# Godzilla's Roar **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 19, 2004, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzillas-roar/280616 "2004-12-19T06:34:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gytalf2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ac91a4/32.png) [@gytalf2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gytalf2000)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2004, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzillas-roar/280616/1 "2004-12-19T06:34:25Z")
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? ---
**Author:** ![Freejooky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ba8739/32.png) [@Freejooky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freejooky)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2004, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzillas-roar/280616/2 "2004-12-19T06:43:21Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2004, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzillas-roar/280616/3 "2004-12-19T07:11:32Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Brainiac4](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brainiac4/32/3534_2.png) [@Brainiac4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brainiac4)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2004, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzillas-roar/280616/4 "2004-12-19T07:13:31Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2004, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzillas-roar/280616/5 "2004-12-19T07:16:17Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2004, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzillas-roar/280616/6 "2004-12-19T15:56:13Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![detop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@detop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/detop)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2004, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzillas-roar/280616/7 "2004-12-19T16:18:36Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > 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. According to Doper **godzillatemple** (where is he BTW ?) [page](http://www.godzillatemple.com/index2.htm) , you are right. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2004, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzillas-roar/280616/8 "2004-12-19T20:13:25Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > I read someplace it was a lion’s roar played backwards and distorted. 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). ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2004, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzillas-roar/280616/9 "2004-12-19T21:24:01Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > 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. ---
**Author:** ![ltfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@ltfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ltfire)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzillas-roar/280616/10 "2004-12-20T01:12:48Z")
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. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Qwerty\_not\_Dvorak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/bcef8e/32.png) [@Qwerty\_not\_Dvorak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qwerty_not_Dvorak)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzillas-roar/280616/11 "2004-12-20T04:34:35Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzillas-roar/280616/12 "2004-12-20T04:51:08Z")
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). ---
**Author:** ![SparrowHawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ac8455/32.png) [@SparrowHawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SparrowHawk)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzillas-roar/280616/13 "2004-12-20T05:16:43Z")
I’m sorry I can’t add to the general knowledge. I just came in here because I misread the subject as “Godzilla’s R **E** AR.” 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.) ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzillas-roar/280616/14 "2004-12-20T05:19:12Z")
> [@SparrowHawk](#): > > I’m sorry I can’t add to the general knowledge. I just came in here because I misread the subject as “Godzilla’s R **E** AR.” I’ll be moving along, now. Which, of course, makes us wonder why you find Godzilla’s reptilian buttocks so interesting, hmmm… ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzillas-roar/280616/15 "2004-12-20T05:28:57Z")
There’s an [article here](http://www.toho.co.jp/movienews/0405/14godzilla_ib.html) 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: > [@Akira Ifukube](#): > > People often ask me how we made Gozilla’s roar. At first, we tried to think of the animal that had the most grotesque cry. The Japanese night heron has a fairly disturbing call and so we asked Toho staff to make some recordings at the zoo. Unfortunately, those recordings only sounded like something that would come out of a bird. > > We tried with other animals, like lions, but the results were the same. One problem was that Godzilla looks like a lizard and lizards, generally, don’t make any sound. We didn’t know what to do next, but when it was decided that Godzilla would emit light rays from his mouth, we figured something rather artificial was in order. > > In the end, we took a string off a contrabass and stretched it vertically with a leather glove that had pine rosin rubbed on it. However, Godzilla was at times surprised or sad, and so (to express those emotions) we mixed the sound of an electric chainsaw to the basic sound. At the time, there were many talented sound people working for Toho and that’s why we were able to make a sound that, I hear, is still being used today. ---
**Author:** ![SparrowHawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ac8455/32.png) [@SparrowHawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SparrowHawk)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzillas-roar/280616/16 "2004-12-20T08:18:38Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Which, of course, makes us wonder why you find Godzilla’s reptilian buttocks so interesting, hmmm… Well, I admit wondering what on earth about them could provide fodder for an entire thread. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzillas-roar/280616/17 "2004-12-20T12:15:44Z")
> [@SparrowHawk](#): > > 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… ---
**Author:** ![Dogzilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@Dogzilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogzilla)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzillas-roar/280616/18 "2004-12-20T13:55:32Z")
I’ll try to keep it down from now on. Didn’t realize it bothered you. Wait… did you say GODzilla? Sorry, dyslexia. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzillas-roar/280616/19 "2004-12-20T19:07:04Z")
What _ **I** _ would like to know is: 1. How Johnny Weissmuller’s Tarzan yell was created. 2. How the calliope effect in James Darren’s song “Goodbye, Cruel World” (1962) was created.