064- The Diamond as Big as the Ritz -Sam Edwards Helen Thomas

Tired of the everyday routine? Ever dream of a life of romantic adventure? Want to get away from it all? We offer you escape. Escape designed to free you from the four walls of today for a half hour of high adventure.

You are prisoner in the magnificent mountain retreat of the richest man in the world, Yet in love with his beautiful daughter, while haunting you, terrifying you, is the certain knowledge that the only sure escape would be death.

Today, with Sam Edward starred as John Unger, we escape to an isolated plateau on the Rocky Mountains and the strange story of a stranger family, as F. Scott Fitzgerald told it in his fascinating tale, The Diamond as Big as the Ritz.

I'd been going to St. Midas Prep School for a couple of years. This was my second summer vacation. I'd met this fellow Percy Washington during the winter and got to be pretty good friends with him.

Only I didn't know about his family or where he came from or anything like that. Of course, I knew he must be rich. All the fellows at St. Midas came from wealthy families. So when he invited me to spend the summer at his home, out west someplace, That was okay by me.

We'd been traveling on the super cheap overnight when Percy first mentioned it. I don't even remember now what led up to it. We'd been talking about first one thing and then another. So, exactly, where is your home, Percy?

I mean, you bought the train tickets and all, so I... Well, it's in the Rockies. Sort of, that is. The Rockies, huh? Pretty wild country, isn't it? Some of it is. You take Hades, Missouri, where I come from.