Tweet What's in a name?

On another thread Rick Lanham wrote about Joseph Tykociner: "I remember my sister being very enthusiastic about him, as though he was different from most instructors. She pronounced his name Tick-o-sheen-er." Which brings up something that might be useful to future film enthusiasts: Just how did people pronounce their names?

producer William Selig, for example, pronounced his name See-lig, NOT Sell-ig

composer J.S. Zamecnik, apparently pronounced his name Za-mish-nick

Director Frank Borzage, pronounced his name Bor-zay-gee (with hard "g")

Famed exploitation filmmaker Kroger Babb pronounced his name like Roger (with a "K" in front) Bobb [I knew him in the late 1960s]

Ann Dvorak pronounced her name Vorak, according to interviews

Maurice Costello pronounced his first name as Morris, NOT Mor-eece

There must be others out there who know others . . .

Good subject. Let's continue with it. (I have no examples, just want to learn

The last name of Anita Loos is not pronounced "loose," but rhymes with "dose," as she wrote in a quatrain for The Literary Digest in 1936.

I had this confirmed recently by her grand-nephew, Rob Loos.

Didn't Bette Davis mention something about the silent "t" in Harlow????

Ann Dvorak pronounced her name Vorak, according to interviews

Ann told The Literary Digest, "My name is properly pronounced vor' shack. The D remains silent. I have had quite a time with the name, having been called everything from Balzac to Bickelsrock."

Didn't Bette Davis mention something about the silent "t" in Harlow????

Allegedly Margot Asquith......"The T in Margot is silent, dear, as in Harlow"

Didn't Bette Davis mention something about the silent "t" in Harlow????

Allegedly Margot Asquith......"The T in Margot is silent, dear, as in Harlow"

Excellent. It still makes me laugh, everytime.

Ogden Nash left us an enduring reminder of the correct pronunciation of `Laemmle':

"Uncle Carl Laemmle
Has a very large faemmle."

In SHOW OF SHOWS I can hear Tully Marshall pronounce his first name "Tooley"

That's interesting - never heard that about Tully Marshall.

There's the Schenck brothers, who pronounced their name `Skenk' as opposed to `Shenk', as you sometimes hear it.

We have the problem here with the many English dialects & pronunciations along with the way some foreign speakers pronounce them whether they speak English or not. I seemed to have gone thru this before on a blog. Was it this Nitrateville forum:??

Ann Dvorak as she says it seems to me to be the US way of saying gained from various documentaries coming from US. Vorshark is another and D Vorhark(I hear the composer pronounced that way). Schedule is always cited as one with two ways to say it in USA and witnessed a few few moments on a West Coast evening news when the panel of newsmen discussed this(1970s). The Polish people have another by adding a couple of letters to names of people from outside the country but otherwise seem to leave the name untouched in spelling. But translating cyrillic to our script can bring lots of translations and thus pronunciations in many countries.

Then there is Katharine Hepburn which I have hard pronounced Hebburn by a young man from Singapore in a big quiz show. An adjudicator determined that he knew who he was answering & awarded a positive result.

I tried to use the local form when I used to visit & live in USA, particularly around Detroit suburbs. I try & use US spelling in my forum replies to US sites. In the Mid-West(I prefer this term to calling the area the Middle West) they had a way of saying ADVERTISEMENT. They say ADVERTISE MENT. We say ADVERT IS MENT. Many New Zealanders have a specific way of saying things which can sound like something else and opens them to open jokes on this side of the Tasman Sea. But then they have many gags against us and I sure most people take these in good stead. But one thing for certain is that it is rarely hard to mistake a person comes from Kiwi Land or as I find in ancient books(over 100 years old) we called that country Maoriland.

It is an interesting topic & I did have trouble in some parts of USA and people would ask the next person what I said. Although I have been accused of saying Dialy Pipers for Daily Papers, I don't believe I say this. I was often considered a Limey but this is not the case. Nor do I speak the so-called Ocker Australian either.

There are so many names of people, particularly surnames of Jewish people that are occupations or animals etc that come from Europe but rarely are they pronounced like the original word in the country of origin. I think of a word like Loewe, for example.

The Scots surname, Menzies, was the name of one of our longest serving Prime Ministers to date & whose wife was a friend of my late father for many years as her TV repairman and one who she called on for so many things others would not do for her. We used to pronounce this Mens ees now it is something like Min gees or something similar don't know when this changed but he has a grandson who is an actor(was big in Sesame type shows here) changed his name pronunciation to the new form. The list is limitless.

Like to see more examples in this page of people in the business of this forum.

[Mike Gebert]

When classical music stations say Dvorak as in Antonin, it always takes on a French air: d'vor-jacques.

When classical music stations say Dvorak as in Antonin, it always takes on a French air: d'vor-jacques.

That's because the R in his name is really [r with caron, since it won't show up here] which in Czech takes on a combination /r/ and /sh/ or /zh/ sound.

Edith and Mabel Taliaferro presumably pronounced their name "Tolliver"--it was originally an Italian name (taglia ferro=to cut iron) and after some generations the pronunciation was anglicised while the spelling remained.

Thomas Meighan's name is correctly pronounced "Meehan" or "ME'-an" from what I've heard and read.

-Harold

When classical music stations say Dvorak as in Antonin, it always takes on a French air: d'vor-jacques.

That's because the R in his name is really <345> which in Czech takes on a combination /r/ and /sh/ or /zh/ sound.

A bit like Van Gogh. Here in Australia, it's more common to pronounce it Van-Goff, where as most Americans seem to use Van-Go. Int he original Dutch it was somewhere in between, and pretty much unpronounceable - closer to Van-Gogkh

One of the hardest pronunciations I've had to track down is Katina Paxinou, who won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS (1943).

Her name (Greek in origin) is pronounced KA-tee-nah pah-SEE-noo.

Then there is Bebe Daniels (pronounced, I think, Bee-bee), whom Lyle Talbot pronounces "Beeb" in the teaser trailer for 42ND STREET.

Zasu Pitts' name was supposedly a shortening of her two aunts, Eliza and Susan, but she pronounced it "Zay-soo."