{
  "title": "THE BRONZE VENUS",
  "category": "[SHORT-STORY]",
  "article": "Adaptations from the story “La Venus d’Ille” by Prosper Merimee…\n“A gallant young French gentleman has found, Un Antique statue on his\ngrounds Just as she is exhumed the Yonus is stood up In the field It oeais the\nbemblanee of a Venus—a Venus Vlctilx—so grand and iTiperlous is she The young\nman Is playing tennis, and a ring on his finger tioubles him it pi events the piopei\nhandling of his racket Taking o« hli i ing he sees that the hand of the statue has a\nbeckoning linger Trat nnger he decides,is i convenient thing- to put his ring on\nHo does so—blips his ling over the finger of the Venus—and laughingly says. \"\nNow, Uiou ail my wife When the ball frame Is oi ei the young fentleman goes for\nhis ilng A niitaele' iho maible linger Is now ho crooked that\nit Is impossible to remove the ling The slatue absolutely takes on a sinister and\nvengeful look—and then, when he sees, that his efforts are in \\aln to pull off the\nting, Venub assumes lur sweettbl <j-ulbe The young man Is engaged to be\nmaineel to a ladv he loves The incident of the i f n p r annoys him The Venus is\nbrought to his house She is cleaned and renovated, and eveiy soil of earth has\nbeen removed fiom her He novel passes through the long coirldor, where the\nbtatue now standb on L pedestal, that lie floes not believe that the eyes of the\nVenus follow him\nw i t h an imploring look The day of his marilage comes Then as ho passes near\nthe statue, it tn-mblt-b on Its pedestal totters falls on h!m, and he Is killed Venus\nis avenged, and still the rigid maible lingerof a broken hand holds Ust to the lino;\nNo. 83 THE STATUE-DEMON;\nby Protp«r Merimee.\nM. do Peyrelioarde was grubbing; out Iho roots of a (lend olive tree in the orchard\not his home at Illo (In the Catalon region ot France) when he found a statue\nburied beneath the old tree. Calling his servants lie had (he statue lifted to the\nlevel of the ground. It was a life sUe bronze inugc ot Venus with silver eyes, and It\nevidently\ndated back to the days when ancient Rome ruled France. On the statue's tatr face\nwas a look of m** llcloug deviltry Uiat appalled the laborers.At the pedestal's\nbase; w»s a Latin inscription: \"Let those who;iove me beware!\" A3 the workmen\nwere lifting the Image it keeled over backward and fell over on one of tho\nlaborers, breakingIlls leg in such, a way as to make him lame for lite.. Accident\nafter accident followed this mishap. Pious folk wanted the finder to have the\nbronze statute cast as a church\nbell. Ho laughed at their superstition and declared the Venus should continue to\nadorn his garden. So at the edge of We' tennis court it was\nget up near the front door of the house.\nThe Bronze Enchantreit.\nM. de Peyrehoradc had one 3*n, • an athletic .young fellow, Alphonse by name,\nwhose engagement to a .pretty girl in the neighborhood had just .been\nannounced. Alhopnso was proud of his father's wealth and of his own social\nposition in the village. So' Instead of getting an ordinary gold wedding ring for his\n.marriage ceremony, he procured' ohfe'tltat was thickly set\nwith diamonds. This ring arrived from the jeweler a day or two 'before the date\nset for the wedding and just as Alphonse was beginning a game of tennis. He put\nthe ring on hi* little finger for safekeeping. Btjt^ttjwfs tight and hurt\nhim. So, Iox»lifag for a safe place to leave it until the end of the game, he noticed\nthe image ot Venus. He slipped the ring on the outstretched forefinger, of the\nstatue's left hand and went on playing. Later, when he' went to remove the ring,\nhe found the statute's finger bent in such a way that the circlet would not come\noff. This puzzled the young man. Ho was quite certain that the bronze finger had\nnot been curved like that when first he put the ring on it. His bewilderment was\ntinged with alarm as he tugged vainly to fraw\naway the diamond circlet. He recalled old fables ot mythology days—.fables that\ntold how mortals had unwittingly betrothed themselves to deities by placing\nrings' on