BERENICE
[SHORT-STORY]
Early Poe story with a particularly gruesome ending…
“1835: Poe's "Berenice," a tale of the fear one man has of his cousin/wife-to-be's teeth once she
ostensibly has become a ghost, is published in the Southern Literary Messenger, where Poe would
later serve as editor. Poe scholars say that the impetus for the story--which begins with the cheery
"Misery is manifold. The wretchedness of earth is multiform."--came from a Baltimore Saturday
Visiter [sic] news account of grave robbers exhuming tombs to extract teeth to be sold to
dentists.”
[CHRONOLOGY]
THE KPRC DRAMATIC PLAYERS (KPRC, HOUSTON)
[Monday—10:15-10:45 PM]
January 21, 1935 “Berenice”
PERSONNEL: Sylvester Gross (director).
BLACK NIGHT (WBAP, FORT WORTH)
[Monday—11:00-11:30 PM]
April 25, 1938 “Berenice”
[“…Perhaps the most grewsome and least known of Edgar Allan Poe’s
horror tales…”]
ONCE UPON A MIDNIGHT (KFI, LOS ANGELES)
[Wednesday—9:00-9:30 PM]
May 1, 1940 “Berenice”
[“…designated by its author as ‘the most unusual story of a man ever told
on the face of the earth.’ It tells of an unfortunate English gentleman
whose body is inhabited at times by the soul of Ageus, ancient Greek
maniac who was put to death after he had been convicted of wholesale
murder…”]
THE CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATER (WRVR, NEW YORK—CBS)
[???day—10:07-11:00 PM]
January 9, 1975 “Berenice”
[“…It was Berenice’s smile that attracted Ernest Montresor. He married
her but now, a year later, he has grown to hate her—her sensuous smile
has become an ugly sneer. And, besides, he has fallen in love with her
younger sister, Contance. Montresor can’t wait for Berenice, who is
seriously ill, to die. She does, but on her deathbed she swears to
Montresor that her smile will haunt him forever and eventually drive him
to near insanity…”]
SCRIPT: George Lowther.
PERSONNEL: Himan Brown (producer-director).
CAST: Joan Banks (Berenice), Roberta Maxwell (Constance), Norman Rose
(Anthony Lamb), Michael Tolin (Montresor).
EXTANT RECORDING
HORROR HOUSE (ATLANTA)
Circa 1993 “The Imp of the Perverse”
[“…Adapted from Edgar Allan Poe’s eponymic ‘Imp’ and his ‘Berenice’ by
Prometheus Award-winner Brad Linaweaver, this twisted gem deals with
guilt, obsession, and long teeth…”]
EXTANT RECORDING
HISTORIAS (RNE, MADRID)
[
April 11, 1999 “Berenice” / “La mascara de la muerte roja”