Elspeth Eric (Writer)

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(09-15-1907 - 1993) Age 86

Elspeth Eric is known for playing gun molls on many old time radio programs in the 40s-50s. She appeared in 13 CBS Radio Mystery Theater episodes and wrote over 100 episodes.

She appeared in the following 118 episodes of Radio Mystery Theater
Date Episode Title Plot
01/15/1974 0010 The Resident A move from the countryside to town leaves a retired lady prey to a cat named Evil and a young girl who forcefully moves in with her!
01/22/1974 0017 A Very Old Man A wizened man has clairvoyance abilities and even relieve physical suffering with a simple touch
01/28/1974 0023 Three Women A writer is pressed by his publisher to alter the ending of his book in order to take fuller advantage of the character of his heroine. The writer hesitates with the premonition that the character crafted by him might actually be alive
02/09/1974 0034 The Deadly Hour A self-doubting man is nearly driven to insanity by the infidelity of his wife and stops speaking. Years later in a counselling session, he admits to having confined the adulterous pair in a cavern and hear them meet their death
02/21/1974 0043 The Walls of Jericho A modest attender at a men's club discovers his extraordinary gift of bringing characters to life from his imagination - literally. But they do exhibit a tendency of being out of control.
03/20/1974 0060 The Ghost at the Gate A ghostly, two-timing tale of romance where a man continues his affair with his wife and his mistress - even beyond death.
04/25/1974 0081 Sunset to Sunrise A daughter remembers how her mother turned into a vampire.
04/29/1974 0082 All Living Things Must Die A lonely woman is left with just the houseplants for her company under the rules of her tyrannic husband. But he goes too far in trying to take even the plants away from her and the vegetation isn't willing to comply.
05/29/1974 0098 The Phantom Lullaby The caring parents of a young woman rent her a luxurious house to recuperate from a bitter affair and an abortion. But trouble seems to shadow her footsteps as a resident spirit in the apartment haunts her.
06/20/1974 0108 The Secret Doctrine After suffering a devastating rejection at the hands of her favorite actor, an obsessed fan directs her violent rage against her former idol.
07/03/1974 0113 The Secret Life of Bobby Deland A couple suffering from the death of their only child take in a young waif to fill the void in their lives. At first the orphan helps alleviate the woman's migraines however, he later repays their kindness by robbing them blind.
07/23/1974 0122 Adam's Astral Self The ability to project his spiritual self to other places while asleep annoys Adam Farr's wife to no end. When she finally leaves him, he comes up with the perfect plan to woo her.
10/21/1974 0163 Mind Over Matthew A middle-aged man marries a young girl he begins to believe might be a sorceress. He enlists the aid of his physician to get to the bottom of the mystery.
10/29/1974 0167 The Black Room A man is placed in solitary confinement for a crime he did not commit. He somehow makes an unlikely friend while in seclusion.
01/14/1975 0205 Faith and the Faker A converted swindler turned faith healer learns that he can heal anyone in his island except his lame wife. He soon realizes that only one thing stands between him and the ability he desperately seeks to acquire.
01/17/1975 0207 Ghost Talk A man dies and his wife is devastated by it. He finds out that he can communicate with her and she promises to never forget him. But later he finds out from an angel that if he persists in keeping his memory alive, she will be stuck in eternal limbo. So he must achieve the nearly impossible task of making her forget about him.
02/07/1975 0220 Death Is So Trivial A man dies in a road accident and vows to devote his afterlife to stopping hit and runs.
03/10/1975 0236 The Stuff Of Dreams A strange reclusive woman hires a young lady to tell her the tales about her daily life, but things start to go south when the girl's boyfriend comes to visit.
03/21/1975 0243 The Man Must Die The son of a court judge is tremendously angered when his father sentences a convicted killer to two decades of life imprisonment instead of death. He then plans to meet the convict to clear things out.
05/07/1975 0269 The Transformation A young man wastes both his inherited fortune and the love of a beautiful woman. He finally makes a deal for three days inside his beautiful body with a demon from underground. But the demon does not keep his deal and he must search for his body. He ends up finding way more.
