Quiet, Please

was created in 1947 when Willis Cooper, the creative force behind Lights Out, embarked on a new series with a new approach—every episode would star Ernest Chappell, who would introduce the story with a narration which attempted to 'converse' with the audience. In some cases, the narrative exposition alone comprised the bulk of the show. Sound effects were severely limited, but the stories were all Cooper originals, sufficient reason alone to listen in.

If you're looking for strong plot structure, however, you won't find it here. According to Cooper: "I don't believe in too strong a story line because it's apt to be too hard for the listener to keep in mind... The charm in radio consists of good characterization. Plot should consist of a twist rather than a formalized structure."

Quiet, Please first aired in June of 1947 on the Mutual network, and was received well enough to remain on the air for two years, until mid '49. Unfortunately, virtually all surviving copies of this popular show are in poor fidelity, reproduced from scratchy old 78 records. However, many of the scripts are available at the Vintage Radio Script Library, which makes following the stories a little easier. All episodes were in standard half-hour format.

Sources used to create my own log and double-check titles, dates and cast members: Quiet, Please!, Quietly Yours, Digital Deli Too, RadioGOLDINdex, and Terror on the Air!: Horror Radio in America, 1931-1952 (Richard J. Hand).

Currently this archive contains 102 of 102 plotlines and 61 reviews

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Adam and the Darkest Day

Adam, holed up in the deep basement of a warehouse with Emily and the Doc, tells of the destruction of Chicago (and possibly the rest of the Earth) and their hope for the future once the days start growing longer again.

With William Adams (Doc), Kathleen Cordell (Emily), Ernest Chappell (Adam).

Snippet: "I don't know whether you ever heard of a place called Chicago or not, but I knew it very well in my youth. I've forgotten how long ago that was even. There was a lake—beautiful, big, wide lake that could be bluer than the sky of a summer morning or gray as... well, that's odd. I can't think of anything that's gray the way the lake was on a stormy day. Gray like the trees used to be? No, more alive, like the gray of steel. Steel? Oh, that's a metal we used to have. Forget about it."

And Jeannie Dreams of Me

Even as a little boy, he had the dream every night—a winding path, a tall white house, music, a locked door—and now, as an adult, Troy has finally found the key to the door. Does his true love lie behind the door? Or something more sinister?

With Anna Maude Morath (the mother), Sarah Fussell (the little boy), Claudia Morgan—Mrs. Ernest Chappell (Jeannie), and Ernest Chappell (Troy).

Snippet: "I remember the silence, too. The dusky silence that lay always about the place, the silence that was always there—when the dream began. The silence that dissolved to the music as I hurried up the long, winding pathway toward the tall, white house that waited for me."

Anonymous

A politician on the campaign trail becomes obsessed when an anonymous telephone caller tells him, "I hope you drop dead."

With Athena Lorde (the wife), Dan Sutter (the doctor), Peggy Stanley (the caller), and Ernest Chappell (the man).

Snippet: "The other night when you called me up after I made that talk on the radio, I don't suppose you know what happened, do you? Maybe you don't care. But, if you've got a few minutes, I'd kinda like to tell you. You mind listening for a while? Thanks."

As Long as I Live

A man welcomes his ninety-seven year-old great uncle into his home, but is surprised when he notices the uncle making the sign-of-the-horns hand gesture toward his spiritualist wife whenever he sees her.

With Alice Reinheart (Georgie), Bruno Wick (Uncle Lars), Lotte Stavisky (Flora), and Ernest Chappell (Jens).

Snippet: "You ever know a medium? I mean who produces ghosts and spirit voices, does table rapping and stuff. Yeah, I was married to one. Heh, sure it's phony—most of them are phony. Some of them ain't, some of them are legit. I hear. You got a minute? Let me tell ya, huh? Me? I'm not going any place, for a while."

Baker's Dozen

A hard-drinking baker, who dearly loves his wife but completely loses control whenever he drinks too much, tells of the time he served as the thirteenth juror at a murder trial.

With Lotte Stavisky (Elsa), Jim Boles (the District Attorney), Ed Latimer (Gaffigan), Murray Forbes (Charlie Brooks), Harry Worth (the judge), and Ernest Chappell (Irving).

Snippet: "I have this wife, see, and she has a tough time with me. I'm always biting the top off a bottle of schnapps and coming home and takin' picks on her. I love her, sure, sure I love her, but I'm a great big schmo that ain't got sense enough to leave the bottle in the saloon. And when I got eight—nine slugs in me, I'm a double-schmo."

Be a Good Dog, Darling

A salesman explains how a full set of encyclopedias, at only eight dollars a month, is more than a cultural thing—for one can find the most amazingly useful ideas in an encyclopaedia. Take the case of his formerly nagging, quarrelsome, and evil-tempered wife.

[Only the first 10 minutes are known to exist.] With Charita Bauer (Grace), Anne Seymour (Elisabeth), Brad Barker (the voice of the dogs), and Ernest Chappell (Grover).

