The Woman Who Can't Watch Movies (Wilhelm Scream)

What a scream! To help poor Linda Dotson Wooley, widow of famed actor/country singer Sheb Wooley, whose famous scream has been used in hundreds of movies, Spanish cable company Canal+ partnered with FCB Spain and FCB Los Angeles to create a “mockumentary” and “scream bank” to allow Linda to watch movies again. In the hilarious 2-minute film, it’s revealed that Linda is constantly caught off guard by the painful scream Sheb recorded in 1951 for the movie Distant Drums, which has been used in more than 200 movies to date, including the Star Wars saga. Lucas Sound engineer Ben Burtt gave the now-mythic scream a name: the Wilhelm Scream. Visitors to www.leavewilhelmalone.com are encouraged to donate their screams to the bank so Sheb’s won’t constantly be used, thereby ending Linda’s suffering.