Robert Hichens

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Escape is produced and directed by William N. Robeson and tonight brought you How Love Came to Professor Gilder by Robert Hichens, adapted for radio by Les Crutchfield, with Louis Van Rooten as Professor Gilder, Hardy Bayer as Father Murchison, Harry Bartell as Pitting, and Paul Frees as the parrot Music is conceived and conducted by Sy Furer.

[dramatic music] Next week...

When you're tired out from doing nothing all weekend, when blue Monday stares you in the face, next week at this time, when your problems just seem too much for you, we offer you Escape.

Oscar Wilde first adopted the green carnation as a coded symbol of sexuality in 1892 when he began wearing a green carnation at the premiere of his play Lady Windermere's Fan and encouraged his friends to adopt the symbol.

Then in 1894, Robert Hichens published a book called The Green Carnation, which was reportedly based on the relationship between Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas.

The novel not only outed Wilde and Douglas and their affair, but appears to have outed the green carnation as a coded symbol as well.

The novel was used in 1895 to prosecute Wilde, who was sentenced to two years of hard labor and died a few years after his release at the age of 46.