Snippet: "Yes, she really did. While I was married to Olivia I was never allowed to smoke in the house. I had to go down to the basement and sit in front of the furnace when I wanted to smoke. Now I invite your attention to the pipe-rack. That's right: not one pipe, but fourteen pipes, one for each day of the week, and one for each night. And I smoke whenever I want to. Now, for example."

Beazer's Cellar

A trio of crooks looking for a place to hide stolen money hear of an old abandoned cellar in the woods—a supposedly perfect choice, but for the rumors of the ghost of the man who originally built it and then hung himself from its rafters.

With Lotte Stavisky (Marlene), Warren Stevens (Pete), Charles Egleston (the six-fingered old man), and Ernest Chappell (Stanley).

Snippet: "...so this here Beezer—they always called him 'Six-Fingered Beezer', see, on account of he had six fingers on each hand—he never did build his house. He got the cellar dug, an' then he up an' hung himself in it."

Below 5th Avenue

Sign painter Romney Greel, while taking a late night stroll around Manhattan with his girl, Gwen, finds himself in a hole of his own making.

[A tip from Anonymous indicates this show is not lost, but not in general circulation either; apparently copies survive at the Museum of Radio and Television in New York and California.]

With J. Van Dyk (Van), Laura Gable (Gwen), Bruno Wick (the Little Man), and Ernest Chappell (Greel).

Snippet: "I declare I'll never get adjusted. Television, radar, wars, Russian Bolsheviks, people flying across the ocean every which-way—it wasn't like that in my day!"

Berlin, 1945

American soldiers struggling through the last days of WW II find solace on Christmas Eve from an enigmatic stranger who shows up out of nowhere.

[The 1947 episode is lost, but the script was reused with a different cast (and an additional comment by Wyllis Cooper) as a 1948 episode.]

1948 cast: Ed Latimer, Frank Thomas, Melville Ruick, James Monks, James Goss, Warren Stevens, and Ernest Chappell. 1947 cast (probably): Ted de Corsia (Plattner), Frank Thomas, Jr. (Schulze), Eric Dressler (Lester), Don Briggs (Griffin), Frederick Bell (Bell), and Ernest Chappell (the displaced person).

Snippet: "ANNOUNCER: This is Christmas Day two years ago. Christmas Day, 1945, in a ruined house in Berlin, in Germany. Five soldiers around a table, beginning their Christmas dinner. Staff Sergeant John Plattner was carving..."

Big Box, The    *LOST*

George, a long-haul truck driver with a one-day layover in Dallas, reluctantly agrees to take a short haul trip over to Big Spring, as a personal favor for his old friend, Cavanagh, whom he hasn't seen in six/seven years... ever since the war. To sweeten the deal, the dispatcher promises George that Cavanagh will be in Big Spring when he gets there. Should be a quick, trouble-free run...

With __ as Cavanagh, __ as the policeman, __ as the high-jacker, and Ernest Chappell (George).

Snippet: "No, I wouldn't have taken the rig out if it hadn't been for Cavanagh. That's what gets me down, see; I only took it out on account of Cavanagh and now look."

Bring Me to Life

The weekly radio script is due in a few hours and the writer hasn't even started on the script yet! He's mulling over his lack of ideas... when the typewriter types out a message all by itself: "Bring Me to Life." A writer with a deadline can be a pretty desperate character... but that's nothing compared to the characters this typewritter thinks up.

With Helen Marcy (Ruth), Walter Black (the escaped convict), Warren Bryan (the man on the telephone), and Ernest Chappell (the writer).

Snippet: "(LAUGHS) You know this could turn out to be a great racket. Have your characters write your stories FOR them. (LAUGHS) The only thing is, you have to be careful what I put down on paper. Don't want to find myself getting choked to death by somebody I brought to life. HEY! Hey, what am I saying?"

Calling All Souls

On Halloween, a death row inmate scheduled for execution the following morning seeks help from his lawyer... from the governor... and finally from the souls of the two people he has supposedly murdered.

With Kermit Murdock (Delbert), Ralph Schulman (Harris), Mary Patton (Etta), and Ernest Chappell (Louis).

Snippet: "You ever been West? Well, you know when you cross the Mississippi River on the Santa Fe from Illinois to Iowa? 'Bout four or five hours out of Chicago? Fort Madison, Iowa? Ever notice that great big place right alongside the riverbank to your right—the big high walls and the towers and the big gates? That's right. The Iowa State Prison. That's where I was last Halloween. In a little cell."

Camera Obscura

Si admits it—he's a murderer and he's gotten away with it... but, boy oh boy, he sure wishes he hadn't!

With Charita Bauer (the girl), and Ernest Chappell (Si).

Snippet: "I killed Philip D. Vandervoort on September 29, 1928. I was never arrested, I was never suspected. But—No, I'm not gonna tell you HOW I killed him. I'm not running a school for murderers. And, anyway, if you're planning on murdering somebody, you've got your own ideas on how you wanna do it. The only thing is, I'll bet you a quarter when you get done listening to me, you'll change your mind."

Clarissa

A writer seeking an out of the way place to finish his book accepts lodging with an old man in his dusty old house, but finds his concentration distracted by the voice of a little girl wandering somewhere in the house, a little girl whom the old man refuses to allow him to meet...

