street has stop signs.

Everywhere I've ever driven that allows right turns on red lights (pretty much everywhere now, although it was exclusively a West Coast phenomenon when I started driving) requires the driver to come to a stop before making that "free" right turn. I recall talk, nearly half a century ago, of a "California stop," which wasn't a stop at all but a slow down before turning right under a red light, but I do believe that was custom rather than traffic code.

 

[3fingers]

I'm referring to intersections on arterials without signals and where the cross street has stop signs.

Everywhere I've ever driven that allows right turns on red lights (pretty much everywhere now, although it was exclusively a West Coast phenomenon when I started driving) requires the driver to come to a stop before making that "free" right turn. I recall talk, nearly half a century ago, of a "California stop," which wasn't a stop at all but a slow down before turning right under a red light, but I do believe that was custom rather than traffic code.

In the mid 80's I was in Portland, Oregon. This was quite a revelation to a kid from a small town as far as driving went. Anyhow, they had a system of right on red without stopping at a fair number of intersections. As you might expect, the liberties taken with this system made driving there an even more sporting experience.

 

[LizzieMaine]

One silent movie actor who should have done well in talkies was Douglas Fairbanks. I was used to thinking of him as a silent movie action hero who faded out when talkies came in. Then I saw him in Reaching For The Moon, a romantic comedy. His voice and acting were excellent, much better than I would have expected. Yet for some reason he never made many movies in the new era though he lived until 1939 and was only fifty six when he died.

Reaching For The Moon is one of my favorite movies.

I fell in love with Fairbanks when i saw "Mark of Zorro" when I was seven years old -- to this day I have not yet seen an actor with greater screen charisma. He would have been an excellent light comedian in talkies in the style of William Powell if he'd wanted to be, but by then he'd just gotten tired of the movie grind, and decided to retire.

If you like the comic Fairbanks, look up the pictures he made in the late 1910s, before he got into his swashbuckling action cycle. Many of these were adapted from stage hits of the day, and translate quite well to the silent screen, with Fairbanks usually showing up as a breezy go-getter character very much like the one Harold Lloyd would play later on.

 

[Zombie_61]

There’s that possibly apocryphal story that’s made its rounds on the internet about there only being two cars in XX state in 18XX that managed to have a car accident with each other.

I've read that same bit of trivia, and the year and state in which it allegedly occurred change depending upon who's telling the story. Most of the time the year is 1895, which in and of itself goes toward disproving the story because there were no legal requirements to register vehicles at that time, so there are no "official" documents that would support the story. If it actually happened, the closest thing to documentation would be a story in a local newspaper.

That being said, one day at my last place of employment I noticed two female drivers (i.e., pick-up and delivery drivers working for two of our customers) in the shipping and receiving yard. In my 18.5 years at the company this was the only time I had seen this. I'd seen female drivers before, but not two at the same time, and according to my co-workers it was the first time it had happened in the company's history. They backed into each other.

...Everywhere I've ever driven that allows right turns on red lights (pretty much everywhere now, although it was exclusively a West Coast phenomenon when I started driving) requires the driver to come to a stop before making that "free" right turn. I recall talk, nearly half a century ago, of a "California stop," which wasn't a stop at all but a slow down before turning right under a red light, but I do believe that was custom rather than traffic code.

Speaking as a native Californian, a "California stop" would in legal terms be referred to as a "rolling stop" elsewhere. You are correct, it is essentially the practice of not coming to a complete stop before making a right turn on a red light, and it is not legal.

 

[vitanola]

Pretty much any talkie made in 1929 is going to fall into that description -- there are exceptions, but that style was very much the rule. The idea was "OK, the people want TALKING PICTURES, well by Sam Warner they're gonna have TALKING PICTURES." There were a few films made during this period that even dispensed with the opening title cards and had the credits announced by voice. "Dear ladies and gentlemen! Hal Roach presents for your entertainment and approval his Rascals, in their latest Our Gang comedy entitled..."

Those actors who were most comfortable with dialogue during this period were usually stage veterans, so the studios began importing stage actors by the carload and throwing them into films to see which ones worked on the screen. If you watch a lot of early talkies and wonder who the hell most of these people are, you're not alone. Most of them were completely unknown outside of New York, many of them photographed horribly, and very very few of them caught on.

Moviegoers and critics got sick of this within a very short time, and the box office took a pretty sharp hit during 1930. People were complaining right and left about the "squawkies," and there were even hopes expressed in some quarters that the silent pictures might come back as a way of offering relief from the incessant pointless gab.