10 fun facts about the Rythmicon!

I culled the following from one of the links at the Rythmicon site
Darren Burgess had posted about earlier:

<http://www.mutelibtech.com/mute/came/camemore.htm>

While I suspect there may be some dubious information here, who really
cares!

10 FUN FACTS ABOUT THE RHYTHMICON:

1) Field crickets invaded Pnin's Northwest Studios in early summer '93
when one of the Rhythmicon's patterns corresponded to the male's
mating call.

2) Another invasion, this time by the Anti-Terrorist Squad, was
occasioned when a cab-driver transporting the Rhythmicon reported it
to them as a suspect device.

3) Fred Astaire tap-danced with a Rhythmicon in a fantasy sequence
filmed for the 1933 musical 'Flying Down to Rio' but Ginger Rogers'
agent nixed the scene because it looked too good and sidelined his
star.

4) A member of the Tornadoes says that Joe Meek once used the
Rhythmicon's hot glowing valves as a sun-ray lamp.

5) Jonathan King tried to use the Rhythmicon unsupervised -- the
resulting pulsing sounds gave him a brief 'petit mal' epileptic fit.

6) The Rhythmicon originally featured a 'Theremin port' whereby the
two machines could be used together.

7) The Rhythmicon was used to provide music and sound effects for
movies, including: 'The Rains of Ranchipur'; 'Battle Beneath the
Earth'; Powell and Pressburgers' 'They're a Weird Mob'; 'Dr
Strangelove', and the sixties animated TV series 'Torchy, The Battery
Boy'.

8) Kraftwerk were desperate to use the Rhythmicon on their 'Technopop'
album - when they couldn't, they shelved the album.

9) A voice interface added by Leon Theremin was later used briefly by
L Ron Hubbard and the Scientologists to brainwash their new recruits.

10) Ministry of Defense scientists took time out to examine the
Rhythmicon when Joe Meek and Heinz brought it through customs at
Croydon Airport.

--d.stearns