Yeah, there are a lot of elderly folks in NYC who use something like the Mid-Atlantic accent. Today it sounds made up, as if they learned English from old movies.

I imagine it sounds impossibly plummy to younger Americans, much like the 1930's aristo RP English spoken by, for instance, Deborah Devonshire (see youtube interview) sounds to younger British people. I like the sound of that mid-Atlantic though. It was always a pleasure to hear Gore Vidal interviewed - so articulate, insightful and witty, all the time in those rolling candences...

Right, Gore Vidal is a perfect example of the elderly-NYC mid-Atlantic accent. Except for me it works better on TV than sitting across a coffee table. It just sounds fake to me--some part of my brain can't believe that these people really grew up talking like that.