- 2 days ago
Escape is an American radio drama. It was radio's leading anthology series of high-adventure radio dramas, airing on CBS from July 7, 1947 to September 25, 1954.
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:04The End
00:36Escape! Produced and directed by William N. Robeson
00:40and carefully contrived to free you from the four walls of today
00:43for a half hour of high adventure.
00:51Tonight we escape into two worlds.
00:54One of modern jazz, the other of primitive voodoo.
00:58And to a doomed man who brought them together
01:01as William Irish imagined it in his eerie story
01:05Papa Benjamin.
01:31All this police department, 4th Precinct, Sergeant Tallow speak.
01:36Yeah. Yeah.
01:39Well, pick him up on a drunk 7-2-3.
01:42Right.
01:46Yes, sir. What can I do for you?
01:49Are you in charge here?
01:50Yeah.
01:51Hey, aren't you Eddie Block, the band leader?
01:55That's right.
01:56Hey, Joe, look who's here, Eddie Block.
01:58Well, never thought we'd get a visit from a big celebrity like you, Mr. Block.
02:01In at 4 o'clock in the morning.
02:03I suppose, though, this is just a shank of the evening for a big shot orchestra leader.
02:07Well, what can we do for you, Mr. Block?
02:10I just killed a man.
02:12You're kidding.
02:14I tell you, I've just killed a man.
02:16I guess you've been working too hard, Mr. Block.
02:18You're imagining things.
02:19Here, here's the gun. Look at it.
02:21Man.
02:22Sit down, Mr. Block.
02:24Better have a drink of water. You'll feel better.
02:26Oh, no.
02:28I'm all right.
02:29Sergeant.
02:29Yeah?
02:30This gun's been used all right.
02:33Smell.
02:35Hmm.
02:37Was it an accident, Mr. Block?
02:39No.
02:40Well, who'd you use it on? Who was it?
02:42I don't know his name. They call him Papa Benjamin.
02:46Sounds like a white man.
02:49No, he was a Negro.
02:50Oh, well, now, in New Orleans...
02:53Oh, no. No, no. It was nothing like that.
02:55Well, what was he doing to you?
02:58He was killing me.
02:59Huh?
03:00Killing you?
03:01But how?
03:02Look at me.
03:04I used to weigh 200 pounds. I'm down to 102.
03:06Well, how? How was he killing you?
03:09Would you believe in anything you can't see, can't hear, can't touch?
03:13Well...
03:13I've been to the biggest doctors in the world.
03:16They don't believe me? How can I expect you to?
03:20Simply say I'm cracked and let it go at that.
03:23I don't want to spend the rest of my life in an asylum.
03:25Ah, look, Mr. Block.
03:26You say he was a Negro named Papa Bench.
03:29Yeah, yeah. He was an old, old man.
03:31Eighty, maybe ninety.
03:34Skin and bones, he could hardly walk.
03:37And I shot him.
03:38You sure?
03:39You sure you killed him?
03:40Yeah, of course.
03:41Or where?
03:43I don't know exactly.
03:45In Little Back Alley in the...
03:47View of Caray.
03:49Near Congo Square.
03:51Ah, supposing you take us there.
03:52Can you do that?
03:53Then maybe we'll find out this is just a bad dream.
04:12This is the alley.
04:14To the right, between the buildings.
04:16All right, let's go.
04:18You packed, Sarge?
04:19You'd catch cold without it.
04:22Don't go back there, honey.
04:24Quiet, you!
04:25Oh, cops.
04:28Nice neighborhood.
04:32This is it.
04:34In that door and up the stairs.
04:36Come on.
04:37Oh, no, no.
04:39Don't make me go up there again, please.
04:41Better come, Mr. Block.
04:42You're showing us.
04:43Hey, flesh of life.
04:44There's somebody here on the stairs.
04:45Huh?
04:46Huh?
04:47Listen, please.
04:48He won't bother us.
04:49Dead drunk.
04:51Step over him and let's go.
04:52This ain't the most pleasant neighborhood I've been calling in.
05:00This it?
05:02Yeah.
05:03In that door.
05:04Come on.
05:12Better call the commissioner.
05:14Mr. Block wasn't kidding.
05:15This man stayed.
05:30But why?
05:31Why?
05:32Because he was killing me, Commissioner.
05:34It was self-defense.
05:36He never came near me once.
05:37I was the one who went to him.
05:40I offered him $3,000, $10,000, any amount, and he refused.