the fingers of tJieir statues. Unable to get back the trinket and ashamed\nto tell what he had done, Alphonso proceeded to get very drunk and then went to\nbed. That night heavy ^jteps were heard climbing the stairs and entering the\nroom. Presently a scream of anguish rang thru the house and the tamo heavy\nsteps were heard descending the stairs. Old M. • de• Peyrchorade rushed into his\nson's room, followed by a scared servant. Across the threshold, fully dressed, lay •\nAlphonse—stone dead, an expression of horror on his. face. Besitie him on the\nfloor lay the diamond ring. Around the dead man's body was a^ great :bruise-, as\ntho the pressure of a mighty vise had crashed the life out of him.In the soft earth\noutside the house were two sets of footsteps—one going, one returning—that led\nto the pedestal whereon stood the cruelly smiling bronze statue of Venus. That is\nall—except that the heartbroken father now yielded to his good friend's cnteraties\nand had the ibronze ffeure cast into a bell for the church.\n[Program information]",
  "origination": "Various.",
  "duration": "Various.",
  "personnel": "Stephen Ker Appleby (producer—1952, Maritime Theatre),\nNorman Bortnick (scriptwriter—1961, Prairie Playhouse), Himan Brown\n(producer-director—1974,\nCBS\nRadio\nMystery\nTheater),\nPaul\nCastan\n(scriptwriter—1935, 1936, Tour-Eiffel), Alonzo Deen Cole (scriptwriter, director—\n1931, etc.), Sam Dann (scriptwriter—1974, CBS Radio Mystery Theatre),\nChristian Gilbert (scriptwriter—1956, Les Fantastiques), Gustaf Kristjanson\n(producer—1961, Prairie Playhouse), Jean Low (scriptwriter—1948, Winnipeg\nDrama; 1952, Maritime Theatre), Archie MacCorkindale (producer—1948,\nWinnipeg Drama), Lee Marcourt (scriptwriter—1952, Vancouver Theatre), John\nRichmond (producer—1938, BBC), Ernest Short (scriptwriter—1938, BBC),\nRaymond Whitehouse (1952, Vancouver Theatre).\nCAST [1974, CBS Radio Mystery Theatre]: Robert Dryden, Evie Juster, Joan\nLovejoy, Dan Ocko, Norman Rose.",
  "extant_recordings": "“The Bronze Venus” (The Witch’s Tale, 1934).\n[Program log]\nTHE WITCH’S TALE (WOR, NEW YORK)\n[Thursday—9:45-10:15 PM]\nJuly 2, 1931\n“The Bronze Venus”\n[Monday—9:30-10:00 PM]\nJuly 18, 1932\n“The Bronze Venus”\n(TOUR-EIFFEL, PARIS)\n[\nJuly 16, 1935\n“La Venus d’Ille”\nTHE WITCH’S TALE (WOR, NEW YORK)\n[Thursday—10:00-10:30 PM]\nAugust 22, 1935\n“The Bronze Venus”\n(TOUR-EIFFEL, PARIS)\n[\nSeptember 26, 1936 “La Venus d’Ille”\n(NATIONAL PROGRAMME, LONDON)\n[Tuesday—12:15-12:40 PM]\nSeptember 27, 1938 “The Bronze Venus”\n[“…The bronze Venus, as readers of Merimee will remember,\nwas dug up in a little village down in the Pyrenees; the\nworkman who found her put his pick into her by mistake and\nshe fell on him and broke his leg. That was a sample of her\nvindictive qualities. If you want to know how much more\ndamage she did before she was melted down to make a\nchurch bell, listen to the play… Characters: Prosper\nMerimee, who tells the story; A Muleteer; The Mayor; The\nMayoress; Alphonse, their son; Mlle. de Puygarrig, his\nbride…”]\nWINNIPEG DRAMA (WINNIPEG)\n[\nAugust 6, 1948\n“The Venus of Ille”\nMARITIME THEATRE (HALIFAX)\n[\nJuly 14, 1952\n“The Venus of Ille”\nVANCOUVER THEATRE (VANCOUVER)\n[\nMay 2, 1952\n“The Bronze Venus”\nLES FANTASTIQUES (BRUXELLES 1, BRUSSELS)\n[Monday—8:55-9:25 PM]\nMarch 5, 1956\n“La Venus d’Ille”\nPRAIRIE PLAYHOUSE (CBW, WINNIPEG)\n[\nJanuary 13, 1961\n“The Venus of Ille”\nTHE CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATER (WRVR, NEW YORK)\n[???day—10:07-11:00 PM]\nApril 30, 1974\n“The Venus d’Ille”\n[“…Vicomte Claude Louis de Charbert—handsome, young and owing a\nmillion-franc gambling debt—tries to save himself from his creditors by\nseeking the hand of the wealthiest young lady in France. But when he\ncarelessly places his ring on the finger of an eight-foot bronze statue of\nVenus, the goddess demands his love—or his life…”]\nCAST: Joan Banks (Heloise), Bob Dryden (Henri), Evelyn Juster (Venus), Danny\nOcko (Ormonde), Norman Rose (Claude).",
  "chronology": "",
  "sources": "",
  "gallery": "",
  "images": []
}