Quiet, Please! was a radio fantasy and horror program created by Wyllis Cooper, also known for creating Lights Out. Ernest Chappell was the show's announcer and lead actor. Quiet, Please debuted June 8, 1947, on the Mutual Broadcasting System, and its last episode was broadcast June 25, 1949, on the ABC. A total of 106 shows were broadcast, with only a very few of them repeats.
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00:00Quiet, please.
00:10Quiet, please.
00:20The Mutual Broadcasting System presents Quiet, Please, which is written and directed by Willis
00:44Cooper and which features Ernest Chappell.
00:48Quiet, please for tonight is called The Room Where the Ghosts Live.
01:00No.
01:02No, I won't let you take me out of the house.
01:05No, I'm going to stay right here.
01:08I'm sorry, Doctor.
01:09But Lawrence, we've got to get you to a hospital.
01:11Now stop being a fool.
01:13I won't.
01:14I'm going to die anyway and I don't want to die in an ambulance somewhere out on an icy road between here and town.
01:22I'm sorry, that's final.
01:23I can't do anything for you here, Lawrence.
01:26Maybe I don't want you to do anything for me, Doctor.
01:29I'm going to call the ambulance.
01:31How?
01:32By telephone, of course.
01:33The telephone isn't working.
01:35Oh, that's right.
01:36I forgot.
01:38That's funny, isn't it?
01:39What?
01:41What a couple of days of snow can do.
01:43No lights, no heat, no water.
01:48Just like the days when they lived here.
01:51When who lived here?
01:54The ghosts.
01:56Open your mouth.
01:57What for?
01:58Thermometer.
01:59I'm not raving, Doctor.
02:00Well, let's see anyway.
02:04Feel anything?
02:06Sure.
02:07Worse than it was?
02:09A little.
02:10A little morphia won't hurt.
02:13It's a good thing I decided to stop in for a cup of coffee.
02:17You might have died here all by yourself.
02:19I'm going to die anyway.
02:20Not if I can help it.
02:22I can't help it.
02:23Oh, stop that nonsense.
02:25Let me have your bow.
02:29All right, now.
02:30That'll relieve the pain in a minute or two.
02:35Okay.
02:36I could take you to the hospital in my car.
02:39No.
02:40And I think I will.
02:41No.
02:42Lawrence, what got into you?
02:43What do you want to die for?
02:45Trade some hours.
02:46No, not yet.
02:47There's nothing wrong with you.
02:48You've been the happiest.
02:50You've got everything to live for.
02:52No.
02:53Then you go and shoot yourself.
02:54Yep.
02:55Where did you get this pistol anyway?
02:57Gift.
02:58Didn't you know it was loaded?
03:01Sure.
03:02That powder and ball have probably been in there for 50 years.
03:05Longer than that.
03:06What?
03:07Longer than that.
03:09Well, there's no telling what kind of infection you can get from that bullet.
03:13No.
03:15Don't lie, asshole.
03:17Let's say that for a moment here.
03:22High temperature, huh?
03:25Yeah, just really high.
03:28I guess you're not going to the hospital after all, Lawrence.
03:31I told you that, doctor.
03:33I couldn't move you with that high a temperature.
03:35That's fine.
03:37But I told you I wasn't going to be moved anyway.
03:40So you see...
03:41Who gave you this pistol?
03:43A British colonel.
03:45What British colonel?
03:46His name's on the lock plate.
03:49Lieutenant Colonel Robert Charles Gray.
03:5417th Regiment of Foot.
03:581774.
04:01Ancestor of the father gave it to you?
04:03No.
04:05He gave it to me himself.
04:08Yesterday.
04:09Lawrence, how could he?
04:11He's...
04:13One of the ghosts.
04:19I see.
04:20No, you don't.
04:22I'm not delirious, doctor.
04:23He really is.
04:24No, no.
04:25Just relax, Lawrence.
04:27Of course.
04:29I'm going to die anyway.
04:33Isn't that so?
04:36I'm afraid it is.
04:38Good.
04:39Lawrence.
04:40What?
04:41Why did you do it?
04:42Well, I...
04:45I'm not sure whether I did it on purpose or not.
04:49I...
04:51Wanted to.
04:53But maybe it was an accident.
04:56Or maybe...
04:58Maybe what?
04:59Maybe one of the ghosts...
05:03No, I...
05:05I don't think so.
05:07I guess it was an accident.
05:10I'm glad, though.
05:11But why?
05:14On account of Melanie.
05:16Melanie?
05:17Melanie who?
05:18Who's Melanie?
