Theater of the Mind
Escape
226 episodes · 1947–1954 · CBS, Armed Forces Radio Service · Adventure
Escape ran on CBS from July 7, 1947, to September 25, 1954, opening with a question: "Tired of the everyday grind?" William Conrad asked it first, Paul Frees later. It was the adventurous sister of Suspense, with high adventure, the supernatural and science fiction, mostly adapted from well-known stories. Les Crutchfield and John Dunkel created it, and William N. Robson and Norman Macdonnell directed. It seldom had a sponsor, yet it ran 228 episodes, and most survive in good condition.
Sources: Escape (radio program), Wikipedia
Episodes
Tap a year to see its episodes, then a title to play it on Radio Days.
194720 episodes
- The Man Who Would Be King (1947)
Two adventurers set out to become kings of a remote tribe beyond India. - Operation Fleur de Lis
A resistance band fighting behind enemy lines in occupied France. - The Diamond as Big as the Ritz (1947)
The home life of the richest family in the world. - Typhoon
A great storm, a dull-witted captain, and two hundred Chinese passengers below decks. - The Sire de Maletroit's Door
Which will it be, the beautiful girl or the sword? - The Ring of Thoth
In ancient Egypt, the secret of a five-thousand-year life and a love that lasts through time. - The Fourth Man (1947)
Three escaped convicts on a raft with a fourth man they call a savage. - The Most Dangerous Game
A big-game hunter learns what it is to be hunted when his host turns out to hunt men for sport. From Richard Connell's story, first published in Collier's in 1924. - A Shipment of Mute Fate (1947)
A deadly snake loose on an ocean liner, with Jack Webb narrating. - The Fall of the House of Usher
Poe's horror classic. - Pollock and the Porroh Man
A man who crossed a jungle sorcerer finds he cannot get rid of the sorcerer's severed head. From a story by H. G. Wells. - Evening Primrose (1947)
A strange band of people live secretly inside a New York department store. - The Young Man with the Cream Tarts
Robert Louis Stevenson's tale of the Suicide Club, a secret society whose members draw cards to see who dies next. Paul Frees stands out. - Casting the Runes
A medieval curse at work in modern London. - The Country of the Blind (1947)
A mountain guide finds a hidden valley of the blind, where he is the one thought deformed. - Taboo
A werewolf hunt in the forests of old Hungary. - An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
Ambrose Bierce's Civil War classic. - Wild Oranges (1947)
A girl and her father trapped on an island with a homicidal maniac. - Back for Christmas
A botany professor digs a garden in the cellar and plans to bury his wife in it. - Confession
A shell-shocked soldier wanders foggy London and finds murder.
194841 episodes
- The Second Class Passenger (January 7, 1948)
A tourist on a cruise ship finds a beautiful woman, murder and a fight in the back alleys of Mozambique. - The Second Class Passenger (January 10, 1948)
A tourist on a cruise ship finds a beautiful woman, murder and flight in the back alleys of Mozambique. - Leiningen Versus the Ants
A plantation owner in the jungle refuses to run from an army of ants miles wide. William Conrad leads the cast. This is the East Coast broadcast; Escape did the story again for the West Coast three days later. - Leiningen Versus the Ants (January 1948)
A stubborn plantation owner against an army of ants. - Papa Benjamin (January 21, 1948)
Voodoo in the slums of New Orleans. - Papa Benjamin (January 24, 1948)
Voodoo in the slums of New Orleans. - Three Good Witnesses (January 28, 1948)
Spies and intrigue on a Turkish train bound for Syria. - Three Good Witnesses (January 31, 1948)
Spies and intrigue on a Turkish train bound for Syria. - The Vanishing Lady (February 1, 1948)
A young woman in Paris finds that her mother has vanished from the face of the earth. - The Vanishing Lady (February 7, 1948)
A young woman in Paris finds that her mother has vanished from the face of the earth. - Snake Doctor (February 8, 1948)
A strange old hill man is a little too friendly with the cottonmouths. - Snake Doctor (February 14, 1948)
A strange old hill man is a little too friendly with the cottonmouths. - Ancient Sorceries (February 15, 1948)
Witchcraft in a small town. - Ancient Sorceries (February 21, 1948)
Witchcraft in a small town. - How Love Came to Professor Guildea (February 22, 1948)
An invisible creature that can kiss from the inside. Superb radio horror. - How Love Came to Professor Guildea (February 28, 1948)
An invisible creature that can kiss from the inside. Superb radio horror. - The Grove of Ashtaroff
The last temple of a beautiful goddess, hidden in the African jungle. - Jimmy Goggles...The God
An English adventurer becomes the god of a cannibal island. - Log of the Evening Star
Murder, madness and a walking dead man on the high seas. - Misfortune's Isle
Treasure, headhunters and a beautiful senorita. - A Shipment of Mute Fate (March 1948)
A deadly snake loose on an ocean liner. - Action (1948)