With Bruno Wick (Heinz), Peggy Stanley (Clarissa), and Ernest Chappell (Jessie).

Snippet: "It was an old, black shell of a house. A house that had lived too long. A house where the floors groaned in pain at night, where the windows shuddered at the gentlest touch of the wind. Where door latches suddenly gave up their grip and let the night come sniffing into the house to paw at your eyes and wake you to the other silences that lay around ya. It was never warm there."

Come In, Eddie

Jim and Arnold are alone, enjoying some late night conversation, when the talk turns to Eddie, a man they murdered six years earlier. Jim's feeling pretty safe—his alibi is strong—and thinks Arnold should pay him some extra money... just to make sure he doesn't rat to the cops. But Eddie might have other ideas.

With Les Tremayne (Jim Paxton), Arthur Kohl (the police officer), and Ernest Chappell (Arnold).

Snippet: "You believe in ghosts? Haunted houses? Eh... I got a story for ya. We were sitting in the living room, alongside the fireplace, Jim Paxton and me, just sitting there and talking a little, having an occasional nip out of a bottle. Just sitting there and looking at the fire. Just the two of us..."

Cornelia

Gordon tells Alan about his childhood sweetheart. Of growing up together... from gammar school to high school... from pigtails to page boys... from pinafores to mini-blouses to a white graduation dress... He tells of his undying love for her... and how he managed to marry somebody else instead.

With Anne Seymore (Cornelia), Peggy Stanley (Barbara), and Ernest Chappel (Gordon). Also with Walter Black.

Snippet: "I don't believe she loved me, Alan. There were times when she laughed at me cruelly for my clumsiness or my youthful embarrassment. But always she was weaving some sort of spell about me. Putting new barriers between me and Barbara."

Dark Grey Magic

Mr. Meredith Barlicorn, after purchasing a book on black magic from a second-hand book store, accidentally conjurs a demon who is bent on teaching him how to be evil... Meredith is not excited about the prospect.

With James Monks (Boj), Miss Polly Cole (Dixie), and Ernest Chappell (the man who spoke to you).

Snippet: "Excuse me. My name is Boj. I'm a demon."

Dark Rosaleen

A man, mourning the loss of his fiancée—dark-haired, blue-eyed Elizabeth—contemplates suicide, but is rescued by a mysterious stranger who takes him on a mysterious boat trip to meet the even more mysterious Dark Rosaleen.

With Ed Latimer (Patrick), Leora Thatcher (Shan Van Vocht), Charita Bauer (Dark Rosaleen), Mark Forbes (Arnold), and Ernest Chappell (Wayne).

Snippet: "Shall I tell you about Elizabeth? Shall I tell you of the dark hair of her flung wild in the wind of a summer's afternoon when we stood on the hill together? Shall I speak of her laughter like minted gold in the long morning light beside the sea? Did you know her blue eyes in the candle flame at midnight in the old high house where the road turns?"

Dialogue for Tragedy

A man with a gun pointed at his head, reminisces with his would-be murderer about lies, betrayal, deceit, theft, murder... and lost love.

With Cathleen Cordell (Norma), Ellen Sparrow (Evelyn), John D. Seymour (Frederick), and Ernest Chappell (the man who spoke to you).

Snippet: 'Yes. Yes, I know the pistol's loaded. Yes, it's perfectly easy to see that it's pointed at my head. Let me congratulate you on a very steady hand. You've held it without moving for almost a minute now; I've been glancing at the clock. Certainly I know what you propose to do... Yes, I remember "The Grave of the Hundred Head". I like Kipling...

A Snider squibbed in the jungle
Somebody laughed and fled
And the men of the First Shikaris
Picked up their Subaltern dead
With a big blue mark in his forehead
And the back blown out of his head'

Don't Tell Me about Halloween

Once a year, for many centuries, a man must spend a day with his wife... a very jealous wife who demands he tell her exactly what he's been doing and exactly who he's been seeing for the past year. It's getting on his nerves.

With Charita Bauer (Candace), Peggy Stanley (Alicia), Jim Boles (the forest ranger), and Ernest Chappell (Craig).

Snippet: 'Well, friend, I'm getting awful tired of it. Two hundred and fifty-three years is a long time. A long, long time... with a jealous wife."

Evening and the Morning, The

Dean—handcuffed, guarded and in the company of a police officer—visits the grave of the woman he loved. He plucks a flower from her grave and, as they walk back to the station, explains why he had to murder her.

With Bess Johnson (Alice), Martin Lawrence (Mr. Thorpe), and Ernest Chappell (Dean).

Snippet: "They're all gone now, aren't they? That was the last car going out the gate, wasn't it? There's nobody there but the— gravediggers? Can we walk over there for a minute? Please? It's getting dark, isn't it? Is that what's bothering you? There isn't anything here that'll hurt you. My grandfather always taught me not to be afraid of cemeteries. They're sad places, he always said. They're sad. And they're lonesome. But there's nothing there to harm you."

