Did women’s voices mature earlier in the 40s? Why, when
we watch actresses in their early twenties from that period, do they sound like
grown women, but today’s young actresses sound like little girls? is there
something in our culture today that values infantilizing girls so that they
intuitively maintain their immature squeaky whiny tones? Perhaps the question
answers itself. Or maybe it’s nothing so deep and dramatic. Maybe actresses
then received formal theatrical training like singers to develop their voices.
Whatever it is, Lauren Bacall had one of the great all-time sexy mature female
voices, even at twenty-two, when she starred in only her fourth feature, and
third with Humphrey Bogart, Dark Passage.
