The Escape! Radio Program

Background

Dramas of escape, romance and adventure comprised a great deal of the drama anthologies during the Golden Age of Radio. One might well make the argument that adventure dramas broadcast over one canon or another throughout the era were among the top five most popular genres of the era. They also found their way into any number of adventure productions, a sampling of which follow:

1930 World Adventures
1931 Strange Adventure
1932 Bring'em Back Alive
1932 Captain Diamond’s Adventures
1932 Captain Jack
1932 The Elgin Adventurer's Club
1932 World Adventurer's Club
1933 The Stamp Adventurer’s Club
1935 The Desert Kid
1935 Magic Island
1937 The Cruise of The Poll Parrot
1937 True Adventures
1937 Your Adventurers
1939 Imperial Intrigue
1939 The Order of Adventurers
1940 Thrills and Romance
1941 Adventure Stories
1942 Road to Danger
1942 The Whistler
1943 Escape From . . .
1943 Foreign Assignment
1943 Romance
1944 Adventure Ahead
1944 Dangerously Yours
1944 Stories of Escape
1944 The Man Called 'X'
1944 Vicks Matinee Theater
1945 Adventure
1946 Tales of Adventure
1947 Adventure Parade
1947 Escape!
1947 High Adventure
1947 The Adventurer's Club
1948 This Is Adventure
1949 Dangerous Assignment
1950 Stand By for Adventure
1952 Escape with Me
1953 The Adventurer
1974 CBS Radio Mystery Theater
1977 General Mills Radio Adventure Theater
1977 CBS Radio Adventure Theater

During an era when the word 'romance' still implied adventure as well as emotional and physical passion, the words 'romance' and 'adventure' were often viewed as synonymous with each other in the titles of hundreds of Radio canons of both the earliest and latest Golden Age Radio broadcasts. Escape adventures, in particular, ran the gamut of taut psychological dramas to westerns to war dramas to suspense dramas and thrillers--and on some level, everything in between.

The decidedly escapist nature of such adventure dramas appealed to a wide spectrum of Radio listeners throughout the era. This was after all an era following on the heels of the Wall Street Crash, the Great Depression, America's politically isolationist turmoil of the mid to late 1930s, World War II, the Korean Conflict, and the Cold War era during which Radio was soon supplanted by Television. But through it all, a half-hour of 'escape' every week was a gratefully welcomed diversion for North American audiences.

The dynamics of a compelling escape drama invariably found the protagonist(s) trapped in one way or another by either physical circumstances, psychological or emotional dilemmas or forces of one form or another, geopolitical conflicts, or the consequences of any one of the seven deadly sins. Such internal and external conflicts when carefully drafted--or crafted--made for compelling and often very visceral drama. The long-running success of Romance, Suspense, The Whistler, and Escape simply underscore the argument.

The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) first brought a series titled Stories of Escape to Radio in 1944. Though running for only a year, the concept was quite similar to that of CBS' long-running Escape series. But with Stories of Escape relegated to mostly midnight airings throughout North America, the series never quite found a mainstream audience. Stories of Escape ran from January 1944 to January 1945.

CBS brings Escape! to a mainstream audience

The Columbia Broadcasting System's growing success with Suspense found it occupying a highly popular niche with its listening audience. One might well argue that Suspense was an embarassment of riches for CBS--so much so that promising ideas for scripts began flooding the production. CBS' Suspense had definitely touched a nerve with North American wartime listeners.

First proposed as 'Out of This World,' CBS adapted the 1946 Universal release of Ealing Studios' popular Dead of Night, originally from 1945 for the auditions for Out of This World and Escape, both featuring Berry Kroeger and Art Carney

CBS' Escape was first conceived as a Radio property to be titled Out of This World. The CBS Division of Program Writing produced an audition for Out of This World starring Berry Kroeger and Art Carney in an adaptation of the recently popular Ealing Studios film, Dead of Night (1945). Dead of Night was subsequently released in a less adult form for American audiences by Universal in 1946. It was the Universal release that CBS adapted for the auditions. During the ensuing month the CBS Division of Program Writing produced a second audition adapting Dead of Night as a proposed Escape! canon, again starring Berry Kroeger and Art Carney. The second audition announced an adaptation of F. Scott Fitgerald's 1922 Smart Set story, The Diamond As Big as The Ritz [announced as "A Diamond As Big as The Ritz"], for the following week.

