WEBVTT - Theremins: World's First Electronic Music 0:00:01.480 --> 0:00:04.280 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of I 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:13.560 Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, 0:00:13.600 --> 0:00:16.880 and there's Charles w Chuck Bryant, and there's Jerry out there, 0:00:16.920 --> 0:00:25.640 and this is Stuff you should Know. That's pretty good 0:00:25.680 --> 0:00:30.160 Theraman impression, don't you think? Hey, not bad. I am 0:00:30.200 --> 0:00:33.040 a little bit proud of myself because the Theraman, it 0:00:33.040 --> 0:00:35.760 turns out it's very, very tough to play, and it's 0:00:35.880 --> 0:00:40.000 even tougher to imitate. So that was something of an 0:00:40.040 --> 0:00:44.280 accomplishment for me. Have you ever tried to play one? No, 0:00:44.760 --> 0:00:48.400 I haven't. I have not know. It's weird that you 0:00:48.440 --> 0:00:52.519 had to think about that. Well. I mean I was 0:00:52.560 --> 0:00:54.600 just trying to think, like, I think there's one in 0:00:54.640 --> 0:00:58.400 the house, Stuff works office somewhere though, Stuff Podcast Office. 0:00:58.800 --> 0:01:01.560 I want to say that they're is. Well, I'm there, man, 0:01:02.120 --> 0:01:04.640 let's go get it, Okay, So look around, we'll wait, 0:01:04.720 --> 0:01:07.520 we'll wait. We won't edit out you going and wandering 0:01:07.560 --> 0:01:09.400 around and looking for I'll just talk to the people 0:01:09.400 --> 0:01:11.759 to keep them busy. Uh, that's weird. I mean, I'm 0:01:11.760 --> 0:01:13.200 obviously not gonna go look for it, but I had 0:01:13.240 --> 0:01:16.160 no idea that was one here. I think so I 0:01:16.200 --> 0:01:18.000 could be making that up. It doesn't seem like the 0:01:18.080 --> 0:01:21.400 kind of thing that would be there. So for those 0:01:21.400 --> 0:01:23.039 of you who don't know what we're talking about, we're 0:01:23.040 --> 0:01:25.520 talking about theramans. And if you still don't know what 0:01:25.520 --> 0:01:28.840 we're talking about, let us describe this. We'll be able 0:01:28.840 --> 0:01:31.760 to do that, right, Oh yeah, sure, sure, um, well, 0:01:31.840 --> 0:01:33.480 here you go. We'll play a clip of something that 0:01:33.480 --> 0:01:44.559 we'll figure out what it is later. Ready, So there's 0:01:44.560 --> 0:01:49.160 whatever we selected post production to put into to demonstrate theremans. 0:01:49.200 --> 0:01:52.480 But that that eerie, high pitched kind of whaling sound, 0:01:52.560 --> 0:01:56.000 that's a theremin. And the theraman was the world's first 0:01:56.160 --> 0:02:00.680 electronic musical instrument and it was created by accident, as 0:02:00.680 --> 0:02:07.880 we'll see. But um, it uses electromagnetism, actually electromagnetic interference 0:02:08.480 --> 0:02:13.640 to produce a changing pitched sound, changing and pitch and 0:02:13.720 --> 0:02:17.160 changing in volume. And you can create this, this sound, 0:02:17.280 --> 0:02:19.800 this music, I guess you would call it without any 0:02:19.880 --> 0:02:24.960 kind of mechanical energy whatsoever. You're just moving your your 0:02:25.000 --> 0:02:28.000 body or your hands in and out of the electromagnetic 0:02:28.000 --> 0:02:31.040 field around the theramin and that's what produces the sound. 0:02:31.080 --> 0:02:34.080 It's pretty cool. Yeah, And as we will also see 0:02:34.120 --> 0:02:37.959 it's Uh, it's key that you use a hand because 0:02:37.960 --> 0:02:40.440 your body it has to be something that conducts electricity. 0:02:40.520 --> 0:02:43.560 Like you could technically could use metal or something like that, 0:02:44.120 --> 0:02:47.360 but you wouldn't have the nuance that you're able to 0:02:47.400 --> 0:02:50.960 achieve by you know, very sort of micro movements in 0:02:51.000 --> 0:02:54.160 your hand and your fingers. Uh. And when you're playing it, 0:02:54.160 --> 0:02:56.720 it sort of looks like almost like you're conducting an orchestra. 0:02:57.160 --> 0:03:01.400 The way you hold your hand, it's very evocative of conducting. 