06/09/1975 0288 Fallen Angel A manic-depressive artist is blessed with an angelic muse that inspires him to greatness. However, he falls into alcoholism in the wake of her absence. When he gets into a fight during one of his episodes, he is confined in a sanatorium and unwittingly discovers that his angel has been replaced by another.
06/19/1975 0294 The Climbing Boy The aggrieved ghost of a young chimney sweep clamors for vengeance against the Lord that abused him. His desire is granted when two noble women aid his cause.
07/07/1975 0304 Guilty After being charged with the physical assault of a colleague, a college professor agrees to take a polygraph test to prove his innocence. When he fails, he begins to question technology and its relevance in the world.
07/24/1975 0314 Appointment in Uganda After obsessively preparing himself for the afterlife, a man is declared clinically dead for a few minutes due to a heart attack. In the time between life and death, he is transported into the body of an elephant calf. He tries to integrate the lessons he learned when he is finally revived.
08/18/1975 0328 Help Somebody The desires of a nomadic writer seem to materialize all at the same time. His novel is a smash hit, he inherits a fortune and ultimately wins the perfect woman. But despite having all the physical trappings of success, happiness still eludes him.
10/02/1975 0357 The Man Who Ran Away Devastated by the discovery of his wife's infidelity, a man seeks refuge in a nearby town. He comes across a seemingly run-down estate and intends to drown his sorrows in solitude. However, he is surprised to find that the house occupied by a lady just as lonely as he is.
11/19/1975 0381 Fear A loyal employee of a bank is accused of robbing another branch and is presented with a photo of the suspect who looks exactly like him, only taller! He is forced to accept the fact that he has an evil doppelganger; even as the police go over the evidence for more clues.
12/22/1975 0400 The Image A self-absorbed author forces his will upon his wife and compatriots in an attempt to bolster his image.
01/16/1976 0417 The Red Frisbee While playing Frisbee with his dog on an Antilles beach, Ben comes across a young girl with an unusual gift. He becomes more entranced by Nikki's strange talent as she narrates her brother's tragic tale. Their bond deepens and he finds himself drawn to her, and the insights she learns from the red Frisbee.
01/28/1976 0422 Mirror, Mirror Jessica Chapman and Clare Connor were once roommates at Stapleton Academy. Jessica is shocked to find that Clare who was once "fairest of them all" has been terribly scarred by a bleak marriage and a dysfunctional relationship with her child. However, what haunts her most is the memory of the golden mirror she gave her friend, and she embarks on a journey to discern what part it has played in the tragedy of Clare's life.
02/12/1976 0430 The Golden Chalices Mary Roth has stirs the embers of his memory with her stories and gifts. His patient is unaware that thirty years ago, psychoanalyst Hans von Fodor and his wife Lili von Fodor were forced to flee Hungary shortly after their marriage. Before leaving Kispest, they buried twelve golden chalices under a cherry tree with a vow to somehow come back for them. Intent on bringing the promise to life, Mary forces them into another wild goose chase.
02/25/1976 0437 General Laughter In lieu of a suicide confession, a distressed actress chooses to record her final breath as well as the motives for her actions. Being a consummate actress, she sets the perfect scene but quickly learns that even the best laid plans can go awry.
03/19/1976 0451 A Matter of Love and Death Having grown weary over sharing him with crazed fans, the wife of a legendary football player walks into a police precinct and confesses to his murder.
03/30/1976 0458 The Intruders Troubled by spirits that haunt her home, a woman becomes strangely attached to her ghostly housemates as she watches them go about their daily lives.
06/24/1976 0494 Child of Fate Threatened by the entrance of new and real-life companions, a child's imaginary friend manifests and attacks them in a battle to exist beyond their make-believe world.
08/23/1976 0509 The Train Stops The train used to stop at the small town of Dandridge. Now the town doctor relates a story about two strangers who only himself and his daughter have met. She tells her father that she has fallen in love with a man who stops in town daily on the 5:16 train. No one else has seen him and he continues to stop in, even when the train doesn't.
09/10/1976 0516 A Magical Place Elinor and Timothy Elkins, a middle-aged couple, revisit a house they rented as newlyweds to see if they can rekindle their marriage and find it for rent again. Shadows from the past bring life back to their dead marriage when they encounter another couple they can hear, but not see.
