Here is a photograph of a device supposedly used by Warner Brothers’ sound genius Treg Brown to create the sound (he describes it as “P-T-Z-s-s-s-s-s-!”) of a mouse dashing along at supersonic speed, for the 1955 cartoon “Speedy Gonzales”. It presumably is the same effect used for years in other Speedy and Road Runner titles - a very impressive sounding jet-age whoosh that any cartoon fan will no doubt recognize.
(The picture is from the May '55 issue of Warner Club News, the studio’s in-house publication, which was posted on the website Cartoon Research, which is a fascinating source of tidbits relating to animation history.)
It’s not a very clear shot, but from what I can see there’s a bellows with a tube attached to the nozzle, a squirrel cage-type fan, a hose of some sort (perhaps containing a microphone?), and a lot of other machinery which might be there just for show, or to fool competitors into thinking the rig is more complicated than it needs to be. My question is, can anyone identify this stuff and perhaps make a guess as to what might or might not be part of the actual sound-producing apparatus?
I seriously doubt that the device in that photo was built to generate a sound effect. It looks more like a movie prop (or a collection of props). The grins on the face of the two “assistants” also suggest that the picture was done as a gag.
I don’t know how the Speedy Gonzales effect was done, but most sound effects heard in film and television are created using relatively simple methods. If you search “sound effects” or “Foley artist” on YouTube, you can see some examples—they’re nothing like the elaborate machine in that photo.
I’m pretty sure there’s a tractor seat in that photo…
The shadows seem wrong - clearly seen behind the standing man, but the foreground machinery differently lit and shaded. My guess is a composite photo of stuff laid on top of whatever the two men were really using? In-house Warner Bros mag gag?
That is actually not the most cluttered Foley stage I have ever seen, but realize that is a huge collection of devices that make different sounds and not one device that creates a single sound.
Unfortunately the picture is not clear enough to even guess what parts relate to one another, let alone to hazard a guess as to how it worked.
I used to do sound effects for radio, and a lot of the most clever effects come from mixing some rather mundane sounds together.
In this cartoon, Speedy seems to be powered by the ricochet of a gunshot (not the BANG, just the PING) mixed together with a jet engine, which has been overdubbed just slightly out of phase to give it a “hollow” sound.
There are probably some other minor sounds put in there to make Speedy’s acceleration different from, say, the Road Runner’s, as well as to make it harder for another studio to rip off.
I think it’s no coincidence that the contraption looks like something from the ACME catalogue. Obviously a gag photo.
Huh. I thought it was a bullet richocet.
If those guys built that machine for Speedy’s running sound they are the most incompetent foley artists ever.
I’m guessing you are thinking of a movie richocet.
