“The woman who has done all [these incredibly diverse accents] merely because of her passion for eavesdropping, is Minerva Pious (1903 – 1979) thirty-odd years old, a native of Odessa, Russia, who was brought to the States as an infant and grew up in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Raucous, mouthy and hilarious on the radio, she’s personally a retiring little woman who enjoys good books and good music and things generally classed as cultural. She emerged from Bridgeport High School with a good clear American voice, but now, as possessor of eighteen dialects, she has made some people forget that she can speak like an average American. Once when a radio program needed somebody to play a straight American roll, her name was suggested. A radio executive who should have known better said in great surprise: ‘Why, she can’t play that part. She speaks English with a foreign accent!'”
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