Escape (1950) | Earth Abides Part 1 | Classic Post-Apocalyptic Old Time Radio

[00:00:01]You finding life rather dull, dreaming again of exotic places, wishing you were somewhere else. We offer you escape.

[00:00:16][music] [music] Today, Escape brings you one of the most unusual and terrifying stories of recent years. It is a story of such scope that the producers of Escape in order to dramatize its full impact will present it in two episodes. So, now with the performance of John Der as Isherwood Williams, we bring you part one of George Stewart's powerful novel Earth Abides.

[00:00:55][music] >> [music] >> If a killing type of virus strain should suddenly arise by mutation, it could, because of the rapid transportation in which we indulge nowadays, be carried to the far corners of the earth and cause the death of millions of people.

[00:01:19][music] >> [bell] [music] >> If you should awake some morning, tomorrow morning, let's say, if you should wake to a man deadad world where virtually all of human life had been dissolved from the face of the earth, leaving behind only buildings, bridges, machines, if you should awake to such a world tomorrow morning, what would you do? Where would you go?

[00:01:50]>> [music] >> My name is Isherwood Williams. I was a student of ecology. I was in the Northern California wilderness gathering specimens [music] of rock, plant, and animal life. I was alone and had been for a month. [music] Climbing up to a sharp ledge one day, I felt a sudden sharp pain in [music] my extended right hand. I withdrew it under reflex and looked up and there a foot above my head I saw him a rattler coiled [music] ready to strike again. Slowly, carefully I lowered myself and began to suck [music] the poison from the bite. I wrapped a handkerchief about my wrist tourniquet style and headed for my caven. There I broke open my snake bite outfit, cut a neat crisscross [music] in my hand at the point of the wound and applied the rubber suction pump.

[00:02:43]Then I lay down on my cot. I felt sick.

[00:02:49]Sick [music] because of the poison. Sick because I was alone.

[00:02:54]I was weak.

[00:02:56]In a few moments, deep, [music] warm blackness closed in about me. [music] I don't know how long I was unconscious, but I was awakened by the door.

[00:03:11]>> Harry. Harry, look here.

[00:03:14]>> This one's still alive, I think.

[00:03:15]>> Alo, I'm glad you came. I'm sick.

[00:03:18]>> He's still alive. All right, don't go near him. Come on. Let's get out of here.

[00:03:22]>> Wait, wait, wait. I'm sick. Come back.

[00:03:27]Why?

[00:03:29]Why? Why did they leave me when they knew I was sick? What were they afraid of?

[00:03:36]I tried to stand, but my knees were like sponge rubber.

[00:03:42]But finally, I was able to stumble to my chest of drawers. And then I saw the hammer, my rockhammer, resting on the top of the chest. And it suddenly became the most important thing in the world to me. If I can lift this hammer, I told myself, I will live. I wrapped my fingers about its handle and I lifted it slowly.

[00:04:08]Then let it down.

[00:04:10]I breathed a sigh of relief.

[00:04:12]I would live.

[00:04:14][music] [music] In the morning, I felt better. I got up, packed the car, and headed for the nearest town, Hudsonville, about 10 [music] miles to the south. They'd take care of me in Hudsonville.

[00:04:31][music] Consider, if you will, the case of the rats that once inhabited Christmas Island, a small bit of tropical verier some 200 m south of Java. [music] In 19003, a new disease sprang up. The rats proved universally susceptible and soon were dying by the thousands.

[00:04:50][music] In spite of great numbers, in spite of an abundant supply of food, in spite of a rapid breeding rate, the species is now [music] extinct.

[00:05:05]>> [music] >> Hudsonville.

[00:05:17]The familiar houses, stores, taverns, but no one on the streets. A hen scratched quietly in the dust. A lonely dog was howling somewhere.

[00:05:29]I got out of the car and walked into a little restaurant. The place was empty.

[00:05:36]Hey, is anybody here?

[00:05:42]Hey.

[00:05:46]Silence.

[00:05:48]Deathly silence.

[00:05:51]On the counter, I saw a newspaper.

[00:05:53][music] Flipped it open. The headline crisis acute.

[00:05:58]>> I read the story. [music] for a dispatch from Washington.

[00:06:00]>> The federal government is herewith suspended as of the [music] emergency.

[00:06:04]All officers, including those of the armed forces, will put themselves under the orders of any fun functioning local authority by order of the acting president. [music] >> Front page, column three. The West Oakland Hospitalization [music] Center has been abandoned. Its functions, including burials at sea, are now concentrated at the Berkeley Center.

[00:06:29]Keep tuned to your radio. The radio? The radio in my car.