A man stranded on a glacier, waiting to die, hears a cry for help. - The Brute
A sailing ship that kills her crew one man at a time. - The Drums of the Fore and Aft (1948)
Two drummer boys show a British regiment what courage means. - The Fourth Man (1948)
Three men and a savage adrift on a raft with little water. - John Jock Todd
A quiet Scotsman who says he's no fighter is pushed too far by a bully in the African jungle. - The Time Machine (1948)
Two adventurers in the far future, in the land of the Morlocks. - The Match
A Mountie means to bring back his man, even if it kills him. - Leiningen Versus the Ants (May 1948)
A stubborn plantation owner against an army of ants. - Beau Geste
The French Foreign Legion classic: a desert fort found manned by dead legionnaires. - The Country of the Blind
A mountain guide stumbles into a hidden valley where no one can see, and the people there decide he is the one who is deformed. - A Tooth for Paul Revere
How the American Revolution really got started, as a Yankee farmer with a toothache saw it. A comic Fourth of July tale. - She
The beautiful woman who lives forever. - Habit
An old sea captain must perform an unusual operation. - The Man Who Would Be King (1948)
Two adventurers set out to become kings of a remote tribe. - The Fugitive
An escaped murderer gets a very unusual knife from his jailer. - S.S. San Pedro
The last voyage of an old freighter, her sick captain and the strange Dr. Percival. - The Diamond as Big as the Ritz (1948)
The home life of the richest family in the world. - Dream of Armageddon
A dream of the year 2200 as civilization falls to war. - Evening Primrose
A poet moves into a New York department store after closing time and finds a whole hidden society already living there. - The Man Who Could Work Miracles (1948)
H. G. Wells's story of the fellow who could. The last show of the season.
194935 episodes
- The Lost Special
A whole train has vanished. - Orient Express
Intrigue on the trans-Balkan railroad. - Red Wine (Jeff Chandler)
Jerry Haendiges' Vintage Radio Logs lists the same title on this date. - Conqueror's Isle
A flyer forced down on an island finds a superior race preparing to take over the Earth. - He Who Rides the Tiger
A man has no memory of his war years in China. What did he do, and where are the Tang bronzes? - A Shipment of Mute Fate (1949)
A deadly snake loose on an ocean liner. - Finger of Doom
A man's girlfriend delivers a package and vanishes from the face of the Earth. - The Country of the Blind (1949)
A mountain guide finds a hidden valley of the blind. - The Adaptive Ultimate
A dying girl given an experimental serum becomes indestructible. - The Diamond as Big as the Ritz (1949)
The home life of the richest family in the world. - Confidential Agent
A foreign agent tries to buy industrial diamonds in wartime London. - When the Man Comes, Follow Him
Three men will kill you if you go near the hidden treasure. - The General Died at Dawn
- The Great Impersonation
Before the war, a German agent plans to pass himself off as an English nobleman. The last show of the season. - The Fourth Man (1949)
Three men and a savage adrift on a raft with little water. - The Drums of the Fore and Aft (1949)
Two drummer boys show a British regiment what courage means. - Action (1949)
A man stranded on a glacier, waiting to die, hears a cry for help. - The Second Class Passenger (1949)
A tourist on a cruise ship finds a beautiful woman, murder and flight in Mozambique. - Leiningen Versus the Ants (1949)
A stubborn plantation owner against an army of ants. - Red Wine
A trip into the Borneo jungle to arrest a murderer. - Snake Doctor (1949)
A strange old hill man is a little too friendly with the cottonmouths. - Evening Primrose (1949)
A strange band of people live secretly inside a New York department store. - The Fortune of Vargas
A hunt for buried gold in the mountains of Mexico. - Wild Oranges (1949)
A girl and her father trapped on an island with a homicidal maniac. - The Sure Thing (1949)
A Caribbean cruise, a triple murder and a two-million-dollar bank draft. - Night in Havana
Cuban gunrunning and a missing emerald. - Flood on the Goodwins
A Nazi agent takes over a Channel boat in heavy fog and orders it out of England. The only one who can stop him is a man with one arm. - Plunder of the Sun
Rival gangs race for the treasure of the Incas, and people start dying. Gerald Mohr leads the cast. From David Dodge's novel. - Three Skeleton Key (1949)
Three lighthouse keepers and an island overrun by rats. - Maracas
Three shady characters, a cargo of contraband guns and a surprise ending. - A Letter from Jason
A drunk is offered $25,000 to kill a man. Gracie Allen drops in at the end. - Command (1949)
A young cavalry officer thinks his commander is a fool as hostile tribes close in. - Border Town
Counterfeiting, shanghaiing and general mayhem in a border town. - Figure a Dame
A double murder on the train to Calcutta and a missing emerald. - Seeds of Greed
Two men after a fortune in pearls in the South Pacific, both fatally greedy.