The Escape concept won out, ultimately premiering as a Summer replacement for the second half-hour of Lux Radio Theatre's hour-long Monday night timeslot (CBS Is There premiered in the first half-hour). Escape borrowed heavily from the Suspense format and formula--and understandably so. So much so that after Escape ultimately ran its course, it became historically viewed by some as "Suspense Lite" or Suspense's 'sister-program.' And indeed the formulaic similarities between the two productions underscore that arguably parochial view:

• The rhythm, format, tempo and structure of the prologues to both Suspense and Escape were indeed remarkably familiar--as was the teaser format for subsequent episodes.
• Both productions' use of both an announcer and weighty narrator for the series'.
• Both productions' tag-lines over their entire runs.

Actually comprising only 201 unique stories, Escape ultimately ran -- off and on -- for 235 unique broadcasts [251, if counting the two auditions and twelve, deliberately overlapping East Coast/West Coast broadcasts] over a period of seven years, from 1947 to 1954.

While a spendid production all told, it would appear that the CBS network felt otherwise. The series aired sustaining for the overwhelming number of its various runs. The only sponsors of note were Richfield Oil Corporation of New York, Ford Motor Company and Chrysler-Plymouth--and all three of those in fairly limited fashion. CBS moved the series all over its schedule only occasionally announcing any of the bewildering array of movements. It would appear that Escape fans' only saving grace was that CBS tended to schedule Escape reasonably close to Suspense over the years.

Among the many programming gambits CBS attempted during the course of the production were:

• Airings of the previous Sundays' broadcasts on the following Saturday morning
• East and West Coast broadcasts varying only in the musical accompaniment and opening and closing announcements (e.g. director(s) credits)
• Three 'special' Sunday night broadcasts of Escape
• A brief series of broadcasts that could be heard on as many as three different days of the week, depending on the time zone.

From Billboard magazine of March 20 1948 announcing
Lever Bros' interest in sponsoring Escape.

The series certainly didn't lack for either behind the mike or before the mike talent. William N. Robson, Norm MacDonnell and Anthony Ellis took most of the producer/director credits with help from Fine and Friedkin, John Moseman, and Richard Sanville, among others. The directors often both wrote and directed a number of the Escape episodes. Escape was also noteworthy for providing several of the legendary Radio artists of the era a showcase for their writing talents, such as John Dehner, Tony Barrett and Ben Wright.

As mentioned above, Escape was predominantly a vehicle for West Coast character actors of the era. With rare few exceptions throughout its various runs the casts were comprised almost exclusively of West Coast Radio's finest artists. And in direct contrast to Suspense, during the almost eight years of Escape's various runs the only 'film stars' of note appearing in Escape were Vincent Price, Van Heflin, Edmond O'Brien, and Victor Mature.

Our own view may be parochial in this respect, but we found the entire series even more entertaining precisely owing to the showcase of extraordinary West Coast voice talent that felt more along the lines of an ensemble cast for the majority of the Escape episodes:

90 Episodes featuring Bill Conrad
56 Episodes featuring Ben Wright
55 Episodes featuring Harry Bartell
54 Episodes featuring John Dehner
40 Episodes featuring Paul Frees
26 Episodes featuring Parley Baer
13 Episodes featuring Jack Webb

Even more remarkable, though the series aired twenty-nine repeated scripts during its various runs, none of them were simply rebroadcasts. They were all re-performed--and in most instances rescripted--to produce an entirely new production of an audience-favored script. The repeated scripts were:

A Shipment of Mute Fate (4)
A Sleeping Draft (2)
Action (2)
Command (2)
Conqueror's Isle (2)
Evening Primrose (3)
Flood On the Goodwins (2)
Leiningen Versus the Ants (3)
Snake Doctor (2)
The Country of The Blind (3)
The Diamond As Big as The Ritz (3)
The Drums of the Fore and Aft (2)
The Fourth Man (3)
The Island (2)
The Man Who Could Work Miracles (3)
The Man Who Stole The Bible (2)
The Man Who Would Be King (2)
The Price of The Head (2)
The Red Forest (2)
Red Wine (2)
The Return (2)
The Second-Class Passenger (2)
The Sure Thing (2)
The Time Machine (2)
The Vanishing Lady (2)
Three-Skeleton Key (3)
Wild Jack Rhett (2)
Wild Oranges (2)