05:20Melanie is a girl...
05:23Who lived here...
05:26170 years ago.
05:28What?
05:30And who still lives here.
05:39It hurts quite a bit, doctor.
05:41You want me to give you some more on morphine?
05:43I guess not.
05:44No.
05:45I want to tell you...
05:48Things.
05:49Well...
05:50You won't believe me, of course.
05:52You think my mind's wandering.
05:55Don't you?
05:56Well, I...
05:58What difference does it make?
06:00That's right.
06:02Nothing makes any difference now.
06:07The fellow takes a long time...
06:10Dying.
06:12Doesn't he?
06:15After a while, we have the time, huh?
06:19Pretty soon, I'll be a ghost too.
06:23See, Melanie...
06:27I'd like a little drink of brandy.
06:29Oh, just a second.
06:33Here, now take it easy.
06:34Thanks.
06:36Good brandy.
06:42I wish I could take some along.
06:44It's good.
06:45I wish I could do something for you, Lawrence.
06:47Nothing's owed in, aren't we?
06:50Sure.
06:51I mustn't leave.
06:53I couldn't come back, you know.
06:55I have to stay here.
06:57I don't understand that.
06:59I have to stay here, I said.
07:01My house.
07:07What was I talking about?
07:09The...
07:10The ghosts.
07:12Oh, yes.
07:15So I tried to keep the house like it was in the old days, see...
07:19All by myself.
07:21Been fun.
07:24And then, noises.
07:26Heard noises.
07:28What kind of noises?
07:29People beating on door, rattling the latch.
07:32Every night.
07:34I'm not afraid, doctor.
07:36I know.
07:37I got up.
07:38Went all over the house.
07:41Noises stopped after a while.
07:43It wasn't a dream?
07:44No, no dream.
07:46Beating on a door someplace.
07:48Always sounded like it came from right over there.
07:52You see?
07:54There isn't any door there, Lawrence.
07:57That's what I thought.
08:01My hands are cold.
08:03I'll build up the fire.
08:04No, no, no.
08:06I know what it is.
08:09I haven't got much time, huh?
08:12Have I?
08:14No, Lawrence, you haven't got much time, old man.
08:17I have to hurry.
08:20Shut your eyes so you can see what I saw.
08:23I mean, I didn't see it, see, because it was dark.
08:27So, when you shut your eyes, you'll feel the way I felt.
08:32I...
08:34All right, Lawrence.
08:37I...
08:38I walked all over the house, lights on.
08:42No sound.
08:43No hammering on door.
08:45No door.
08:48I turned off the lights.
08:49It starts again from right over there.
08:53I turn on the lights.
08:54No door.
08:56No noise.
08:59Then I get an idea.
09:02I turn off the lights again.
09:05I walk over where the sound comes from.
09:08And there is a door.
09:13And I...
09:14I think I hear a woman crying.
09:18And footsteps and furniture being shoved around.
09:23I...
09:24I said I wasn't scared, didn't I?
09:28Well, I was then.
09:30You'd be scared too.
09:32Finding a door where there isn't any door and...
09:36And there's somebody on the other side.
09:38But that's the outside wall of the house, Lawrence.
09:41No.
09:42Why?
09:43There's a room there.
09:46The room where the ghosts lived.
09:53You see?
09:54No, I don't.
09:56I didn't know it too.
09:58You got your eyes shut?
10:00Yes.
10:01If...
10:03If you could hear the noise like I heard it.
10:08Rabbit pounding.
10:10People pushing their shoulders against the locked door.
10:14And I could smell smoke.
10:16You see?
10:18I didn't know about the ghosts then.
10:20Well, how do you know now?
10:22I'm...
10:23I'm trying to tell you.
10:25I'm sorry.
10:26Keep your eyes shut.
10:29I want you to feel the way I felt.
10:32And believe.
10:34I reached for the lights again.
10:36I turned them on.
10:38Nothing happens.
10:39Just nothing.
10:40Except pounding on the door.
10:43Slower now.
10:45And the woman crying.
10:47And I hear her scream.
10:50Moscou, she said.
10:52It's French.
10:53It means help, help.
10:54I heard her voice again.
10:56Frightened.
10:57Every love for what she said.
10:59That's French too.
11:00It means open the door.
11:02So they tried to open it.
11:04And it was locked.
11:06And they were pounding.
11:07She was coughing.
11:09And at last I found the key.
11:12And I yanked the door open.
11:15And the ghosts came out.
11:21And the lights came back on.
11:24There wasn't any door.
11:26There wasn't anybody in the room but me.
