Wilhelm scream
{{Short description|Widely used sound effect}}
{{About|2=the band|3=A Wilhelm Scream|4=the song by James Blake|5=The Wilhelm Scream}}
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| caption1 = Illustration of Wilhelm scream by WikiWorld
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The Wilhelm scream is an iconic stock sound effect that has been used in many films, TV series, and other media, first originating from the 1951 film Distant Drums. The scream is often used in scenarios when someone is shot, falls from a great height, or is thrown from an explosion. The scream is named after Private Wilhelm, a character in The Charge at Feather River, a 1953 Western in which the character gets shot in the thigh with an arrow. This was its first use following its inclusion in the Warner Bros. stock sound library, although The Charge at Feather River was the third film to use the effect. The scream is thought to be voiced by actor Sheb Wooley. It was featured in all of the original Star Wars films.
History
The Wilhelm scream originates from a series of sound effects recorded for the 1951 movie Distant Drums. In a scene from the film, soldiers fleeing a Seminole group are wading through a swamp in the Everglades, and one of them is bitten and dragged underwater by an alligator. The screams for that scene, and other scenes in the movie, were recorded later in a single take. The recording was titled "Man getting bit by an alligator, and he screams." The fifth take of the scream was used for the soldier in the alligator scene.{{efn|The fourth, fifth, and sixth screams recorded in the session were used earlier in the film, reportedly when several Native Americans are shot during a raid on a U.S. Army fort.}} The 4th take would later become known as the "Wilhelm scream". It is thought to have been voiced by actor Sheb Wooley (who also played the uncredited role of Pvt. Jessup in Distant Drums).
Because the costs of creating sound effects were high at that time, the scream was reused in a number of other Warner Bros. films in that era.{{cite video | url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Fm39bUqjqU | title = An iconic Hollywood sound effect called the Wilhelm scream was uncovered in an archive | publisher = CBS News | date = June 28, 2023 | access-date = June 30, 2023 }} Other films using the scream include Springfield Rifle (1952),{{cite web | url=https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/wilhelm-scream-explained-75982/ | title=Wilhelm Scream: The History of Film's Most Popular Sound Effect | date=February 15, 2023 }}{{cite web | url=https://www.ladbible.com/entertainment/film/wilhelm-scream-sound-effect-origin-explained-film-384254-20240726 | title=Origin of iconic sound effect you've probably heard that has appeared in over 400 films | date=July 26, 2024 }}{{cite web | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mp_tMV9YoU | title=- YouTube | website=YouTube }} The Charge at Feather River (1953),{{cite web |url=https://www.thevintagenews.com/2018/04/23/wilhelm-scream/ |title=The origin of the Wilhelm scream, the most famous sound effect in the history of cinema |first=Domagoj |last=Valjak |date=April 23, 2018 |access-date=August 24, 2018 |work=The Vintage News}} A Star Is Born (1954), Them! (1954), Land of the Pharaohs (1955), The Sea Chase (1955), Sergeant Rutledge (1960), PT 109 (1963), The Wild Bunch (1969),{{cite web |title=Facts about "The Wild Bunch" (p3) : Classic Movie Hub (CMH) |url=https://www.classicmoviehub.com/facts-and-trivia/film/the-wild-bunch-1969/page/3/ |website=Classic Movie Hub - CMH |access-date=June 17, 2023 |archive-date=April 7, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160407193003/http://www.classicmoviehub.com/facts-and-trivia/film/the-wild-bunch-1969/page/3/ |url-status=live }} and The Green Berets (1968).
The Wilhelm scream became iconic in popular culture when motion picture sound designer Ben Burtt, who had come across the original recording on a studio archive sound reel, incorporated it into the scene in Star Wars (1977) in which Luke Skywalker shoots a Stormtrooper off a ledge. The effect is heard as the Stormtrooper is falling. Burtt named the scream after Pvt. Wilhelm, a minor character from The Charge at Feather River who appears to emit the scream, and adopted it as his personal sound signature. Burtt also found use for the effect in More American Graffiti (1979); and over the next decades he incorporated it into other films that he worked on, such as Willow (1988), Gremlins, Anchorman, Die Hard with a Vengeance, Lethal Weapon 4, The Fifth Element and several George Lucas and Steven Spielberg films. Notably, the rest of the Star Wars films made under Lucas and all the Indiana Jones movies included the effect.{{efn|It was announced in February 2018 that the Star Wars franchise would no longer use the Wilhelm scream, with The Force Awakens (2015) being the last film in the series to use it.}}
Following its use in Star Wars, other sound designers have picked up and used the sound effect in works. Inclusion of the sound in films became a tradition among a certain community of sound designers. The National Science and Media Museum said that the Wilhelm scream had been featured in more than 400 films as of 2023.{{Cite web |last=Dudley |first=Joshua |date=June 22, 2023 |title=The Wilhelm Scream: The History of Film's Most Popular Sound Effect |url=https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/wilhelm-scream-explained-75982/ |website=Backstage}}
