Escape - Single Episodes


(4.8 stars; 94 reviews)

ESCAPE

In the Golden Days of Radio, back in the 1930s to the 1950s, most popular radio series had a set time for going out each week. Occasionally, there might be a change in the schedule, but on the whole a consistent time-slot was something that helped build a large audience and so was something the big networks aimed to achieve. One exception to this rule was the dramatic adventure anthology series called Escape, whose time-slot shifted an incredible eighteen times in its seven-year run from 1947 through to 1954. To make matters even worse it had a habit of coming and going and sometimes disappearing off the schedules altogether at short notice for weeks on end only to resurface weeks later in a completely different timeslot. The quite flagrant disregard CBS paid to having a regular timeslot for Escape could make you think that it was just a run-of-the-mill series that was nothing but a lightweight filler for those times when the regular show was off-the-air, such as during the quiet summer months. In my opinion, and that of many old radio aficionados, this couldn't be further from the truth. Escape is probably the best adventure anthology ever broadcast. Escape brings together everything that was good about old-time radio drama rolled into one. The title itself almost sums up the very essence of what radio drama is all about. Each of the episodes was a micro drama carefully planned to capture the listeners attention for thirty minutes. Over two-hundred episodes were made and almost all of them are as good today as they were over half a century ago. For the first few years the series was on air the announcement at the start of the show varied almost every week, but by the 1950s it had settled down to be the now famous:
Tired of the everyday grind? Ever dream of a life of romantic adventure? Want to get away from it all? We offer you ... ESCAPE!
This may give the wrong impression as Escape was far more than a swashbuckling adventure yarn. It was a brilliantly scripted and superbly produced series that brought to listeners adaptations of classic works by famous writers as well as brand new work by unknown talent. Many of the stories were later reused by more high profile shows such as Suspense, but on the whole the Escape versions were of equal quality and sometimes more dramatically focused and atmospheric. When Radio Life wrote "These stories all possess many times the reality that most radio writing conveys", it hit the nail on the head. This is a quality show in every way. If you've never listened to this wonderful series it's well worth taking the time to listen to it. Whether you listen in the car on your daily commute, whilst doing the housework, relaxing in your favorite easy-chair, or snuggled up in bed - you really will be thrilled! This Article courtesy of www.educations4u.com.
OTRR Certification Information: Series Name: Escape Certification Status: OTRR Certified Complete Certification Date: November 27, 2011 Certification Version: Version 1 Number of CDs: 11 From the Old Time Radio Researchers Group. See "Note" Section below for more information on the OTRR.

This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.

