Perhaps the ultimate in “things you’re not supposed to notice” is most sound effects. We’re not talking about light sabers or the wacky sound of a failing motor. We’re not talking about what most people think of at all, in fact. We’re talking about things that I think people assume is recorded on set. Ambient sound is sound effects. An incredibly important part of any film is aspects that quite a lot of people don’t even know is there.

Obviously, there was a time before sound effects were necessary, though you hear some stories about it in plays. (The phrase “they’ve stolen my thunder” supposedly came from sound effects in plays.) But when Warner Bros. released The Jazz Singer, there were several new job requirements. Jack Foley had been a minor screenwriter and director on the Universal lot. I can’t find out how or why he made the shift to sound effects, but he pioneered the field of syncing sound effects to the action on screen. He became so good at it and seems to have just been so well liked that the field is known as Foley.

He hardly has any credits on his IMDb page. From what I can tell, this is unfair in a lot of ways. His writing and directing jobs are largely missing as well. He is essential to the history of film and yet largely forgotten, his name lingering with “best boy” and “gaffer” in the “why do they call it that?” pantheon. He wasn’t listed in movies wherein he provided sound effects apparently because the makers were trying to keep the myth that no sound effects were involved, but it seems as though no one has tracked down his credits even now; his IMDb page is scanty and his Wikipedia page is a stub.

There’s not much written about him in general, from what I can tell. “Did you know there was a guy named Foley?” seems to be as in-depth as most of these articles get. I found one page that’s pretty in-depth, but it also called Operation Petticoat “the movie ‘Pink Submarine,'” so I don’t know how much weight to give it. It is one of two sites that credits him for Operation Petticoat, so that’s probably true, but is the story about his making the sound effects of the Roman legionnaires in Spartacus with his keys correct? The story about how Kubrick intended to go back and refilm the scene in Italy until Foley and his keys saved the day? I can’t tell.

A complete list of the films on which Foley worked would probably be a long one; no one seems interested in giving me one, so I have no idea. He seems to have pioneered a number of techniques that are still used, I guess, but again, I have no way of knowing. It’s disappointing to me, and I have no idea how you’d even go about fixing this. I mean, yes, obviously anyone can fix the Wikipedia page, but I don’t know how you’d find a longer list of the movies he made. I’m not sure anyone has done it.

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