La Fille aux Cheveaux de Lin    *LOST*

An American who has lived for more than six months in post-war France explains why he is not happy to be returning home to his wife. Features piano music of Debussy: "La Fille aux Cheveux de Lin" ("The Girl with the Flaxen Hair").

Another version of this script was produced under the title "Pavane", except all musical references were to Ravel instead of Debussy.

With Joan Lazer (Joan), Melville Ruick (Achmet Ali), Mary Kay Simmons (Miss Lewis), and Ernest Chappell (Andrew).

Snippet: "And Achmet Ali and I have spent some pleasant evenings alternately at the piano and in long and complicated discussions of Christian and Mahometan theology. Achmet shares with me an inordinate admiration for the works of Debussy, and in particular the one called "The Girl with the Flaxen Hair" - "La Fille aux Cheveux de Lin"."

Gem of Purest Ray

Dr. Moraitas explains to Sergeant Papus why he killed thirty-two people and why there are so many more that must be die. You see, it all began when the professor discovered some charts and maps indicating the possible location of Atlantis...

With Martin Lawrence (Papus), Charita Bauer (Betty Chase), Edgar Stehli (Poson), and Ernest Chappell (Dr. Moraitis).

Snippet: "Those scars on their necks are gills. Gills like a fish... Ah. Excuse me, I am becoming ungrammatical. I mean they are gills such as fishes possess."

Good Ghost

Shuster wants Gus' girl, Ada, for his own, so he knocks Gus off. Gus, now a ghost, just wants his Ada to be happy. He doesn't want no revenge, see; he just wants her to be happy. Lots of money. A mink coat, a car, a nice house: anything for his Ada. Even if it means helping his rival rustle up the dough.

With Murray Forbes (Schuster), Ruth Last (Ada), Arthur Kohl (Rollo), and Ernest Chappell (Gus).

Snippet: "I'm just standing there minding my own business and Schuster pulls out this cannon and goes Boom and I say Ouch and I'm lying there and he walks away down Lake Street toward Michigan Avenue. Yeah right there on the corner of Lake and Wabash at a quarter after one in the morning. Ouch I said and I just laid there. After a while I got up and walked away."

Gothic Tale, The    *LOST*

Gunnar, a photographer, and Donn, a painter, tramp around the sand dunes of Hueneme fulfilling their artistic ambitions and discover a fey side to the land: a set of footsteps leading from the water right to the edge of their campfire.

With Don Briggs (Donn), Charita Bauer (Dolores), and Ernest Chappell (Gunnar).

Snippet: "I have heard the voices of the oceans of the world ... on the shingle at Brighton, against the frowning heights of Point Sur, on the long, hot beaches of Hawaii and the cold foggy reaches of Attu. And again I have heard the seas that lash the shores of Okinawa and Kwajalein, their thunder a tiny sound under the sound of battle. But the sound of the sea at Hueneme... is the sound of them all that I can never forget, though sure, I will never hear it again as I did those lost days so long ago"

Green Light

An old railroader—well not exactly a railroader, a brass pounder... a telegrapher—while waiting for a train to reunite him with his life's love, tells of the tmie, forty-two years ago, when he lost his leg in an accident.

With Anne Seymour (Addy Dorsey), Gus Gordon (the engineer), Bill Huggins (the singer), and Ernest Chappell (Phil Conners).

Snippet: "I'd sit and read a while and drowse off to sleep. Put my head right down alongside the sounder. The minute I'd hear my call, I'd be wide awake. Yeah, a lot of old brass pounders can do that. You can set off a giant firecracker alongside their ear and they won't turn a hair, but [leave] their own call come through and they're on the ball like that."

Hat, the Bed, and John J. Catherine, The

A mediocre stagehand eager to play Shakespeare is alarmed when he discovers his hat has been placed on the bed, for everybody knows a hat placed on a bed is a sign of impending death.

With Nancy Sheridan (Evelyn Pierce), and Ernest Chappell (John J. Catherine).

Snippet: ""

How Are You, Pal?

After many years, Dane reunites with an old friend and reminiscences about fine Christmases, ice skating on the lake, gag presents they used to give one another, people they used to know... and the same woman they used to love. It's a tense little get together.

With Pat O'Malley (the man on the telephone), Vicki Vola (the girl), Charme Allen (the mother), and Ernest Chappell (Dane).

Snippet: "I want you to get a piece of paper, and a pencil, and write down three words. Just write them down and hold onto them, because before we're through with this half-hour you'll find you have need of them. It'll take you just a moment to find the pencil and paper; only another moment to write down the three words I'll give you. Write them down, and keep them alongside you. Write down first "yes"; Then write down "yours". Now write down "mine.". Yes; yours; mine. That's all. Now relax and listen to me."

How Beautiful upon the Mountain

Knowing full-well the dangers—unclimbable walls, lethargy from lack of oxygen, insufferable cold, howling winds and sudden storms, impassable crevices, monstrous avalanches—two climbers attempt the first successful summit of Everest... and see her first as a goddess, then as a bride.

With Roy Irving (John Chandos), and Ernest Chappell (Brandt).

