Speaking of Voices …..
While cogitating on Abe Lincoln’s voice, I got to thinking about George “Blood and Guts†Patton and his voice. Patton’s voice is historically morphing in our minds into that of George C. Scott. Who doesn’t remember the scene in the movie Patton where George C. Scott, as Patton, appears before a gigantic American and address the troops in England in June 1944? One of the great moments in film, that.
The bad news is that, just as Lincoln surely did not sound anything like Raymond Massey, General Patton didn’t sound anything like George C. Scott. Patton, like Lincoln, had a rather high-pitched voice.
The good news is that you can still hear a clip of Patton’s real voice .
The really excellent news is the text of the actual speech General Patton made to the troops in June 1944 has been discovered, and it is quite something. Turns out that the version for the movie had to be “cleaned up†quite a bit, because General Patton was not shy about using profanity, including the liberal dropping of “F-Bombs.â€
Here are some excerpts:
All through your Army careers, you men have bitched about what you call “chicken shit drilling”. That, like everything else in this Army, has a definite purpose. That purpose is alertness. Alertness must be bred into every soldier. I don’t give a fuck for a man who’s not always on his toes. You men are veterans or you wouldn’t be here. You are ready for what’s to come. A man must be alert at all times if he expects to stay alive. If you’re not alert, sometime, a German son-of-an-asshole-bitch is going to sneak up behind you and beat you to death with a sockful of shit!
(snip)
An Army is a team. It lives, sleeps, eats, and fights as a team. This individual heroic stuff is pure horse shit. The bilious bastards who write that kind of stuff for the Saturday Evening Post don’t know any more about real fighting under fire than they know about fucking!
(snip)
I don’t want to get any messages saying, “I am holding my position.” We are not holding a Goddamned thing. Let the Germans do that. We are advancing constantly and we are not interested in holding onto anything, except the enemy’s balls. We are going to twist his balls and kick the living shit out of him all of the time. Our basic plan of operation is to advance and to keep on advancing regardless of whether we have to go over, under, or through the enemy. We are going to go through him like crap through a goose; like shit through a tin horn!
Read the entire speech (and the background of its discovery) here.
I can only imagine what General Patton would think of the likes of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.
He has the “Ain’t-gonna-get-me-coppa’s” voice of the old movies. HA! The tape used might suffer from the slight Mickey-Mousitis of the voice that a lot of recordings from that time period do, too.
It is neat to hear Patton’s sense of humor.
Comment by RT — August 11, 2007 @ 3:26 pm
I’ve always been dissapointed that Patton died(was assassinated) before he could become president.
Love that speech, definitely a hell of a guy.
Comment by Hammer — August 11, 2007 @ 4:14 pm
Ha! great stuff, I’m reminded of some of YOUR tirades, Jim!
Comment by Mike — August 11, 2007 @ 5:01 pm
The real General Patton kind of sounds like he could have been in a 1930s Irish gangster / James Cagney / Pat O’Brien / or Bowery Boys movie. And he furthermore sounds like too nice of a guy. It threw me much like the first time I heard Rob Smith speak…I figured he’d have sounded like George C. Scott, too, but he seemed shockingly sweet and mild-mannered.
BTW, I think I’m with Bou on the Lincoln not having a deep booming voice thing. He definitely didn’t sound like Paul Robeson, but he certainly didn’t sound like Michael Jackson or Pee Wee Herman, either.
Comment by Erica — August 11, 2007 @ 5:45 pm
Gen. Patton at a Senate hearing with Reid and Pelosi sitting in…There’d be no pussyfooting around from the witness table that’s for damn sure. And the language would assure us that f*ckin’ little could be printed in the NYT the next day! And broadcast on the tube or over the air waves…nothing but *BEEP* this and *BEEP* that.
Comment by joated — August 11, 2007 @ 6:48 pm
I served under a couple that had the balls of Patton and talked about like him..but I also spent most of the time under some who were more politician than General because that is what it takes to make it to the flag ranks unless there is a war going on. And that is why when the shit hits the fan there is nobody with a command presence to clean it up..keep in mind that when WW Two started Ike wasn’t a General..
Comment by GUYK — August 11, 2007 @ 7:43 pm
“Eisenhower returned to the U.S. in 1939 and held a series of staff positions in Washington, D.C., California and Texas. In June 1941, he was appointed Chief of Staff to General Walter Krueger, Commander of the 3rd Army, at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas. He was promoted to brigadier general in September 1941. Although his administrative abilities had been noticed, on the eve of the U.S. entry into World War II he had never held an active command and was far from being considered as a potential commander of major operations”
Comment by GUYK — August 11, 2007 @ 7:45 pm
Well… believe it or not, I know someone who served with Patton. If I get a chance, I will ask him if his voice was as you hear it here or if is a case of ‘Mickey Mouseitis’ as someone put. He may remember.
Comment by Bou — August 11, 2007 @ 10:43 pm
Now, that was one motherfucking soldier.
Comment by Elisson — August 12, 2007 @ 10:37 pm
“beat you to death with a sock full of shit”! I love it–nothing wrong with plain speaking. He sure didn’t beat around the bush.
Comment by Trish Sablic — August 13, 2007 @ 12:15 am
Beat you to death with a sock full of shit!!!!!
My dad would have loved that comment …His favorite when someone pulled up behind him on the highway with highbeams on was “If I had a bag of shit ,I`d throw it out the window at em”. In later years after he had a colostomy he said “Goddam! now I got a bag of shit & I can`t throw it at em”. Even faced with adversity Dad had a sense of humor, though it be of the bathroom variety…. Rest in peace ‘Pop”
Comment by dudley1 — August 13, 2007 @ 7:46 pm
Word is… he had a terrible voice. I hear it was akin to a bike horn on a mac truck. Heh. But the jury is still out… I am hearing that 2nd hand. He is going to listen to the link tomorrow.
Comment by Bou — August 14, 2007 @ 10:59 pm
Got word. Manly man with a higher pitched voice. It was not mickey mousified. It truly was either high pitched or moderate… never fit his body, hence the mack truck and bike horn reference.
Comment by Bou — August 15, 2007 @ 10:29 pm