0:03:01.400 --> 0:03:03.560 I think. Yeah, And it's funny you say that because, 0:03:03.800 --> 0:03:09.640 um thereman who's actually named Terman um he he said 0:03:09.680 --> 0:03:11.839 that it was like creating music out of thin air, 0:03:12.040 --> 0:03:16.280 just like a conductor does. So that was very astutive you, Charles, 0:03:16.880 --> 0:03:21.160 thank you. So yeah, you mentioned Urman. This guy his 0:03:21.160 --> 0:03:27.560 his Russian name, I guess was Lev Sergey Yavic Terman 0:03:27.680 --> 0:03:32.079 t E R M E N. I guess leon Thareman 0:03:32.160 --> 0:03:36.560 sounds a little more western. Did change it? I I 0:03:36.640 --> 0:03:38.920 don't know it. You know, here in America we just 0:03:39.000 --> 0:03:42.280 change it for you. You know, you come through Ellis Island, 0:03:42.320 --> 0:03:44.559 you get it basically a whole new name that Americans 0:03:44.720 --> 0:03:47.200 can pronounce more easily. I'm pretty sure, that's what happened. 0:03:47.240 --> 0:03:49.560 That's a good point. So when Lev was in his 0:03:49.640 --> 0:03:52.960 early twenties, in the sort of early nineteen hundreds and 0:03:53.040 --> 0:03:57.400 nineteen nineteen ish, he um was working at the Physical 0:03:57.480 --> 0:04:01.680 Technical Institute in St. Petersburg, Russia, and he was working 0:04:02.240 --> 0:04:04.280 and as you'll see, he did he you know, for 0:04:04.520 --> 0:04:07.080 the majority of his career worked for the Russian State. 0:04:07.680 --> 0:04:10.560 But he was working on an invention that was supposed 0:04:10.600 --> 0:04:13.640 to measure the density of gas and a chamber, and 0:04:13.800 --> 0:04:16.520 essentially he was trying to develop like a land based 0:04:16.560 --> 0:04:22.360 sonar device that used electromagnetism to detect objects that came 0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:26.120 within a certain area. And he was like, hey, I'm 0:04:26.160 --> 0:04:28.800 a pretty young, hip creative guy. I wonder if I 0:04:28.800 --> 0:04:32.200 add sound to this thing, uh, and not intending to 0:04:32.240 --> 0:04:34.520 create anything musical, but just let me add sound to 0:04:34.600 --> 0:04:38.080 it to indicate that this thing is even on. And 0:04:38.160 --> 0:04:41.120 he did it and bought a being bada boom bon job. 0:04:41.560 --> 0:04:44.680 He was like, that sounds pretty cool, yeah, because I 0:04:44.680 --> 0:04:46.479 mean like it it would make sense that you want 0:04:46.480 --> 0:04:49.520 to add sound to because if you're detecting something coming 0:04:49.520 --> 0:04:51.800 within proximity, it's kind of like a metal detector. As 0:04:51.800 --> 0:04:54.040 you get closer and closer to the metal. That sound 0:04:54.080 --> 0:04:57.960 that it makes um increases. It's basically the exact same thing, 0:04:58.000 --> 0:05:01.400 except you're not detecting metal. You're to acting electro magnetic 0:05:01.440 --> 0:05:06.080 interference basically with the theremin. But because he was a young, 0:05:06.200 --> 0:05:10.599 hip guy like you said, and also a classically trained cellist, um, 0:05:10.640 --> 0:05:13.039 he said, I think that I could turn this into 0:05:13.120 --> 0:05:17.000 a musical instrument, and he did pretty quickly. He um 0:05:17.040 --> 0:05:19.600 fiddled with it a little bit, maybe uh did a 0:05:19.680 --> 0:05:22.520 little put another do Hicky or two on there, and 0:05:22.640 --> 0:05:24.760 all of a sudden he had, like I said at 0:05:24.800 --> 0:05:29.720 the beginning, the world's first electronic musical instrument. Like, if 0:05:29.760 --> 0:05:33.680 you're into dance music or electronica or anything like that, 0:05:34.040 --> 0:05:37.320 you owe a great debt of gratitude to to love Terman. 0:05:37.880 --> 0:05:41.279 Sure should we use some of these things that you found, 0:05:41.279 --> 0:05:45.080 some of these descriptors. Yeah, so this this initially had 0:05:45.120 --> 0:05:47.120 like two or three, and I just started adding to 0:05:47.279 --> 0:05:48.760 One of my favorite things to do is to go 0:05:48.800 --> 0:05:53.880 around collecting people's hapless descriptions of of what a thereman 0:05:53.920 --> 0:05:56.359 sounds like, because nobody nails it, but all all of 0:05:56.400 --> 0:05:59.280 them come close, and their hilarious in their attempts. Yeah, 0:05:59.320 --> 0:06:02.920 so here's one across between a violin and a soprano voice. 