Snippet: "I don't say that Mount Everest will never be successfully climbed, I don't say that at all. What I do say, however, is that no one will ever successfully climb Everest and come back. Yes, I know they said that about the Matterhorn, and Edward Whymper cimbed it. Whymper was the man who first stated what many mountain climbers insist is the creed of their arduous calling."

I Always Marry Juliet

An actor at a casting call reviews his experience and work history—Macbeth, Julius Caesar, Othello, Romeo and Juliet—and reluctantly explains that he has a penchant for always falling in love with and marrying Juliet.

With James Monks (William), Margaret Draper (Juliet), Abby Lewis (Juliet), Anne Seymour (Juliet), and Ernest Chappell (Rambeau).

Snippet: "I DID knock. I assure you, I knocked several times. I can read signs, it says 'Knock before Entering' and I knocked and then I entered. Sir, my name is Rambeau Bainbridge, I give you my card. Modestly, I may say that my name is not unknown in the theater... the Shakespearian theater that is."

I Have Been Looking for You

The tale of a man and woman who spend their entire lives looking for each other—dreaming of each other, hearing each other's voice on the wind, catching a scent of perfume, seeing a face in a crowd or on a passing train. It is a tale of loneliness and despair. And of love.

With Claudia Morgan (the woman) and Ernest Chappell (the man). Also included Peggy Stanley, G. Swayne Gordon, and Martin Wolfson.

Snippet: "I saw you at a distance sometimes: a gay red bathing suit on a beach; a fluttering tartan scarf on the winter hillsides against the snow, but when I ran to greet you and call you mine you were gone, you had vanished. I know the touch of your hand, for I felt it cool on my forehead that time when I lay fevered and thought of death at seventeen. I know the sound of your footsteps, love, for I have heard them many times."

I Remember Tomorrow

A theoretical physicist who has been fired from his job at the university because of his unorthodox views on time and space, is approached by three criminals who want him to build a time machine so they can plunder the future. What's good in theory, isn't always good in practice.

With Frederick Bell (Lauderbach), Kermit Murdock (Greg), Frank Dane (Frank), and Ernest Chappell (the physicist/inventor).

Snippet: "Dr. Faber, according to your experiments and... stuff, time is, er... what was it you said? Relative. You said you could move around in time like you could in air or water. Well, we want you to make a time machine for us, Doc."

If I Should Wake before I Die

A scientist who professes to have no concern for the militaristic application of his research into the destructive potential of the atom is forced to confront his conscience.

With Don Briggs (the brother), and Ernest Chappell (the scientist).

Snippet: "It doesn't interest you that those data may become the basis for the building of fortresses out there in space -- from which the Earth can be bombarded by some of the new weapons that have derived from your studies?"

In Memory of Bernadine

A man, returning from the war, reminices about the love of his life and how it was her strength of character which overpowered his weakness and made him everything he is.

With Nancy Sheridan (Bernadine), Melville Ruick (Harry Foster), and Ernest Chappell (the man).

Snippet: "It's a long, long ride home. It's been a long, long war for me and I've seen things I never expected to see. I just as soon not have seen them, but I'm going home now. At last. It won't be the kind of homecoming Bernadine and I planned. No, not at all."

In the House Where I Was Born

A montage of memories—childhood homes, friends, family, war, death—that link the present with the past, the living with the dead, and form the cultural ties that bind communities together.

Memorial Day (Decoration Day) program; the same script was used for two separate episodes in 1948 and 1949.

With Betty Wragge, Cecil Roy, Lotte Stavisky, J. Pat O'Malley, and Ernest Chappell.

Snippet: "The house where I was born is old and weatherbeaten under the gray paint. And the old porch is gone. The big bay window where I used to sit and watch the snow on winter afternoons faces right out into the street now. And the wooden steps go right up from the sidewalk to the big double front door."

Inquest

After living with his contentious, yet pleading, sister for more years than he can remember, Mr. Ross has had enough and decides to do something about it. Unfortunately, things get out of hand and Mr. Ross finds himself at a coroner's inquest trying to explain to a jury why it was, really, justifiable homicide.

With James Van Dyke (the coroner), Pat O'Malley (Malcolm), Syvia Cole (Eileen), John Morley (Arthur), and Ernest Chappell (Ross).

Snippet: "Yes, it certainly was. But is that MY fault? I offered not once but a dozen times to take her to a doctor and have the arm re-broken and set again. Could have been done very easy. Just re-break it and set again but..."

Is This Murder?

A successful scientist who creates artificial limbs—hands, arms, legs—for a great many people, tries to reason with his laboratory assisstant who wants to make more than just limbs. Story inspired by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley.

With Joyce Gordon (Joyce), Dan O'Herlihy (Dan), and Ernest Chappell (Ernest).

Snippet: "I asked you to come here because I think I need some... legal advice. About... murder, I'm afraid. Yes, quite. I'm afraid I'm a little hazy about things legal so, uh-- Do you mind?"

It Is Later Than You Think

Draftee Lindsay Bradley discovers his strange new watch has an unexpected feature: instead of recording time, it controls time. By adjusting his watch forward or backward he finds himself in the future or in the past! This doesn't help with the problem of Sergeant Kilroy, however... or with his own wife.

