No, this rumor has never been verified and I don't
believe it for a second. Fay did HER OWN screaming in
"King Kong" and in all her other movies.

This rumor has also recently been dicussed on
KongIsKing.net's "Vintage Kong: Film History" message
board. I posted the following message there, in an
attempt to dispel any doubts about Fay and her unique
vocal contribution to film history.

John

=====================================

This rumor pops up every once in a while. I was hoping
it wouldn't pop up here. It might be tempting for some
to believe that someone else dubbed Fay's screams in
"King Kong", but it just isn't true.

Julie Haydon was a contract player at RKO at the time
that "King Kong" was being produced. There are OTHER
female screams in the New York sequence besides those
from Fay. RKO probably required many of their
actresses to help out in the dubbing room, to provide
all the screams heard when Kong breaks loose in the
theater. Haydon was probably one of those actresses,
and she probably told her family and friends that she
recorded screams for "King Kong", who then assumed
that she meant Fay's screams. But now, I believe that
Haydon's alleged participation in this aspect of the
film's production has been blown way out of
proportion. I believe that Haydon's originally honest
claim has become misremembered and distorted over the
years, by well-meaning family members and friends.

Unfortunately, some historians (who should know
better) apparently believe Haydon's now-distorted
claim for no other reason than "Well, why would she
lie about this?" And now, this bit of misinformation
has been put forth as probable fact in at least two
(otherwise wonderful) books about early horror movie
history. It has also been cited in a "scream queens"
documentary hosted by Christopher Lee. Since this
unsupported claim is now on the printed page, even
more people are starting to believe that it might be
true.

A good historian should obtain verification, before
repeating and perpetuating unsubstantiated claims,
especially when they contradict established fact. Fay
herself has stated in numerous interviews how she
recorded many screams for "King Kong", which were then
placed throughout the film by sound editor Murray
Spivack. Spivack has also recalled in interviews how
he edited Fay's screams, and even sometimes altered
the speed of the recordings to better match the pitch
of Max Steiner's musical score. As far as I can tell,
Spivack has NEVER confirmed any claim that Fay's
screams were not her own. And now, with both Fay Wray
and Murray Spivack gone (and no one else from the
original "Kong" remaining), it's impossible to verify
Haydon's claim.

Once again, it's tempting to believe that someone else
recorded Fay's screams. Just like it’s tempting to
believe claims that Kong was actually played by a man
in a gorilla suit, or that the shower scene in
"Psycho" was really directed by someone other than
Alfred Hitchcock, or that you can see a dead body
hanging in the background of a shot in "The Wizard Of
Oz", or that Jimmy Page played the guitar solo in The
Kinks' "You Really Got Me". But these are all just
urban legends and false claims without a shred of
evidence to back them up.

Fay Wray did her own screaming in "King Kong". No one
dubbed the screams for her. Fay had a very unique and
expressive quality to her screams, making them easy to
distinguish from anyone else's. Also, Fay's screams in
"King Kong" sound the same as her screams in RKO's
"The Most Dangerous Game"; in Warner's "Mystery Of The
Wax Museum", "Doctor X", and "Captain Thunder"; and in
Majestic's "The Vampire Bat". And, from a practical
standpoint, even if someone did dub Fay's screams for
"King Kong", it is VERY UNLIKELY that the same person
dubbed ALL of Fay's screams for productions at THREE
DIFFERENT STUDIOS.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Visit the following link to see the above message's
posting at KongIsKing.net, along with other postings
on the same topic:
http://boards.kongisking.net/perl/gforum.cgi?post=51223;sb=post_time;so=DESC;for\
um_view=forum_view_expanded;guest=461973

=============================

--- "K.Y." <ehsmith@...> wrote:

> I ran across an item on eBay related to actress
> Julie Haydon who,
> according to the auction listing, was the actual
> voice for Fay's
> screams in "King Kong". Has this information been
> verified or is it
> an ugly rumor that doesn't pass the smell test?
>
>
>
>




____________________________________________________
Yahoo! Sports
Rekindle the Rivalries. Sign up for Fantasy Football
http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com