The 'Unknown' US Thereminists
RCA Thereminists in the USA - 1930-1945
In Albert Glinsky’s 2000 book Theremin: Ether Music and Espionage (University of Illinois Press), he indicates that 485 of the 500 RCA Theremins that had been produced between 1929 and 1931 were sold. However, when the history of the RCA Theremin is told, little attention is paid to what happened to those 485 Theremins. Who bought them? Who played them? There is plenty of material out there on Clara Rockmore and Lucie Bigelow Rosen, and Kelly Hiser’s excellent 2015 PhD thesis Electronic Musical Sounds and Material Culture: Early Reception Histories of the Telharmonium, the Theremin, and the Hammond Organ goes a long way in beginning to answer these questions.
However, late last year I decided to see what I could unearth on the ‘invisible’ and ‘unknown’ RCA Theremin owners and performers in digital newspaper and other archives, and found a fair amount. First of all, I put together a list of Leon Theremin associates - his pupils, co-performers and demonstrators, those who appeared on Theremin radio broadcasts, and other collaborators. This may not be a complete list but it will do for the time being (I’ll be looking further into this).
Grescha Adolph; Louis Barlevy; Leonid Bolotine; Yolanda Bolotine; Vladimir Brenner; Mary Ellen Bute; Ildiko Elberth; Anna Freeman; George Julius Goldberg; Zenaide Hanenfeldt; Herbert Haufrencht; Karl Holzhauser; Albert Johnson; Moissaye Olgin; Wallingford Rieger; Clara Rockmore; Lucie Bigelow Rosen; Henry Solomonoff/Eugene Henry; Alexandra Stepanov; Mischa Tulin; Rosalyn Tureck; Mark W Will(s); M. W. Willard; Max Wolfson; Gleb Yellin
On a first research trawl, I found that beyond Rockmore and Rosen, few of these performers had left any kind of trail after around 1932 - exceptions were Zenaide Hanenfeldt (until around 1934) and Mischa Tulin (still performing in the 1940s).
G. Dunbar Shewell, sales manager for the RCA Theremin, introduced his son Lennington H. Shewell to the instrument, and as well as appearing in Theremin radio broadcasts and on record, he became a prolific demonstrator and performer travelling far and wide across the USA - and briefly to the UK - but his activities tailed off after 1933.
As far as the RCA Theremin owners are concerned, I managed to find over 90 names of people who had performed on the RCA Theremin between 1930 and 1945:
H. Whipple Abbott; Earl Adams; Ruth Anderson; Miss Willamary Aszmann; Mrs. Lydja Aszmann; Jack Beck; Maximillian Bergere; Frank Black; Mrs. Howard Bloom; Mrs. Margaret Ryder Bosley; Dr. C. Charles Burlingame; Mrs. E. E. Byrd; Jolly Coburn; Leslie Davis; Suzanne (Susan) P. Davis; Myrtle O. Disher; John J. Duffy; Jeanne Dunn; James Ellis; Anton Erickson; Don Essig; Ernest M. Franham; Betty Gill; Reginald Greenway; Harry Guertin; Edward C. Harsch; Rev. Carl C. Harwood; Eugene A. Hegy; Miss Heden Heidel; Jack Hernandez; Hal Hope; Virginia Hope; James A. Horine; Mary Huntington; Emmett Fred Ingelston; Claude Johnson; Rev. H.C. Johnson; Jon Paul Jones; Mrs. C. D. Kentner; Rev. L. James Kindig; Mrs. Monette Lemon; Paul Leonard; Paul Lipman; Rev. G. E. Lister; Mrs. Edwin F. Leigh; Rev. James Lynd; Mrs. Dulany Mahan; Emile A. Maloof; Norman Marshall; Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Mason; Fred May; Harry E. McPherson; E.C. Mills; Charles Mixer; Elenea Moneak; Mrs. Margaret Mosley; Ralph Nicholson; Ray Osterhouse; Gil Perry; Archie Prince; Charlie Raymond; Mrs. Ralph Richards / Mrs. De B. Richards; Vera Richardson Simpson; J. Stanley Robson; Margaret Ryder Bosley; Joseph Saetveit; JNO. W. Scott; Juliet Grace Shaw; Jack Sherr; Orben Sime; Vora Maud(e) Smith; W. F. Smith; Harry Stable (Cuba); G. S. (Sid) Stanton; Ella Starrett; Charles Stein; Frederick P. Stieff; Arthur Stimson/Stinson; Charles Strichazy (Professor Charles) (Latin Amerca); Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Taylor; Lousie Tucker; W. F. Vanatta; Albert R. Watrous; Rev. Wellard; J. Arthur Wells; Albert Werneken; Rev. Williard; ‘Slim’ Williams; Juliet Grace Wolfe; David Yoercks; Pearl Young; Karl Zeise; Marg van Zile.
In future posts I’ll start digging into the activities of some of these Thereminists. Some appeared once in small social gatherings, some had considerable success in sustained performance careers. It is possible that some were taught at the New York Theremin school - those that it is clear were taught there are included in the Leon Theremin associates list.
A substantial amount performed in religious services or at religious venues. Some are now becoming more well-known (e.g. Juliet (Grace) Shaw and Vera Richardson Simpson), but most of the rest have little visibility. Some performed music from the classical repertoire, others popular songs - or a mixture of both. But the most important point is that after the commercial failure of the RCA Theremin, partly as a result of a lost lawsuit brought by the De Forest Company that was settled in 1931, RCA Theremins became part of the musical life and soundscape of the USA. When Hollywood ‘rediscovered’ the Theremin sound in the mid-1940s, it had in fact always been there - and not just in the performances of Rosen and Rockmore.
I’ll be looking at all this in more detail, particularly in the light of Kelly Hiser’s research on issues of gender, reception and race, but for now … here’s Thereminist Mrs. Ralph Richards from the Washington Daily News [30-9-30 p. 3].
