First, I’d like to thank DeFacto Sound for reminding me of this fine piece of industry history!
One sound effect that has found a following with many sound editors and observant movie fans is a distinctive scream named Wilhelm.
The Genesis Of The Wilhelm Scream
As is usually the case with the making of a movie, the scream for that character was recorded later. Six short pained screams were recorded in a single take, which was slated “man getting bit by an alligator, and he screams.” The fifth scream was used for the soldier – but the 4th, 5th, and 6th screams recorded in the session were also used earlier in the film when three Indians are shot, one after another, during a raid on a fort.
After “Distant Drums,” the recording was archived into the studio’s sound effects library, and was re-used in many Warner Bros. productions.
Up until the mid-70’s, the scream recording was used exclusively in Warner Bros. productions, including “Them!” (1954), “Land of the Pharaohs” (1955), “The Sea Chase” (1955), “Sergeant Rutledge” (1960), “PT-109″ (1963) and “The Green Berets (1968).
One person who noticed the same distinctive scream reoccurring in so many movies was sound effects fan Ben Burtt. Ben and his friends in the cinema department at USC, Rick Mitchell and Richard Anderson, noticed that a scream was popping up in a lot of movies. One of the films they made together, a swashbuckler parody “The Scarlet Blade” (1974) included the scream – which they borrowed off another film’s audio track.
Ben adopted the scream as a kind of personal sound signature, and included it in all the “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones” films, and many of the other films he has worked on including “More American Graffiti” (1979) and “Willow” (1988).
Ben’s friend Richard Anderson also continued the tradition. Both Anderson and Burtt worked on “Raiders of the Lost Ark” (1981), and Richard used the screams in the film’s truck chase – one of the sequences he cut sounds for himself.
Richard also used it in many of the films he supervised sound editing for, including “Poltergeist” (1982), “Batman Returns” (1992), “Planet of the Apes” (2001), “Agent Cody Banks” (2003), and “Madagascar” (2005).
Wilhelm occasionally pops up on television shows. Besides its use in a number of shows produced at Warner Bros. in the ’50s and ’60s, including “Maverick,” it was in episodes of “The X-Files,” “Angel,” and “Family Guy.” It has found its way into a few commercials as well – for Dell Computers and Comcast.
Many fans of the Wilhelm Scream have long wondered who originally performed the scream. No specific documentation has been found attributing the scream to any one person, but Ben Burtt has been researching the matter.
Between his work on the last “Star Wars” films, he has visited Warner Bros. to gather more information. He discovered a file for “Distant Drums,” which contained paperwork that was left over from the picture editor when the film was completed. One of the papers was a short list of names of actors who were scheduled to come in to perform various lines of dialogue for miscellaneous roles in the movie. After reviewing the names and even listening to their voices, one person seemed to be the most likely suspect.
Sheb Wooley - The Screamer
He played one of the four gunslingers that stalked Gary Cooper in the classic “High Noon” (1953), and starred on the hit TV series “Rawhide” as scout Pete Nolan. He also appeared in “Giant” (1956), “The Outlaw Josey Wales” (1976), “Silverado” (1985) and even the film adaptation of his song “Purple People Eater” (1988).
Sheb played the uncredited role of Private Jessup in “Distant Drums,” and was one of the few actors assembled for the recording of additional vocal elements for the film. It is very likely he was asked on the spot to perform other things for the film, including the screams for a man being bitten by an alligator.
Here’s where I get to touch a little of this history! I once had the honor of backing up Sheb for a concert performance. He was a kind man and a smokin’ live performer. I get to say that I played with the “Purple People Eater” dude and the creator of the Wilhelm scream. How cool is that? 
The Wilhelm Scream continues to be heard in new films every year. See all the known films that contain the Wilhelm Scream
I’d like to express a big thank you to Hollywood Lost And Found for their research and archive on this precious little nugget of industry history.