195047 episodes
- The Pistol
The first Colt six-shooter, the California gold fields and a double-crossing dance hall queen. - The Vanishing Lady (1950)
A young woman in Paris finds that her mother has vanished from the face of the earth. - The Sure Thing (1950)
A Caribbean cruise, a triple murder and a two-million-dollar bank draft. One of the few sponsored Escapes. - Treasure, Incorporated
On a tourist island, a crazy hermit makes sure the customers get their money's worth. - Present Tense
A strange story of murder, execution and perhaps a time warp. - The Outer Limit
A test pilot gets a warning from beyond. - Two If by Sea
An English journalist tries to rescue his wife, a ballerina held in Moscow. One of the few sponsored Escapes. - The Red Mark
At a French penal colony, a sadistic executioner prepares to guillotine his rival. - The Man Who Won the War
The British naval officer who won the First World War, on land. - Port Royal
Salvagers raise a fortune in loot, and greed spreads through the crew. - Three Skeleton Key
Three lighthouse keepers on a lonely rock are besieged by a swarm of rats. Vincent Price stars in the second of Escape's three productions of the story. - Danger at Matecumbe
A Florida drifter is hired to pose as a famous author and is framed for murder. - Green Splotches
Explorers in South America are captured by intelligent plants from another planet. - The Ambassador of Poker
A Virginia gentleman with a gift for cards matches wits with Chinese cutthroats. - The Golden Snake
A lost temple of gold in the Yucatan, guarded by Mayan priests who may not be entirely of this world. - The Shanghai Document
Intrigue aboard a river steamer in central China. - Something for Nothing
A handsome ex-actor witnesses a murder and sees a chance for blackmail. - The Man Who Stole the Bible (1950)
Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and a salesman has a date with the devil. - The Rim of Terror
A spy in the desert and a beautiful girl with a Bentley. - Pass to Berlin
A murderer in postwar Berlin. - Command (1950)
A young cavalry officer thinks his commander is a fool. - Mars Is Heaven
The first men on Mars find familiar faces, with an opening done as a news broadcast. - Serenade for a Cobra
A crooked pilot flying the Hump has a cobra in the cockpit. - Sundown
The gunfighters of the old West. - Blood Bath
A man stranded on a jungle sandbar with piranhas, vampire bats, a boa constrictor and four friends who want him dead. - A Shipment of Mute Fate (1950)
A deadly snake loose on an ocean liner. - Shark Bait
Gunrunners in a Central American revolution, with a surprise ending. - Yellow Wake
A fabulous treasure in the Panama jungle and the ruthless men after it. - Poison
A bigot lies trapped in bed in India with a deadly snake asleep somewhere under the covers. - Two Came Back
A love triangle in the New Guinea jungle, with headhunters and half a million in gold. - The Red Forest (1950)
People trapped by a raging forest fire. - The Footprint
A casket of rubies, a Chinese priest and a little gray snake in the desert. - Crossing Paris
Four suitcases of black-market pork, a meek man and a bully in occupied Paris. - A Sleeping Draught (1950)
A captain carrying four hundred convicts to Australia makes a deal with an honorable murderer. - Roulette
A train speeding through the night and a lady in trouble on board. - The Power of Hammer
A mad expedition into the Congo to arrest a white king in his jungle fortress. - The Time Machine (1950)
A time traveler among the Eloi and the Morlocks. - Seven Hours to Freedom
Escaped convicts take over a fishing boat and head for Mexico. - Earth Abides, Part 1
The end of the age of man, part one of two. - Earth Abides, Part 2
The conclusion of the story of the end of the age of man. - Journey into Fear
Intrigue and assassination in the prewar Balkans. - Funeral Fires
Plague, riots and stolen serum face a new doctor in Lahore. - This Side of Nowhere
A man and a woman with a quarter million in cash crash in an isolated Mexican village. - A Passenger to Bali
A tramp steamer in the China Sea carries an evil passenger. - Wild Jack Rhett (1950)
A showdown on Main Street in the old West. - The Cave
A Christmas story about two ten-year-old boys and what they found in a cave. - The Man Who Could Work Miracles (1950)