10/01/1976 0528 The Clairvoyant A clairvoyant forsees an unexpected love in the life of a young, British aristocrat on the eve of World War II.
11/08/1976 0548 The Graveyard A man mourns for his lost love who died after riding out into a rain storm to buy a new dress. He learns the truth about her in a hard way.
11/22/1976 0552 Meeting by Chance Waiting out the passing storm a man and woman spend the afternoon in a odd house where they mysteriously find themselves falling in love.
12/09/1976 0562 Nobody Dies A young woman with a small child takes a job as a maid to a pregnant widow. Their children grow up together and the boy falls in love with the girl. But she moves away and finds someone new. He is devastated.
12/20/1976 0568 Date of Death A hypocondriac's fear is heightened when his doctor tells him he has an aortic aneurism. His anger rises when his doctor later denies ever having the conversation. He thinks he is going to die despite what his wife and doctor tell him.
12/25/1976 0571 The Magus A young servant girl falls under the charms of a magus. She becomes entranced in his presence, forsaking her mother and would-be suitor.
01/17/1977 0587 Son of Satan
A man and his wife come across an old friend in a stroke of luck. They soon discover that not only has he changed his name, but he actually joined a devil-worshipping cult as well. Despite his religious inclinations, they soon pick-up their old friendship to the extent of even trusting him to babysit their newborn child!
02/07/1977 0596 I Pronounce You Dead A girl's teenage angst leads her to witchcraft. She awakens from a dream believing she has killed her family.
03/04/1977 0611 Answer Me
Distraught over the death of his wife, a failed author leaves his life behind him and sets out to lose himself in the heat and barrenness of Mexico. Along the way, he comes across a mother and daughter living in a commune and their strange bond inspires him to write again.
03/22/1977 0621 The Imposter
A woman, with the ghostly assistance of an actor long gone is inspired to write a full-length play  despite having no theatrical experience whatsoever.  When she tries to take full credit for the story, the real author\'s spirit asserts himself and demands that her name be pulled from the marquee. On opening night, the woman reveals the identity of the true writer of the successful show.
04/05/1977 0629 The Sensitive
A cynical and bitter skeptic attends a séance with his wife and his boss. Despite his aversion to things of the occult, he soon realizes that he is sensitive to the paranormal activities around him and actually has the power to manifest spirits into the physical plane. His so-called gift however comes with a terrible price.
06/09/1977 0662 Dialogue with Death A man is reunited with a childhood love and wants to marry her. He has difficulty dealing with her one peculiarity: she regularly talks to her dead parents and her dead horse.
06/20/1977 0668 The Birthmark A scientist believes that a hand-shaped birthmark on his wife's cheek is the only thing standing between her and perfect beauty. He develops a means of removing it and his wife is willing. What price will they pay for their vanity?
07/04/1977 0676 Boomerang A young witch tries to enlist the aid of Satan in order to deploy spells against the man who continues to spurn her. But they always backfire and end up hurting her.
07/07/1977 0678 A Stranger Among Us A tale of UFO encounter, abduction, and subsequent hypnosis to recover the memories. A woman, arrested for auto theft, claims that she is the victim of an alien abuction. Supposedly based on a true story.
08/15/1977 0695 The Together Place A country doctor treats a woman who lives with her daughter on a remote island. The daughter has been communicating with a twin sister who lives in another dimension.
09/07/1977 0705 Silent Shock A female inmate of a mental asylum talks to invisible people and awaits the return of a beloved who might not exist. But the doubt lies in whether she is actually insane or made disturbed intentionally.
09/29/1977 0717 The Solitary The story of an unlikely friendship between a prisoner and the security officer. The prisoner is hated and tortured by another guard regularly and the warden tries to find a way to resolve the conflict.
10/10/1977 0722 The Actress The quintessential story of an actress slowly losing her own self in the life of the tragic character she is supposed to enact.
11/07/1977 0736 The Therapeutic Cat A desperately lonely aged man adopts a cat to keep him company who proves to be extraordinarily companionable. But her qualities might have other intrinsic sources than simple feline nature as she is revealed to be a witch.
