Over the years the many versions of the birth of the famousWeissmuller Tarzan yell have approached urban legend status. So many differentstories abound from so many different sources that the truth may neverbe known.THESOUND OF THE FAMOUS TARZAN YELL
A REGISTERED SENSORY MARK
From the List of Sound Trademarks (Sensory Marks), United States Registrations
Serial No: 75326989 ~ Registration No: 2210506
Current Status: Registered Applicant/Owner: Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.Description:
The mark is a yell consisting of a series of approximately ten sounds,alternating between the chest and falsetto registers of the voice, as follow- 1) a semi-long sound in the chest register, 2) a short sound up an intervalof one octave plus a fifth from the preceding sound, 3) a short sound downa Major 3rd from the preceding sound, 4) a short sound up a Major 3rd fromthe preceding sound, 5) a long sound down one octave plus a Major 3rd fromthe preceding sound, 6) a short sound up one octave from the precedingsound, 7) a short sound up a Major 3rd from the preceding sound, 8) a shortsound down a Major 3rd from the preceding sound, 9) a short sound up aMajor 3rd from the preceding sound, 10) a long sound down an octave plusa fifth from the preceding sound.EVOLUTIONOF THE VICTORY CRY OF TARZAN OF THE APES
The famous Tarzan victory cry was introduced to the world in EdgarRice Burroughs' first Tarzan novel, Tarzan of the Apes. But theactual sound of this jungle cry was left open to interpretation. In alllikelihood the first Tarzan yell was created in 1918 by the first screenactor to portray the Lord of the Jungle on film: Elmo Lincoln. Unfortunatelythis was a silent film and the sound of Elmo's original yell will probablyremain a mystery forever.Tarzan the Tiger (1929) had a crude soundtrack (sound films werejust starting to appear) and so it was Frank Merrill who was the firstto voice a Tarzan yell. Unfortunately, it came off sounding as if an elephanthad stepped on his toes.
The next known Tarzan yell was voiced by James Pierce in the 1932 Tarzanradio serial. The cry actually sounded like "Taaar-maaan-ganiiii," whichis means "white ape." ERB was quite involved in this production andsince Pierce was his son-in-law there it is quite possible that this isthe cry the Ape Man's creator had in mind. This cry was also used by HermanBrix (Bruce Bennett) in the ERB produced film The New Adventures ofTarzan.
For many years Johnny Weissmuller claimed that he had personally createdthe yell that has become most identified with Tarzan. He gave many versionsof how the yell came about, but the one he told most often was that hesaid he had been inspired by the yodelling of his German neighbours andby his success in a yodelling contest he had won as a boy. He explainedthat the same recorded version was used over and over to save his voice.Maureen O'Sullivan and Johnny's son have always supported Johnny's story.
The popular MGM/Weissmuller version has been dubbed in for a longstring of later actors who couldn't perform it themselves. Johnnywent on to devise an alternate yell for his later RKO Tarzan films butthe live version he was known to perform regularly was always the one fromthe MGM days. It became so famous that it was even recorded for broadcastto the soldiers on the battlefront during World War II. Legend has it thatwhen Castro's forces were about to take over Cuba in 1959, rebels ambushedJohnny's car on the way to a Havana celebrity golf tournament. Johnnyconvinced them that they weren't rich Cubans by giving the famous movieTarzan yell. The rebel soldiers immediately recognized the moviehero and gave him and his party safe passage to the golf course. Johnnyalways swore that his Tarzan yell had saved his life in this situation.In the 1970s Johnny attended a gathering of Edgar Rice Burroughs fans inLos Angeles, and standing on a balcony overlooking the hotel lobby, helet loose with the immortal yell; and everyone within earshot stopped whatthey were doing to look up at him because they instantly recognized it,whether they were hotel clerks, bellhops or tourists. And when theysaw that it really was him and not an incredible simulation, they smiledand applauded elatedly. Weissmuller actually became so attached to hisTarzan yell, that his last request was for a recording of it to be playedat his funeral.
THEQUEST FOR TARZAN'S YELL
Through the years, however, a multitude of different stories and"urban legends" have sprung up around the yell's origins:The American Film Institute at one time stated a man named J. D. Jewkeshad been hired to voice double the Tarzan cry for Weissmuller.
Johnny Sheffield, who started in the Tarzan series as Boy in 1939 hasno recollection of Weissmuller ever mentioning yodelling as a boy. He alsorecalls Fritz Steinkamp working on the yell on a Metro soundstage.
It has also been suggested that the cry was created through using acombination of voices of studio technicians.
