I just replied to the post about the abominable snowman in Rudolph. It still scares me. (I am a 43 year old adult.) I have another confession to make. The roar of Godzilla frightens me. I have to turn the volume way,way down in order to watch the movies, which I do enjoy… as long as I don’t have to listen to the roar.
Does any one know how the roar was made? It does have an interesting quality to it, and I have always wondered how they produced it. And it scares me… a lot!
Does any one else share my aversion to this unnerving sound?
I have a mixture of that fear and nostalgia; I loved the TOHO movies as a kid, and often imitated the roar.
It is an interesting roar - it has a very vocal quality, with the main roar, and then that “uh-UH” on the end of it.
I’ve read on several fan sites that the roar is just someone dragging a leather glove up and down the strings of a string bass.
I always thought of it as a honk, and I’ve always found it funny. My condolences, gytalf2000. Godzilla movies are one of the great guilty pleasures.
I remember a documentary that said it was a distorted recording of an old gate’s creak at Toho studios…
Of course, it was a documentary produced to help promote the tristar “godzilla” movie, so that immediately discredits it.
I read someplace it was a lion’s roar played backwards and distorted.
I also read that they couldn’t reproduce properly for the American version and had to use sounds from pre-existing Godzilla movies.
Sounds like the roar is quite the rumor generator. Sounds like this is a job for Cecil Adams to figure out.
According to Doper godzillatemple (where is he BTW ?) page , you are right.
I’ve read that that’s what they did for King Kong’s roar (although some sites say it was the roars of a lion and a tiger combined).
It’s quite possible I was in fact reading about Kong and confused it with Godzilla.
When N.Y. Yankees star Hideki Matsui blasts a home run at Yankee Stadium, the Godzilla roar is what comes out of the 50 million megawatt speakers as he rounds the bases. His nick name is Godzilla. 
I can’t find the link but I’ve always heard it was an elephant’s trumpet, played backwards on a record player with the speed changed.
I’ve heard the “leather glove on a bass string” story, too. I never heard any of the others about Godzilla.
King Kong’s roar was a pretty complex thing, according to Goldner and Turner’s The Making of King Kong. It included a lion’s roar, but a great many other elements lended together, as well. It does o on longer than the lion roars I’ve heard, so I can believe it. But the “Urp…Urp” sound he sometimes made was evidently one of the sound guys making it with his mouth (although the microphone was stuck onhis back, IIRC).
I’m sorry I can’t add to the general knowledge. I just came in here because I misread the subject as “Godzilla’s REAR.” I’ll be moving along, now. (Though maybe I’ll mention that the first movie I ever saw in a theater as a little kid was “King Kong versus Godzilla” and I spent most of the time under the seat.)
Which, of course, makes us wonder why you find Godzilla’s reptilian buttocks so interesting, hmmm…
There’s an article here on Toho’s web site that features an interview with Gozilla musical score composer Akira Ifukube. Unfortunately, it’s in Japanese only. Here’s a rough translation of what he has to say about it:
Well, I admit wondering what on earth about them could provide fodder for an entire thread.
Oh, ye of little faith! You’d think after 441 posts you’d know the one truism of the Straight Dope: There is NOTHING we can’t make a whole thread about…
I’ll try to keep it down from now on. Didn’t realize it bothered you.
Wait… did you say GODzilla? Sorry, dyslexia.
What I would like to know is:
- How Johnny Weissmuller’s Tarzan yell was created.
- How the calliope effect in James Darren’s song “Goodbye, Cruel World” (1962) was created.