1940s / The Real Voice of General Patton

Probably the most common picture we have of "old blood and guts", General George Patton, is George C. Scott's portrayal. Scott's gravely baritone voice would seem perfect for the part. The real General Patton hated his voice. It tended to be high-pitched, nasal, irritating, and at times, it bordered on effeminate. He hated public speaking because of this. To my knowledge, there exist only two short clips of him speaking. Because of his use of vivid imagery, cursing, ribald innuendos, and general vulgarity, his wife had all audio tapes of him speaking destroyed after his death. It was an effort on her part to clean up his image for posterity. He died in an auto accident in Europe after the end of WWII. One of his most famous speeches, is one given in front of The Third Army to prepare them for the long road to Berlin. This is the speech we hear in the opening moments of the movie "Patton". It was considerably sanitized for the movie in an effort to prevent people from avoiding the film. The actual text of that speech can be found in a number of places on the internet. He wrote of why he used vulgar language in addressing his troops. He felt they would better remember the important points if they were punched up with ribald expletives.