MGM often claimed that their sound department had augmented Weissmuller'syowl with various animal sounds.
Another rumour has it that an operatic tenor was used to record partof the yell sequence.
Douglas Shearer (r) at the 1935 Academy Awards dinner,March 1936,
holding the award for sound recording for NaughtyMarietta from presenter Hunt StrombergSamuel Marx, in his book Mayer and Thalberg: The Make-Believe Saints,wrote that the cry was concocted by Montreal-born, DouglasShearer, the older brother of Norma Shearer. He reportedly recordeda shout that he electronically enhanced and ran backwards. This would explainwhy the yell is palindromic, i.e. it sounds the same whether played forwardor backward -- the second half of the cry is the first half in reverse.
Turner Classic Movies reported that sound technicians created the famedTarzan yell by amplifying and repeating Weissmuller's voice. They evenplayed parts of his yell backwards to get the right effect. The resultwas so distinctive it turned up in Tarzan films for almost 50 years.
Another version that made the rounds was that sound technicians createdthe famed Tarzan yell by amplifying and repeating Weissmuller's voice.They even played parts of his yell backwards to get the right effect. Theresult was so distinctive it turned up in Tarzan films for almost 50 years.
The most incredible version came from Tom Held, an MGM film editor,who claimed that the yell was a combination of many different sound tracks,each laid upon the other: Johnny's voice, the howl of a hyena, the bleatof a camel, the growl of a dog, and the plucked sound of a violin G-string.Curiously, he also claimed they hadn't perfected it untilTarzan andHis Mate, but a comparison of the so-called finished version with theearlier one shows no difference between them.
In "Tarzan: How To Become A Great Writer" in the July 29, 1939 issueof The Saturday EveningPost, Alva Johnson expanded on this MGM version a bit:
M-G-M spared no expense on the Tarzanyell. Miles of sound track of human, animal and instruments sounds weretested in collecting the ingredients of an unearthly howl. The cry of amother camel robbed of her young was used until still more mournful soundswere found. A combination of five different sound tracks is used todayfor the Tarzan yell.Weissmuller always disputed claims that his Tarzan yell was a blend ofvarious voices and sounds. "My parents came from Austria and I used toyodel with them when I was a kid;" he said. ''When it came time to do theyell I just yodeled."
These are:1. Soundtrack of Weissmuller yelling,amplified.In the experimental stage the five sound tracks wereplayed over five different loud-speakers. From time to time the speed ofeach sound track was varied and the volume amplified or diminished. Whenthe orchestration of the yell was perfected, the five loudspeakers wereplayed simultaneously and the blended sounds recorded on the master soundtrack. By constant practice Weissmuller is now able to let loose an almostperfect imitation of the sound track.
2. Track of hyena howl, run backward and volumediminished.
3. Soprano note sung by Lauren Bridges, recordedon sound track at reduced speed; then re-recorded at varying speeds togive a "flutter" in sound.
4. Growl of a dog, recorded very faintly.
5. Raspy note of violin G-string, recorded veryfaintly.According to George of the Jungle star Brendan Fraser's recentresearch the cry was created by the voices of two singers mixedin with various other sound effects.
The Tarzan yell became a running gag on the CBS-TV comedy variety showTHE CAROL BURNETT SHOW (1967-78) when audience members week after weekasked Carol to do her version of the Tarzan's noisy cry. She learned theyell as a child while play acting the role of Sheena of the Jungle.
The Tarzan yell has often found its way into a long string feature filmsincluding James Bond's Octopuss*, Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith
THEYELL LEGEND MYSTERY KEEPS GROWING
Other versions of the origins of the yell keep turning up. Recently,Bill Hillman, the Webmaster and Editor of the Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.Websites and Webzines, received the following documents from the daughterof the late Lloyd Thomas Leech:Introductory Letter:
August 26, 2005
Dear Friend,
I was wondering if you would be interested in the historybehind the MGM Tarzan yell and who the original voice was behind the yell.Please read the following transcript of the re-telling of the actual seriesof events that took place in the early 30's. I've also sent it as a WordPadatt. Enjoy.
CarolynFollow Up Letter:
Dear Bill,
Thank you so much for reading my message to you. It meansso much to me that you have such an enthusiasm for this bit of incrediblehistory. It would be an honor to share his story with the world via whatevermeans possible.My father, Lloyd Thomas Leech, was writing his memoirsbefore he passed away in 2003. My brother and I are in the process of goingthrough my his belongings. I will try to get some photos to you as soonas possible.