[00:06:40]I turned the dial to the most powerful station in the vicinity.

[00:06:44]Static. Nothing but static. Desperately, I twisted it from one end of the band to the other, praying for a human voice.

[00:06:52]bar of music, anything.

[00:06:55]There wasn't a single radio station still in operation.

[00:07:03]The horn. Someone will hear the horn.

[00:07:06]Come on.

[00:07:10]Oh, come on.

[00:07:14]No.

[00:07:21]Oh god.

[00:07:29]Oh, silence.

[00:07:36]Silence and death.

[00:07:40]I leaned back in the seat, exhausted.

[00:07:42][music] I sat that way for minutes before I looked at the paper again. A [music] paper, the last sign of human life left to me, was dated a week before. I read it [music] through twice.

[00:07:56]Whole cities had perished. Medical centers, [music] bodies, doctors, nurses, burial crews hard at work. And then they too had fallen and died. [music] The United States, the world, the stagnant flesh pool of death. Suddenly with terror, I thought of home. I started for San Francisco.

[00:08:16]>> [music] >> On the way, I helped myself to a tank full of gas at a station. Oddly enough, the pumps [music] were still working.

[00:08:25]Electricity still flowed from the river-driven generators, and the lights still blazed. [music] I wondered how I had survived. Perhaps the snake venom had counteracted the virus. Perhaps the the clean wilderness who could save. But somewhere someone else was alive. The men at the cabin door. There must be others. But where?

[00:08:45][music] I passed some cows in a pasture, smiled at myself at the irony. The world belonged once again to the animals.

[00:08:56][music] Ecological observation. Pedigree means nothing now. The prize, [music] which is life itself, will go to the keenest brain, the staunchest limb, the strongest [music] jaw. The champion boars will die in their well-kept pens, but the shows will roam wild. In a few generations, [music] their legs will grow slim, their bodies thin, their tusks longer. Man, they [music] need nothing from man.

[00:09:29][music] I passed four or five cars on the highway, abandoned.

[00:09:34]But farther along, I spotted another car, and there was [music] a man inside.

[00:09:38]I stopped and got out. He had fallen over the wheel. There was a bottle beside him and the strong smell of cheap liquor. I shook him. Come on. Come on.

[00:09:45]Come on. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up.

[00:09:48]>> Wake up. I said, "Hey, >> now come on.

[00:09:51]>> Come on now. Leave me alone now. You just leave me alone."

[00:09:54]>> I said wake up.

[00:09:55]>> Hey, >> what's your name?

[00:09:57]>> Your name.

[00:09:58]>> Oh, difference isn't.

[00:10:00]>> Oh, come on. Come on. Don't go back to sleep. What's your name?

[00:10:03]>> Barla. Barlow's my name. 58 barlos in the Seattle telephone directory and I'm the only one left.

[00:10:12]Me, the dirtiest skunk of the lot. What am I doing alive?

[00:10:19]Answer me that.

[00:10:22]>> Go back to sleep, Mr. Bar.

[00:10:23]>> Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Here, here, here. It's free on a house.

[00:10:27]Everything's on a house now. Have a drink.

[00:10:29]>> No thanks.

[00:10:31]>> Let me tell you why I'm still alive.

[00:10:35]Because I'm being punished.

[00:10:38]I'm not good about that. Oh, >> goodbye, Mr. Barl. No, no. Hey, hey, come on back. I I'll buy you a drink.

[00:10:45][laughter] >> That's good. I'll buy a drink. Look here. I got $500. I took it from a bank yesterday. You want it here? $500.

[00:10:54][laughter] [music] San Francisco.

[00:11:14]The mute dead city of San Francisco.

[00:11:17][music] The naked forest of concrete with its empty streets, its ghosts of newspapers blowing across alleys.

[00:11:26]I crossed the Bay Bridge stretched over the blank water. [music] A single car coupe parked in an emergency recess was its sole possessor.

[00:11:34]Now the Bay Bridge, a final monument to the greatness that had been mankind. [music] >> [music] >> I drove the familiar route toward home, turned right at San Lupo Drive, pulled up in front of [music] the house. I walked up the stairs, took out my key, opened [music] the door.

[00:12:01]Strange odor of must and stale food blew out at [music] me.

[00:12:12]Mom, [music] Dad, mom.

[00:12:25]I fell into a chair and cried.

[00:12:33][music] [music] Observation.

[00:12:41]The desert and the wilderness began a long time ago. [music] Men came only in the latter centuries. They camped at the springs and wore faint trails through the mosquite bushes. They laid rails, strung wire, paved long, straight roads.