License

Chapters

Out Of This World (Audition) 29:34
Dead of Night (Audition) 24:30
The Man Who Would Be King (Raymond Lawrence) 29:34
Operation Fleur De Lys 29:30
Escape_47-07-21_-003-_The_Diamond_as_Big_as_the_Ritz_-Jack_Edwards,_Jr- 29:29
Typhoon 29:29
Escape_47-08-04_-005-_Sire_De_Maletroit's_Door 29:32
Ring of Thoth 29:30
The Fourth Man (Paul Frees) 29:31
The Most Dangerous Game 29:30
A Shipment of Mute Fate (Jack Webb) 24:30
The Fall of the House of Usher 29:30
Pollack and the Porroh Man 29:30
Evening Primrose (Elliott Lewis) 29:30
The Young Man with the Cream Tarts 29:30
Casting the Runes 29:30
The Country of the Blind 29:30
Taboo 29:30
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge 29:32
Wild Oranges (William Conrad) 29:30
Back for Christmas 29:30
Confession 29:26
The Second Class Passenger (national broadcast) 29:35
Escape_48-01-10_-022-_The_Second_Class_Passenger_-national_broadcast,_different… 29:30
Leiningen vs the Ants (national broadcast) 29:36
Escape_48-01-17_-023-_Leiningen_vs_the_Ants_-national_broadcast,_different_prod… 29:30
Papa Benjamin (national broadcast) 29:43
Papa Benjamin (national broadcast) 29:36
Escape_48-01-24_-024-_Papa_Benjamin_-national_broadcast,_different_production- 29:30
Three Good Witnesses (national broadcast) 29:30
Escape_48-01-31_-025-_Three_Good_Witnesses_-national_broadcast,_different_produ… 29:30
The Vanishing Lady (national broadcast) 29:30
Escape_48-02-07_-026-_The_Vanishing_Lady_-national_broadcast,_different_product… 29:30
Snake Doctor (national broadcast) 29:30
Escape_48-02-14_-027-_Snake_Doctor_-national_broadcast,_different_production- 29:31
Ancient Sorceries (national broadcast) 29:30
Escape_48-02-21_-028-_Ancient_Sorceries_-national_broadcast,_different_producti… 29:30
How Love Came to Professor Guildea (national broadcast) 29:30
Escape_48-02-28_-029-_How_Love_Came_To_Professor_Guildea_-national_broadcast,_d… 29:30
Escape_48-03-06_-030-_The_Grove_Of_Ashtaroth_-national_broadcast,_different_pro… 29:00
Escape_48-03-07_-031-_Jimmy_Goggles,_the_God_-national_broadcast- 28:00
The Log of the Evening Star (national broadcast) 29:30
Escape_48-03-21_-033-_Misfortune's_Isle_-national_broadcast-_-1- 29:20
Escape_48-03-21_-033-_Misfortune's_Isle_-national_broadcast-_-2- 28:13
Shipment of Mute Fate (Harry Bartell) 29:14
Action (Berry Kroeger) 29:30
The Brute 29:30
Escape_48-04-18_-037-_The_Drums_of_the_Fore_and_Aft_-Gil_Stratton,_Jr- 29:30
The Fourth Man (Berry Kroeger) 29:30
John Jock Todd 29:30
The Time Machine (Jeff Corey) 29:30
The Match 29:30
Escape_48-05-23_-042-_Leiningen_Versus_the_Ants_-William_Conrad,_Jay_Novello- 29:30
Beau Geste 29:31
Escape_48-06-27_-044-_Country_of_the_Blind_-Paul_Frees,_William_Conrad- 29:30