He was an Opera singer during the 40's and 50's and somein the 60's. He won the Chicagoland Music Festival on August 17, 1946.He went on to sing throughout the U.S. touring with several Opera companies.If you would like to see an older picture of him he is included in BeverlySills' autobiography called "Bubbles". He sang the role of Don Jose oppositeSills when she sang her only role as "Carmen" (instead of Michaela, herusual role) in the Opera "Carmen". Just look for his name in the back ofthe book. He was offered the "Met" three times but turned them down.I could go on but it would take too long to tell all that there is to tell.He was a "larger than life" kind of person.
Thank you again,
The "Tarzan Yell" andIts Origin:
CarolynThis is a transcript, copied wordfor word*, of the cassette recording of Lloyd Thomas Leech (1914-2003),the original creator and voice of the Tarzan yell. It recalls the eventsthat took place in the early 1930s when the Tarzan yell was first recordedfor film. It was recorded (for historys sake) at the home of his daughter,Carolyn (Leech) Reed, in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, on Sunday, August 9, 1987.Those present were Lloyd Leech, Dolores Leech, Carolyn (Leech) Reed, DannyReed and Victoria Reed.
*I , Carolyn, tried to write this down exactly as hespoke on the recording. There are a lot of pauses and broken phrases, butif you hear the recording in person you can hear the wonderful flavorof my fathers speaking voice. He was a remarkable man.
When I was a kid going to schoolback in Minneapolis, uh, I'd been a, an avid reader of all kinds of stories.. . Jack London, Edgar Rice Burroughs, people like that. Of courseone of my favorites of Edgar Rice Burroughs was Tarzan of the Apes.It really, it really, uh, made me, uh, made me feel good to read and toimmagine what it would be like to be able to swing through the trees andhave enormous strength, and so on. In fact, I use to emmulate him gettingup, getting up into the, . . . we had a whole string of poplar trees thatwent out from our, our farm buildings out to the road and they were aboutten or fifteen, maybe twenty feet apart, and I use to climb up into thetop of them and get them to swaying untill they would reach the next treeand then I'd grab that tree and let loose of the one that I was in andthen sway again, how I ever kept from getting killed I'll never know.But, um, Tarzan was sort of a favorite of mine and when,uh,when we moved down to the cities, and I, and I, the family had moved aheadof me and I had stayed up on the farm, and when I came back down to thecities I went to school at, uh, Boy's Vocational and, uh, at that timethey had "Tarzan" on the radio, radio program, and he always made the yell,"Tarmanghaneeee!"which didn't sound very wild to me. And I always imaginedthat, that if he gave the battle cry of the great Ape that it wouldn'tbe "Tarmanghanee", that's for sure. And I often wondered what kind of asound he would really make.
Well, about that time, this was in the early thirties,about thirty-one or thirty-two, I don't recall which year it was, it wasone of those years, and, uh, we were all very excited about the fact thatJohnny Weissmuller, who had made the Tarzan picture, that picture was coming,uh, to Minneapolis, it was going to be at the Minnesota Theater, the premierwas going to be there, because Maureen O'Sullivan, who played Jane, hadlived in the area, and, and, that was the place where they had chosen tohave the mid-western premier, at the Minnesota Theater, and, uh, this wasabout, oh, maybe six or eight months before the picture was coming. Butit had already been announced and that the picture was there and they weremaking it and getting it, and getting it all set for distribution, andI didn't know it at the time but they hadn't, they hadn't yet chosen thevoice for Tarzan, what he would do, what his yell would be.
And the advance man came, this was about five or six monthsbefore the picture came, and, uh,we learned from him that they had not,oh I, he came to the school, he was advertising or doing the public relations,and we were gathered around him in the assembly hall, he had spoken atthe assembly where there were four or five hundred people, students andeverybody, the faculty, and he told about it and held, had big large picturesof how the picture was made, and so on.
After the assembly was over we, I went up to the platformand wanted to talk to him, and of course there were a lot of us gathering,gathering around him talking, and I posed the question, I said "Well, youknow, on the radio they, they have Tarzan, when he makes a kill or whenhe's fighting, or battling, or whatever it is that was he was doing, healways yelled "Tarmanghanee", it's not, that's not much of a yell, andanyway, uh, an ape, if it's the battle cry or the victory cry of a bullape, he wouldn't be saying "Tarmanghanee", 'cause "tarmanghanee" is actuallya Swahilli name for "White Man". Well, anyway, uh, so an ape wouldn't besaying that and I said "What kind of a sound are they, are they going to,uh, to, to use for his, uh, his yell? Cause it shows him standingthere with his mouth open. What kind of a yell did they put in his mouthor did he do it himself?"