11/28/1977 0747 The Man Is Missing A lady pesters investigators to find her missing husband. One of them decide to help her on his own as he falls for her. But his wife gets interested too and manages to unearth some astonishing facts.
01/20/1978 0768 The Enchanted Child A young boy has the strange gift of killing people at will with the force of his thoughts. When anyone speaks positively about dying when he is about, the person under discussion invariably ends up dead. His parents get curious after the second death and get afraid that they might be next in line.
02/16/1978 0783 Something in the Air A father attempts to stop his young girl from consenting to what he deems to be a poor match with an older man with little financial standing. But a strange psychic link seems to bring the two together despite his best attempts, even with the couple helping!
03/23/1978 0803 The Judas Kiss A misogynistic clairvoyant witnesses a woman murdering her boyfriend and subsequently, her husband.
03/27/1978 0805 The Pretend Person A woman recovering from open heart surgery has imaginary friends who help her face the multiple crises she is confronted with in her life.
04/20/1978 0819 The Avocado Jungle An aged actress is helped by a writer to pen down her memoirs. She ends up revealing a secret that gets taped.
05/08/1978 0829 Death and Desire Retired circus actors hit upon an ingenious scheme of conning people with a spirit-medium act. But trouble starts when the spirit dies.
06/08/1978 0847 Death Spell An unemployed couple of an artist and an actress are forced to move in with a rich friend who is convinced his wife is trying to murder him using black magic.
07/11/1978 0862 Guardian Angel A rising entrepreneur falls in love with a young woman who says she has been reborn and that she can communicate with animals. When she is sent off to an asylum, he tries to throw away everything else so he can live with her.
08/23/1978 0883 The Eavesdropper Myrtle Chapman, married to a bookish man who neglected her for eight years, stealthily listens to his telephonic conversations about Hermes with another woman. She gets her answers finally in a small statuette at a bar.
09/20/1978 0895 The Beheading A woman called Joyce narrates her life experiences to another woman. She paints a grim picture of her family portrait and other incidents of her past and then goes on to calmly explain that she has signed a deal to be decapitated by her physician and become the subject of the world's first head transplant experiment.
10/20/1978 0908 The Outside Girl Living off his wealthy mother, a good for nothing alcoholic becomes unusually attached to his father's portrait which he painted years ago. Upon waking from an alcohol induced stupor, he awakens to find the portrait gone, together with the new cleaning lady.
11/15/1978 0918 The Conspiracy After having been abandoned by her lover, a vengeful model plots the downfall of a hapless photographer who just happens to be her first love.
11/24/1978 0922 Night Visitor A scandal ensues when a supposedly deceased young lady turns up in her parents' visitor's bed!
12/11/1978 0929 A Horror Story In a commercial building, a master chef serves the most divine cuisine in a restaurant located at the second floor. On the first level, a shoemaker produces exceptional footwear. The secret resides in their raw materials, of which they share the same source.
12/27/1978 0936 No Way Out An elderly man becomes obsessed with the number 2172 when it repeatedly appears in random patterns during the course of his life. Despite the protests of his nephew's girlfriend of the figure's significance in numerology, his nephew brushes his theories aside.
01/17/1979 0946 The Wandering Wind After moving into their new home, a husband makes an attempt to remedy the dilapidated state of their abode. However, his shy and timid wife adamantly refuses, preferring to leave their ramshackle house as it is. As time passes, he desires to be free of his timorous ways and become more sociable while his wife stagnates in isolation.
02/12/1979 0953 The Sinister Shadow An unusual tale of how a timid woman chanced upon her doppelganger in a seedy bar, and how her double turned against her.
04/23/1979 0973 The Glass Bubble Believing it gives her the power to foresee death, a young woman isolates herself in a sterile glass room.
05/23/1979 0982 Dreams A gambler abuses his wife's unusual ability in predicting outcomes to help him win in his games of chance. When she lands in the hospital due to shock from a particularly terrible dream, she refuses to communicate with him.
