The Wilhelm
 

There's an interesting story here about the popularity of a certain sound effect, and I thought you guys might like it.

It's interesting to me how you can hear a sound effect hundreds of times and never even really notice it, but once you focus your attention on it, it's blatantly obvious. It just jumps out at you.

For example, Queensryche's 'Operation: Mindcrime' album begins in a hospital, where you hear the following over the hospital's intercom:
<blockquote>"Dr. Davis, telephone please. Dr. Davis, telephone please."

[man heard whistling and walking in background]

"Dr. Blair, Dr. Blair. Dr. J. Hamilton, Dr. J. Hamilton"</blockquote>
Now, since this is at the very beginning of the album, it's <i>very</i> memorable to me. And this sound effect has been in all kinds of movies, including the recent, "Catch Me If You Can", and the much older, "Article 99". Well, those are the only ones I can remember off the top of my head, but I've heard it in a lot of movies. It seems like every single movie with a scene in a hospital includes this effect, and every time I hear it, I'm like, "Hey, there it is!" It's pretty cool, even though it completely destroys my suspension of disbelief.

Anyway, anyone else know of any other commonly used sound effects?

That is pretty cool. I can't remember any sound effects, but there have been a few pretty lame-o bits of royalty-free "music" I've heard over and over. Sometimes the same music will be back-to-back in local cable access commercials. These places with no budget only have a few bits of music that they can get for almost free and play over and over and over again without paying.

yyyeeeeerrragghhhhhhh!!!
 

Okay, the "new" Wilhelm seems to be another yell. Watch the John Woo joint "Broken Arrow". When Howie Long is kicked out of the boxcar by Christian Slater, he screams on the way down. You can also hear it in "Mary Reilly" when John Malkovich's Dr. Jekyll transforms into Hyde in front of Julia Robert's character.

I know it's been used elsewhere, and in a few videogames as well.

I don't recall the specifics, but I've head video game sounds on TV several times, mostly doors and screams. Makes me wonder if the game swiped it from somewhere, or TV regularly swipes sounds from games.

BTW, my real name is derived from Wilhelm. :D

What? Wilhelmina? :)