Joan Lorring (“Diana”) and Leon Janney (“Henry”) star in a Jack Buttram script that centers around a tiger eye ring that is claimed to have played a role in the great fortune of Diana’s deceased uncle. The ring supposedly brought him great luck, but luck, it is learned, had nothing to do with it. The plotline has the feel of an Inner Sanctum episode, perhaps encouraged by the voice of Raymond Edward Johnson who plays the dead uncle’s butler, Jerold. As best as can be determined, it is an original Suspense script.
Henry and fiancée Diana arrive at the late uncle's isolated mansion to claim an inheritance. The will states that they must say in the home for one night and will receive $250,000. That is $2.7 million in US$2025 value! Henry finds the uncle's diary, and reads that a tiger eye ring was buried with him. Diana tries to discourage Henry from retrieving it. He believes it holds some kind of secret to the accumulation of wealth, just like it did for the uncle. He forces Diana to go to the crypt with him, and as he struggles to get the ring off the finger, the coffin lid falls, barely missing him. Diana thinks it’s a sign; Henry ignores her admonition. Henry shows the ring to another heir to the fortune, Commander Quinn. Henry is so full of himself that he has the ring and shows it to both of them. boasts of having the ring. Quinn and the butler reveal the truth: it's a booby-trapped ring with a poison-tipped spring, a deadly trick. The holder of the ring would turn the ring three times on their finger, and then a tiny spring with poison, would deliver its fatal result. Henry twists the ring three times as instructed in the diary entry. The mechanism operates as Jerold said. Henry becomes the last recipient of the “luck of the tiger eye” and gets a full does of the uncle’s dark humor.
The mythology and meaning about wearing a “tiger eye” gemstone ring covers a wide range of attributes. It can almost mean anything the wearer wants it to mean. The natural aggression of the tiger, and other big cats, are supposedly affirmed in the ring wearing as confidence, courage, and strength. The gemstone is mined in many areas of the world, can have many different colors and is usually from metamorphic rock.
Perhaps one of Hollywood’s curious tiger eye ring legends played a role in the creation of this script. Rudolph Valentino purchased a tiger eye ring that was claimed to be cursed. His career and life took a downturn after he purchased it in San Francisco, and died at age 31. His lover, Pola Negri, fell ill after taking the ring, and her career also spiraled down, too. Then bandleader Russ Colombo had the ring, and he died in a freak gun accident. His friend, Joe Casino, had the ring and died a year later. Casino supposedly never wore the ring, suspicious of its role in the problems of its past owners. The story was in the news decades later at the time this script was written.
The program was recorded on Thursday, November 30, 1961. The session began at 1:00pm and concluded at 6:00pm.
There are two surviving recordings of this episode, and both are in very pleasing sound quality. The network recording is slightly better than the Armed Forces Radio Service one (AFRS#858).
The script was written by Jack Buttram, whose long and varied business career involved radio scriptwriting, broadcasting, acting, public relations, and international relations. He was also a writer for Unshackled.
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https://archive.org/details/TSP611203
THE CAST
Joan Lorring (Diane Singer), Leon Janney (Henry Letcher), Raymond Edward Johnson (Jerold), Mercer McLeod (Commander Colby Quinn)
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