06/18/1979 0989 The Unquiet Tomb A remote island is home to an old ship captain and his assistant. Their peace is disturbed when a young family move to the island. When their children suffer mysterious deaths, they are entombed under the house and condemned to eternal damnation.
08/15/1979 1004 Body and Soul An out of body experience after she slips into a coma reveals the vision of her estranged daughter rushing to her bedside to a bed-ridden mother.
09/17/1979 1013 The Guillotine A young medical student meets the love of his life as while waiting out the war. His naive ideals take a beating as he witnesses the brutality of the French Revolution first-hand.
10/15/1979 1021 Out of the Mist While touring the countryside and admiring the wildflowers, a man chances upon a young girl who who hitches a ride to her home. He soon comes to unravel the mysteries shrouding her past.
10/29/1979 1025 The Alien Guest A greedy aristocrat is plagued by the spirit of the deceased cousin whom he murdered in order to take hold of his life and seize his wealth.
11/12/1979 1029 House without Mirrors A concerned friend looks into the irrational fear of his compatriot who has an unusual aversion to mirrors. The eccentric man claims that he will see the image of death the moment he looks into a mirror, and not his own face.
12/03/1979 1035 The Specter Bridegroom The spirit of a bridegroom pays regular visits to his widowed bride after he perishes on their wedding night.
12/17/1979 1039 Beyond Belief The owners of a small coffee shop take pity on an amnesiac young woman roaming the streets of New York City. As they get to know her better, they find that beneath her smiling countenance lies a terrible secret.
12/25/1979 1041 Death is a Woman A trio of friends are invited to the seaside residence of another of their comrades, and he discloses the power of a mysterious talking painting in his bedroom. After each taking a turn sleeping in their friend's quarters, they learn a new thing about the women they love.
01/21/1980 1052 Once Upon an Island After learning about the local legend of the \"shining ghost,\" a couple honeymooning on an island in the Caribbean become curious. The husband meets an unfortunate accident when he goes to explore the haunted house.
02/25/1980 1062 The Unseen and the Seen Believing their house to be haunted by the spirit of his deceased wife, a widowed banker and aspiring artist becomes distressed when the picture of their wedding day moves around the house seemingly on its own. To get to the bottom of things, he devises a unique plan.
03/17/1980 1068 The Evil Eye When people she becomes angry with suffer cruel misfortune, an authoress of fiction believes she has the power of the evil eye. When her husband discovers her unique ability, he hatches a plot to take advantage of her gift with his lover, who also happens to be her talent manager!
04/14/1980 1076 Star Sapphire After adopting a teenage girl to keep his wheelchair bound spouse company, a man teaches the girl how to hunt and kill using the sapphire ring she has become obsessed with.
05/05/1980 1082 The Inner Eye In an attempt to save his life, a young woman uses the power of post-cognition to follow the actions of her itinerant lover after she calls ends their relationship.
06/04/1980 1091 Obsession After foreseeing his involvement in a heinous crime, a murder mystery author demands that he be incarcerated to escape his fate. Dismissing his claims as absurd, his old friend and police chief ignores his pleas and he ends up committing a felony!
08/18/1980 1110 Human Error After unintentionally causing the hospitalization of a young woman, a man experiencing a midlife crisis falls for her. His friends soon become concerned when he begins visiting her for no reason.
08/27/1980 1113 A Feast of Death Set in 1917 Paris, a young woman marries an older man and lives a life of luxury. She is horribly shocked when she unexpectedly discovers the source of their wealth.
09/29/1980 1122 The Ruby Lamp When a college professor creates a device capable of capturing a person's thoughts on film, he uses it to help a friend whose wife suffers from severe melancholia over the death of her children. The woman desires to know what became of her stillborn twins and the experiment all too capably supplies her with the answer.
11/05/1980 1133 The Question A retired actress encounters a spirit who makes an unusual request when she returns to her childhood home by the sea. She relents to the creature's desire to paint her, and this sets both the woman and her elderly caretaker on a journey of self-discovery.
01/08/1981 1144 In the Dark When a woman's husband goes missing, his wife seeks the help of friends who one by one begin to shun her. All proof point towards a kidnapping, however, she refuses to believe he was taken by the secret police.