Note that, in addition to the above, the two audition performances of Dead of Night might also be construed as repeats. For comprehensive synopses of the entire Escape run, we'd recommend Christine Miller's very thorough Escape and Suspense blog. Our personal favorite productions from the canon were the Bill Conrad performance of Leiningen Versus the Ants and the Vincent Price performance of Three-Skeleton Key. So much so that had Escape consisted of nothing but drivel for its remaining 249 broadcasts, we'd remain one of the canon's more ardent fans. But such was not the case. Escape continued to produce some of Radio's most compelling adventure dramas throughout its entire production history. This is all the more remarkable for the fact that only 201 unique scripts/plots comprised the entire production history of a program that aired for almost seven years in prime time. That's an average of barely twenty-eight unique scripts a year.

Perhaps its just us but we get the impression that CBS had something of a love-hate relationship with Escape that apparently endured over Escape's entire production history. For all seven years, CBS. . .

• rarely promoted the production in the print media of the era
• quixotically moved it all over its production schedule for seven years
• almost never announced its innumerable schedule changes

. . . and yet it continued to survive--and with remarkable ratings in spite of CBS' failure to promote it. As noted further below CBS even considered handing the whole production over to famed Radio writer, director and producer, Wyllis Cooper--for Television. And as noted above, CBS was happy to take credit for Escape's extraordinary popularity--as a CBS-sustainer--while still failing to promote it in any appreciable manner.

Billboard magazine announcement of Escape's impending departure after March 30 1950. In practice, Escape simply moved to Friday evenings.

As the series evolved over the years it might well have changed its name to 'No Escape' rather than Escape--the overwhelming number of the last hundred episodes presenting the probability of no escape from their respective dilemmas. And indeed, the narrators of those dilemmas were another of Escape's most emblematic features over its runs. There were several 'voices of Escape' over its seven years:

• Eric Snowden
• William Conrad
• Paul Frees
• Gerald Mohr
• Lou Krugman

Our favorite voices of Escape were Bill Conrad and Paul Frees. Their weighty intonations and foreboding exposition were perfect compliments to the format. Eric Snowden was Escape's first voice, with William Conrad and Paul Frees soon after alternating in that duty until the last runs of Escape, when veteran voice talent and character actor Lou Krugman assumed that role, occasionally alternating with Paul Frees.

Escape also featured adaptations of some of the finest authors of adventure, sci-fi and thriller fiction of the 19th and 20th centuries, among them:

• Rudyard Kipling
• F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Joseph Conrad
• Robert Louis Stevenson
• Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
• Edgar Allan Poe
• H.G. Wells
• Ambrose Bierce
• Joseph Hergesheimer
• Alexander Woollcott
• Stephen Vincent Benet
• Graham Greene
• Nelson Bond
• Cornell Woolrich
• Ralph Bates
• George Toudouze
• Graham Doar
• Ray Bradbury
• Gouverneur Morris
• Eric Ambler
• Evelyn Waugh
• Somerset Maugham
• Stephen Crane
• Alexandre Dumas
• Jack London
• Daphne du Maurier

Antony Ellis, John Dehner, Tony Barrett, and Ben Wright were also regular contributors of original scripts. The scripts throughout the canon, including the many adaptations of fiction classics, also tended to follow what became an Escape! formula. The dilemma or threat was teased during the opening credits, expanded as necessary with the aid of exposition by the narrator. This was after all an half-hour format and many of the stories adapted for the format could easily have consumed a full hour. But it was the skill of the scriptwriter, musical director and director that brilliantly crafted all the pace, suspense, and action into what was actually only between twenty-three to twenty-six minutes of dramatic airtime.

Leiningen Versus the Ants was a splendid example of an economically adapted treatment that filled the entire broadcast from beginning to end with taut suspense, perfectly balanced exposition, marvelous character development and perfectly escalated--and cliff-hanging--resolution. Though each only twenty-seven minute treatments, all three performances felt far longer than they actually were. Beginning with a highly visceral dilemma, Leiningen Versus the Ants laid out both the background and character development within the first several minutes of the broadcast then simply allowed the devastating impending threat to take its own, escalating course for the remainder of the script. And as we noted above the William Conrad rendition especially has to be one of Radio's most memorable action/adventure broadcasts to ever air in a half-hour format. Brilliant Radio, all told.