0:06:04.120 --> 0:06:07.960 That's that's not bad. I think that was the original one. Yeah, 0:06:08.000 --> 0:06:09.600 I mean you can get I mean, especially when you 0:06:09.640 --> 0:06:12.320 get some vibrato going, you can see how one might 0:06:12.360 --> 0:06:15.440 liken it to a voice. Oh yeah, it doesn't sound 0:06:15.480 --> 0:06:17.080 like a voice to me, but I get the I 0:06:17.080 --> 0:06:20.800 get the comp um. Okay, how about this one, a 0:06:20.920 --> 0:06:25.479 purified and magnified saxophone. I think if there was ever 0:06:25.760 --> 0:06:30.599 a complete failure in describing a Theramin sound, it's that one. Yeah. 0:06:30.640 --> 0:06:34.719 It sounds like a saxophone, like a cheap keyboard. The 0:06:34.760 --> 0:06:38.039 saxophone button on a cheap keyboard sounds like a saxop. Yeah. Yeah, 0:06:38.080 --> 0:06:42.240 maybe that's what they totally missing their point. Uh. Let 0:06:42.240 --> 0:06:45.200 me see the howling of a haunted wind. That's pretty good. 0:06:45.680 --> 0:06:47.960 I love that one. This one I think comes from 0:06:48.000 --> 0:06:51.800 Therman himself. A cello lost in a dense fog and 0:06:51.920 --> 0:06:54.159 crying because it does not know how to get home. 0:06:54.600 --> 0:06:57.599 For cello just walking around in the dark by himself, 0:07:00.400 --> 0:07:04.680 how do I get home? Let me see here across 0:07:04.720 --> 0:07:09.400 between an amplified child slide whistle, so it doesn't say 0:07:09.520 --> 0:07:12.560 and what that was a that was a mistake. I 0:07:12.680 --> 0:07:18.360 put or inky okay, slide and a human voice and 0:07:18.440 --> 0:07:22.640 the squawks that emanated from early radio speakers. That was 0:07:22.720 --> 0:07:25.880 pretty That was pretty good because it's uh. The the 0:07:25.920 --> 0:07:28.120 one of the key components of a theoreman is that 0:07:28.240 --> 0:07:31.880 slide because it is um. As you will see, and 0:07:31.920 --> 0:07:34.360 if you listen to theorem in music, it's all about 0:07:34.400 --> 0:07:38.840 that slide. It's not they're not punctuated with staccato notes. No. 0:07:39.080 --> 0:07:40.920 And as a matter of fact, I was watching um 0:07:41.720 --> 0:07:47.160 tutorial by currently the world's foremost theoremnist. I believe her 0:07:47.240 --> 0:07:52.000 name is Carolina Eck e y c K. She's German um, 0:07:52.080 --> 0:07:54.960 so however, you pronounced that into German um. And she 0:07:56.000 --> 0:08:00.240 makes finger motions to cut off the last more ship 0:08:00.720 --> 0:08:04.240 to to create a space in between notes, separate notes 0:08:04.360 --> 0:08:08.000 rather than she uses the technical um jargon for what 0:08:08.120 --> 0:08:11.160 she's talking about. I'm not quite familiar with it. But 0:08:11.360 --> 0:08:13.800 another way to put it is she's cutting spaces into 0:08:13.840 --> 0:08:17.880 the notes, so she's not sliding it around like a trumbone. No, 0:08:18.360 --> 0:08:21.080 or slide whistle that's lost in the dark. You do 0:08:21.120 --> 0:08:23.720 a pretty good slide whistle to your slide whistle beer. 0:08:25.520 --> 0:08:26.800 I had one of those when I was a kid. 0:08:26.920 --> 0:08:29.320 That was the best thing ever I never even did. 0:08:29.360 --> 0:08:32.720 I'm self taught. Oh boy, I know what you're getting 0:08:32.760 --> 0:08:35.880 for Christmas? Oh nice? Remember that time you got me 0:08:35.920 --> 0:08:39.880 an empty can of billy beer? Oh yeah, that's right 0:08:40.920 --> 0:08:42.920 years ago. Oh no, it wasn't billy beer. I'm sorry, 0:08:42.960 --> 0:08:45.680 it was just plain generic beer. My can was just 0:08:45.760 --> 0:08:48.520 the black like helvetica font that just says beer. Yeah, 0:08:48.600 --> 0:08:51.679 my friend Eddie's favorite beer of all time. Has he 0:08:51.760 --> 