02/13/1981 1159 Behind the Blue Door A patient fiance must wait for his bride-to-be as she goes on a wild goose chase through Europe in the pursuit of a mysterious stranger.
03/11/1981 1170 Last Act When their testimonies involving the death of a young woman sentence a man to hang, a retired lawyer and an ex-cop begin to revisit the evidence and fear that they have doomed an innocent man.
04/08/1981 1182 The Doll The death of their beloved sister cuts deep into the psyche of her brothers and causes the twins to break their psychic connection.
04/20/1981 1187 The Power of Ode A woman afraid of light becomes the center of affection for two friends. A psychic tells her that she is attuned to the force of all living things and she believes him.
05/06/1981 1194 The Apparition Despite assurances from his family that his father is fine, a prison inmate becomes obsessed with his father's death. Could the unhealthy fixation stem from the fact that it was his father that had him incarcerated in the first place?
05/20/1981 1200 Insomnia In the pursuit of slumber, an insomniac begins listening to non-existent radio stations. The reason behind her sickness is uncovered when she finally succumbs to slumber.
06/29/1981 1214 Waking and Sleeping Despite having everything his heart desires, a man finds there is a void in his life and only the Black Feral Dog in the park can help him unravel the mystery.
07/10/1981 1219 A Man of Honor On the verge of finally attaining his life-long dream, a college professor is struck by an unusual malady and melancholia before receiving his book award. He must set out to discover the secrets he has hidden in his subconscious.
08/14/1981 1233 Lovely People In order to help them develop self-confidence, a therapist uses seemingly esoteric powers but her sister has mischief on her mind.
08/28/1981 1237 Hidden Memory A man obtains a unique ability as a result of his liberation from the ghosts in his past. When he begins remembering things from a time before he was even born, he begins to wonder whether his so-called gift is actually a curse.
10/29/1981 1255 In Touch A medical student requests to be allowed to treat a young girl in Ungerton who suffers from severe migraines. He discovers that talking eases her pain and he imparts this knowledge to her father.
11/13/1981 1259 The Presence Returning from an ocean trip, a pampered college co-ed discovers an invisible guardian protects him.
12/22/1981 1269 Invited Guests After repeatedly turning down the social gathering invitations of his peers, his former lover attempts to discover his reasons, only to stumble upon the man's disturbing and horrifying secret.
02/03/1982 1285 The Mysterious Slumber Set in the 18th century, Mary Reynolds awakens from a coma with amnesia and exhibits a total reinvention of character, much to the surprise of her family.
02/10/1982 1288 The Sand Castle A childhood trauma causes a young woman to compulsively build sand castles everyday as a result of witnessing her little brother drown in her youth. A worried friend and her mother try to put an end to her madness.
03/05/1982 1298 Death at a Distance In order to help a paranoid patient convinced that he will die by the black arts, a missionary doctor seeks the counsel of a prominent medical practitioner working in the African Jungle only to find that he is terrified of voodoo himself.
06/23/1982 1342 Matching Chairs Cursed chairs haunt a pair of brothers. Their sibling rivalry comes to a head when one evening, while relaxing in the wing chairs, the young degenerate brother tells him that that the chair he is sitting on has a unique ability to kill.
07/29/1982 1356 Mind Over Mind A young bank teller is adamant about her innocence when asked about her part in a bank hold-up. Despite statements by a nearby teller implicating her in the crime, she insists that she did not cooperate with the thief in any way.
09/14/1982 1369 The Forbidden House After purchasing a new home, the young owners encounter an unexpected visitor in the form of an old circus performer. They offer him a place to stay and in exchange, they soon learn the secret surrounding their new house.
11/02/1982 1389 The Sensible Thing After deciding to marry his assistant, a widower discovers that his wife is incapable of love and that she has a strange and unhealthy attachment to her dog.
12/02/1982 1398 The Last Plan A pair of young quarrelsome and paranoid neighbors enlists the aid of an eccentric old woman to act as mediator. She hires a professional hit man to watch over them and informs them that if one kills the other, they will both die.

