Did all Americans have that strange accent that actors and actresses had in movies through the 1940-70's?

by [deleted]

I've been watching some older movies lately and have always been curious as to why actors and actresses of that time sounded so different than we do today. And was that accent just a movie thing or did everyone sound like that?

eaton3000

It's called the Transatlantic accent. There's a FAQ in AskHistorians about it. http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/language#wiki_trans-atlantic_accent