Hi- I’ve enjoyed your WALTER TETLEY website very much! Something I keep seeing is what is described as Frees’s SIDNEY GREENSTREET voice. I always thought that voice was supposed to resemble ORSON WELLES. Am i mistaken? I’m no authority, but as a musician and sound engineer for 25 years i DO have very good ears! Please advise. Best, Steve B
Hi Steve:
No……big, BIG difference between the voice of Orson Welles and Sydney Greenstreet. Welles had a very dramatic, strong, even booming voice (when he needed it to be). Greenstreet always sounded like an old man, which he was (he was fairly old, once he got popular during the era of the Talkies; he was at least in the advanced years of mid life, by that time). He also often had a silly giggle, when he talked. You can even hear that giggle in some of his films………..like Casablanca or the Maltese Falcon. Paul Frees, of course, exaggerated his giggle.
If you click on Paul Frees and the Poster People on our web page………….Then click on the song that Paul did, in the voice of Syndey Greenstreet, (Sugar, Sugar from the Archies), you will definitely note a difference between Welles and Greenstreet’s voices.
Thanks very much for you email and for your interest!
Brian