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, 1935Berenice

PERSONNEL:

Sylvester Gross (director).

BLACK NIGHT (WBAP, FORT WORTH)
[Monday—11:00-11:30 PM]

April 25, 1938Berenice

[“…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, 1940Berenice

[“…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, 1975Berenice

[“…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 1993The 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, 1999Berenice” / “La mascara de la muerte roja”