0:08:54.439 actually drank it? Yeah? When we went to uh there 0:08:54.480 --> 0:08:55.760 was like four of us that went to l A 0:08:55.840 --> 0:08:58.720 for spring break in college and stayed with my brother 0:08:58.800 --> 0:09:01.280 and we went to the store and they had the 0:09:01.280 --> 0:09:03.640 generic beer and Petty is a beer guy, and he 0:09:03.720 --> 0:09:06.520 just flipped. He bought like three cases of it. Wow 0:09:06.640 --> 0:09:12.840 for fifty cents. Yeah exactly. Yeah. So, um thereman has 0:09:12.880 --> 0:09:15.600 got this instrument going. He's pretty proud of it. Word 0:09:15.600 --> 0:09:19.600 gets around Mother Russia, and word gets to Lenin, who 0:09:19.679 --> 0:09:23.360 at the time was chairman of Russia's uh sort of 0:09:23.400 --> 0:09:26.640 newly In I guess installed as one word for it 0:09:27.080 --> 0:09:31.000 the Bolshevik government, and he flipped over it. Lennon was 0:09:31.040 --> 0:09:33.120 a theoreman nut and he was like, you know what, 0:09:33.760 --> 0:09:37.280 I'm gonna send you on tour, comrade, And uh, this 0:09:37.320 --> 0:09:40.840 thing is gonna want people to champion electricity as a 0:09:40.880 --> 0:09:44.760 whole just by these demonstrations, right, just so that they 0:09:44.760 --> 0:09:47.600 can possibly get a theorem in themselves. They're going to 0:09:47.600 --> 0:09:51.640 install electricity in their house. That's my plan. Forget reading 0:09:51.720 --> 0:09:55.640 lights or warmth, right, it's the theoreman that they'll want. 0:09:56.000 --> 0:10:00.960 So he tours Russia for a while basically promoting you know, electricity, 0:10:01.480 --> 0:10:05.600 electronic music, Soviet know how, that kind of stuff, and um, 0:10:05.640 --> 0:10:07.920 his tour is so successful that they send him on 0:10:07.960 --> 0:10:11.679 to Western Europe. And he toured Western Europe with what 0:10:11.720 --> 0:10:15.720 we're known as his um ether concerts. Ether wave concerts, 0:10:16.240 --> 0:10:20.000 not ether concerts. Those are totally different. Um. And the 0:10:20.679 --> 0:10:25.080 one of the less known things about Left Harman is 0:10:25.120 --> 0:10:28.120 that while he was touring Europe just wowing crowds, he 0:10:28.200 --> 0:10:31.160 was also spying for the Soviet state, which he did 0:10:31.240 --> 0:10:34.640 for a while. Actually, yeah, I know this, I say 0:10:34.679 --> 0:10:37.040 this a lot, but this this has got the makings 0:10:37.040 --> 0:10:41.520 of a pretty good movie too, don't you think sure? Yeah? 0:10:41.559 --> 0:10:44.520 I think so. I mean I'm not quite sure. You'd 0:10:44.520 --> 0:10:48.360 have to really be a master to to to pull 0:10:48.360 --> 0:10:51.839 out the um, the humanity and the compassion and the 0:10:51.920 --> 0:10:56.080 viewer for this guy, because he's morally ambiguous in a 0:10:56.080 --> 0:10:58.440 lot of places, I think. But in the end, you know, 0:10:58.600 --> 0:11:01.200 just the kind of treatment he got, I think kind 0:11:01.200 --> 0:11:03.920 of makes him a sad sack case that he'll do 0:11:04.040 --> 0:11:07.240 lock treatment feel bad for. Yeah, all right, well we'll 0:11:07.280 --> 0:11:10.880 get to that. But so he's touring around he, like 0:11:10.960 --> 0:11:13.920 you said, as a spy for the Soviet regime. And 0:11:14.600 --> 0:11:18.000 because of this tour, he's being allowed he's getting all 0:11:18.000 --> 0:11:21.600 this access two places where he can be a pretty 0:11:21.640 --> 0:11:26.480 good spy actually on pattent offenses and um like industrial 0:11:27.080 --> 0:11:31.360 complexes and stuff like that. So he's getting access and 0:11:31.400 --> 0:11:34.960 doing a pretty good job spying for for the Soviet regime. 0:11:35.760 --> 0:11:38.679 And he ended up taking up residents in the United States. 