Monday, April 12, 2010

Show #22 - Escape & Captain Midnight

This week, we escape to the Confederate South on Escape, as Harry Bartell stars in "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" based on the famous short story of the same name by Ambrose Bierce. 

Escape was an anthology program of adventure shows, and is often thought of as the somewhat lesser kin to the long-running program, Suspense.  And though it is true that Escape only ran for 7 years (versus Suspense's 20), bounced around time slots (versus Suspense's fairly standard slot), had sporadic sponsorship (versus Suspense's long-running sponsors) and limited budget and big-name stars (versus Suspense's wealth of both), Escape is still just as good as Suspense

Take a listen to this show, and let me know if you don't agree.

By the way, star of this Escape episode, Mr. Harry Bartell, named this particular performance the favorite of his long career.

Captain Midnight is our second program, and was a kiddie serial aimed at young boys.  It told the story of Captain Midnight, secret government agent whose identity was so secret that even his superiors did not know it. 

Like every good hero, he had a backstory.  In WWI, he was fighter pilot who was sent on a mission surely to result in his death, but he piloted his plane back into friendly territory on the stroke of midnight, having completed his mission, and earning the moniker, "Captain Midnight". 

For more on Captain Midnight, check out http://www.otr.com/.  Until then, enjoy this isolated episode from January 10, 1949.

1 comment:

  1. I liked the Captain Midnight show. Made me feel like a little kid and I wanted to go get some Ovaltine myself :) I liked the reference to "yippie skippy" and "wowie zowie." Sounds like someone I know :)
    Escape was a bit dark for me, but still enjoyed it.

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