The Finch Formerly Known As Gold

28 September 2006

Fear at the top of the hour

Perhaps I'm too old to have been creeped out by the 1970s Screen Gems logo known familiarly as the S from Hell: it's an irritating little tune, but not particularly scary, though the Eye of Baal, or whatever the heck that is in the center, is genuinely off-putting.

The sound that freaked me as a kid, and still raises measurable amounts of gooseflesh, is Jack Webb's Mark VII Limited logo, the clang of the hammer so loud it actually hurt. (The link is to a more recent version, mostly because it sounds better, if "better" can apply here.) The one thing that saved me from certain aural trauma was the fact that they usually cut right away to the logo for Revue Studios and/or MCA Television Distribution, which provided an escape from the anvil chorus in my brain. (Sample here; this is at an odd bit rate and may not play on every machine known to man.)

Posted at 7:36 AM to Almost Yogurt


Sometime ago I stumbled -- thanks, I'm sure, to a blog post I read somewhere -- on a site with a quiz about those old credits logos and the sounds associated with them.

I scored so well that I scared myself far more than the "S from Hell" ever did.

Posted by: McGehee at 9:01 AM on 28 September 2006

I had to view the samples so I'd know what you were talking about. I remember them both, but neither were particularly bothersome to me. Just like commercials, I tend to ignore them. :)

Posted by: unimpressed at 3:19 PM on 28 September 2006

Even after reading Damn Eden's piece on the clumsy Screen Gems animation, I still don't get the 'satanic' connection. The clanking hammer/chisel, on the other hand, was definitely arresting. Of course, Webb's trademark was just a scaled-down version of this. Please feel free to offer 'rank' commentary.

Posted by: Mister Snitch! at 7:55 PM on 28 September 2006

uh... I meant DaWn Eden, of course.

Or did I?

Posted by: Mister Snitch! at 7:58 PM on 28 September 2006

You, or at least I, didn't want to see Jack Webb in a toga.

Posted by: CGHill at 8:03 PM on 28 September 2006

Aha. Here's the full monty on the gong guy. And, behold, it's even linked to Webb's thingy. Boy, have we ever arrived at the age of YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uie4YqrhNHQ

Posted by: Mister Snitch! at 8:38 PM on 28 September 2006