With Abby Lewis (Verna), Don Briggs (the sergeant), Ed Latimer (voices), and Ernest Chappell (Lindsay).

Snippet: "Sure. The watch. Whatever time I set it at... that's what time it is."

Kill Me Again

When Mr. Davis sells his soul for a million dollars he dies within a few seconds and finds himself in a very unusual situation—although he signed a "business contract" he hasn't really committed any sin, so Mr. "Hellman" is having a tough time deciding what to do with him.

With James Monks (Mr. Hellman), Peggy Stanley (the girl), Pat O'Malley (the black marketeer), and Ernest Chappell (Mr. Davis).

Snippet: "You ever hear anybody say 'I'd sell my soul for this, that or the other?' Well, not very many people really mean it when they say it. Unfortunately, I did. And I found a buyer. No, nothing very exciting. No crashes of thunder, no red fire. No, the doorbell just rang and ..."

Let the Lilies Consider

James R. James has a knack for growing flowers. He cares for them tenderly and talks to them constantly. He loves them... and they love him. And when they start to talk back to him his jealous wife fears for his sanity... and safety.

With Kathleen Cordell (Gretchen), Peggy Stanley (the voice of the lilies), James Boles (the Lieutenant), and Ernest Chappell (James R. James).

Snippet: "Consider the lilies of the field; how they grow. They toil not; neither do they spin. Yet I say unto you that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these."

Light the Lamp for Me

A man visiting the San Fernando Mission discovers a hidden lamp behind some loose bricks which, when lighted, transports him across time to whenever he was thinking. It has the ability to show him many pasts... but only one future.

With Pat O'Malley (the Irish Soldier), Floyd Buckley (Tiburcio), Kathleen Niday (the doctor), and Ernest Chappell (Manfred).

Snippet: "I smiled briefly at the conceit as my fingers probed in the spaces where the brick had been, and... there was something there. A lamp, I discovered, when I crawled out clutching it. An ancient bronze lamp, green with age; a lamp like those the Romans used, something like a modern sauce-boat, and a musty frayed wick protruding from its snout. A most interesting discovery here in a California mission."

Little Fellow

When a carnival midget reveals his love for the fat lady, the magician gives him the Scarab Of Cleopatra that will grant him three wishes.

With Betty Garde (Jennifer), Lon Clark (Darling), Pat O'Malley (the Justice of the Peace), and Ernest Chappell (the Major).

Snippet: "For twenty-five cents—a quarter of a dollar—five nickles—you can come and stand and gawk at me like all the other full-sized goons, and snicker at the cute little man on the platform, and ask the dumbest questions in the world, and I have to smirk back at you and be polite, when I'd give the eight hundred and two bucks I got in my grouch-bag to brain each and every one of ya."

Little Morning, The

A hitchhiker explains to his driver how he met his fiancée, why they fell in love but never got married, how she promised always to sing "Las Mañanitas" on his birthday... and how she died.

With Betty Wragge (Rosita Sandoval), Mary Lee Joel (the driver), and Ernest Chappell (Francis Scott).

Snippet:

"Estas son las mañanitas que cantaba el rey David.
Hoy por ser día de tu santo, te las cantamos a ti.

Despierta mi bien, despierta, mira que ya amaneció
ya los pajarillos cantan la luna ya se metió.

Qué linda está la mañana en que vengo a saludarte
venimos todos con gusto y placer a felicitarte.

El día en que tu naciste nacieron todas las flores
y en la pila del bautismo cantaron los ruiseñores

Ya viene amaneciendo, ya la luz del día nos dio.
Levántate de mañana mira que ya amaneció."

Little Visitor

A down and out locksmith suffering from long term memory loss receives visits from a strange boy only he can see who lures him into self-destruction.

With Michael Odist (young Jeffrey), Audrey Christie (Marjorie), Charme Allen (Aunt Nelly), and Ernest Chappell (Ulysses).

Snippet: "All I know is: there was a train wreck. I don't even remember the train wreck, but they told me about that afterword in the hospital. Twenty years ago seems a long time when you just say it. After all, it was only 1928 wasn't it? The year after Lindbergh flew the Atlantic, remember? I don't remember, of course, I don't remember anything before the train wreck. Amnesia, the call it."

Low Road, The    *LOST*

Robert speaks of his return to Scotland and the rivalry with his brother for the woman they both desire.

With Pat O'Malley (Patrick), Betty Wragge (Janet—who also sang "The Bonnie Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond"), and Ernest Chappell (Robert).

Snippet: "In the evening, in the fair evening, I stand by the banks of Loch Lomond, and the crest of Ben Lomond is golden in the last sun across the water; and here is the first blue dusk of evening along the braes, and the Black Mountain behind me as it was all those years ago when I, proud in my first kilt and my fine Balmoral broad bonnet with the red toorie upon it, stood and watched another sunset upon the Ben."

Man Who Knew Everything, The

Indeed he does know everything, literally, including the untimely and unpleasant of you, the listener. Know-it-all Charles W. Afternoon speaks of his omniscience - and your future.

