Long before he played Ellis DeWald, the shady head of security at Wonder World, in “Beverly Hills Cop III,” Timothy Carhart studied acting here in the early '70s.
It was an admittedly “hazy” time in his life, but he’ll never forget one particular speech training course as a freshman:
“This was a class in the acting curriculum geared towards teaching us freshmen thespians to master standard stage speech, a kind of neutral, vaguely intelligent-sounding manner of speaking, free from any regionalisms. We would stand one by one and intone solemnly, ‘Those old folks don’t float,’ being careful to round out the vowels to absurd proportions.
“Imagine our chagrin when in walks a grad student named Beth Henley to teach the newly formed class. Beth, who would go on to win the Pulitzer for penning ‘Crimes of the Heart’ and many other wonderful plays and films, alas, had zero business teaching stage speech with her pronounced southern drawl. ‘Those old folks don’t float’ came out ‘Thaus awl falks don’ flote.’”
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