Ty Burr
Ty Burr is a writer at large for EW and is no relation to Raymond or Aaron
In 1920, Russian scientist Leon Theremin invented one of the first electronic instruments, called-duh-the Theremin. It made the eerie Ooo-EEEEE-ooooo sound you know from Hitchcock's Spellbound, the Beach Boys' Good Vibrations, and bad 1950s science-fiction movies. Pretty strange, but Leon's life was stranger, arcing from Petrograd to Carnegie Hall, Hollywood, and Siberia. He married a dancer in the First American Negro Ballet, was sentenced to seven years on a Soviet prison work farm, and won his release after inventing a bug for the KGB. He died last Wednesday in Moscow at age 97. His godchildren-synthesizers, samplers, and drum machines-burble on. -Ty Burr
