A first for me, I am writing a book instead of designing one. I am an avid fan of old radio, especially the CBS Radio Mystery Theater (here is an excellent website for CBSRMT information and links) which debuted in 1974. One of the script writers has caught my ear time and time again with her emotional, supernatural and sometimes downright bizarre storylines.
Her name is Elspeth Eric. (pictured above, in 1935)
A Broadway star in the '30s-'40s (she got her first taste of Broadway fame with the part of Drina in Sidney Kingsley's Dead End in 1935), she also dove into radio acting and eventually into some television writing/acting. In her early radio career she specialized in playing tough women/gangster molls and then moved on to radio serials like Joyce Jordan—Girl Interne, Central City and Big Sister. She was a regular on the Inner Sanctum, The Haunting Hour, Gangbusters and other crime/suspense/thriller shows. She also wrote for the soap opera Another World in the 1960s. She wrote 116 CBSRMT scripts and voice acted in 13 episodes.
Elspeth's unique style captured my imagination, but there isn't a lot of information out there about her beyond news blurbs and Wikipedia, so I've decided to write a biography of her life and work. So far, I've compiled over 450 newspaper articles, many magazine entries and combed over The Wellesley College Legenda and literary magazine (she graduated from Wellesley College in 1928 with a degree in Economics and English literature and was a member of the Barnswallows acting troupe). I will update my progress here until I get her website set up. Meantime, here is one of her newspaper clippings from her time on Joyce Jordan—Girl Interne.
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