05:45Finally, I offered him my gun and asked him to shoot me with it, to get it over with quickly
05:49and not to drag it out any longer.
05:50Then when he said no, you shot him.
05:53Yeah.
05:55So you can lock me up now.
05:57Mr. Block, do you think we want to hang a murder rap on you, one of the most popular celebrities
06:02in the United States?
06:03Use your head.
06:04Now, I'm trying to find an out for you.
06:07He was killing me.
06:08Look, an 80-year-old colored man who's so feeble he can't even go upstairs by himself,
06:13who has to have his food pulled up to him in a basket, is killing who?
06:16A stumble-bum his own age?
06:19No.
06:20Mr. Eddie Block, the top band leader of America, who can name his own price anyway,
06:24who has about everything a man can want.
06:28Tell me just one thing, Mr. Block.
06:31How was he killing you?
06:32By thinking thought ways of death had reached me through the air.
06:35Now, Mr. Block...
06:36You want to hush the whole thing up, don't you?
06:38No.
06:39No, Mr. Block.
06:41But I'm going to get the whole story.
06:44So you might as well start telling me from the beginning.
06:48All right.
06:51Began one night about two years ago.
06:54We were playing at Maxim's on Charles Street.
07:05We were just another band.
07:07Small Dixieland outfit, then Eddie Block and his chips.
07:11Judy Jarvis, my wife, did the vocals.
07:14But we weren't setting the world on fire.
07:17Business was so bad, I knew what to expect when I got a call from the manager one night after
07:22closing time.
07:24Robert.
07:26Oh, hi, Eddie.
07:28I, uh, thought we'd better have a little talk.
07:30Ah, it's, uh, that bad, huh?
07:32We took in 4,500 this week.
07:35Yeah, I see.
07:36And, uh, you can cancel my contract any time it falls under 5,000.
07:40I, uh, get it.
07:41Eddie, they can get the same liquor and sandwiches anywhere, but they'll go where the band has something.
07:46Tonight there were more waiters in the place than customers.
07:48Judy didn't even get a hand.
07:49It's not her fault.
07:50I know it's not her fault.
07:51She's okay, but...
07:53Well, I'm asking you, what's wrong?
07:55I, I don't know.
07:56I, I'm getting the latest arrangements sent to me from New York.
08:00We sweat our heads bald rehearsing.
08:02This is New Orleans, practically the cradle of jazz.
08:05You gotta give them something new.
08:06Yeah, I know, I know, I know.
08:07When do I leave?
08:10Well, finish the week up.
08:12See if you can do something about it by Monday.
08:15If not, I'll have to wear St. Louis to get Kruger's band.
08:20I'm sorry, Eddie.
08:21Oh, that's okay.
08:22You're not running a charity bazaar.
08:35But I didn't feel so cocky about it.
08:38It looked like we were on the skids.
08:40The band just didn't seem to have it.
08:42And I wasn't good enough to figure out why and pull them out of it.
08:47I was feeling pretty low when I went back to the deserted bandstand to pick up some music.
08:52The place was dark and empty, except for a couple of scrub women cleaning up.
08:58A dark nightclub can be an eerie place sometimes.
09:01I got that feeling just before I saw it.
09:06I saw it lying on the floor between the stands.
09:10It was a severed chicken claw with a red ribbon tied around it.
09:14I almost laughed.
09:16How did that thing get there?
09:18Then I picked it up and tossed it out of the floor where the scrub women were cleaning up.
09:22I certainly wasn't expecting the reaction I got.
09:25They took one look, turned, and ran out.
09:35I just recovered from that surprise and was bending down to pick up some music that had slipped to the
09:40floor when I heard someone come in.
09:42I guess I was pretty well hidden from view.
09:45Anyway, he didn't see me.
09:47It was Johnny Statz, my drummer.
09:49And he was acting funny, looking intently at the floor, searching for something.
09:55Suddenly, he spotted this chicken claw on the floor and grabbed it up with a terrific sigh of relief, stuffed
10:01it into his pocket, and walked out.
10:10What I did then, I did on a strange impulse, and it changed the whole course of my life.
10:15I followed Johnny Statz.
10:19I suppose I just meant to catch up with him and have a cup of coffee with him somewhere and
10:23ask about the chicken claw.
10:26But as I followed him farther and farther down into the View Carre, down to Congo Square,
10:33it was a growing curiosity that kept me on his trail.
10:37When he turned into that dark alleyway, I stopped and debated.
10:41I felt like an eavesdropper, and yet something drew me on.
10:45And I walked up that dark alley.