11:30Then I heard something.
11:33Somebody walking across the floor down the hall.
11:36So I turned and went down the hall.
11:38After the footsteps down.
11:40Down toward my room.
11:42And I stopped dead.
11:44Because the door to my room closed.
11:47And somebody locked it.
11:49You dreamed that.
11:50No.
11:51It was locked from the inside.
11:55So was every other door in the house.
12:01But that couldn't be.
12:03Try the doors.
12:05Open your eyes and try the doors.
12:08Go ahead.
12:10Lawrence, I...
12:11No, no, go ahead.
12:12I'll keep on talking.
12:14You...
12:16You have to believe me.
12:19Go ahead.
12:22So...
12:24What did I do?
12:26I lay down here on the davenport with the lights on.
12:28And I tried to think.
12:30And nothing made any sense.
12:32I got up and I tried the outside door.
12:34It was unlocked.
12:36So I went outside.
12:39I had some crazy idea maybe there was a room there.
12:44There wasn't, of course.
12:47But there were footprints in the snow.
12:51Some men's footprints.
12:54And...
12:55And a girl's.
12:58This last nose covered them all up again, I guess.
13:03Well...
13:05What about the doors, doctor?
13:07They're locked from the inside.
13:10I can see.
13:12Did you hear anything?
13:15Did you?
13:16When I...
13:18I thought I heard someone moving.
13:22As if I'd awakened somebody.
13:24But it was probably my imagination.
13:26No, it wasn't.
13:30Sit down.
13:33Oh, I'm getting so tired.
13:35Okay.
13:36No, no, no, Randy.
13:38No.
13:40So I came back in.
13:42And I sat down.
13:44And I hardly noticed that the lights were off again.
13:48And then I heard something else.
13:51And I said,
13:52Who's that?
13:55And a woman's voice answered me in the dark.
13:59I'm Melanie.
14:01Whoa.
14:02Who's Melanie?
14:04Once I was a maid in this house in the time of the war.
14:08When the soldiers were captured on Christmas night at Trinity.
14:12And they escaped and came here to be hidden by Monsieur Maurice.
14:17For he was no patriot.
14:18And...
14:19And they were kept...
14:20And you'd think I'd be surprised, but I wasn't very...
14:23I didn't interrupt her.
14:25She went right on telling me how Maurice was a loyalist.
14:29And how he hid the officers.
14:31And how the neighbors suspected him and spied on him.
14:35Then Monsieur Maurice must go away, you see.
14:38And I was left alone to bring food to the poor soldiers.
14:42And there was a night when I took their food to them.
14:46And when I would go from the room, I found the door to be locked from the other side.
14:50And soon we smelled the smoke of the fire.
14:53For someone had set fire to the house to destroy the evening.
14:56And we beat upon the door.
14:58But it did not avail us.
15:00And so, we perished in the fire.
15:04I and the British officers.
15:07And there was none to know our fate.
15:12And for our sins, we are bound forever to this house.
15:17Although I have not sinned so very greatly.
15:21And I would thank you for releasing us from that room.
15:24For so many times we have cried out.
15:27Yet no one would open the door.
15:30And I opened the door, but now all my doors are locked against me.
15:35Yes.
15:36They say it is their house now.
15:39And no man can open the doors again.
15:42I think we'll see about that.
15:44They say you must go away.
15:46Well, I'm not going away.
15:49I should be sorry when you go away.
15:53You would?
15:55You have released us.
15:58I am grateful.
16:00Thanks.
16:01I think they'd be grateful too.
16:04They are soldiers, Monsieur.
16:06And they have not forgotten the manner of their death.
16:09This is their revenge.
16:11That no man shall live in this house.
16:14Well, that's fine. I'm to be chased out of my house by a bunch of ghosts.
16:17I hope so, Monsieur.
16:19How do you feel about it?
16:21I...
16:25I could wish you could always be here, Monsieur.
16:29So?
16:31Yes, Monsieur.
16:33But it cannot be.
16:36Unless...
16:38Unless what?
16:40It cannot be.
16:43If I turned on the lights, could I see you?
16:46No, Monsieur.
16:48The eyes of the living cannot see us.
16:51What did you look like?
16:54I...
16:56I did have blue eyes, Monsieur.
16:59And my hair was black.
17:02And I was not very tall.
17:05And my feet were very small.
17:08And your clothes?
17:11Once I had a gown of chastity.
17:13And it was blue, like my eyes, I remember.
17:17And it was a cap of lace from my grandmother in Brittany.
17:23And...
17:25And I was struck with a sudden impulse to see this girl...