He said, "Well, I don't know what kind of a sound theirgoing to use. They never told me that. All I know is that they haven'tmade it yet."
And, uh, he turned to me and I said,"Well, I hope theymake it real wild."
He said, 'Well, what kind of a sound would you like tohear him make? And, uh, I had been making yodeling sounds so I madewhat I thought would be a real wild sound. And he said, "Hey, that's prettygood." He said, "Do it again." So I did it again, and, uh, he said, "Hey,would you come down to the recording studio and record that for me?
I said "Well, oh, if I can get off from school."
Well, the, the principal was right there and he said,"Sure, go on down."
So we went down to the Schmidt Music Company in Minneapolis,and we began, and, and we went into the recording studio and he had memake all kinds of sounds like that. Made, I mu.., I must have made at leastan hour of different kinds of sounds on two or three records and when wegot finished he thanked me and drove me back, and, to, to the school andI had no idea what he would, what he was going to do with that, but itwas a lot of fun and, uh, I didn't hear from him or anybody for about,oh, maybe three weeks to a month, I don't remember how long it was, itwas quite a long time in between, and one day a letter came to me at homeand in it was a check for a thousand dollars and explaining that they weregoing to use that in the Tarzan movie. So that's how Tarzan's voice goton the recording for that.
Well, then came the time for the premier and after thepremier they had, uh, uh, they had back stage, they cleared everythingback stage at the, at the Minnesota Theater, there was a huge stage backthere, the screen was always brought down in front because they had Operasand Dramas and everything else in there, and afterwards they set up, uh,banquet tables and, uh, they had the Mayor of Minneapolis and a lot ofdignitaries. I don't know, I don't remember whether the mayor wasactually there, I think he was, I don't recall. Anyway, there was, uh,oh, maybe fifty or sixty people there and Johnny Weissmuller and MaureenO'Sullivan. And I sat right next to Johnny Weismeuller. And, of courseit, I was thrilled cause here was Tarzan personified cause he was a tallgraceful man and a wonderful sense of humor. Kind of a thick, husky voice.
And, uh, he w. . , he said to me, he said, "So you'rethe guy that, uh, you're the young man that made, uh, made me yell likeTarzan."
I said, "Yeah, I guess so, that's why I'm here."
And, uh, he said, uh, "How did you do it?"
I said, "Well, I could yodel and I just went ahead andmade a funny sound and the man liked it and that was it."
He said, uh, "Well, I, I, I can yodel a little bit, could,uh, do you think that I could do the yell?
I said, "Well, I suppose so."
"Will you teach me?" he said.
So we left the banquet table and went down into the washroomwhich was just down below the stage, and we were down there hooting andyelling and making all kinds of sounds, and of course the, you know howa washroom is like that it would, it , it echoed, it echoed all throughthe building and everybody knew what we were doing out, down there 'causethey could hear me yelling and they could hear, hear, uh, uh, Johnny Weismeulleryelling, and, uh, when we came back they were all applauding and laughingabout it.
And by that time the place, the banquet was over, or thedinner, it wasn't really a banquet, it was a dinner, and there werespeeches made, things like that, and, uh, I went home, and, uh, never heardanything more from either Johnny Weissmuller or the movie people. But forthe first three Tarzan pictures, if I remember correctly, they used myvoice, and then, according to the story, they used Johnny Weissmuller'svoice cause he had practiced and he could do it and from then on JohnnyWeissmuller made the sound.
I, I don't know how he could because he wasn't a verygood yodeler, I remem.., I remember that. It might have been somebody elsejust immitating and maybe it was him, cause he gave so many crazy storiesabout how he learned to do it. One of them was he heard it in a, in a beertavern and things like that and every time they'd ask him about it he'dhave a different story. But that's how Johnny Weissmuller got his, hissound, his voice as Tarzan. . .
One more item, to the best of our knowledge, (how wasthat? heh, heh!) to the best of our knowledge the, um, uh, when they putthe, the, uh, television, uh, program of Tarzan on and produced it, theyused the original soundtrack of Tarzan's voice and we think it was mine.Uh, I, I can't, I can hear it once in a while. If I hear the original Tarzanpicture I recognize my voice but other people have to recognize it because. . yeh, my, my wife and the chil . , and, and our children recognize itas my voice and, uh, and the, uh, but I, uh, if, if you were to,uh, play them both I think that if I knew which one was the original Icould recognize my voice without any problem but after that some of them,some of these imitators are excellent like Rich Little, Carol Burnett,of course that doesn't sound like me at all, ....yeh....