10:48I passed that one lighted window.
10:51Don't go no further, honey.
10:52But I went on.
10:54Through a sort of tunnel into another alleyway.
10:57And then I stopped.
10:59Ahead of me, Johnny Statz stood before a dark, dismal-looking old wreck of a building.
11:05Suddenly, he whistled quietly.
11:09A gigantic man appeared out of the shadows.
11:13Johnny handed in the chicken claw and was motioned into the building.
11:18And then I heard sounds coming from the upstairs of that building.
11:23A throbbing drum.
11:24A wailing.
11:26An unearthly sound, and yet wonderful.
11:29An exotic, fascinating rhythm.
11:31This was music.
11:33Something new.
11:34Something sensational.
11:35Something that would set New Orleans on its ear and put Eddie Block in the big time.
11:39I had to get in there and hear it.
11:41I was mighty busy for the next five minutes.
11:44I ran back down the alley, overturning five or six garbage cans before I found what I needed.
11:50Then back to that lighted window in the alley.
11:52And a five spot in exchange for a red ribbon.
11:56Then I was back at the dark building, walking up to that menacing shadow.
12:06Light up.
12:07Let me see your face.
12:09Okay, okay.
12:10Easy.
12:11With that knife.
12:11My ribs are tender.
12:14Your face never been here before.
12:16My friend Johnny Stats up there.
12:18He'll tell you.
12:19Mr. Johnny, your friend?
12:21He asked you to come?
12:22This, uh, this chicken claw had told me to come.
12:25Papa Benjamin sent you that?
12:27Certainly.
12:28You'll make me late.
12:29Papa Benjamin won't like that.
12:31All right.
12:31Go along here.
12:34First thing you know, all New Orleans going to come.
12:37I groped up the stairs, half expecting to feel his knife in my back.
12:41I got to the top safely.
12:44Cautiously, I opened the door and slipped.
13:09The room was full of people.
13:13They were in such a state of frenzy, I wasn't even noticed.
13:16I slipped into a corner and slid down by the wall, sitting on the floor.
13:20That was a sight I'll never forget.
13:23Wild, fantastic, hideous, revolting, fascinating.
13:29In the center of the room was an incredibly old man, naked to the waist, wearing a hideous
13:33mask and holding a live chicken.
13:36There were wild gestures, weird incantations, frantic dancing, shouting, rolling of eyes.
13:42There was blood.
13:43And always there was the chant.
13:46Nobody noticed me.
13:48After a moment, I took a piece of copy paper out of my pocket and began putting down the
13:52notes.
13:52It was wonderful.
13:54Fantastic and wonderful.
13:57In ten minutes I had it, and I'd seen enough, enough for a lifetime of nightmares.
14:02I began to feel sick.
14:04I wanted to get out.
14:05I started to stand up.
14:07No more.
14:08Suddenly the room went dead.
14:10A stranger is here.
14:12His bony arm stretched out straight from the shoulder, pointing at me like an arrow.
14:16And there was blood on it.
14:18What you do here?
14:19I...
14:20I know this, ma'am.
14:22Let me find out.
14:23No one moved.
14:24There was no sound in the room as Johnny Stats came over and squatted beside me.
14:29You're in terrible trouble, Eddie.
14:30I don't know if I can get you out of it.
14:32What is this, Stats?
14:34What are you doing here?
14:35There's no time to talk now.
14:36You've got to do something quick or you'll be a dead man.
14:38Why?
14:39I'm in the very heart of New Orleans.
14:41They wouldn't dare.
14:42Listen, you've seen enough tonight.
14:43You know better.
14:44Eddie, there's only one way.
14:46What?
14:47Join.
14:47Become one of us.
14:48No, no.
14:49It's the only way, Eddie.
14:49I can't save you.
14:51You'd better hurry up, because unless you do, you'll never get out of here alive.
14:54You know what this is, don't you?
14:56This is voodoo.
14:59Okay, sure.
14:59I'll join up.
15:00Why not?
15:00Wait a minute, Eddie.
15:02There's a lot more to it than you think.
15:04Unless you're serious, it'd be better to get cut to pieces right now.
15:07All right, don't worry.
15:08I'm serious.
15:10All right.
15:12Hopaloy, his spirit wishes to join our spirits.
15:17The old man burned some feathers while the others watched silently.
15:21Then he nodded.
15:23It came out all right.
15:24He reads them.
15:26The spirits are willing.
15:28There were other things.
15:29Rituals, ceremonies, another sacrifice.
