Tarzan yell

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The Tarzan yell is the distinctive, ululating yell of the character Tarzan, as portrayed by actor Johnny Weissmuller in the films based on the character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, starting with Tarzan the Ape Man (1932). The yell was a fiction of the movies and the closest thing to it in the books is simply called "The victory cry of the bull ape."

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[edit] History and origin of the yell

Weissmuller's yell, notated.
Weissmuller's yell, notated.

Although the yell ostensibly was that of Weissmuller, different stories exist as to how the sound effect was created. According to the newspaper columnist L. M. Boyd (circa 1970), "Blended in with that voice are the growl of a dog, a trill sung by a soprano, a note played on a violin's G string and the howl of a hyena recorded backward." According to Bill Moyers, it was created by combining the recordings of three men: one baritone, one tenor, and one hog caller from Arkansas[1]. Another widely published notion concerns the use of an Austrian yodel played backwards at abnormally fast speed. But Weissmuller claimed that the yell was actually his own voice, of his own invention, based on a yell he used when playing as a child. His version is supported by his son and by his Tarzan co-star, Maureen O'Sullivan, and is the most reasonable explanation, given that the state of audio technology at the time when it first appeared would have made seamless splices very difficult to create.

A strange phenomenon appears when the Weissmuller yell is played backwards: It sounds exactly the same, which may suggest that the sound was "mirrored" along its "middle" when it was originally created.

The sound itself has received a trademark registration, owned by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.. The official description of the yell is: "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."[2]

Despite these efforts, the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM) in late 2007 determined that such attempts by the estate of Burroughs 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," said the OHIM ruling. "The examiner was therefore correct to refuse the attribution of a filing date."

The Tarzan yell is often used for comic effect in later, unrelated movies, particularly when a character is swinging on vines or doing other "Tarzanesque" things. The sound clip used in the Weissmuller films has also been exclusively used for animated series appearances of Tarzan, and in the Tarzan television series (1966 - 1968), which starred Ron Ely, rather than having the actor providing Tarzan's voice for the series attempt to imitate the trademark yell.

[edit] Other Tarzan yells

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[3].

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"[4].

A very similar cry was used for Burroughs' own Tarzan film, The New Adventures of Tarzan (1935), shot concurrently with the MGM Weismuller 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[5].

In the Pokemon episode Showdown at Dark City (1998), the yell sounded like "Eeeeee-leeeeeeect-abuuuuzzz" during the battle at Dark City. And in The Kangaskhan Kid (1998), the yell that Tomo used sounded like "Kaaaaang-aaaaaa-aaaaa".

[edit] Tarzan yell in film and television

Non-Tarzan related films and television shows where the Weissmuller Tarzan yell can be heard include:

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