They must have liked the Wilhelm Scream a lot, because they ended up using it two more times in the film, once when a soldier is killed,

and another for

an American Indian

warrior in battle.

The Charged

Feather River was the film that gave Wilhelm its name, but it was the second film it was used in. What was the first? It started at Warner Brothers. The first film it was in was a western called Distant Drum, a Gary Cooper western. Distant Drum was released two years before the Charged at Feather River in 1951. And it had a scene where a man is walking across the Florida Everglades with other soldiers, and he's bitten and dragged underwater by an alligator. And they needed a scream for that. Ben found a memo in the Warner Brothers archives that said that several people came in to do sort of post vocals for the film, and we're pretty sure that the scream was recorded in that session. And one of the gentlemen on the list of people was a guy named Sheb Wully, who is most famous for his pop song, a Purple People leader. It was a one-eyed one horn flying Purple People leader. But he was a character actor, and he was in a lot of these old westerns. We're pretty sure that he is responsible for the scream. And many years later, I was able to put Ben Burt in touch with Sheb's widow, and she was delighted. And she actually remembered that Sheb used to talk about going in to do sessions like that and screams and things like that. So we're like 99% sure it's Sheb Wully. Sheb Wully sounds like a fascinating guy, a singer, an on-screen actor, a voice actor. But how was the Wilhelm scream actually captured on tape? Well, thanks to Steve, we've acquired the full-length original recording of the session. It was recorded from a Warner Brothers soundstage in 1951 on the set of Distant Drums. Remember, Sheb is not actually in a river surrounded by alligators. He's trying to create the sound of tremendous pain, agony, and fear, but from the safe surroundings of a film lot. The session starts out. You hear several people on the stage. We believe it was actually recorded on a filming soundstage and not a recording stage, because you hear several people milling about. And then you hear someone slate through and he says, man, get in bed and alligator and he screams. And you hear a director like shutting everyone up. Hey, go out for me. And then he tells the guy, okay, and he asks for the first scream.

Okay, ready to go in. And it's pretty

good. It's like a quick scream. He does another one.

And then he asks for

a little direction. The

first one you did up here was much better.