Tired of the everyday grind?
Ever dream of a life of … romantic adventure?
Want to get away from it all?
We offer you … ESCAPE!
Escape (1947-1954) aired “The Thirteenth Truck” on August 16, 1953 as the show’s 196th episode. Not surprisingly, we have aired many episodes of this top-shelf program over the past 11 years, the last being in late January of this year. A spinoff and sister show of the highly popular radio program Suspense (1942-62), Escape produced (according to one source) 251 episodes of which 241 were unique stories, plots, or scripts. Escape concentrated on adventure tales, some with an SF/F theme, though the straight adventure tale set in exotic locales was its meat and potatoes. Escape soon established itself with an even more focused approach to action and exotic adventure, dramatizing literary classics (from such as Rudyard Kipling, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Allan Poe, Ambrose Bierce, Nelson Bond, Ray Bradbury, Eric Ambler, Jack London and others) while at the same time treating its audience to many brand new tales, a fair number of which have become radio classics. In fact, some of Escape‘s original shows were so well written and popular they were later reincarnated for episodes of Suspense.
While strangely not consistently supported by its host network CBS, that rarely gave advance notice of upcoming program titles and moved the show to different times and days willy-nilly no fewer than 18 times over its 7-year run, the show found a faithful audience, and continued to produce well-written scripts with many of the finest actors in radio.
“The Thirteenth Truck” tells the harrowing tale of a small band of Allied soldiers deployed in North Africa during World War II and their attempt to sabotage a hidden Nazi airfield. Heightened with enhanced sound effects and German soldiers actually speaking German, these realistic touches further immerse the listener in this suspenseful tale. And just when you think the story has come to an end it tosses in a dandy little teaser having to do with a certain German medal. Well worth a listen!
Play Time: 29:28
{With summer vacation coming to an end, the neighborhood gang appreciated their SF pulps more than ever, for soon they would be reading entirely different sorts of texts. Putting on brave faces to hide the impending doom of a new school year in their near future, they found themselves at their home away from home, the corner newsstand, with the following magazines begging to be given a permanent home. Astounding SF (1930-present, now Analog) had been a favorite read for decades and was a certain choice, especially with a new story by Poul Anderson, one which would eventually become a minor classic. The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (1949-present) was in its first full year of monthly publication from its modest quarterly beginnings in the Fall of 1949, and while it sported and was attracting writers who aspired to a higher degree of literary acumen and who treated a larger variety of themes, it still relied to a certain degree on excellent reprints, some of which were previously published in non-genre publications. Galaxy (1950-80) was beginning to really make waves with its own fresh approach to the genre (as was F&SF). Aside from the cover novella by J. T. McIntosh, the issue below would feature 5 shorter tales by such as Robert Sheckley, Raymond Z. Gallun, Theodore R. Cogswell, a collaboration from Alex Apostolides & Mark Clifton, and an unknown name to me, Betsy Curtis. All three publications were monthly in 1953.]
[Left: Astounding, August 1953 – Center: F&SF, August 1953 – Right: Galaxy, August 1953]
To view the entire list of Old Time Radio episodes go here.