Thereminist Ronald Stein??!

Tonight I watched the 1956 B-movie classic "The She Creature" with a friend and fellow fan of 1950s sci-fi & horror films.I hadn't seen the film since I was a kid.

Well, what to wondering ears should appear... but a theremin. It had the characteristic buzz of an RCA theremin and also the "urrp" style of the Good Podiatrist.

However, I had never seen Dr. Hoffman connected with the film and there is no reference to it in his scrapbooks.

So, I did a bit of googling...

1. The She Creature (1956) -- score by Ronald Stein
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Stein)

2. A tidbit from http://www.sundaymusiq.com/string-family/string-resonator:
...."Ronald Stein was a composer of soundtracks who also played theremin for movies such as The She Creature (1956)...."

3. Note that Howard Stein composed the score for "The Day the World Ended," for which I am sure Samuel Hoffman was the thereminist, so obviously these two men knew each other.

It seems safe to assume that Stein played the theremin for his own score, but one wonders about what instrument he used.

Anyone know anything more about this?

Inquiring Minds Want To Know!

I've never heard of this thereminist before - fascinating!  

I found the soundtrack on Spotify here.  It's classic sci-fi wobbly goodness...  Either he was a very good thereminist, or Sam Hoffman "ghost played" on this soundtrack.  

https://play.spotify.com/album/72LwDyHf8KzJ3scfm3zJeo 

According to IMDB, he worked with but never met Les Baxter:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0006300/bio 

Jason, that thought occurred to me as well -- that Dr. Hoffman actually did the playing -- maybe as a favor with little or no compensation -- and didn't take credit for it because of union considerations. It sure does sound like Dr. Hoffman's style.

Here's the film on YouTube with the MST3K treatment:

Peter Pringle posted the solution to this mystery on the Facebook Theremin group:

"Ccomposer and thereminist Ronald Stein played an RCA. I have several photos of him playing his instrument.

http://www.peterpringle.com/pppix/stein3.jpg

http://www.peterpringle.com/pppix/stein4.jpg"