Making Noise with Stuff : The Lost Art

Once there was a job that was greater and more glorious than any other job, and that was the career of the men and women who made the sound effects for old cartoons. They would come in early in the morning, bright eyed and ready to entertain the world, and they would play with various objects to see what sound they made when they did certain things. They would rub and throw and break and twist and shake different things all day, to make the sound of a dog whimpering or a missile exploding or of a heart being broken. All day long they would pitch ideas to each other, and converge their minds on what particular item had to be used to make a desired sound. "Hey James, Whadd'ya think it'll sound like if I hit this cantaloupe with a tennis racket?" or "Hey Jill, do you think I can make the sound of a laser beam better by rubbing my finger across a half full crystal glass of milk or by running a butter knife across a metal door hinge?"

And then came the computers ... and the world was lost into darkness.

Pictured below are the legendary Skarlaski brothers, who perfected the sound of a horse driven cart crashing by tipping over twenty three empty wooden apple crates simultaneously.