[00:12:55][music] After a while, men were gone, leaving their small works behind them.

[00:13:03]In a thousand years, at a conservative estimate, man will be a forgotten stone in the jungle.

[00:13:11]>> [music] >> Where would I go? [music] I had no idea. I only knew I had to keep going. Change of place was my only comfort now. The only way I had of convincing [music] myself that there was still life in the world.

[00:13:28][music] The snake bite began to hurt again. I felt good, some small sign of living flesh.

[00:13:37]>> [music] >> I left San Francisco and started across what had once been the United States, Route [music] 66, through the giant southwest. The towns, the empty [music] dead towns, the dustb blown silent towns passed me by one after another. Kingman, Flagstaff, Albuquerque, Oklahoma City. [music] Just outside Guthrie, I saw a negro tending his garden as if nothing had happened. He was afraid. He waved me on with a shotgun. [music] In Tulsa, the sprinklers were still going in the park. I stopped in Fatville, Arkansas.

[00:14:22]>> I heard music.

[00:14:26]>> Came from a little bar.

[00:14:28]>> Neon lift spitting its bright invitation to the empty street.

[00:14:32]>> I took my hammer and went inside.

[00:14:34][music] The bottles were stacked neatly, bar rag over the racks [music] >> and a broken juke box blazing in blues and red singing it song to the vacant varnish tables. And you just want to jump up and down like a carnival.

[00:14:51]>> Shut up. It's love.

[00:14:54]There's a sparkle to me.

[00:15:00]>> SHUT UP.

[00:15:02]LIKE A soaring but it's [music] [music] slept in the best auto courts and the most luxurious hotels. I slept [music] and ate from the leavingings of 150 million people. All the wealth of America had been bequeeved to me. All its wealth and its death.

[00:15:41][music] 3 days later I pulled up the Pilaski Skyway, crossed George Washington Bridge, came to Manhattan.

[00:15:50]The splendid slow decaying corpse of Fifth Avenue with a sable mink in the windows. [music] The silly traffic lights changing color at naked intersections.

[00:16:01]Manhattan soulless and dead.

[00:16:05]Stretched out between its rivers, the city will remain for a long time. Stone and brick, concrete and asphalt, glass.

[00:16:15]Time deals [music] gently with them. A window pane loosens, vibrates, breaks in a gusty [music] wind. Lightning strikes, loosens the tiles of a cornice. The shade trees on the avenues die in their shallow pockets.

[00:16:33]Bats fly from the 59th floor. City dies slowly.

[00:16:42]In the afternoon, I saw smoke from a chimney in the Bronx. I drove to the house, a small house, and knocked [music] on the door. I heard footsteps.

[00:16:50]When the door opened, I saw a little bald man with a broad smile holding a handful of playing cards.

[00:16:59]>> Milk Carson, how do you do? Come on in.

[00:17:02]You're in time for supper.

[00:17:03]>> Well, thanks. I just ate.

[00:17:05]>> This is Mrs. Carson.

[00:17:08]>> How are you?

[00:17:09]>> Won't you sit down?

[00:17:10]>> Thanks.

[00:17:11]>> Where are you from?

[00:17:12]>> California.

[00:17:13]>> I had a relative there.

[00:17:14]>> We're just finishing a hand of Jen. Say, look here. Isn't that a beauty?

[00:17:21]>> Oh, the the television set. Yes. Yeah, it's beautiful.

[00:17:25]>> It's a combination radio, television set, radio player. I'll bet it even does the washing. It took us two days to get it up the steps from the radio store.

[00:17:35]>> I always wanted a set like that.

[00:17:37]>> Yes, but there's nothing on the air.

[00:17:40]>> Sir, always wanted a set like that.

[00:17:44]Jen, there you are.

[00:17:46]>> I owe you $10,000. They'll give it to me tomorrow. [snorts] There's a blessed window at the Chase National. All the money you want. I carry 50,000 with me all the time just to be on the safe side.

[00:17:59]>> Of course, you can't buy anything with it now, but sure feels nice to carry around.

[00:18:04]>> How about some salami?

[00:18:06]>> No thanks. I just ate.

[00:18:08]>> Oh, yeah. Say, do you like canasta?

[00:18:11]>> Not much at cards.

[00:18:12]>> Oh, canasta. I could teach you. It's simple like ramy, but a little different. Um, what I was wondering was why don't you stay here? I got everything you'd want right here in the Bronx. Need a coat for the lady. Break a window at J Fox. You should see some of the diamonds I got Mrs. Carson at Tiffany's yesterday. Beauties. Hey, where are you going?

[00:18:34]>> I've got to get started.

