Radio history of Escape and host William Conrad

Escape!

1947 - 1954

William Conrad was one of several deep voiced hosts to Escape. Another was Paul Frees (click image for the photo of Paul Frees)

Escape is one of radio's best respected adventure shows. It lasted seven years, which is especially remarkable in light of the fact it changed time slots 18 different times and often without notice. It had a small budget and never had any long lasting commercial backing (Dunning, 233). Despite these handicaps-- or perhaps because of them-- it cranked out some of the most imaginative and memorable radio stories of the era.

The distinctive deep voice that opened the series (and occasionally starred in it) was actually three different people: William Conrad (the voice of Sheriff Matt Dillion in the radio version of Gunsmoke), Paul Frees (the voice of Boris in the Bullwinkle cartoons), or Lou Krugman. The host would sometimes ask a question tied to current events, like "Did you lose an election bet yesterday?" Then it would ask the same rhethorical question it did every week: "Ever dream of a life of romantic adventure? Want to get away from it all?" The answer for regular listeners was always "YES!" And so began 30 minutes of excitement and Escape.

The innovative series was a summer replacement for Suspense. Both series had a few things in comman, but the differences were significant. Suspense had the big money, the big names, and the big network promotions. Escape had less attention and less oversight. Whereas Suspense spent a lot of its time on commercials and chit chat between the host and guest stars, Escape invested its precious airtime in the story. The plot of Suspense usually involved mystery and crime, but Escape was more adventure. That included science fiction, the supernatural, horror, and action stories involving man vs. nature, or man vs. man (and that sometimes included crime and espionage). Escape aired many original scripts, but often also adapted great classics like Kipling's The Man Who Would Be King, H.G.Wells' The Time Machine, and F. Scott Fitzgerald's comic adventure, A Diamond as Big as the Ritz.

Several of the best tales included Vincent Price. In Blood Bath , he fought various jungle terrors. Black and white movies were nothing compared to the full color imaginations of radio's audience as they envisioned bloody piranhas in all their gruesome glory. And how would Hollywood switch back and forth between reality and imagination as Price did in his modern retelling of An Occurrence at Owl Creek? In the Escape version (Present Tense), a prisoner (Price) escapes from a train on his way to the death house. He makes it all the way back home to hear the sound of the fish jumping for insects on the surface of a nearby lake. But the listener soon realizes that those plopping noises are actually the sounds of cyanide pellets dropping into water as the prisoner waits in the gas chamber. Unlike the audience, Price did not Escape!

Another Price classic involved a spectacle Hollywood would not be able to create for fifty years until the advent of computer generated special effects. In Three Skeleton Key, a lighthouse is completely covered by a giant mass of hungry rats! Naturally, our heroes were trapped inside with Price. They might even survive if they can keep their insanity and wits about them as the bloodthirsty vermin slowly gnaw their way in through the window frames...

It was exciting tales like these that kept the audience on pens and needles each week. Little wonder that when the series moved, they searched the airwaves until they found it again. Loyalty like that kept the series alive, and today, it still remains alive through tape. OTR fans are fortunate that nearly all seven years worth of Escape survived in decent condition.

The Standard Opening

(Hear it in Real Audio!)

Host: "Tired of the everyday routine? Ever dream of a life of romantic adventure? Want to get away from it all?"

Announcer: "We offer you... Escape!"

Music: Dramatic chord.

Announcer: "Escape! Designed to free you from the four walls of today for a half hour of high adventure!"

Music Theme: (Night on Bald Mountain by Moussorgsky.)

An Opening Narration:

Host: "Tonight, we escape to a tropic harbor in Venezuela and the story of a grim voyage of impending death which started from there, as Martin Storm (sp?) tells it in his exciting story 'A Shipment of Mute Fate.'"

The Standard Closing:

Sfx: Music sting.

Announcer (Reads credits and then says) "Next week--"

Host: "You are groping through the midnight dimmness of a giantic department store, and suddenly you realize that a hundred eyes are staring at you from the shadows, and a hundred hands are reaching for your throat. And your most urgent desire is to ... Escape!"

(Music from Night on Bald Mountain plays)

Announcer: Next week, we escape with John Conyers story, 'Evening Premrose.' Be with us next week at this same time when once again we offer you (Reads credits, and then) "Goodbye then until this same time next week when once again we offer you... Escape!"

Hear An Actual Episode!

(Courtesy of The Monster Club)

Dead of Night - The pilot episode! A ventriloquist becomes convinced his dummy is thinking of leaving him!

The Birds - Based on the same story of the Alfred Hitchcock film.

To hear an interview about the old radio career of Vincent Price, one of Escape's best loved stars, go here.

Hear more, FREE!

Hear up to 201 different episodes of Escape in RealPlayer!

(RealPlayer allows you to continue to browse other sites while you listen.)

Bonus Escape script sites:

Script to the Escape episode, "Three Skeleton Key."

Script to the Escape episode, "Leiningen Vs. The Ants."

OTR Plot Spot synopsis of various episodes from Escape: http://www.otrplotspot.com/Escape.htm

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