What Is The Wilhelm Scream?

For those of you who are avid movie goers, you may be familiar with the Wilhelm scream, but may not know what it is.

Here is a video of the scream (3 seconds):

Recognize it? That's because according to Wikipedia, the Wilhelm scream has been used in over 360 movies and television episodes.

Here is a video of the scream in action (2 minutes 58 seconds):

The first clip in the video above is of a film called The Charge at Feather River which was a 1953 film featuring private Wilhelm, where the Wilhelm scream gets its name, as Wilhelm was the first named character associated with the scream. According to Wikipedia, this film was the third movie to use this effect, but the first time a Warner Brothers movie featured the scream from its stock sound library.

The first use of the scream was in the 1951 movie called Distant Drums, where the noise was used as a sound effect to mimic the scream of a man being dragged underwater by an alligator.

Here is a video of the first ever Wilhelm scream:

(33 seconds)

The Wilhelm scream's revival began in the 1970's, where students at USC slipped the scream into the films they were working on. One of those students, Ben Burtt, became the sound designer for the Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies, and started hiding the scream in scenes of some of his movies. Other filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino and Peter Jackson noticed this, and began incorporating the sound into their movies as an homage to Burtt.

Who is the original voice actor responsible for the Wilhelm scream?

Evidence suggest the scream was originally the work of actor Sheb Wooley, who also happened to be the singer of the 1958 song "Purple People Eater." Although there is no factual proof to verify this, Sheb Wooley was one of a few actors who were called back to do voiceover work for Distant Drums, the first movie to feature the scream. Unfortunately, Wooley died in 2003, but his wife Linda has claimed she believes it is his scream.

Sheb Wooley

Ever since Burtt used the scream in the Star Wars movies, the usage of the scream has increased tenfold, with appearances in films like Toy Story and Spaceballs.

The first time I heard about the scream, I started noticing it every time it was used. Now that you are familiar with the scream, you might, too.

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_scream
http://mentalfloss.com/article/60236/where-did-wilhelm-scream-come-and-why-do-so-many-filmmakers-use-it
https://www.damninteresting.com/the-wilhelm-scream/

Let me know what y'all think!