Tarzan yell Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==History and origin== 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.<ref name="ERBz1482">{{cite web |first=Bill and Sue-On |last=Hillman |url=http://www.erbzine.com/mag14/1482.html |title=The Victory Cry of Tarzan of the Apes |work=Erbzine.com |volume=1482}}</ref> According to politician [[Bill Moyers]], the yell was created by combining the recordings of three men: one baritone, one tenor, and one [[Hog calling|hog caller]] from Arkansas.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.commondreams.org/views/2006/05/22/pass-bread |title=Pass the Bread |first=Bill |last=Moyers |date=22 May 2006 |work=CommonDreams}}</ref> Another widely published notion concerns the use of an [[Music of Austria|Austrian]] [[yodel]] played backwards at abnormally fast speed.{{cn|date=May 2023}} 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."<ref name="talia">{{Cite book |last=Taliaferro |first=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZyfRAEJbubMC&pg=PA258 |title=Tarzan Forever: The Life of Edgar Rice Burroughs the Creator of Tarzan |date=2002-01-15 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-0-7432-3650-8 |pages=258 |language=en}}</ref> 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]],{{citation needed|date=February 2014}} 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".<ref name="talia"/> 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.<ref name="ERBz1482" />{{Better source needed|reason=The current source is the official fansite of E.R. Borroughs. It's the work of just one person, but an expert in this matters, so it is not totally unreliable.|date=April 2023}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page