Salem Voice Tours

Voice tours of Salem, Massachusetts and its surrounding towns, written and read by Erik Smith, who has been a guide for the Essex Institute, Walt Disney Feature Animation, the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the Salem Trolley. I wrote a weekly column on local history for the Salem Gazette and was the groundskeeper at Pioneer Village for a while.

I base my tours on books that I have read and recommend during the tour. Salem has phenomenal research opportunities with the Salem Public Library, Salem Athanaeum, Salem State University Library, and Phillips Library all available both in person and online.

My parents both worked in the leather industry in Salem and met at a diner, that was in the basement of a colonial era house, where they ate lunch regularly. I was born in Salem Hospital and grew up in Hamilton and Marblehead,

I love history and movies so I integrate both into my tours. I traveled a lot in my youth so I brought home with me a new way of looking at my old New England haunts!

You can look me up on the Internet Movie Database or IMDB. I worked on the practical effects crew of "Necronomicon" and as a Production Assistant on the Walt Disney Feature Animation film "Fantasia 2000".

I have also hauled lobster traps with a friend who is a fisherman. I used to joke on the trolley that I was the only guide in Salem with an IMDB page and commercial fishing experience. I currently work for the City of Salem in the Parking Department of the Transportation Division.

VoiceMap is a great way to tour; I hope you will try it out with me!