0:11:38.880 --> 0:11:40.960 I didn't see whether that was a part of the 0:11:41.000 --> 0:11:43.880 Soviet plan or his own plan. I'm not sure, but 0:11:44.000 --> 0:11:47.120 he found himself quite at home and in New York 0:11:47.160 --> 0:11:49.800 when he he showed up in the US and started 0:11:49.840 --> 0:11:54.440 becoming kind of the toast of the town. Um. I've 0:11:54.480 --> 0:11:59.920 read that Albert Einstein kept a lab at Um Terman 0:12:00.280 --> 0:12:03.040 apartment in New York on fifty four Street. When he 0:12:03.160 --> 0:12:05.120 visited him, he would just do some work while he 0:12:05.200 --> 0:12:09.679 was there. Um. He became pretty well known, especially among 0:12:09.720 --> 0:12:13.120 like avant garde musicians and composers. Um. He was just 0:12:13.200 --> 0:12:15.920 kind of a known as like a cool guy. Um. 0:12:16.000 --> 0:12:18.559 He had a very scandalous marriage in that he married 0:12:18.600 --> 0:12:24.439 an African American prima ballerina whose name is Lavinia Williams Um. 0:12:24.600 --> 0:12:28.080 And I think he lived in the United States for 0:12:28.120 --> 0:12:30.880 a good decade. He showed up in and he lived 0:12:30.880 --> 0:12:34.840 there until eight I believe, and along the way because 0:12:34.840 --> 0:12:37.040 he became such a toast of the town. And his 0:12:37.040 --> 0:12:39.800 his theorem in um, which had been known for a 0:12:39.800 --> 0:12:43.240 while as his theorem in vox, which is theoreman's voice, 0:12:43.520 --> 0:12:46.319 finally got shortened to Theraman and R. C said, you 0:12:46.360 --> 0:12:48.280 know what, I think these things are going to be 0:12:48.320 --> 0:12:51.040 a hit. We're going to We're going to buy the 0:12:51.120 --> 0:12:53.680 rights from you, or at least, um least the rights 0:12:53.720 --> 0:12:56.679 from you and start producing our own. Yeah. Because he 0:12:56.760 --> 0:12:58.679 obviously was wise enough to get a patent in the 0:12:58.840 --> 0:13:03.920 US in um. That was his second wife. By the way, 0:13:03.960 --> 0:13:05.640 I didn't I couldn't get a whole lot about his 0:13:05.679 --> 0:13:09.880 first wife other than it was clearly in Russia because 0:13:09.880 --> 0:13:14.120 her name was a Katerina Pavlovna. Okay, that's a pretty 0:13:14.200 --> 0:13:16.440 Russian name. And he was married three times. He had 0:13:16.440 --> 0:13:19.160 a couple of daughters, I think with his third wife, 0:13:19.320 --> 0:13:21.400 and um, I'll talk a little bit more about his 0:13:21.480 --> 0:13:24.599 kids later. But he, uh, he gets his patent. R 0:13:24.679 --> 0:13:27.920 C a like he said, jumps on board the Theoreman 0:13:28.000 --> 0:13:33.240 bandwagon and manufactures a a version of the theorem, like 0:13:33.280 --> 0:13:36.520 an at home Theoreman for a d seventy five bucks, 0:13:36.559 --> 0:13:41.880 which is a really expensive musical instrument that's bucks today, 0:13:42.000 --> 0:13:46.360 especially during the depression. Yeah, I mean, I don't know 0:13:46.400 --> 0:13:50.760 who they thought they were going to sell him to everybody. Yeah, 0:13:50.840 --> 0:13:53.760 r C made it sound like they were onto something really, 0:13:53.800 --> 0:13:57.200 really big, but it was such an expensive price point. 0:13:57.559 --> 0:14:00.760 It was such a niche product. Um I think. I 0:14:00.800 --> 0:14:03.480 mean they sold the first run that they built, but 0:14:04.160 --> 0:14:07.520 only to like rich people who wanted to like throw 0:14:07.640 --> 0:14:11.120 parties in wow people with their theorem. And basically I 0:14:11.160 --> 0:14:13.480 guess one of the other big problems with it is 0:14:13.520 --> 0:14:17.040 that they marketed it like there's no strings, there's no frets, 0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:23.800 there's no you know, there's nothing, it's just like strings. Yeah, basically, Um, 0:14:23.880 --> 0:14:25.880 they said that anybody can learn to play this, make 0:14:25.960 --> 0:14:28.760 music with the wave of a hand. Um. And the 0:14:28.800 --> 0:14:32.280 problem is the theremin is really really hard to learn 0:14:32.680 --> 0:14:36.040 because it doesn't have things like frets or strings or 0:14:36.360 --> 0:14:39.760 um chord progressions or anything like that. Um. And there's 0:14:39.800 --> 0:14:43.160 no other instrument like it on the planet. So um, 0:14:43.200 --> 0:14:45.760 it's very difficult