17:28with the black hair and the taffety dress that matched her eyes.
17:32And I jumped up and snapped the lights out.
17:35And the room was empty.
17:37And so...
17:39I knew I'd be dreaming.
17:41Oh, cool.
17:42But I wasn't dreaming, my friend.
17:44She came to me the next night.
17:46And the next.
17:48Oh, it's so cold.
17:52Am I dying?
17:58Is this what it feels like?
18:01Here, take a little sip of this.
18:08Better?
18:11How much longer?
18:15Well...
18:17See, friend...
18:19I found myself...
18:22in love...
18:25with a ghost.
18:31It's Melanie.
18:34And she loves me, Doctor.
18:36And we talked about it so much.
18:38There must be a way out.
18:40There couldn't be a way out.
18:42And the others kept telling her,
18:44I must go on and I ask you to go to them.
18:49I'm sorry.
18:51Go to them and beg them to let me stay.
18:54It was the only way.
18:56But she told me they said, no, they made a pact between themselves
18:59and they'd not alter it.
19:02And the time was getting short.
19:04They were sorry, they said, but...
19:08And then last night she came to me again
19:13when the snow was piling deeper and deeper around the windows
19:17and I said, Melanie, I can't go now.
19:21Can't they see that?
19:24And she said...
19:27I have spoken again with the Colonel.
19:30And what did he say?
19:32He will come to you, he said.
19:34And what?
19:36Do not speak to the living.
19:38But what good...
19:39I do not know.
19:41He said he will come to you.
19:43When?
19:44Tonight.
19:46Do not speak.
19:48Say, Monsieur le Colonel.
19:56I have the honor to present
20:00Monsieur le Lieutenant Colonel Robert Charles Graves
20:07of His Majesty's 17th Regiment of Foot.
20:12Monsieur le Colonel
20:15wishes me to present his compliments to you
20:19and to say to you
20:22that he has taken counsel with his fellow officers.
20:27No, do not speak.
20:30Monsieur le Colonel wishes me also to say
20:35that he and his fellow officers have come to a decision
20:41in the matter of yourself.
20:45They honor you for your devotion to me
20:51and they beg leave to supply you
20:55with the means of assuring you
20:59permanent residence in this house.
21:06Monsieur le Colonel
21:10begs you to accept
21:14the token of his esteem.
21:18No.
21:21No.
21:33I...
21:35I turned on the lights.
21:37It was there on the floor.
21:39Flip-flop pistol loaded, good as your black flip.
21:43Personal gift from Robert Charles Graves, 17th Foot.
21:48Well, I thought a long time.
21:52Turn off the lights, call her.
21:55No answer.
21:57Talk to her.
21:59Told her I loved her, wasn't brave enough to...
22:03Said I loved her, couldn't do it.
22:06Drive.
22:08No.
22:10No, I...
22:12I didn't do it.
22:14No, I didn't.
22:17Long toward...
22:19Long toward morning, hard footsteps again.
22:22Boots, sword, spurs clicking.
22:26Knew who it was.
22:28Said, hello, Colonel.
22:31Said, Colonel, thanks, only haven't got courage enough.
22:37Always love her, Colonel, I said.
22:40Said, here's your pistol.
22:44I'm a coward.
22:46Oh.
22:48Drink, please.
22:54And then...
22:56I wake up here.
22:59Daylight.
23:02See?
23:04It's Colonel Graves.
23:06Couldn't a fella show me way out?
23:10Couldn't a fella pull a trigger for me?
23:16Hello.
23:18You know, I mean, in your brutality dress.
23:23And your little eyes.
23:26And your light.
23:30You have listened to Quiet, Please,
23:32which is written and directed by Willis Cooper.
23:35Lawrence, the man who spoke to you,
23:37was Ernest Chappell.
23:39And Melanie was Claudia Morgan,
23:41the doctor who was played by James Van Dyke.
23:43Our sound effects by Albert April.
23:45Music for Quiet, Please, except for our theme,
23:47which is from the Allegretto Movement,
23:49which is from the 19th century.
23:51And the music for Quiet, Please,
23:53except for our theme,
23:55which is from the Allegretto Movement,
23:57except for our theme,
23:59which is from the Allegretto Movement
24:01of the C'est la France Symphony in D minor,
24:03is composed and played by Albert Berlin.
24:05Now for a word about next week's Quiet, Please,
24:07here is our writer-director, Willis Cooper.
24:09Baker's Dozen is the title of next week's story,
24:11the story of one man, two men.
24:13This is the National Broadcasting System.