[00:18:35]>> Where? There ain't no place to go.

[00:18:37]>> Lots of luck.

[00:18:38]>> Well, thanks, but I wish you could stay with us.

[00:18:41]>> No, thanks. Goodbye.

[00:18:45]Oh, the scavengers. [music] How long would they last? Through the winter. And it was doubtful. There'd be no central heating. Even breaking [music] furniture in the fireplace wouldn't keep them alive. They were like highly bred spananiels or pices who walked the city's [music] streets at the end of their leashes. They would die with the city a season or two later of pneumonia or accident. The negro in Oklahoma with his heart to the land.

[00:19:10][music] He would survive. Milt Carson and his new wife. No, they were waiting for death at the card table.

[00:19:23]Two weeks later, I was in San Francisco again. The streets were just as bare as when I left. The lights were still on, but dimmer now. Water flowed still from the faucets.

[00:19:35]But San Francisco had a new population, the dogs. They hunted in packs. All breeds bound together in the common search for food. Danes, Dalmatian, Scotties, toys, all of them. The dogs had taken over the city. And I decided to move back into the house because of the familiar things. [music] Late one afternoon, I went out to look around the neighborhood when I heard the yelping too late. As I looked around me, I saw myself being surrounded by dogs.

[00:20:04]They were hungry, ravenously hungry, and they started to close in. The car was on the streets some 50 ft away if I could make the car. Bulldog made a lunge for me. I kicked violently and started to run. They were after me, some of them running at my legs. He reached the car, opened the door, and slammed.

[00:20:22]They climbed to the window, bearing their fangs, their red tongues wet with hunger. But I was safe.

[00:20:29][music] Then the night [music] and that night the lights went out.

[00:20:44]The lights? The lights?

[00:20:47]The lights? What's happened to the lights?

[00:20:51]I looked out over the city.

[00:20:54]It [music] was black.

[00:20:57]Black as death.

[00:20:59]The age of electricity was over.

[00:21:03]Finished.

[00:21:10]They were candles. Mom kept them for ceremonial occasions in the buffet. And I found myself hoarding matches and flashlights, candles, piling them up in the corners. There was only night and day. Time had lost its meaning. And I had food and clothing.

[00:21:26]And then I had books to read, [music] the Bible. And I read the Bible. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.

[00:21:35]For thy love is better than wine.

[00:21:42]There was a faint but [music] unmistakable light burning that night a mile away in Knob Hill. I got into the car and drove to the light. I parked the car. I reached for my hammer. In the window, a shadow moved. As I approached the door, a flashlight caught me in its glare. I stopped dead still. I waited for someone to say, "Put your hands up."

[00:22:05]Or, "Who are you?" There was a breath of perfume.

[00:22:10]>> That's a nice car.

[00:22:14]>> I can pick up a better one on any street corner.

[00:22:19]>> Come on in.

[00:22:20]>> Thanks.

[00:22:26]>> How about some coffee?

[00:22:27]>> Sounds good.

[00:22:30]How come you didn't find me before this?

[00:22:33]>> I just saw the light tonight. I decided to investigate.

[00:22:36]>> I saw your light lots of times.

[00:22:38]>> Oh, >> you live down on San Loopo Drive.

[00:22:41]>> Why didn't you come in?

[00:22:44]>> Woman's pride.

[00:22:47]Man's supposed to come after the woman.

[00:22:49]>> Uh-huh. That was before.

[00:22:51]No rules now.

[00:22:53]>> No, but they're habits.

[00:22:56]Want yours black? Yeah, black's fine.

[00:22:59]Fine.

[00:23:01]>> I don't want you to think you're the first one I've met. There were five or six others.

[00:23:06]They saw the light and they came in.

[00:23:09]They had coffee and I sent them on.

[00:23:11]>> What about me?

[00:23:13]>> I don't know you.

[00:23:15]>> I'm clean, well educated, healthy, young.

[00:23:19]>> Those are the good things.

[00:23:20]>> I dislike turnipss, canned beans, stupid people.

[00:23:24]>> What's your name? You'll laugh.

[00:23:27]>> I would laugh. What's your name?

[00:23:30][snorts] >> Isherwood. My mother's maiden name.

[00:23:32]Everybody calls me Ish.

[00:23:34]>> Well, mine's Emma.

[00:23:37]Emma and ish. Nobody's going to write any love songs with that combination.

[00:23:41]>> No. [laughter] Don't imagine they will.

[00:23:44]>> I like you.

[00:23:48]>> Coffee will be ready in a minute.

[00:23:49]>> Emma, will you come and live with me?

[00:23:55]I don't know you.

