Escape - Bird of Paradise

Escape's "Bird of Paradise" was adapted from the short story of the same name by John Russell, which was first published in Colliers, August 19, 1916. We've previously covered the other five tales by Russell that Escape adapted for radio, all of which came from the book The Red Mark: And Other Stories (1919). 

"Bird of Paradise" can be found in the book In Dark Places (1923). This was the last Russell story that Escape presented, and while it is typical of all of them, it is somewhat weaker than the others; however, Escape's radio adaptation was excellent.

As the episode opens, Andrew Harben, "with his heart full of greed and 100 pounds in his pocket," has come to the Indonesian Spice Islands looking for opportunity. On the island of Ternate, he finds the chance to make a quick fortune in the form of a dazzling species of the bird-of-paradise. The rare birds reside on one of the many hundreds of local islands, but no one knows exactly where. Andrew is determined to find them and bring back as many bird skins as he can.

Despite the warnings the locals give him about the dangers, he sails off in his boat in search of the birds. Not long afterwards, he ends up shipwrecked and lost on an unknown island. There he finds a man named Jim O'Ryan and an innocent native girl named N'goma. He also finds exactly what he has been looking for...

"Bird of Paradise' was adapted for radio by John Meston and produced/directed by Norman MacDonnell. John Dehner starred Andrew Harbin. Lawrence Dobkin played O'Ryan. Also appearing were Jeanne Bates and Ben Wright. Edgar Barrier was the narrator. This episode aired on March 11, 1954.

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(Image of astrapia stephaniae from Wikipedia)

See also:

The Fourth Man

The Red Mark  

Jetsam

The Price of the Head

The Adversary