15:32Then as the chanting started again, they brought me the sacrificial bowl.
15:38I didn't have to be told what was in it.
15:41I started to draw back.
15:42Drink, Eddie.
15:43Drink or they'll kill you on the spot.
15:48Late next morning, the band assembled at Maxim's for a rehearsal.
15:52When Johnny Stats got there, he found another drummer sitting in his place.
15:56Naturally, he came to me.
15:57What's all this about, Eddie?
15:58I don't want any voodoo lover in my band.
16:00That's all.
16:01Stats, here's a check for two weeks' salary.
16:03So you're crossing them, are you?
16:06Boy, I wouldn't want to be in your shoes for all the gold in Fort Knox.
16:09If you mean that bad dream last night, I haven't told anybody and I won't.
16:13I'd be laughed at.
16:14I'm only remembering what I can use of it.
16:16The jungle is just trees to me, the Congo a river, and the nighttime is just a time for electric
16:22lights.
16:22Hey, but this new number you're going to rehearse this morning.
16:24I said I'd remember what I can use.
16:26Listen, Eddie, that chant is sacred.
16:27It's secret.
16:27It was secret.
16:28Eddie, don't do it.
16:29Look.
16:30Here's a couple of C-notes.
16:32Hand them these.
16:32That ought to pay up my dues from now to doomsday.
16:34And I don't want a receipt.
16:36And if they try putting poison in my orange juice, they'll end up in a chain.
16:40It's not that easy, Eddie.
16:41You're one of us.
16:41Oh, get out.
16:44Okay.
16:45Goodbye, dead men.
16:51Graham, the manager of the club, changed his mind about canceling our contract when he heard us rehearse the chant.
16:57Instead, he spent five G's in publicity.
17:00And Saturday night was set for the big unveiling.
17:04It seemed like all New Orleans tried to jam into Maxim's, came to hear the voodoo chant, the real thing.
17:11Just before we were ready to hit it, Judy came up to me.
17:14Eddie, listen.
17:15Let's not do it.
17:16Oh, what do you mean, baby, not do it?
17:18This is it.
17:18This is our ticket to the big time.
17:20It'll be a sense.
17:21Yeah, I know, but I got a funny feeling.
17:23And look, I found this under your dressing room door just now.
17:26It sounds like a warning.
17:27Somebody doesn't want you to play that number.
17:29Let me see.
17:30Honey, you can summon the spirits, but can you dismiss them again?
17:34Think well.
17:36Forget it, baby.
17:38Stats is trying to scare me because I fired him.
17:40Ladies and gentlemen.
17:41Come on, honey, let's go.
17:42They're waiting.
17:43Maxim takes great pleasure in bringing you a historic moment in musical history.
17:49You're about to hear for the first time anywhere the voodoo chant, the age-old ceremonial rhythm no one but
17:55the initiated has ever heard before.
17:57This is the real thing, an accurate transcription, not a note's been changed.
18:03So, ladies and gentlemen, Eddie Block and his chips present for the first time anywhere the voodoo chant.
18:14The End
18:22The End
18:53The End
19:16The End
19:45The End
19:47The End
20:17The End
20:18The End
20:18The End
20:20The End
20:20The End
20:27The End
20:28The End
20:30You should relax now. Maybe take a few days off. Hey, Eddie, look here. Where did this come from? What?
20:38It's a little doll. It was lying on the dressing table. Why, Eddie, it looks just like you. Let me
20:44see.
20:45That's funny.
20:48Look, there in the back.
20:49There's a little pin sticking in the back.
20:52Yes. That's right.
20:55That's where I felt the pain.
21:24That started it.
21:25I decided to do it.
21:30I went to the end.
21:31The end of the end of the end.
21:42It's a little bit of a little bit.
22:10that you haven't even got that extra little touch of imagination
22:13most actors and musicians have.
22:15I guess that's true, Doctor.
22:17I'm just mediocre.
22:20And yet, you might say, my success is killing me.
22:32And so, after two years,
22:36I finally realized it was no use.
22:39I came back.
22:41Back to New Orleans.
22:43And back to the dark alleyway down near Congo Square.
22:48I could just barely drag myself along.
22:52But I had to see Papa Benjamin.
22:58I slowly climbed the stairs.
23:00Up to that loathsome door.
23:04I went in.
23:06There he was.
23:08Papa Benjamin.
23:11Staring at me from the bed as if he'd been expecting me.
23:15Then he started to laugh.
23:22Take that curse off me.
23:25Give me my life.
23:26I'll do anything.