18 Responses to Eric Elspeth

I almost got to the point where I would skip any Elspeth Eric episode, but every now and then I am surprised and actually enjoy her work. Now I listen to the nine horrible episodes to get to that one gem she eventually produced.

Brody Rowland

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Elspeth Eric was one of the most multi-talented actress-writer-director and producer of radio drama from the 1940s through the early 1980s. Simply, Elspeth Eric broke the mold. I first heard Ms. Eric playing stereotype dumb-blond gun-molls on Gangbusters in the 1940s. She could re-shape her voice like Silly Putty. Elspeth could sound completely different depending upon script requirements. Elspeth never seriously tried to get into the movies or T.V. as she was forever enamoured with radio. After all radio offers your imagination the most room to wander. Radio drama can be said to lack tangible limits of T.V. and movies. Elspeth Eric moved naturally from character actress to lead roles, to writing , directing and producing. I don;t believe she ever saw limitations to radio. Her catalogue of work is more prolific than Johnny Mercer's massive song list! In a long era that did not ordinarily allow young women to direct, much less produce, Elspeth Eric proved the stereotypes wrong and has more major credits to her name than almost any other radio personality. I began to notice her name on more radio credits and soon she became my favourite radio professional. ANYTHING that Elspeth Eric wrote, directed, produced or acted in, is worth a listen. Ms. Eric was probably the most undiscovered and under-rated radio actor in the world. Enjoy the legacy that is Elspeth Eric.

Bix

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I am a published author who's also written for magazines for decades, and an ardent fan of CBSRMT (I've listened to every episode, often more than once). Elspeth is by far the best & most ambitious writer the show ever had. Her occasional fits of too-clever-by-half at least show vision that most of the other writers lack. Her dialogue is sharp, musical and absent sentimentality. She writes like someone who has experience much & observes it all.

LANDAN BLUE

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Her writing is by far the best of any...

Phillip Dearman

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She is a fantastic writer. I have thoroughly enjoyed every episode she has written for CBS Mystery Theatre

Mandy

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I'm with Brody. It's almost a shame that she occasionally is very clever, because her bad episodes are gratingly bad and it would be easier to just skip her with confidence. Sometimes she just *tells* you what she's doing, emptying her bag of whatever cheap paranormal activity, phenomenon, and abilities she recently read about and seeing what sticks in the story.

jpc

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She wrote over a hundred CBSRMT episodes and appeared in over a dozen. Her stories are often recognizable by their emphasis in the psychological tension in the story. Almost a signature style that separated Mystery Theater from the previous generation of radio dramas. She also tended to write more stories than her fellow CBSRMT writers where a woman was the lead character.

Frank

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Ha! I named my car after her.

Desiree

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And check out the 13 episodes she Acted in. =0]

Russell

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Nine times out of 10, (but closer to 10 times out of 10), usually the episodes that hold my ear, strongest or get the most repeat listening, are in hindsight Ms. Eric's offerings. Her way with words—and even more interestingly her spoken words as a sometimes radio talent—truly separated her from her CBSRMT peers. Like a Serling, Poe, Barker or Lovecraft, Eric’s signature style blended equal parts strange and quirky with a hint of disturbing thrown in for good measure. I would have loved to put a next drink of hers on my tab in a bribe to talk to her a little about her craft. Anybody have a time machine handy?

beenolas

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I respect the personal opinions here because they share a love for this exceptional product for the time period, I accept their take on the writers and actors and I too have writers that I'm not a fan of. In this case I have to go with my take on the talent of Elspeth Eric. Whether or not she was exceptional at writing she was exceptional at being prolific in the sheer numbers of episodes she wrote that were produced here. That says a lot about about the confidence that Himan Brown showed for her. Himself, who directed and produced some of the legends of radio, a master of production and directing that would pull these shows together at superhuman speed. The way he worked he had little time to accept a script that wouldn't fit. Here's to Elspeth Eric, a woman who more than helped to keep this series alive but to be a signature of it in her own right.

