The Wilhelm

[juju]

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?