23:27Anything you say.
23:28What been done cannot be undone.
23:32You think spirits of earth, air, fire, water, know what forgiveness means.
23:38Intercede for me, then.
23:41You brought it about?
23:44Here's money.
23:45I'll give you twice as much.
23:46All I earn.
23:46All I ever hope to earn.
23:48You have fouled Diobiah.
23:50Death has been on you from that night.
23:54All over the world.
23:55In the air above.
23:57You have mocked spirit with a chant that summons him.
24:01Then please, please.
24:03Here's a gun.
24:04Kill me now and be done with it.
24:06I can't stand anymore.
24:08All you have to do is shoot.
24:11I'll write a note.
24:12Sign it that I did it myself.
24:14Death will come.
24:15We're different.
24:17Slow.
24:19Oh, slow.
24:21Oh, no.
24:22No, no.
24:23I can't stand it.
24:24I won't.
24:25I won't.
24:28Maybe if I kill you.
24:32Maybe then the spell will be broken.
24:34No.
24:35Yeah, that's it.
24:36I'll kill you.
24:37No, no.
24:37No.
24:38No.
24:52And that's all, Commissioner.
24:55Then I came here.
24:57To the police station.
24:58You know the rest.
25:01Well?
25:02All right, Mr. Block.
25:05Don't believe me, do you?
25:07Yes, I believe you.
25:09Not about the curse, of course.
25:11That was your own mind.
25:13They planted the suggestion in your mind.
25:15You did the rest.
25:17But it's plain that you killed in self-defense.
25:20Crazy kind of self-defense, but I think we can manage it.
25:24We'll try.
25:36The commissioner managed it all right.
25:39How is almost a story in itself.
25:43How a detective with a moulage false face posed his Papa Benjamin and called the voodoo clan together and into
25:49a trap.
25:50How they collected the evidence that proved my story.
25:54And how they sent most of that voodoo bunch to jail.
25:58My name wasn't even connected with the case.
26:00So now I'm free.
26:03I'm living again.
26:04I've gained weight.
26:06The tiredness and the numbness is gone.
26:09I took a nice vacation.
26:11I went to Bermuda, relaxed, and had fun.
26:14Now I'm back in New Orleans at Maxim's and the whole thing is forgotten.
26:19We're opening tonight.
26:20The place is packed.
26:23Everybody's come to hear the chant.
26:25Eddie Block and the chant.
26:27We're on our way now.
26:30Nothing can stop us.
26:33And now, ladies and gentlemen, we welcome back on his triumphal return, Eddie Block and his chips, playing for you
26:41the one and only voodoo chant.
26:57Look at them, Judy.
26:58They're eating it up, aren't they?
27:00Yeah.
27:02What's the matter?
27:03I was hoping I'd never hear this thing again.
27:06What do you mean?
27:07It's your trademark, yours and Eddie's.
27:09I tried to persuade him not to do it and he wouldn't miss it.
27:12Why?
27:13You aren't imagining all that voodoo stuff.
27:15I don't know.
27:16It was all on his mind and it nearly killed him.
27:20I don't think you can put it out of your mind if it gets so easy.
27:23When Eddie plays it again.
27:25Oh, nice.
27:25Hey, wait a minute.
27:27Look at Eddie.
27:28There's something wrong.
27:28What?
27:29Oh, he's staggering, eh?
27:31Eddie!
27:34Eddie!
27:35Eddie!
27:36Judy, now wait.
27:38Here, let me pick him up.
27:38He's probably just fainted from the excitement.
27:40No!
27:41No, leave him alone.
27:44He's dead.
27:49I guess Papa Benjamin won after all.
28:12Escape is produced and directed by William N. Robeson, and tonight brought you Papa Benjamin
28:18by William Irish, adapted for radio by John Dunkel, with Frank Lovejoy as Eddie Block, Louis
28:24Van Rooten as Papa Benjamin, Harry Bartell as the police commissioner, and Joan Banks as
28:30Judy.
28:30Music was conceived and conducted by Cy Fuhrer.
28:36Next week...
28:39You are speeding through the night on the East and Bull Express.
28:43You're alone and unarmed.
28:45And suddenly you realize that your life is in danger.
28:48That somewhere on the train are deadly killers from whom you must escape.
29:06Next week, we escape with Harold Lamb's exciting adventure story, Three Good Witnesses.
29:11Good night, then, until the same time next week, when again we offer you Escape.
29:23This is CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System.
29:26The Columbia Broadcasting System.
Comments