The Scream That's in Every Film
Once you know it, you hear it everywhere: the same man's scream, recorded in 1951, in hundreds of films, from westerns to Star Wars.
What was reported
In 1951, for the western Distant Drums, a set of screams was recorded for a scene where a man is dragged into a swamp by an alligator. One of them, a short, high yell, was kept in the Warner Bros sound library and reused again and again, including for a character named Private Wilhelm in a 1953 film.
In the 1970s, the sound designer Ben Burtt noticed it in old films, nicknamed it the Wilhelm scream, and put it into Star Wars. Since then, it has been used in hundreds of films, television shows and video games, as an in-joke among sound designers.
Explanations offered
The scream is a real recording, probably voiced by the actor and singer Sheb Wooley, who was in Distant Drums. It's one of the most famous sound effects in history. Many people find it eerie to keep hearing the same man scream across decades of films.
- When
- Recorded in 1951
- Where
- Burbank, California, USA
- Witnesses
- Film-goers around the world
- Status
- Explained
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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