The 83rd Academy Award-winning movies gave us a look into many career paths – from the entrepreneur’s highs and lows of The Social Network to the competition and beauty of a professional dancer in Black Swan. We met “independent security consultants” in True Grit, investment bankers and rogue financiers in the documentary Inside Job and some strange virtual reality workers in Inception.
The biggest winner, The King’s Speech, brings us the most intimate look at the career of a speech coach. The movie tells the story of Lionel Logue, helped Prince Albert overcome his fear of public speaking and his stutter as he ascended to become King George VI just as World War II begins. The movie won four Oscars.
The King’s teacher, played by actor Geoffrey Rush, didn’t have the credentials or training to work as a modern-day speech pathologist. His background as an actor and elocution instructor, aided war veterans in Australia left with impaired speech and trouble breathing. Today, most speech pathologists have a master’s degree, and 47 U.S. states require a license and ongoing educational attainment.
Some 119,300 people work as U.S.-based speech-language pathologists, half of them in educational settings, and their career prospects are growing faster than average, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook. Their median salary was $62,930, though the highest 10 percent earned more than $99,000 a year. Those who work in nursing homes earned the highest median, $79,120, while those in elementary schools had paychecks – and work times – that were considerably smaller ($58,140).
Other careers brought to life in The King’s Speech include:
- Radio announcer. So they don’t use those big circular microphones any more and they hardly ever get to cover royalty at a factory opening. But the BBC employs hundreds of announcers and news staff, and in the United States another 51,000 or so work as radio or television announcers, according to the the Occupational Outlook Handbook. Like many jobs in the entertainment – media fields, competition is keen, even for those who specialize – in sports coverage or by genre of music. Pay sounds low too – the median is $27,520, and some start at minimum wage.
- Military officers. The King saw himself as a naval officer, not an heir to the throne. Today’s military has an array of jobs that its officers could hold, from managing supplies to training recruits to leading platoons. An estimated 232,000 military officers serve in the four U.S. military branches, one-third of them with the Army, according to federal figures. The jobs, of course, pose serious hazards, during the King’s era and in ours.
- Nanny. Whenever you saw the royal couple’s two princess daughters, somewhere nearby was their nanny, or perhaps a couple of them. This career was less visible than some others; their role then as now is often undervalued. Nannies toil under various titles in the United States, and few work in surroundings as beautiful as Buckingham Palace. The 1.3 million child care workers in this country are more likely to work in a pre-school or elementary school. According to the Occupational Outlook Handbook, their earnings are almost as small as the children they care for: median pay is around $9.12 an hour.
- Costume and set designer. OK, this career worked behind the scenes to dress the King elegantly for important speeches and find the right furniture for the speech coach’s rather faded apartment. They also designed or acquired ball gowns, jewelry, rugs and military uniforms aplenty. They’re a rare breed – only 15 or so work full-time in or near Washington, D.C., according to Rosemary Pardee, who has been in the field for 35 years. The government counts only 22,700 fashion designers – which includes those who design the gorgeous dresses worn to the Oscars as well as work clothes and theater and movie costume designers.
The field is “not so financially rewarding” for most, yet “It’s so incredibly rewarding artistically and creativity,” Pardee told me. Her favorite part: As actors don her creations, “they cease to be a costume and become the clothing of the character….the magic moment.”
For those who work in films all the time and those whose careers never intersect with royalty or Hollywood, the magic moments make worthwhile our long hours, puny paychecks, stresses and stuttered missteps.
More Information:
The American Speech-Language Hearing Association has a variety of information on careers and research for the profession.
More resources will be added later on. VLE
This piece is copyright Vickie Elmer. To republish it, please contact me at Vickie.Elmer@gmail.com