With James Goss, Arthur Kohl, Jean McBride, and Ernest Chappell.

Snippet: "You see? I'm continually bothered by people who want to know things. What is a tonka bean? What was President Rutherford B. Hayes' middle name? Where did I lose my diamond bracelet? What does "Spasibo balshoye" mean? The answers, respectively, are: a South American product used for flavoring cigarette tobacco; Birchard; in the laundry hamper in your bathroom under your green, uh, unmentionables; and "Thank you very much" in Russian."

Man Who Stole a Planet, The

A husband-and-wife archaeologist team locate a lost Mayan temple wherein they discover a model of the Earth, accurate to the last detail. So exact a copy is it that whatever happens to it happens to the Earth itself. A man who possessed such a prize would be likened unto a god...

With Hilde Palmer (Liz), Phil Tonkem (the voice on the radio), and Ernest Chappell (Norman).

Snippet: "Oh, no, I didn't kill him. Matter of fact, I'm not entirely sure he's dead. He doesn't breathe; his heart isn't beating; if he isn't dead, he ought to take down his sign. He was just like that when he was walking around. Like a mummy. And that outfit he's got on. That's the uniform of a very high priest of a race of people who inhabited a certain part of Mexico in the fifth century A. D.It fits him, too. It's his own uniform."

Meet John Smith, John

On a cold New Year's morning in 1939, John Smith and his wife notice an old man begging in the snow, ignored by passersby. John Smith tips the begger a fin, strikes up a conversation, and discovers the beggar's name is also John Smith. Though the begger is ten years older, the two men's lives eerily resemble each other.

With G. Swain Gordon (the older John Smith), Nancy Sheridan (Lucille), and Ernest Chappell (the younger John Smith).

Snippet: "It was snowing awful hard, big flat flakes floating down and people going by with their hats and their shoulders piled high, and loving it, most of them."

Meeting at Ticonderoga    *LOST*

Duncan Campbell, answering a midnight knock at his door, is confronted by a murderer who pleads for his life and begs to be hidden from his pursuers. Duncan considers, then offers his word of honor, which he later regrets. A word of honor, however, is not lightly broken.

Snippet: "Canna ye see him, friend, a great kindly, lonely man at an oaken table scratching away at his papers with his quill in the candle-light? And the shadows flickerin' aboon his head in the bloom, pickin' out tiny flashes o' siller on the basket hilts of the braid claymores upon the wall? Canna ye see him start to his feet at the sound o' someone knockin', hammerin' on the great door o' lonely Inverawe House in the middle o' the night?"

Mile High and a Mile Deep, A    *LOST*

An elderly-looking man with a grizzled beard tells of the time, back in January of 1932, when he was trapped in a copper mine, 3,700 feet below Butte, Montana, and how he finally managed to find his way back out again. The story begins with a tour guide, a blind tunnel, and some Indian writing on the wall that cannot be explained by anyone...

With Lon Clarke (Louie Sullivan), Edgar Stehli (Tom McDonald), and Ernest Chappell (Lincoln Pendarvis).

Snippet:
LINCOLN: So our lights went out. So we weren't where we thought we were at all. We were lost, 3700 feet down in the earth. And I'm scared, only I know that if I let Louie know I'm scared there's going to be trouble, the way he is. So I said, 'Give me a match, Louie...' I said, '...and I'll light our lamps again.' LOUIE: I haven't got any matches. LINCOLN: And I remember that the match I used before was my last one, and so I didn't say anything for a minute, and pretty soon Louie began to cry in the dark.

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall    *LOST*

A commercial artist fantasizes about melodramatically murdering his overbearing, micro-managing boss... and his forgetful, two-timing wife... and a woman he meets in the drug store... If he's not careful, these fantasies will get the best of him.

With Nancy Douglass (Caroline), Eric Dressler (Everwein), and Ernest Chappell (Oliver).

Snippet: "That... that fiend, that Everwein showed up about nine-thirty with a rush job I have to turn in at eight o'clock in the morning, and for gosh sakes it isn't finished yet. I fell asleep. Brought it right to the house. Yelled at me. What was I going to do? Oh, sure. Threatened my job. Eddie, I promise you a day'll come when I'll take that man and I'll fill him so full of lead they can use him for a... for a paperweight."

Motive    *LOST*

While awaiting a reconciliation at the mid-city apartment they once shared, Al speaks of his estranged wife Marge—his love and frustration... and gets a little carried away in the middle of a heat wave listening to a beginner's music lesson, a neighbor banging on the pipes, and a baby's crying.

With Mary Patton (Marge), Cecil Roy (the child), Peggy Stanley and Floyd Buckley (other voices), and Ernest Chappell (Al).

Snippet: "And I remember how we stood there in the dark that night, such a long time ago, looking back at the lights and the foam spreading out behind the boat as we sailed along, and you reached out your hand to me like you used to, and the way your eyes were shining, and you took a step toward me and I put out my arms to you."

