Having a conversation with someone in Philadelphia in 1939


When I stumbled across this wonderful image at the Duke University site ROAD (Resource of Outdoor Advertising Descriptions), my first thought was surprise that Stetson hadn't always meant "cowboy hat", and the second one being what a conversation with people in Philadelphia would have sounded like in 1939. I'll give you my best guess, but I'm a western man, and the closest I've ever been to the east coast is Chicago (which really isn't all that close, you know!). So, I'll give you my point of view. And calm down there if you think I'm gonna criticize, that's not what I do.

I grew up in the midwest, and have spent my adult life in California and Arizona, so my personal contact with people from the east coast is pretty minimal. I have a good friend who's from Philly, and to me that's how everyone there talks. He always starts sentences with the word "Yo", and he really has never had any trouble fitting in with places like Los Angeles, where you hear a LOT of accents. Or do I mean dialects?

To me, a Philadelphia accent is how Sylvester Stallone talks, but of course I really don't know. When I imagine talking to someone from Philly, I hear his voice saying, "Yo Adrian!" (assuming of course my name being Adrian, which it isn't). But it gets more complicated going back to the 1930s, when actors like Cary Grant, who is from England, learned to speak with what was called a Transatlantic accent. He spoke like that in "the Philadelphia Story". Hang on, I'll find a clip so you can hear him talking in 1940. Here ya go:



And this is a lesson on why you really shouldn't trust learning things from old movies. I suppose that at the time that Hollywood imagined that audiences wouldn't like hearing a genuine Philadelphia accent (or dialect). And that's Hollywood!


So as I ponder what the people there in the car, who I imagine are from Philadelphia, sound like, while I may see Cary Grant, but I hear Sly Stallone. Yo! Get in the car! And be sure to wear your Stetson hat - I have the top down and there are a lot of seagulls flying overhead!
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