( CNN ) -- Paul Tanner , one of the last surviving members of the Glenn Miller Orchestra , died February 5 at an assisted-living facility in Carlsbad , California , his stepson said . Tanner was 95 and died of pneumonia , said Dick Darnall in a telephone interview . Tanner was born in Skunk Hollow , Kentucky , in 1917 , but soon left to tour the country with his five brothers and their father , all of them musicians , during the early 1930s . `` Everybody was trying to survive during the Great Depression , '' Darnall said . After one gig , Miller , who scouted his own talent , came up from the audience and `` asked Paul to become part of his band . '' The trombonist went on to play with Miller , who also played trombone , from 1938 until 1942 . But when the band leader joined the military and started a military band at military wages , the civilian band broke up . For the next few years , Tanner stayed in Hollywood , where he did studio work , Darnall said . At age 39 , he enrolled at UCLA , which offered him a teaching job and advanced degrees upon his graduation four years later ; he went on to teach music there for 23 years , Darnall said . Tanner was also working with the ABC Orchestra , where for 16 years he played with the likes of Leonard Bernstein , Andre Previn and Arturo Toscanini , Darnall said . His interests included early forms of electronic music , and he developed the Electro-Theremin in the 1950s , said Darnall . The device , which is mechanically linked to an audio oscillator , produced the eery , almost human sounds showcased by the Beach Boys on `` Good Vibrations '' and on the TV series `` My Favorite Martian . '' The Electro-Theremin also was used in movies , including 1964 's `` Strait-Jacket , '' with Joan Crawford . `` She was accused of chopping off everybody 's heads , '' Tanner said in an interview in 1997 that is posted on his website . `` So , she was a psycho , they thought . There was one spot in the picture where she was to go up the wall , and they put her in a little small room , and then she got more and more and more excited and then she gradually got limp and passed out . And all through that , I 'm the only thing playing . `` So , I told the guy who was going to conduct me , I said , 'Just raise your hand up when you want more intensity , and lower it when you want less intensity , that 's all you got to do , ' which was mainly a case of widening the vibrato . There was no music for that , I was just to make an effect , that 's all . '' Though Tanner did not invent the device , `` He enhanced on it and made it easier to play , '' his widow , Jeanette , said in a telephone interview . `` He made it more like piano keys . '' But the device proved to be so simple that he put it into an elaborate container to make it look nicer . `` Otherwise , it would look like an oatmeal box , '' he said . During his teaching years , Tanner wrote a number of textbooks , and his classes proved popular , his widow said . `` He used to crowd the auditorium area where he had his classes , and it got so full that the fire department closed the doors and would n't let any more in , '' she said . Though he stopped teaching more than 30 years ago and moved to Carlsbad , `` I still get letters from people that were his students , '' she said . `` They said that he changed their life . '' Tanner wound up giving his Electro-Theremin to a hospital , where it was used to measure hearing , she said . In addition to his wife and stepson , Tanner is survived by another stepson , Doug Darnall . Tanner 's first wife , Alma , died in 1981 or 1982 after four decades of marriage , according to his family . People we lost in 2013 : The lives they lived .
`` Everybody was trying to survive '' during the Depression , his stepson Tanner says . Tanner offered the fellow trombonist a job after hearing him perform . He left the band when Miller joined the military and started a military band . Glenn Miller 's work included Miller , featured on `` My Favorite Martian