Ether Spies!

[jeregenest]

Not sure how I missed this book, Theremin: Ether Music and Espionage by Albert Glinsky.

As a Soviet scientist, Theremin surrendered his life and work to the service of State espionage. On assignment in Depression-era America, he became the toast of New York society while passing data on U.S. industrial technology to the Soviet apparat. Following his sudden disappearance from New York in 1938, Theremin was exiled to a Siberian labor camp and subsequently vanished into the top-secret Soviet intelligence machine, presumed dead for nearly thirty years. Using the same technology that lay behind the theremin, he designed bugging devices that eavesdropped on U.S. diplomatic offices and stood at the center of a pivotal cold war confrontation. Throughout his life, Theremin developed many other electronic wonders, including one of the earliest televisions and multimedia devices that anticipated performance art and virtual reality by decades.

Sounds perfect.

Comments

[bluegargantua]

Huh...I did not know that.

I think it's interesting that the theremin later went on to provide creepy sound effects for 50's horror and sci-fi films -- films which were often allegories for Communist invasion and/or infiltration.

neat
Tom

[cityofbeige.livejournal.com]

The documentary about him (http://imdb.com/title/tt0108323/) that came out ten years ago briefly mentions being captured and put to work by the Soviets. It's an interesting movie, but unfortunately, they added 45 minutes of fluff to try and make it a 90 minute long feature for movie theaters.

[editswlonghair.livejournal.com]

Yep. That was one of the most profoundly disappointing docs I've ever watched. They managed to take a fascinating story and make a very boring, very uninformative doc out of it.

Although the interview with Brian wilson is worth the price of admission. ;)

[smoagendash.livejournal.com]

Yep. This is Brian Wilson's brains on drugs.

[badger.livejournal.com]

I thought it was an excellent book. I attended a conference on the theremin in 2005, and Glinsky's book was just out, so he attended as a speaker and talked about his book. My partial notes from that talke are here:

http://badger.livejournal.com/858593.html#cutid2

[smoagendash.livejournal.com]

Mmmmm...imagine an alternate history where Tesla, Theremin and a million dollars meet up.

[cityofbeige.livejournal.com]

Wireless electrical power that makes funny noises whenever you move? O_o

[smoagendash.livejournal.com]

Yeah, kinda like having Dance Dance Revolution...EVERYWHERE!

[heron61.livejournal.com]

It's an amazing story. A few years ago, I saw a video on Theremin's life (Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theremin:_An_Electronic_Odyssey)), that included everything from this info to suggestions that when a student of his died, he was considering ideas on how to reanimate her. Pretty much a classic mad scientist.