Kurt

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It's interesting that Elspeth Eric wrote a few of my very favorite episodes, such as "The Black Room" and "Ghost At the Gate," and yet she also wrote some of the ones I hate the most, such as, "The Resident" and "The Deadly Hour." I will say that she deserves credit for being one of the most prolific, versatile writers on the show. She has the ability to write in many different styles and formats, which is also amazing. But her repeated episodes about "daddy issues" are a bit tiresome at times. The bottom line is that when she is good, she stands out as one of the best, but when she is bad, she's REALLY bad, lol! Unfortunately, she wrote fewer good ones than bad ones, imo.

Amy

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Elspeth Eric (September 15, 1907 - 1993)[1] was an actress in old-time radio, "usually cast as the other woman in soaps and serials. The daughter of a doctor, Elspeth Thexton Eric was born in Chicago, Illinois. She attended Bradford Academy and graduated from Wellesley College with a double major in economics and English literature. After hearing tales of woe about "girls who had tried to crash the great White Way and failed ... she enrolled in a business school and left word with her friends in New York to let her know when a job was to be had there. She gained some acting experience in summer stock theatre and moved back to New York, where she worked at various jobs for five years while she tried to find work as an actor. During those years, "She was a switchboard operator, waitress, governess, hostess in a cocktail lounge, publicity writer, model, cook, parlor maid, social secretary to a social secretary, stenographer and book saleswoman She appeared on the some of the following readio programs Betty and Bob,The Falcon,Road of Life,The Second Mrs. Burton,The Haunting Hour, The FBI in Peace and War, Abbott Mysteries, Ever Since Eve,Front Page Farrell, Quick as a Flash,Rosemary,67 Mommie and the Men, Inner Sanctum Mystery, Bulldog Drummond, Manhattan at Midnight, Green Valley, U.S.A., Gang Busters, 21st Precinct, Grand Central Station,and Mr. District Attorney.

Adam

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She is my favorite of all the CBSRMT writers. That doesn't mean I think all of her episodes are brilliant; there are a few clunkers. But her experimental and philosophical style brought us many unique and memorable episodes. It's nice to see her work get more appreciation these days. When I first got into the show in the early 2000s, I felt like I was her only fan!

Leaman

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I loved her stories. I also loved her snobby voice she could do so well. No wonder she had a *thing* about psych issues, lol! Her father was a doctor! That explains a lot for me, lol!

Adam

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I was age 8 through 16 during the CBSRMT run. Then, I loved the stories of Sam Dann and Ian Martin and most of the others but not Elspeth Eric. The others were more traditional horror and suspense tales. In fact, I was inclined to turn off the radio when they announced it was one of her stories at the beginning of the show. I was too young and without the life experience to appreciate the psychological and emotional aspects of her writing. Discovering this site years ago when I was about 50 was great. One place to find all the episodes (yes I donated and should do so again). What a joy it was to listen to her stories and discover what I missed 40 years ago. And, what a laugh it was to hear how dated Sam Dann and Ian Martin's stories were especially with their portrayal of women and attempts at portraying "liberated" women. Elspeth rules!!!

Al

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Elspeth Eric was an accomplished radio actress, appearing on dozens of radio shows from the 1930s through the 1980s as well as appearing on Broadway and television. Her radio credits include Inner Sanctum Mysteries, Bulldog Drummond, Suspense, Murder At Midnight, The Haunting Hour, The Falcon, Joyce Jordan, Girl Interne, Young Dr. Malone, Gangbusters, Manhattan At Midnight and Mr. District Attorney. She appeared in a number of Broadway productions including The Live Wire, Snafu, Margin For Error, Too Many Heroes, Dead End and Small Miracle. She is remembered on television for her roles on the daytime soaps operas, Secret Storm and As The World Turns and worked as a writer for the daytime soap, Another World. She wrote 116 plays for CBS Radio Mystery Theater, including "The Black Room," which was published (in "novelized" form) in the book, Strange Tales From CBS Radio Mystery Theater, published in 1976.

Charlie

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Of all the writers on cbsrmt, she's my favorite.

Greg

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