to learn. And I think our c 0:14:45.920 --> 0:14:48.280 A made a first production run of like four hundred 0:14:48.360 --> 0:14:51.160 units and they managed to sell three and eighty of them, 0:14:51.200 --> 0:14:53.560 some of which are still in existence today, and I 0:14:53.600 --> 0:14:56.640 was looking them up. Apparently, Um, if you can find 0:14:56.680 --> 0:14:59.920 one that's just in terrible shape, you could still proba 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:02.960 probably get thirty bucks for it, and one that's in 0:15:03.240 --> 0:15:06.720 really good condition mint condition would be about thirteen grand 0:15:07.240 --> 0:15:10.480 because there's such collectors items. But also because of the 0:15:10.520 --> 0:15:16.280 original um them electronics inside of the circuitry. Yeah that 0:15:16.280 --> 0:15:19.040 that it makes a sound that's really difficult to replicate 0:15:19.040 --> 0:15:21.800 because we have such an embarrassment of riches with advancement 0:15:21.840 --> 0:15:25.080 in in electronics today that it's hard to make something 0:15:25.160 --> 0:15:28.000 sound old timey and original, you know what I mean? 0:15:28.280 --> 0:15:31.720 Everything sounds so rich and in advanced UM. So I 0:15:31.720 --> 0:15:33.880 think that's one of the reasons why people will pay 0:15:33.960 --> 0:15:37.080 thirteen grand for an original R C A theorem, and 0:15:37.360 --> 0:15:43.640 that Jack White has one. Yeah, I'll bet he does too. So. Um. 0:15:43.720 --> 0:15:47.760 When he was in the United States, living there, doing 0:15:47.800 --> 0:15:50.520 some spying and doing some theorem and playing like he 0:15:50.520 --> 0:15:53.000 would put on big, big concerts, he put on a 0:15:53.040 --> 0:15:55.960 full theorem and orchestra, which is to say, I think 0:15:55.960 --> 0:15:58.800 they were like six of them, um at Carnegie Hall. 0:15:59.160 --> 0:16:02.000 So like these were big, big, big events. Um. And 0:16:02.040 --> 0:16:03.960 like you said, he got married to a second wife 0:16:04.000 --> 0:16:07.240 there and was leading this double life really like no 0:16:07.240 --> 0:16:10.280 one knew what was going on obviously as a spy, 0:16:10.400 --> 0:16:12.240 and he got a little more and more nervous his 0:16:12.320 --> 0:16:15.240 World War two approaches that he might get ratted out. 0:16:15.400 --> 0:16:19.400 He's he's really enjoying this life in America, and he's like, 0:16:19.440 --> 0:16:21.480 I don't want to I don't want to do this. Uh, 0:16:21.520 --> 0:16:23.320 the FBI has got a file on me. He didn't 0:16:23.360 --> 0:16:26.920 say that because he didn't know that, but the ghost 0:16:26.960 --> 0:16:30.640 of Leon Thereman said that later on, right. And he 0:16:30.720 --> 0:16:33.960 was getting pretty deep into debt, and so in nineteen 0:16:34.040 --> 0:16:37.240 thirty eight he left the US after ten years there 0:16:37.600 --> 0:16:39.680 didn't even tell his wife he was leaving his second 0:16:39.720 --> 0:16:44.160 wife and stayed gone until the early nineties. Yeah. Part 0:16:44.200 --> 0:16:46.280 of that was not by his own decision, like he 0:16:46.360 --> 0:16:50.720 stayed gone in part because as Stalin came into power, 0:16:51.080 --> 0:16:53.800 he was not very he didn't fancy the old regime, 0:16:54.360 --> 0:16:57.320 and Thereman was definitely associated with that old regime. He 0:16:57.400 --> 0:16:59.960 was a favorite of Lenin's um, So he was throwing 0:17:00.000 --> 0:17:03.480 and into the goolog as the the USSR really started 0:17:03.520 --> 0:17:07.760 to gain strength and power um and apparently as World 0:17:07.760 --> 0:17:10.560 War Two started to approach, the Soviets realized that they'd 0:17:10.560 --> 0:17:14.240 actually thrown a lot of valuable scientists in their minds 0:17:14.280 --> 0:17:17.440 into goolog So they went and got them out, including 0:17:17.840 --> 0:17:21.720 leve Terman, and put them in a different kind of 0:17:21.760 --> 0:17:26.960 goolog called the Sharashka. Yeah, I got it. Sharashka, which 0:17:27.040 --> 0:17:31.320 is basically like a