[00:23:56]>> What is there to know? That I like you.

[00:23:58]You like me? That we're both alone?

[00:24:02]Emma?

[00:24:04]>> What?

[00:24:05]>> Emma?

[00:24:09]>> Yes.

[00:24:10]>> Good.

[00:24:12]>> Ceremony.

[00:24:14]It >> ought to be some kind of ceremony.

[00:24:16]>> Have you a Bible?

[00:24:17]>> Bible? On the mandol? I've never used it. I just had it. Here.

[00:24:28]>> Give me your hand.

[00:24:31]Now we shall be together always.

[00:24:37][music] [music] Emma was warm and understanding, good woman, a healthy woman. Soon there was a baby to be [music] born. I had read some books, but I couldn't read enough. I stood by her during the night and tried to help. When the morning came, we had a son, [music] the first born since the great disaster.

[00:25:10][music] Then there was the matter of time.

[00:25:13]>> We won't need to know the exact hour.

[00:25:15]>> No, that's true. The clocks have stopped, but what's the difference? We eat when we're hungry, and when we're tired, we go to bed. But the months and the years, it's important to know when the year ends. Oh, >> that's what I've been doing out in the porch.

[00:25:27]>> What is that thing out there?

[00:25:28]>> It's a transit. I set it towards the sun, and when the sun reaches the winter solstice, I know that to be the shortest day of the year, and that will be our new year.

[00:25:38]>> New Year's Day isn't the shortest day of the year.

[00:25:40]>> No, December 21st is we'll make that our new year. Man's always been trying to get close to that date for the new year, but calendar makers always went off. How long will it be?

[00:25:51]>> A few days. And >> then it'll be 195. What?

[00:25:55]>> No. No. That was the old calendar.

[00:25:59]This will be our year one.

[00:26:03]>> The year one.

[00:26:06]We must call it something.

[00:26:09]I know.

[00:26:11]We'll call it the year of the baby.

[00:26:14][music] >> [music] >> The new life began around the simple [music] problems of Emma, myself, and the baby. The day came when the sun reversed its path. [music] I took my hammer and a chisel. Emma and I had found a tall smooth rock in what had once been a small public park. In the rock, I carved the figure. One, the new beginning, I said to her. The rebirth of man. [music] In the year two, the rats came.

[00:26:56]San Francisco was overrun with them.

[00:26:59]They had broken into most of the grocery stores, torn open the cartons, gorged themselves, and gave birth to more rats.

[00:27:05]They multiplied by the hundreds and then the thousands. Rats, the carriers of deadly bubonic PLAGUE.

[00:27:11]>> HOW QUICK THEY'RE GETTING IN.

[00:27:12]>> WHERE?

[00:27:13]>> HERE. AND SHOOT THROUGH the [laughter] door. Well, get me that kitchen chair.

[00:27:16]Hurry now. Hurry.

[00:27:17]>> Here.

[00:27:18]>> Here. We're going to the bedroom. TRY THE BABY.

[00:27:21]>> NOW, hold the chair against the opening.

[00:27:22]I'LL NAIL IT LATER.

[00:27:23]>> THE BABY. THE BABY.

[00:27:26][music] >> I rushed into the bedroom, pegging my hammer with me. There were two of them.

[00:27:30]Tremendous rats. I stationed myself with a crib. [music] One came toward me, unafraid, for the fear of man had been bred out of them.

[00:27:38]And I flung the hammer at him. I missed.

[00:27:42]The rat leaped up into the crib. I threw a blanket over him and flung him to death on the floor. Then I picked up the hammer and threw it at the other one.

[00:27:53]Dead.

[00:27:54]Dead. But that was just two of them outside. I could hear hundreds squealing, their tiny feet scratching at the walls. How long would it be before they destroyed us? Man was gone now.

[00:28:10]This was the age of the rats.

[00:28:14]>> [music] [music] [music] >> Escape is produced and directed by Norman Macdonald. You have just heard part one of Earth Abides by George Stewart, specially adapted for Escape by David Ellis. John Dainer was starred as Ish with Larry Dubkin as Dr. Stanley and Peggy Weber as M. Featured in the cast were Michael Anne Barrett, Parley Bear, Ron Broen, Paul Fes, and Lou Krugman.

[00:29:02]The special music for Escape was arranged and played by Ivan Ditmars.

[00:29:09]Next week, Escape will bring you the second half of Earth Abides. Truly one of the most gripping and terrifying novels of recent years. [music] [music] >> [music] >> This is CBS, where you spend an hour with Frank Sinatra every Sunday afternoon on the Colombia Broadcasting System.

[00:29:43][music] [music] >> [music]