Singin In The Rain Essay

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In the play, Kaufman and Hart comment on the opportunities created by the chaos following the introduction of the Vitaphone through their vaudevillian characters Mary, Jerry and George. These three, like many in the 1920s, see the Vitaphone as a gold mine because “all of the standbys are going to find themselves out in the cold, and somebody with brains and sense enough to use them is going to get into big dough” (Hart and Kaufman 13). Jerry sells their act and convinces Mary and George to “cut loose and go out there” to Hollywood to “open a school of elocution and voice culture” (Hart and Kaufman 13-14). The good fortune of meeting Helen Hobart on the train provides them with a connection to Glogauer who hires them in a desperate attempt…show more content…
Lockwood being a former vaudeville singer and dancer adjusts to talking films with ease while Lamont “saddled with a shrieking voice and poor diction that are quite unsuitable for the historical heroines for which she is renowned” fails to adjust (Juddery). Just as Mary, Jerry and George opened an elocution school in Once in a Lifetime, an elocution coach attempts to improve Lina’s speaking skills and diction, but unfortunately the lessons were not successful. As Lina’s character in Singin’ in the Rain illustrates, the actors and actresses with foreign accents or voices that did not match their on-screen personas rapidly became victims of talkies. In fact, Lina’s character echoes the life of actress Norma Talmadge. Due to her strong Brooklyn accent being “completely at odds with her well-honed image as an elegant star of the silver screen,” the release of Du Barry, Woman of Passion, her second talkie, lead to her immediate retirement (Juddery). In retrospect, many studio heads viewed the arrival of talking pictures as an opportunity to clean house, and actors and actresses who were involved in a scandal, had been at odds with their boss or simply past their prime were
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