Tarzan yell

Although the RKO Picture version of the Tarzan yell was putatively that of Weissmuller, different stories exist as to how the Tarzan yell was created.

One claim is that the yell was developed and recorded by opera singer Lloyd Thomas Leech. Leech performed opera from the 1940s into the '60s, winning the Chicagoland Music Festival on August 17, 1946, and went on to sing throughout the U.S., touring with several opera companies. Leech recalls inventing the Tarzan yell at a promotional event for the film, where a representative of the studio had said that the yell was still to be decided. Leech suggested a form of yodel as "a real wild sound", and says that he went on to record the cry for the first three Tarzan films, with Weissmuller later learning to perform it himself.[1]

According to politician Bill Moyers, the yell was created by combining the recordings of three men: one baritone, one tenor, and one hog caller from Arkansas.[2] Another widely published notion concerns the use of an Austrian yodel played backwards at abnormally fast speed. Biographer John Taliaferro recounts how MGM studios "concocted a story that the sound was actually the invention of engineers, who had blended Weissmuller's own voice with a hyena's howl played backward, a camel's bleat, the pluck of a violin, and a soprano's high C. It was a commentary on the mystique of talkies and the bizarre singularity of the yell itself that the public accepted the studio's fib as fact."[3]

Weissmuller maintained that the yell was actually his own voice. His version is supported by his son and by his Tarzan co-star, Maureen O'Sullivan, and biographer John Taliaferro who writes that "the noise was nothing more than Weissmuller's own yodel, which he had acquired, after a fashion, from the German beer halls and immigrant picnics of his youth".[3]

The yell, as used in the six MGM films, is a palindrome, it sounds the same when played backwards, indicating some manipulation in the sound editing department. The first part of the sound plays normally but when it reaches the half way point, it becomes the same sound but played in reverse.[1]

• The sound clip used in the Weissmuller films has also been used for animated series appearances of Filmation's Tarzan and in the 1966 Tarzan television series starring Ron Ely, rather than having the actor providing Tarzan's voice for the series attempt to imitate the trademark yell. It was also used in the 1981 film Tarzan, the Ape Man, where even the MGM Lion's trademark roar had Tarzan's yell dubbed in its place.
• The yell is heard at Carolina Hurricanes home games.
• A comical version of this yell is used by Ray Stevens in his 1969 novelty hit "Gitarzan".
• The original version of the 1982 video game Jungle Hunt, Jungle King, features a sample of the yell that plays at the start of the game and after the completion of the third level. This sample was replaced with a musical fanfare after a legal dispute with Burroughs' estate forced Taito, the game's publisher, to strip the game of any cosmetic resemblance to Tarzan.
• Comedian Carol Burnett would do the yell on request during a question and answer weekly session on her comedy sketch series The Carol Burnett Show. She taught it to herself as a young girl and once taught it to opera singer Beverly Sills.[4]
• This sound effect is often used for comic effect in later, unrelated movies, particularly when a character is swinging on vines or doing other "Tarzanesque" things.
  • A version of the yell appears in the 1983 Star Wars original trilogy film Return of the Jedi as Chewbacca swings on a vine towards an Imperial AT-ST walker on the forest moon of Endor. The yell is also heard in the 2005 prequel trilogy film Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith in the Battle of Kashyyyk as Wookiee warriors swing on a vine onto an attacking tank droid.
  • It also appears in the James Bond film Octopussy from 1983.[5]
• In the 1935 Mickey Mouse cartoon, Mickey's Garden, a beetle (voiced by Pinto Colvig) lets out a Tarzan yell and chases after Mickey Mouse and Pluto two times. It is later reused in the 1941 Disney animated feature Dumbo and the 1941 Goofy cartoon The Art of Self Defense.[6]
• Donkey Kong has also been known to use the Tarzan yell (although it sounds like "Ooo-wa-ooo-aaooaaooaa-ooo!"). His Tarzan yell is first heard in Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat and later was used in DK Jungle Climber, Donkey Kong Country Returns and later in Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze.
• Roronoa Zoro used the Tarzan yell in One Piece, Episode 159, titled: "Onward Crow: To the Sacrificial Altar" when he swang on a vine.
• Jerry Mouse as baby mouseling and Tom Cat as baby kitten used the Tarzan yell in Tom & Jerry Kids, Episode 11, titled: "Cast Away Tom" while saving baby pelican and momma seagull's egg.
• Tarzan used the Tarzan yell in Disney's Tarzan II (2005) before closing the movie.
• Moon used the Tarzan yell in The Ollie & Moon Show, Episode 34 titled: "The Malaysian Butterfly Chase" while Moon and Tua played a game chasing after Ollie's special explorer's hat.
• The yell is referenced in Activision's Pitfall! whenever Pitfall Harry grabs a vine.