prison for scientists, like science camp 0:17:31.440 --> 0:17:34.119 that you can't leave exactly, and you can't see your 0:17:34.160 --> 0:17:36.919 family or friends are connected with the outside, but you 0:17:36.960 --> 0:17:39.320 can't spend all of your time thinking about ways to 0:17:39.600 --> 0:17:42.720 come up with new devices that the Soviet state can use. 0:17:43.000 --> 0:17:47.080 And that is actually where leve Terman Thereman came up. 0:17:47.080 --> 0:17:49.760 With his other great invention that he's known for, which 0:17:49.800 --> 0:17:53.400 is called the Thing or the Great Seal Bug. Yeah, 0:17:53.480 --> 0:17:55.200 I think, uh, that's a pretty good time to take 0:17:55.200 --> 0:18:21.760 a break, Okay, and we'll come back right after this, Okay, Chuck. 0:18:21.800 --> 0:18:25.439 So frankly, you really left everybody hanging with that last thing. 0:18:25.520 --> 0:18:28.600 So let's talk about the Thing or the Great Seal Bug. Okay. 0:18:29.000 --> 0:18:31.520 Uh yeah, boy, all these years in I gotta teach 0:18:31.520 --> 0:18:35.159 you about the cliffhanger. Yeah, I like to. I like 0:18:35.240 --> 0:18:38.280 to plod along at the most boring pace and stop 0:18:38.320 --> 0:18:41.200 at the most boring, predictable time. So before the Thing, 0:18:41.240 --> 0:18:43.960 he invented something called a baron b U R A N. 0:18:44.000 --> 0:18:46.680 And that was a list another listening device, um that 0:18:46.760 --> 0:18:49.840 sort of functioned as a laser microphone that you would 0:18:49.880 --> 0:18:53.000 use today where you would point it at a at 0:18:53.000 --> 0:18:55.159 a piece of glass like someone's you know, behind that 0:18:55.200 --> 0:18:58.320 glass talking and it would sense the vibrations in the glass. 0:18:59.000 --> 0:19:02.439 That's wow. He invented that. Yeah, he invented the barn 0:19:03.200 --> 0:19:07.080 I've heard about that thing, but that was um nothing 0:19:07.200 --> 0:19:09.919 sort of as far as impact goes compared to the 0:19:09.920 --> 0:19:13.280 Great Seal Bug or the Thing like you mentioned. And 0:19:13.840 --> 0:19:17.800 this was really pretty extraordinary that this actually worked. Um, 0:19:17.840 --> 0:19:21.760 not that his invention worked, but that the scam worked. UM. 0:19:21.840 --> 0:19:23.840 So what he did was he put a passive bug 0:19:24.359 --> 0:19:27.320 inside a wood carving of the Seal, the Great Seal 0:19:27.359 --> 0:19:32.200 of the United States. They presented it to Avril har Harriman, 0:19:32.240 --> 0:19:36.480 who was the American ambassador to Moscow, and he hung 0:19:36.480 --> 0:19:39.840 it on his wall and it allowed himself to get 0:19:39.880 --> 0:19:45.560 spied on for years. So so in Harriman's defense, um, 0:19:45.720 --> 0:19:47.680 he was, like you said, It was like you said, 0:19:48.480 --> 0:19:50.840 he was a very trusting sort, which made him a 0:19:50.920 --> 0:19:54.359 terrible choice for the ambassador, American ambassador to Moscow. But 0:19:54.400 --> 0:19:56.840 it was a passive bug. It didn't use electricity, so 0:19:57.160 --> 0:19:59.879 there was no possible way for anybody to sweep for it. 0:20:00.200 --> 0:20:02.600 So I'm sure they swept this Great Seal, you know, 0:20:02.680 --> 0:20:04.879 eight ways from Sunday and turn nothing up and they're like, 0:20:04.920 --> 0:20:08.439 all right, put it up, um. And the reason it 0:20:08.480 --> 0:20:10.840 was passive is because it didn't use electricity, and it 0:20:10.920 --> 0:20:16.160 was activated by microwaves. The microwaves would turn an antenna on, UM, 0:20:16.200 --> 0:20:18.239 and you could be a few doors down and just 0:20:18.359 --> 0:20:21.440 beam like a microwave beam towards this thing, and it 0:20:21.480 --> 0:20:24.159 would activate the antenna and then the place that it 0:20:24.240 --> 0:20:27.560 was put in, the eagle's beak created kind of like 0:20:27.600 --> 0:20:31.080 an ear, a wooden ear that amplified the sound in 0:20:31.119 --> 0:20:32.879 the room, and the antenna would pick it up and 0:20:32.920 --> 0:20:37.639 transmit it automatically. Seven years they were able to spy 0:20:37.800 --> 0:20:40.640 on these conversations, and it was It could have gone 0:20:40.640 --> 0:20:44.160 on forever, but it was. It was discovered by accident. 