A while back, Brenda Hurst Hedden, a friend of mine from high school, who is now on Facebook, asked me about this old saying. I didn’t remember ever hearing it. She said that her mother used to say it often when someone let out a blood-curdling scream.

Well, I told her I would do some looking into it, and here’s what I found out.

“Take that scream to Hollywood” is a saying that originated from a series of sound effects recorded for the 1951 movie, Distant Drums, which later became known as the “Wilhelm scream,” and was duplicated and often used in films in scenarios when someone was shot, fell from a great height, or was thrown from an explosion. The scream was named after Private Wilhelm, a character in The Charge at Feather River, a 1953 Western in which the character got shot in the thigh with an arrow. This was its first use following its inclusion in the Warner Bros. stock sound library, although The Charge at Feather River was the third film to use the effect.

Because this scream became iconic, and recognizable, the saying began to be used sarcastically to mean that if a scream was loud enough it might make it to motion pictures and become famous.

I don’t know how many remember this being used, but I told Brenda I would check it out, and it is kind of interesting. You never know what you will find until you do a bit of digging!

If you have a phrase you would like to see featured here, please text Stan at 931-212-3303 or email him at stan@stclair.net.