William Powell – Smooth Operator
(Collier’s Magazine, 1940)
This is a 1940 article that recalls William Powell’s climb to the top of the Hollywood pantheon:
“When the talking pictures came in, the transition didn’t bother him at all. Many of the silent stars turned out to have voices that squeaked like the brakes of a 1914 automobile. Powell had been training his voice ever since the fateful days of high school.”