As of mid-2023, the scream had not been made available in any commercial sound effects library. The entire collection of original sources of the sound effects made by Sunset Editorial, which includes the Wilhelm scream, was donated to the USC School of Cinematic Arts in 1990. In 2023, Craig Smith released a copy of the complete recording from the original session on Freesound on behalf of the USC under the CC0 license, along with the rest of Sunset Editorial sound effects.{{cite web |url=https://blog.freesound.org/?p=1515 |title=Preserving the Sunset Editorial Sound Effects Library from the USC Archive |first=Craig |last=Smith |date=March 10, 2023 |access-date=April 8, 2023 |archive-date=April 8, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230408155643/https://blog.freesound.org/?p=1515 |url-status=live }} On May 20, 2023, the entire collection of Sunset Editorial SFX was mirrored in the Internet Archive (also under the CC0 license) for the purpose of enabling a wider distribution, especially thanks to its BitTorrent support.{{cite web |last1=Scott |first1=Jason |author1-link=Jason Scott |title=CRASH! BARK! BOOM! The USC Sound Effects Library |url=https://blog.archive.org/2023/05/20/crash-bark-boom-the-usc-sound-effects-library/ |website=Internet Archive |archive-url=https://archive.today/20230531185859/https://blog.archive.org/2023/05/20/crash-bark-boom-the-usc-sound-effects-library/ |archive-date=May 31, 2023 |date=May 20, 2023 |url-status=live}}
=Voice of the scream=
There is no definitive information identifying the original performer of the scream. However, research by Ben Burtt suggested that Sheb Wooley, best known for his 1958 novelty song "The Purple People Eater" and his character of American Indian scout Pete Nolan on the television series Rawhide, is likely to have been the voice actor who originally performed the scream. Wooley's widow, Linda Dotson, supported the view that it was Wooley's voice in a 2005 interview. Burtt discovered records at Warner Bros. from the editor of Distant Drums, including a short list of names of actors scheduled to record lines of dialogue for miscellaneous roles in the movie. Wooley was one of a few actors assembled for the recording of additional "pick-up" vocal elements for the film. Dotson confirmed Wooley's scream had been in many Westerns, adding that he "always used to joke about how he was so great about screaming and dying in films".
See also
Explanatory notes
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References
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{{cite news |url=https://www.thetimes.com/culture/tv-radio/article/aaaaaaaarrrrrrrrgggggghhh-v62r36ldbvv |title=Aaaaaaaarrrrrrrrgggggghhh!! (Paywalled) |last=Malvern |first=Jack |date=May 21, 2005 |newspaper=The Times |access-date=December 12, 2009 |archive-date=December 12, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171212084329/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/aaaaaaaarrrrrrrrgggggghhh-v62r36ldbvv |url-status=live }}
{{cite podcast |url= https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/segments/128898-wilhelm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220118130604/https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/segments/128898-wilhelm |title=Wilhelm |website=On the Media |publisher=WNYC Studios |date=December 30, 2005 |access-date=November 13, 2015|archive-date=January 18, 2022 |url-status=live }}
{{cite magazine | url=https://www.wired.com/entertainment/hollywood/magazine/15-10/st_scream |magazine=Wired |title=Cue the Scream: Meet Hollywood's Go-To Shriek |issue=10 |date=September 25, 2007 |first=James |last=Lee |volume=15 |access-date=December 26, 2017}}
{{cite news |url=https://abcnews.go.com/WN/story?id=3728693&page=1 |newspaper=ABC News |title=Does That Scream Sound Familiar? |date=October 14, 2007 |access-date=December 26, 2017 |archive-date=October 1, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171001220204/http://abcnews.go.com/WN/Story?id=3728693&page=1 |url-status=live }}
{{cite book |last=Rinzler |first=J. W. |title=The Sounds of Star Wars |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oCFlRwAACAAJ |year=2010 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=San Francisco |isbn=978-0-8118-7546-2 |pages=304 |access-date=September 13, 2020 |archive-date=November 6, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201106152645/https://books.google.com/books?id=oCFlRwAACAAJ |url-status=live }}
{{cite web |url=https://uproxx.com/hitfix/star-wars-wilhelm-scream/ |title=A 'Star Wars' Tradition Dating Back To The Original Movie Has Been Retired |first=Josh |last=Kurp |date=February 21, 2018 |access-date=August 24, 2018 |work=Uproxx |archive-date=August 24, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180824065756/https://uproxx.com/hitfix/star-wars-wilhelm-scream/ |url-status=live }}
{{cite web |url=https://www.cbr.com/star-wars-wilhelm-scream/ |title=Star Wars Has Abandoned the Iconic Wilhelm Scream |first=Ananda |last=Dillon |date=February 21, 2018 |access-date=August 24, 2018 |work=Comic Book Resources |archive-date=August 23, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180823233712/https://www.cbr.com/star-wars-wilhelm-scream/ |url-status=live }}
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External links
- [https://archive.org/details/WilhelmScreamSample Wilhelm Scream Sample (1951)] from The Community Audio collection at the Internet Archive
- [https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?keywords=wilhelm-scream List of "Wilhelm Scream" Titles] at IMDb.com
- Wilhelm Scream remastered files (free to use)
- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvmgHyPeAXI Wilhelm Scream Compilation] on YouTube.com; 14:06
- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BM_-TOMwMCA Female Wilhelm Scream] on YouTube; 0:04
- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Fm39bUqjqU CBS This Morning: An iconic Hollywood sound effect called the Wilhelm scream was uncovered in an archive June 25, 2023]
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