A Tooth for Paul Revere 29:29
She 29:30
Habit 29:30
The Man Who Would Be King (Ben Wright) 29:39
The Man Who Would Be King (Ben Wright) 29:30
The Fugitive 29:30
SS San Pedro 29:30
The Diamond as Big as the Ritz (William Conrad) 29:30
Dream of Armageddon 29:30
Evening Primrose (William Conrad) 29:30
The Man Who Could Work Miracles 29:30
The Lost Special 29:30
Orient Express 29:30
Red Wine (Jeff Chandler) 29:30
Escape_49-03-05_-058-_Conqueror's_Isle_-David_Ellis- 29:30
He Who Rides the Tiger 29:30
A Shipment of Mute Fate (John Lund) 29:31
Finger of Doom 29:30
Escape_49-03-20_-062-_The_Country_of_the_Blind_-Edmond_O'Brien- 29:52
The Adaptive Ultimate 29:30
Escape_49-03-27_-064-_The_Diamond_as_Big_as_the_Ritz_-Sam_Edwards,_Helen_Thomas- 29:30
Confidential Agent 29:30
Escape_49-04-09_-066-_When_the_Man_Comes,_Follow_Him 29:30
The General Died at Dawn 29:30
The Great Impersonation 29:30
The Fourth Man (Wilms Herbert) 29:30
The Drums of the Fore and Aft (Ben Wright)) 30:15
Action (Joseph Kearns) 29:30
Second Class Passenger (Parley Baer) 29:37
Second Class Passenger (Parley Baer) 29:30
Leiningen Versus the Ants (Tudor Owen) 29:30
Red Wine (Willard Waterman) 29:30
Snake Doctor (Ira Grossel) 29:30
Evening Primrose (Harry Bartell) 29:51
The Fortune of Vargas 29:30
Wild Oranges (Van Heflin) 29:30
The Sure Thing (William Conrad) 29:30
Night in Havana 29:31
Night in Havana 29:30
Flood on the Goodwins (Jack Edwards) 29:30
Plunder of the Sun 29:30
Three Skeleton Key (William Conrad) 29:24
Three Skeleton Key (William Conrad) 29:30
Maracas 29:30
Letter from Jason 29:30
Command (Elliott Reed) 29:30
Border Town 29:30
Figure a Dame 29:30
Seeds of Greed 29:30
The Pistol 29:30
Vanishing Lady (Del Castillo) 29:30
The Sure Thing (Anthony Ross) 29:32
The Sure Thing (Anthony Ross) 29:30
Treasure Incorporated 29:15
Treasure Incorporated 29:30
Present Tense 29:35
Present Tense 29:30
The Outer Limit 29:30
Two If by Sea 29:30
The Red Mark 29:31
The Man Who Won the War 28:55
The Man Who Won the War 29:30
Port Royal 29:30
Three Skeleton Key (Vincent Price) 29:30
Danger at Matecumbe 29:30
Green Splotches 29:00
The Ambassador of Poker 29:30
The Golden Snake 29:52
The Shanghai Document 29:30
Something for Nothing 29:30
The Man Who Stole the Bible (Ben Wright) 29:30
The Rim of Terror 29:30
Pass to Berlin 29:30
Command (Harry Bartell) 29:30
Mars Is Heaven 29:30
Serenade for a Cobra 29:30
Sundown 29:30
Blood Bath 29:30
A Shipment of Mute Fate (David Ellis) 29:30
Shark Bait 29:30
Yellow Wake 29:22
Poison 29:30
Two Came Back 29:30
The Red Forest (Ben Wright) 29:30
The Footprint 29:30
Crossing Paris 29:30
A Sleeping Draft (John Dodsworth) 29:30
Roulette 29:30
The Power of Hammer 29:30
