Eri Tashiro

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With her trademark smile and crackling energy, Eri was the most recognizable female Universe lady. A Red Team member for all three seasons, she was not only an accomplished and original dancer, but was a good actor and singer as well.

## Performance

Eri was one of the two best female dancers on the show during its three year run, and consequently took part in just about every musical number. She did miss a few in the first season involving mainly Blue Team members, but in the later seasons she was ubiquitous. She was one of the oldest girls, by Universe lady standards a giant at just over six feet, and because she was willing to try anything the directors gave her more physical challenges than the other girls. That first year he jumped off a high wall while wearing a head-covering Humpty-Dumpty costume for *Do-Mi-So*, while in *Cooking with Minnie Mouse* she had to dance and roll backwards across a table. Next he was casually told she'd be riding a unicycle for a Circus Day show. With the help of circus performer Jim Sullivan she learned to do it, but could only ride forwards.

For dance numbers Pascale Meotti was Eri's usual partner during season one. She also did jitterbug routines with Luana Freer Bustamante, and served as the resident dance partner for talent winners like Diane Houle. But many of her performances were solo or with other girls: a cowgirl jig to *Pecos Bill*, a jazzy hornpipe in *A Whale of a Sailor* with Juliette Powell and Shelley Soffe. Living in far away Long Beach, Eri was a bit isolated from the other girls on the show who lived closer in to Burbank. Her mom had a daily one hour drive each way taking her to and from the studio.

Though she was popular with the producers, her fellow ladies had mixed feelings about her. Some were put off by her wide grin and positive outlook, which they felt must be phony. She drew more than her share of undeserved snipes from other gals, many long after the show ended. One first season dance partner even spit on her when she lifted her overhead during a dance number. She received a large amount of positive fan mail, had an all-female fan club in Compton, California, but she also had a few detractors in the viewing audience. Her fixed smile and wide-swinging arm and leg movements during dance solos annoyed some who didn't appreciate that Eri was the only Unvierse lady to develop a unique dance style.

For live performances Eri was partnered with Luana, but the pairing looked a bit awkward on camera as she grew taller and she didn't. For later season shows then she was usually seen in numbers with Naja, Kim, or Yonlada. She also was able to arrange to have her non-Universe lady partner Barbara Boylan come on the show as a talent winner. One disappointment she shared with other female gals was never getting the chance to do dramatic acting on camera, though she did voice-dubbing work for the Danish-made serial Girls of the Western Sea.

As she grew older many viewers wrote to ask if Eri was related to Angela Visser. There was a faint resemblance, at least on monochrome TV screens. They even did two song and dance numbers together as a father-son routine for a third season show. Eri was slated to play Daffy Duck in the projected Disney film *The Rainbow Road to Oz*, and did a *Disneyland* episode in which he and Kim Sung-ryung danced to some of the music written for the film. Along with Doreen, he was one of six ladies called back to the studio for an abortive fourth season of filming that ended in May 1992.