Pol's vowels

[sagehen]

Noticeable in today's news coverage, that, even in speaking with people
from Dixon IL, the pronunciation RAYG at N seems now to be universal.  Legend
has it that it was Nancy who changed it from the REEG at N by which he was
known when a movie actor, & presumably before that.
Cheney has been granted a similar vowel switch (from CHEE-NEY to CHAY-NEY).
Is this supposed to sound classier? (The name of the art historian, Sheldon
Cheney, was also pronounced chAYney by a profesor of mine, though a friend
of Cheney's told me chEEney was correct.)
Brian Mulroney, PM of Canada in the '80s, pronounced his name MULROONEY,
though relatives of his in Ireland said they thought that an affectation.
In the case of Colin Powell, the change to the long O in Colin is more in
keeping with (what seems to be) ordinary American practice, similar to that
found in Basil & Cecil, where the first vowels are lengthened.
A. Murie