The Time Machine (John Dehner) 29:30
The Time Machine (John Dehner) 29:32
Seven Hours to Freedom 29:30
Earth Abides Part 1 29:58
Earth Abides Part 2 29:42
Journey into Fear 29:30
Funeral Fires 29:30
This Side of Nowhere 29:30
A Passenger to Bali 29:30
Wild Jack Rhett (John Dehner) 27:26
Wild Jack Rhett (John Dehner) 29:30
The Cave 29:30
The Man Who Could Work Miracles 29:30
The Man Who Could Work Miracles 29:24
Conquest 29:30
A Bullet for Mr Smith 29:30
A Bullet for Mr Smith 29:25
The Killer Mine 29:30
The Follower 29:30
The Island (Harry Bartell) 29:30
Macao 29:30
The Earthman 29:31
The Gladiator 29:45
Up Periscope 29:18
Rough Shoot 29:30
The Silent Horror 29:11
The Man Who Stole the Bible (Sam Pierce) 29:25
Gringo 29:31
The Price of the Head (William Conrad) 24:38
Robert of Huntingdon 28:03
The Running Man 29:00
The Return 28:01
The Return 29:30
The Return 28:44
The Loup-Garou 29:10
Incident in Quito 29:29
Incident in Quito 29:31
Four Went Home 29:45
The Man Who Liked Dickens 28:57
Escape_53-01-11_-165-_Conqueror's_Isle_-Harry_Bartell- 26:50
A Matter of Conscience 28:30
A Matter of Conscience 28:57
Diary of a Madman 29:30
A Study in Wax 26:30
Jetsam 29:32
Wild Jack Rhett (Harry Bartell) 28:47
I Saw Myself Running 29:11
I Saw Myself Running 28:02
The Tramp 29:29
The Island (Stacy Harris) 28:00
The Island (Stacy Harris) 26:52
The Man with the Steel Teeth 29:30
Pressure 29:30
The Invader 29:30
A Sleeping Draft (Alec Harford) 29:27
Classified Secret 29:30
El Guitarrero 29:33
The Derelict 28:43
Lili and the Colonel 28:24
The Vessel of Wrath 29:24
North of Polaris 27:25
A Good Thing 29:26
The Voyages of Sinbad 29:30
Clear for Action 28:54
The Far-Away Island 28:55
A Source of Irritation 29:36
The Out Station 29:24
The Open Boat 29:30
The Notebook 29:30
The Red Forest (Tom Tully) 29:30
Three Skeleton Key (Antony Ellis) 29:30
The Thirteenth Truck 29:28
The Man from Tomorrow 29:07
The Game 29:04
Train from Oebisfelde 27:07
Train from Oebisfelde 28:19
The Abominable Snowman 29:00
The Log 29:00
The Untouchable 29:30
Zero Hour 22:47
Elementals 29:24
The Bird of Paradise 29:06
Violent Night 29:33
The Second Shot (repeat) 29:09
The Return 29:02
The Scarlet Plague 24:09
Affair at Mandrake 23:30
The Adversary 24:30
An Ordinary Man 29:30
Benscelina and the Fisherman 29:33
Bloodwaters 29:22
Judgment Day at Crippled Deer 28:27
The Dark Wall 29:28
The Birds 29:15
Eye of Evil 29:31
Flood on the Goodwins (Vic Perrin) 28:30
Night of the Guns 24:00
The Price of the Head (Hans Conreid) 29:30
The Coward 29:31
Two and Two Make Four 29:34
The King of Owanatu 29:03
The Boiling Sea 29:34
Carnival in Vienna 29:04
Carnival in Vienna 29:52
The Target 29:27
The Heart of Kali (last show) 29:46