The sound itself is a registered trademark and service mark, owned by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.[7][8][9]

Registration Numbers: 2210506; 3841800; 4462890.
Registration Dates: December 15, 1998; August 31, 2010; January 7, 2014.
Description of Mark: The mark consists of the sound of the famous Tarzan yell. 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 interval of one octave plus a fifth from the preceding sound,
3. a short sound down a Major 3rd from the preceding sound,
4. a short sound up a Major 3rd from the preceding sound,
5. a long sound down one octave plus a Major 3rd from the preceding sound,
6. a short sound up one octave from the preceding sound,
7. a short sound up a Major 3rd from the preceding sound,
8. a short sound down a Major 3rd from the preceding sound,
9. a short sound up a Major 3rd from the preceding sound,
10. a long sound down an octave plus a fifth from the preceding sound.

Recognition of the trademark's registration within the European Union is uncertain. In late 2007, the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM) determined that attempts by ERB, Inc. to maintain such trademark must fail legally, reasoning that "[w]hat has been filed as a graphic representation is from the outset not capable of serving as a graphic representation of the applied-for sound ... The examiner was therefore correct to refuse the attribution of a filing date."[10] Regardless, the trademark registration was updated in 2010 (to include slot machines)[8] and 2014 (to include online use).[9]

The first ever version of the yell can be found in the part-sound serial Tarzan the Tiger (1929). This version is described as a "Nee-Yah!" noise.[11]

In the 1932 Tarzan radio serial with James Pierce, the yell sounds like "Taaar-maan-ganiii". In the ape language mentioned in the Tarzan novels, "Tarmangani" means "White Ape".[1]

A very similar cry was used for Burroughs' own Tarzan film, The New Adventures of Tarzan (1935), shot concurrently with the MGM Weissmuller movies in Central America with Herman Brix as a cultured Tarzan. The yell can best be described as a "Mmmmm-ann-gann-niii" sound that gradually rises ever higher in pitch.[12]

Elmo Lincoln recreated his victory cry in a 1952 episode of You Asked for It.[13]

Tarzan's yell is used as a melodic refrain in the Baltimora single Tarzan Boy.[14] This refrain plays in place of an ordinary Tarzan yell when Haru climbs and struggles to keep his balance on the top of a palm tree in Beverly Hills Ninja. The refrain was also used in a 1993 jungle-themed advert for Listerine's Cool Mint mouthwash.[15]

In the 1991 TV series Land of the Lost, Christa (played by Shannon Day) used a similar sounding version of the yell that was used to calm certain animals.

In the 1999 Disney animated film Tarzan, the character himself lets out an updated version of his jungle call at various moments. The yell is dubbed by Brian Blessed, who voiced the villain Clayton. This was done after Tony Goldwyn, who voiced the title character, blew his vocals.[16]

Jane (as portrayed by Maureen O'Sullivan) used a variation of the Tarzan yell.[17]

• Wilhelm scream
• Howie scream
• Goofy holler
• Castle thunder

• "Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna plays the Tarzan yell" (in German). Archived from the original on 13 December 2009.
• "Classic Pop Culture Moments (Actors Made Up on the Fly)". 14 August 2013.
• The Tarzan Yell. Excerpt from the Documentary: "Tarzan: Silver Screen King of the Jungle"