Escape! . . . to Television

CBS first began shopping Escape around as a Television vehicle in November of 1949


Billboard magazine November 26 1949 announcement teasing the possibility of a Television version of Escape with Wyllis Cooper as both Writer and Executive Producer

The Escape! franchise made its first jump to Television in 1950, premiering over the [then] CBS affiliate, KTTV, Channel 11 in Los Angeles as a filmed for Television production airing for thirteen episodes. Written by Wyllis Cooper as promised the series featured Klock Ryder, better known to Radio audiences as 'The Old Hermit' from The Hermit's Cave (1936-1939). Running concurrently with the Radio rendition of Escape!, audiences of the era clearly still found the Radio version preferable to the Television version--in spite of Wyllis Cooper's script and producer credits. The ever economical CBS and Wyllis Cooper rolled two of the thirteen short-lived Escape! Television scripts into Cooper's second production for CBS-TV--Stage 13 (1951).

CBS-TV and Wyllis Cooper leveraged two of Cooper's Escape! scripts for the Television version into the first two installments of their Stage 13 mystery adventure TV series for the Spring of 1950.

From the TV Notes section of the July 6th 1950 edition of The Chester [PA] Times:

By AL MORTON

Re-viewing--The summer changeover period has already begun to take its toll of some of television's better shows. One of the more recent to bid farewell is CBS-TV's "Stage 13" (Wed. 9:30 p.m.) Following a long stint of striking terror into the hearts of radio audiences on "Lights Out," Producer-director Wyllis Cooper has been performing the same service for television and with intensified results. Based on stories from the realm of the supernatural and peopled, I use the word very loosely, by witches, wraiths, vampires and sundry equally attractive characters, "Stage 13" takes the viewer through varied and nightmarish situations.

On one recent show, the story centered around a young couple making a visit to the old Druid ruins at Stonehenge. Knowing how Mr. Cooper operates, this naive young pair still chose to spend the night at a nearby inn on, of all times, superstition-ridden Mid-Summer's Eve. At the fatal hour of midnight they become entranced and make a trek to, of all places, the sacrificial altar of the Druid high priest. The boy becomes the reincarnation of this knife-happy dignitary and the girl, alas, just another offering to the hungry Druid gods.

In another vein, and the word has morbid significance, Mr. Cooper recounts the tale of the young writer who is turning out a book entitled "I Am a Vampire." This would be harmless enough, but the tome proves to be autobiographical. Seems our hero was born some 400 years ago and served as a protege of the father of all good vampires, Dracula. In order to survive through the centuries, has had to partake of the vital fluid of some unfortunate mortal. In turn, his victim joins him in the ranks of the undead. The story ends with our hero victimizing both his unwanted wife and his much-desired secretary, thus foolishly creating an eternal triangle in fact.

Mr. Cooper, in a rare kindly moment, passes on the following information concerning these wander werewolves. Their approach will always be heralded by the baying of the neighborhood dogs. Also, identification can be definitely established should your suspect to unable to produce his image in an ordinary mirror. Once the identity is known to you, a wreath of white roses placed on the door will serve to ward off the thirsty intruder. If no roses are available at that crucial moment, you might as well resign yourself to an intrusion as well as a transfusion. For lovers of the supernatural, here is your dish. As for me, well Mr. Cooper at times can be just a little too convincing.

It would appear that Cooper's Stage 13 suffered the same fate as his short-lived Volume One and Escape! series' for Television. Given the reutilization of two of CBS-TV's Escape! scripts in Cooper's Stage 13, the demise of the latter appears to have spelled the ultimate demise of Escape! over Television.

Though several other Television series' named "Escape" came and went--internationally--over the following forty years, Willis Cooper's short-lived 1950 Escape series was the only rendition to loosely follow the Radio concept and format. Most of the subsequent series' were literal escape anthologies--as escapes from prison, war situations, the jaws of fate, etcetera.

While literally escapist in nature, none of the modern Television anthologies named "Escape" employed the psychological, supernatural, or man against nature themes popularized by the Escape! Radio program or the Willis Cooper-scribed Television series'.

Series Derivatives:

Notes on Provenances:

The most helpful provenances were the log of the radioGOLDINdex and newspaper listings.

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