At quarry Farm in September of 2009, a number of us stood in a circle
smoking cigars. The sun had well set and as we lingered now we saw each
other only in faint silhouette with tiny beacons of red ash floating about
to mark the location of the speakers. Hal Holbrook was speaking to us and
the subject of his imitation of Twain's voice came up. He said that he had
spoken with Clara Clemens and she had remarked that "...it's very
good--close to Papa." And then, changing the subject, she went on to tell
him that he would do well to play the part of Jesus Christ on stage. We all
laughed, but I didn't forget his remark.
In October of 2010, my wife, Jan, and I had the opportunity to take
84-year-old Hal Holbrook out to supper after he had performed MARK TWIN
TONIGHT at a Saint Paul theater. Five of us sat till one in the morning and
just talked. I remembered his remarked and asked him again about Twain's
voice. He repeated the comment that Clara had made nearly verbatim.
I'll never know what Clemens' real voice sounded like but I suspect, like
Holbrook, there are two; one, Clemens' normal speaking voice and the other
'Sammy's long drawl' the one he uses as Mark Twain. I'll bet it was no
different in the Clemens' household.
Thanks for letting me chime in.
Rick Talbot
Falcon Heights, Minnesota
-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Twain Forum [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Tracy Wuster
Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2012 3:30 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Mark Twain's Voice
I could rustle up a fifty-pound sack of corn meal, and a side of
bacon, ammunition, and a four-gallon jug of whisky, in addition to a
few graduate students, if someone was willing to pay for the
expedition. Easy enough.
Tracy Wuster
On Wed, Aug 29, 2012 at 2:57 PM, Terry Ballard <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
>
> I'm less optimistic. I suspect that the closest thing we will hear to
> Twain's actual voice is Hal Holbrook. I read somewhere that when he was
> starting out he found Isabel Lyons living in New York and she coached him
> on Twain's voice. However, I would be really happy if somebody proved me
> wrong about an actual recording.
>
>
>
> --
>
>
> Terry Ballard
> Assistant Director of Technical Services for Library Systems
> The New York Law School
> 185 West Broadway, New York, NY, 10013
> 212-431-2106
> http://www.terryballard.org
> Author of the book "Google this" http://googlethisforlibraries.com
>
> "My memory has a mind of its own."
|