H. G. Wells's story of the fellow who could work miracles.
195112 episodes
- Conquest
The first man to climb Everest finds another man's cigarette lighter at the top. - A Bullet for Mr. Smith
An American agent in postwar Switzerland is told to kill a Mr. Smith. But who is he? - The Killer Mine
A British deserter works in a mine beneath the sea in Cornwall. - The Follower
A man searches Mexico for his missing wife. - The Island
Two Marines on Okinawa meet the ultimate weapon: a beautiful girl. - Macao
Action in Macao, and a woman who makes the Dragon Lady look tame. - The Earthmen
The first Earthmen on Mars get a strange reception. - The Gladiator
A champion fighter thinks he's retiring, but there's one more fight with the biggest man he's ever seen. - Up Periscope
An American commands a broken-down Chinese submarine against the Japanese. - A Rough Shoot
A man shoots a poacher on an English estate and uncovers a new Nazi plot. - The Silent Horror
A man goes to live with a Borneo tribe and meets his greatest horror: a stopped watch. - The Man Who Stole the Bible (1951)
Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and a salesman has a date with the devil.
19529 episodes
- Gringo
Adventure, romance and treasure south of the border. - The Price of the Head (William Conrad)
Jerry Haendiges' Vintage Radio Logs lists the same title on this date. - Robert of Huntingdon
Robin and his men foil the sheriff once again. - The Running Man
Alone at night near the Caribbean, a man sees a beautiful woman coming toward him, and the trouble starts there. With William Conrad. - The Return (1952)
A traveler in North Africa finds the perfect place with a blind beggar's help, and gets more than he bargained for. - The Loup-Garou
A hunt through the Louisiana bayous for the legendary spirit that can take the shape of an animal. - Incident in Quito
A man trades his nagging wife to headhunters for ten shrunken heads. - Four Went Home
Four GIs break out of a Nazi prison camp as the war ends. - The Man Who Liked Dickens
A madman in the Brazilian jungle makes his prisoner read Dickens to him, over and over.
