The scream was recorded for Warner Bros as a stock effect and first used in the 1951 western Distant Drums. It gained its name after Private Wilhelm in the 1953 film The Charge at Feather River, and is widely credited to singer Sheb Wooley. Sound designer Ben Burtt rediscovered the recording and used it in Star Wars in 1977, then in Indiana Jones and many other productions. Its deliberate reuse by editors turned a generic library scream into one of cinema's most famous running jokes.