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Meeting Dr. Paul Tanner
August 5, 2004
This article was kindly
submitted by Christopher from http://www.oldtemecula.com/theremin/. As
well as being a keen thereminist, Christopher is also the creator of the Ultermen original, a multiple voiced Theremin Cello.
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Dr.
Paul Tanner was a special guest on a beautiful evening at the “Museum of Making Music” in the City of Carlsbad, California.
This was one of the rare moments when he shared his early days of using what was referred to as “Paul’s Box “.
Today most of you know it as the Electro-Theremin or Tannerin. Dr. Tanner is most recognized for his many years
of trombone playing in the Glenn Miller Band and his teaching of music. He has taught over 75,000 students music and jazz in
his 23 year career at UCLA. Dr. Paul Tanner built only one copy of his original theremin box. With just a few days of
construction and a very minimal amount of electronic knowledge, he completed it hours before it was called into use. Dr.
Tanner’s recollection of his relationship with Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys in the early ‘60s highlighted the evening, both
of their geniuses and humor were revealed. The Beach Boys hired Paul Tanner and “Paul’s Box” for the fascinating theremin
like sound in “Good Vibrations”. The normal recording session usually began after midnight at Brian's home. “Paul’s Box” was
also used on several Hollywood productions including the 1960's TV show "My Favorite Martian", the sound of Martins antennas
raising. With the synthesizer beginning to emerge, an engineer well know in the theremin community visited Paul in search of
new ideas. Both agreed that "Paul's Box" was just a Tinker Toy. The time had come for “Paul’s Box” to be retired. He
gave it to a hospital in Santa Monica, California where they were interested in using it for hearing tests. The box had a
range of tones that would extend outside of the upper and lower limits of human hearing. Year’s later Dr. Tanner checked back
with the hospital to find out what happened to “Paul’s Box”, only to find it had been smashed and destroyed in one of those
California earthquakes!
Dr. Tanner now lectures on jazz and big bands.
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