195338 episodes
- Conquerors Isle -Harry Bartell
Jerry Haendiges' Vintage Radio Logs lists the same title on this date. - A Matter of Conscience
Three Englishmen desecrate a temple on Bali. - Diary of a Madman
Nazi deserters in the Sahara plan to become kings of the Niger. - A Study in Wax
Two men snowed in for six months in an Arctic cabin start to get on each other's nerves. - Jetsam
A broke drunk on a remote island finds a fortune in ambergris, and his troubles begin. - Wild Jack Rhett (1953)
A showdown on Main Street in the old West. - I Saw Myself Running
A woman meets herself in her dreams, running. - The Tramp
Three Englishmen try piracy on an old hulk and her drunken captain. - The Island -Stacy Harris- -1
Jerry Haendiges' Vintage Radio Logs lists the same title on this date. - The Man with the Steel Teeth
An American reporter is jailed and tortured in Moscow by a man with steel teeth. - Pressure
An American submarine trapped underwater for hours by a Japanese destroyer. - The Invader
A henpecked little man makes contact with a spaceship from another star. - A Sleeping Draught (1953)
A captain carrying convicts to Australia makes a deal with an honorable murderer. - Classified Secret
Spies and counterspies on a cross-country bus. - El Guitarero
A Mexican learns whether a poet will fight for what he loves. - The Derelict
Three men and a woman adrift with a cargo of gold. - Lili and the Colonel
Jerry Haendiges' Vintage Radio Logs lists the same title on this date. - The Vessel of Wrath
An incorrigible drunk in the Dutch East Indies. - North of Polaris
Three astronauts land on a desolate planet. - A Good Thing
Two brothers go to study headhunters, and only one comes back, with a guilty secret. - The Voyages of Sinbad
Sinbad escapes the Cave of the Dead only to fall to the Old Man of the Sea. - Clear for Action
An American captain plans a surprise for a British and a French man-of-war. - The Far Away Island
An embezzler hiding in French Polynesia is hunted by his own son. - A Source of Irritation
A British farmer is kidnapped by a Nazi pilot because he looks like a French traitor. - The Outstation
An English gentleman in the Borneo jungle must put up with a difficult assistant. - The Open Boat
Four men in a small boat try to make it to shore. - The Notebook
Claim jumpers and a pack of wolves in the old West. - The Red Forest (1953)
Men fighting a Montana forest fire are surrounded by it, along with one girl. - Three Skeleton Key (1953)
Three lighthouse keepers and an island overrun by rats. - The Thirteenth Truck
Allied raiders join a Nazi truck convoy to blow up an airfield in North Africa. - The Man from Tomorrow
A former fighter pilot is trained to sharpen his senses, maybe even a sixth one. - The Game
Two boys, one gun and a game of Russian roulette. - Train from Oebisfelde
A cold war hunt for a bomb on a train carrying a nuclear scientist. - The Abominable Snowman
A horror story in the Himalayas. - The Log
The last voyage of a submarine without a country. - The Untouchable
A man terrified of leprosy must face the untouchables of India. - Zero Hour
Children play a game called Invasion with a friend named Drill. - Elementals
A wealthy man sets out to prove that hunger and fear will turn a devoted couple against each other. From a story by Stephen Vincent Benet.
195424 episodes
- The Bird of Paradise
An adventurer finds an island of riches and becomes its prisoner. - Violent Night
An American planter in Latin America must dodge the revolutionary who swore to kill him. - The Second Shot
A hotheaded young officer who has won five duels challenges his commander. - The Return (1954)
A traveler in North Africa finds the perfect place, and gets more than he bargained for. - The Scarlet Plague
An unknown disease threatens to wipe out mankind. - Affair at Mandrake
A British officer against a Nazi spy at Dunkirk, with a surprise ending. - The Adversary
Jerry Haendiges' Vintage Radio Logs lists the same title on this date. - An Ordinary Man
A man tells a woman on an ocean liner that he imports jewels, and the adventure begins. - Benscelina and the Fisherman
A man and a gypsy woman flee across the Irish moors from a giant who wants her, and his death. - Blood Waters
Up the Paraguay River in search of sunken gold. - Judgment Day at Crippled Deer
A Yukon cabin just before a blizzard, and the justice of the people inside. - The Dark Wall
Unusual hospitality in the tiny country of Andorra. - The Birds
Man at war with the birds, the story Hitchcock later filmed. - Eye of Evil
Decay and mysticism in the jungles of Burma. - Flood on the Goodwins (1954)
A Nazi spy seizes a Channel boat in thick fog, and a one-armed man must stop him. - Night of the Guns
Two former haberdashers from Pittsburgh in a revolution in Haiti. - The Price of the Head
The special value of a redheaded drunk in the South Pacific. - The Coward
A pilot goes back to a deserted Caribbean island where a wrecked plane is full of money. - Two and Two Make Four
Never doubt your own senses, even if they say you're crazy. - The King of Owanatu
Black pearls on a hidden island, ruled by a strange white man and his beautiful daughter. - The Boiling Sea
A Victory ship coming home is trapped in the crater of a volcano rising from the sea. - Carnival in Vienna
A carnival lowlife uses a sabotaged Ferris wheel to get $23,000. - The Target
The hunt for an American on the run on an island off Chile. - The Heart of Kali
The last show: a man will kill for a ruby as big as a grenade. William Conrad says goodbye.