Johnny weissmuller tarzan
A note sung by a female opera soprano, with the speed varied to produce a fluttery soundĦ. A track of a hyena howl, played backwardsģ. A second track of Weismuller’s voice, amplifiedĢ. Reportedly, they added and mixed the following:ġ. Weismuller later said his famous version of the Tarzan yell was inspired by the yodeling of his German neighbors, along with his own success in a yodeling contest he’d won as a boy.īut MGM, the studio that made the first Tarzan movies with Weissmuller, claimed to have enhanced the yell in post-production. Three years later, Johnny Weissmuller, an Olympic swimmer with no acting experience, stepped into the loincloth and defined the role – and the yell - for decades to come. Sadly, it sounded like the wailing of a drunken sports fan: Then in 1929, an early talkie called Tarzan the Tiger featured actor Frank Merrill making the first recorded attempt at the yell. But those silent films left audiences to imagine the majestic sound of the yell. The yell was first introduced in the pages of Tarzan of the Apes, the 1912 novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, where he described it as sounding like “the victory cry of the bull ape.” Over the next fifteen years, Tarzan swung unto the silver screen several times. Was it really Weissmuller’s voice? Or was it something more complex? The Tarzan yell has long been one of Hollywood’s most recognizable and iconic sound bites, right up there with Rhett Butler’s “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn” and Captain Kirk’s “Khaaaaaaannnnnn!”īut exactly how that jungle cry was produced remains a mystery.
#Johnny weissmuller tarzan movie
But the origin of Hollywood’s iconic jungle cry is shrouded in mystery.īack in 1932, in movie theaters across the country, the actor Johnny Weissmuller stood high on a cliff and let fly with a savage cry, roughly translated as “Aah-eeh-ah-eeh-aaaaaah-eeh-ah-eeh-aaaaah!”