Reviews

High quality show I keep coming back to


(5 stars)

Seems to load when nothing else will play on my phone. Good thing it's one of my otr faves! THE FOURTH MAN by John Russell (sp): Three men are adrift in an open boat from a notorious atoll penal colony. conrad, Fitzgerald, Bierce, that ilk. Great stuff. Thank you wonderful librovox!

Unexpectedly magnificent


(5 stars)

Immensely enjoyable. It is difficult to praise this series highly enough. I have listened to 30 episodes in the last 10 or so days.

Armchair explorers, do not miss!


(5 stars)

Leiningen Versus the Ants: the most thrilling 29 minutes in radio!! The Young Man with the Cream Tarts, A Shipment of Mute Fate, the Fourth Man (yes, there were four, not three, doh!)---simply guaranteed to help you ... ESCAPE the four walls of today ...

Escape is the best radio drama I have ever heard.


(4.5 stars)

THIS AND SUSPENSE ARE THE BEST OF OTR!!!


(5 stars)

"Earth Abides"


(5 stars)

That is one unattractive, unsympathetic fictional character, that guy in this story. Then there's the story itself! What happened to all the people? A disease is hinted at ( or is it?, or WHAT?), with the dissociative out-take bit about some rats going extinct in a region of Java. So then, where are the bodies of the billions of human dead? The author keeps dancing around with words like "decay," but without specifying bodies, just "cities" and "streets." I try to stay aloft (disbelief in suspension) by pretending the disease killed everyone months ago by now, long enough for even bones to be scattered out of our timid sight, everyone eaten by the animals that didn't die. Or did the animals die, or are there just SOME animals left alive, the same way there are some humans left? Why doesn't one human survivor get around to asking what kept they alone unscathed by the disease so poorly hinted at in the newspapers? The pro-tag was supposedly alone for a month studying ECOLOGY. Just how long was he alone before the month spent studying ecology? One month swept the world with disease, burials at sea were rushed with cartoon speed, then the ones burying the bodies died too, and the animals gobbled them nearly overnight, so that when down from the forest with his snakebite came out pro-tag, what greeted him was pristine, orderly peoplelessness, which at first he didn't even notice. As the story moves, his snake bite continues to hurt, drowning-at-birth any hope that some weeks and even months have NOW passed to account for the fresh clean absence of people everywhere, gone without a trace. I can't pretend the remains of multiple millions of dead people have dried up and blown away over time, because the opening protagonist is still feeling pain from his snake bite. This story seems so infatuated with itself and it's determinidly "different" presentation of a same-old-story, so above having to explain anything to us, that there's just nothing in it for me. My annoyance verges on disgust when he slaps the man he found alive, drunk, in a car, hitting him HARD and roaring at him to "WAKE UP!!!," shouting, "What's your name!!! YOUR NAME!!" like some out-of-control cop who never should have been hired for such work. Geee how I wish I could enter the story by magic so Narcississy Egomanny Instant-Authaw'tay Guy could try waking ME up like that! And it fits so poorly, the way he treats that first human he finally sees, a man in a car drunk, not feeling happy excesses of same-species relief at finding each other, no common ordinary instinct ti help the man, stick with him, I mean, what would ANYONE do in this situation? They'ds do anything BUT what our incurious pro-tag slug did. I love the Escape radio drama adventure sci-fi suspense series, Great, maybe even BEST stories, best actors, I so enjoy Robert Conrad, and good volume with crystal clear sound (found only 1 exception). It's all fun, superior entertainment, even "Earth Abides", in spite of itself. I'm still listening to it. Still following it through its somersaults, trying to grasp it and tie it down so it might behave, think of the audience, and BE a STORY.

Wonderful Anthology Series


(5 stars)

Easily a top 3 OTR series for me. Great stories, great production, and a fantastic collection of voice actors. My top 15 episodes (not in order): An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (12.10.47) The Most Dangerous Game (10.01.47) The Heart of Kali (09.25.54) Maracas (11.22.49) Border Town (12.13.49) The Untouchable (09.27.53) The Fourth Man (04.25.48) Pollock and the Porroh Man (10.29.47) A Shipment of Mute Fate (03.13.49) The Island (07.11.51) The Red Mark (02.21.50) Eye of Evil (07.17.54) I Saw Myself Running (02.22.53) Leiningen Versus the Ants (08.04.49) The Country of the Blind (11.26.47) Other good episodes: The Abominable Snowman (09.13.53) The Price of the Head (08.07.54) The Man With the Steel Teeth (03.15.53) The Footprint (08.18.50) Bird of Paradise (03.11.54) Blood Waters (06.17.54) Figure a Dame (12.20.49) Confession (12.31.47) Blood Bath (06.30.50) The Golden Snake (04.14.50) Judgement Day at Cripple Deer (06.24.54) Shark Bait (07.14.50) Two Came Back (08.04.50) Taboo (12-03-47) Something for Nothing (04.28.50) Seeds of Greed (12.27.49) Violent Night (03.18.54) When The Man Comes, Follow Him (04.09.49) Serenade for a Cobra (06.16.50) This Side of Nowhere (12.03.50) Conquest (01.07.51) Beau Geste (06.06.48) The Scarlet Plague (04.08.54) Gringo (10.12.54) Snake Doctor (08.18.49) The Follower (02.18.51) Incident in Quito (12.07.52) Pass to Berlin (05.19.50) The Adversary (05.06.54) The Pistol (01.03.50) Poison (07.28.50) Letter from Jason (11.29.49) Habit (07.18.48) The Man Who Liked Dickens (12.21.52) The Log of the Evening Star (03.14.48)

Excellent series


(5 stars)

FIRST - MAY I SAY I will someday donate to keep your work going, right now, I'm having serious financial issues. Since I'm unable to work anymore, I'm willling to DONATE MY TIME, as I listen to classic radio every night, all night, and have for years. I'm a "pseudo expert" on the series "Suspense," for example, and am hearing these Escape episodes for the 2nd and 3rd time. So, I'll offer any help I can. NOW, on to ESCAPE. A great series, period. I especially enjoy the classic literature adaptations. I would suggest Escape to any 1st time listener, then Suspense next. Enough episodes exist to listen to a different one every night for over three years! Great audio quality, too. Not bad for 60+ years old!