0:20:44.160 --> 0:20:47.440 There was a British radio operator who picked up the signal. 0:20:47.960 --> 0:20:51.639 It's like, hey, something's going on here. And I guess 0:20:51.680 --> 0:20:54.440 they eventually, you know, probably just tore that room inside 0:20:54.480 --> 0:20:57.000 out until they found it. Would be my guess, right 0:20:57.600 --> 0:21:01.600 that radio operas like is that is that Avril Harriman talking? 0:21:02.359 --> 0:21:05.080 I know that voice and the great The best part 0:21:05.160 --> 0:21:07.959 of that story is that they got the Soviet equivalent 0:21:08.080 --> 0:21:12.159 of the Boy Scouts, the Young Pioneers, to present the plaque. 0:21:12.760 --> 0:21:14.720 And I was raised as a child the Cold War, 0:21:14.920 --> 0:21:17.720 so I strongly suspect the Young Pioneers were in on it. 0:21:17.760 --> 0:21:20.600 They knew full well what they were doing. Of course, yeah, 0:21:20.600 --> 0:21:23.920 they were in on it. It was a young Vladimir 0:21:23.960 --> 0:21:30.520 Putin probably probably chuck, you never know, Uh so thereman 0:21:31.000 --> 0:21:35.800 was um he kind of disappeared from public view because 0:21:35.800 --> 0:21:40.240 of the gulag experience and being in science prison camp 0:21:41.080 --> 0:21:43.680 uh and then Uh. Nineteen sixty seven, a New York 0:21:43.720 --> 0:21:48.320 Times critic named Harold schoenberg Um found him quite by 0:21:48.320 --> 0:21:52.040 accident at the Moscow Conservatory where he was working at 0:21:52.040 --> 0:21:54.639 the time. He was writing a story a road, a 0:21:54.720 --> 0:21:57.080 story that basically kind of out of him, and said, hey, 0:21:57.400 --> 0:22:01.240 here's Leon Thireman. He's right here in the Soviet Union. Yeah, 0:22:01.280 --> 0:22:04.080 and he was probably like, finally, I've been waiting for 0:22:04.119 --> 0:22:07.080 you guys to dig me up. But the Soviet state said, 0:22:07.119 --> 0:22:08.520 you know what, this is not a good thing. We 0:22:08.560 --> 0:22:10.639 can't have this guy talking to the press and becoming 0:22:10.680 --> 0:22:13.800 a cause ce lab again. He's just done too much dirt. 0:22:14.240 --> 0:22:18.440 He's been in a goolag before. He bugged the ambassador 0:22:18.520 --> 0:22:20.280 like this. He just knows too much. We don't want 0:22:20.320 --> 0:22:22.880 him people paying attention to him. So they ruined him. 0:22:23.040 --> 0:22:26.840 They ruined his career, They had him fired from the conservatory, 0:22:27.040 --> 0:22:29.880 They trashed all of the inventions he was working on, 0:22:30.160 --> 0:22:32.560 and he ended up spending the next couple of decades 0:22:32.600 --> 0:22:35.640 living um in poverty in a in a group home, 0:22:35.800 --> 0:22:39.200 in a room in a group home. Um, basically because 0:22:39.240 --> 0:22:41.840 of that New York Times critic finding him and writing 0:22:41.880 --> 0:22:44.640 that article again, which is sad on the one hand, 0:22:44.680 --> 0:22:46.840 but at the other hand, on the other hand, it 0:22:47.200 --> 0:22:49.840 um brought him back from any sort of obscurity he 0:22:50.000 --> 0:22:53.880 kind of been pounded into. Yeah, so this last until 0:22:53.880 --> 0:22:56.959 about the eighties, when the Soviet Union opens up just 0:22:57.000 --> 0:22:59.879 a bit and he leaves and goes to Europe. He 0:23:00.080 --> 0:23:01.560 is to the US, like we said at the beginning 0:23:01.560 --> 0:23:05.280 in nine and uh then was able to sort of 0:23:05.320 --> 0:23:08.920 reap a little bit of his reward as uh as 0:23:08.960 --> 0:23:13.320 a you know, pioneer and electronic music or music period. Um. 0:23:13.359 --> 0:23:17.959 There's a documentary called Thereman Colon an Electronic Odyssey from 0:23:17.960 --> 0:23:22.200 the early nineties that is not great, but it does 0:23:22.280 --> 0:23:24.760 feature him in the end, which is which is pretty cool. 0:23:24.760 --> 0:23:27.240