My Son, John

A bereaved father, struggling with grief at the loss of his 18-year old son, confers with an occultist and, over her objection, calls his son back from the dead... The son is not happy.

With Warren Stevens (John), Cathleen Cordell (the woman), and Ernest Chappell (the father).

Snippet: "Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Part One, Act Three, Scene One. Owen Glendower, the Welsh warrior, says, 'I can call spirits from the vasty deep.' And Hotspur replies to him, 'Why, so can I, or so can any man; But will they come when you do call?' They come when I call."

Never Send to Know

A run-of-the-mill, underachieving, private investigator is hired by a man, er... a ghost, to find out who murdered him, so that the murderer can be punished. But the ghost doesn't even remember where he was murdered... or when...

With Nancy Sheridan (Mrs. Radabaugh), Edgar Stehli (the other man), and Ernest Chappell (Mr. Kramer).

Snippet: "I wouldn't be caught in an alley with a derby hat. Or with one of those light, snapped, brimmed ones, either. Look, you know what this thing is? It's an automatic pistol. It's not a rod, a roscoe, or a heater."

Night to Forget, A

Actor John H., who works on a 'supernatural' radio program, has recurring nightmares which warn him he is about to die. At least, he thinks they are nightmares, but he isn't really sure.

See also "The Coffin in Studio B" (Lights Out).

With James Monks (Mr. Death), Murray Forbes (Al April), and Ernest Chappell (John H.). Others in the cast included Jack Tyler, Kermit Murdock, Lon Clark and Polly Cole.

Snippet: "You know how it is sometimes when you get in a dream and you don't think you're dreaming and when you wake up you wonder whether it happened or not? Well, I was walkin' down the hall to Studio Fifteen for this broadcast. And, when I went in, it was all dark. And I stumbled around, tryin' to find a light. I hit my shin on something. Then this voice in the dark talked to me. ECHOING VOICE: You kidding? This is the morgue!"

Northern Lights

Two scientists experimenting with transporting objects through time and back again discover that one of their tests has brought back a mysterious caterpillar-like creature that 'sings' and threatens to turn the world into a frozen tomb.

With Dan Sutter (Norman), Cecil Roy (Isabella), and Ernest Chappell (Paul).

Snippet: "Ever see the northern lights? Aurora borealis is their right name. You don't see them very often below the 50th parallel of latitude in this country, but up in northern Minnesota and Canada, upper New York, places like that, they're quite common of a winter night.... Sometimes they fill the whole northern sky with waves of color, like a fire burning way beyond the horizon. Sometimes they're just long streamers of fire filling up the whole sky. And another time they look like gigantic fringed curtains of pure light, swaying, as if some cold cosmic breeze plucked at them, way far off there to the north... And you can hear 'em, too, sometimes—well, maybe not exactly hear 'em, but... but there's a sound, a humming, a... a crackling somewhere inside your head."

Not Enough Time

As the narrator disassembles his time machine, he explains to the listener why he's never, ever, going back in time again.

With Nancy Sheridan (Carrie), Donald Briggs (Sheriff Stout), Katharine Meskill (Mrs. Stout), and Ernest Chappell (Walter).

Snippet: "Well, I don't want any part of time-machines—not after what happened to me with this one. You can make one for yourself, if you want to—and if you can—but you're not going to get any help from me. Oh, they can be made, all right. Me, I'm just a bumble-fingered mechanic out of a garage, and I made one. But I'll give you my first and last piece of advice, buster. Don't you do it!"

Not Responsible after Thirty Years

On Midsummer's Day in 1948, an American tells how he ended up in prison for stealing a writstwatch from the skeletal remains of a 1,500 year-old Roman legionary... and how he plans to steal it agian as soon as he gets the chance.

With J. Pat O'Malley (Edward Mullen), Court Benson (the legionary), Nancy Sheridan (Elaine), and Ernest Chappell (the thie).

Snippet: "In for? Why, I was in for stealing. Stealing a wristwatch to be exact. Three years ago, just about this time of the year. Stealing a wristwatch off a skeleton's arm."

Nothing Behind the Door

The boys, Aldo and Hugh, come out to California to stay with their friend, Russ, for a while to scout out a good hideout for a heist they're planning. They take an interest in an old empty house near the Mt. Wilson observatory after the resident astronomer tells them there is nothing in it.

With Martin Lawrence (Aldo Manuchi), Pat O'Malley (Hugh Grant), James Van Dyke (the Astronomer), and Ernest Chappell (Russ).

Snippet: "The astronomers. They live up there all by themselves. They look at the sky. They see things. You always get the feeling they know a lot more than they're telling—like doctors, or... like priests, I guess."

Oldest Man in the World, The

While on a bicycle ride along a little-used goat path in the Pyrenees, three friends are surprised by a gathering storm and seek shelter in an ancient cave... a cave that was possibly last used by Cro-Magnon man 20,000 years ago.

With Don Briggs (Harry), Nancy Sheridan (Lucille), and Ernest Chappell (Lucas).

Snippet: "It was bitter cold up there in the Uplands, the foothills of the Pyrenees, 20,000 years ago. The great sheet of glacial ice had slid down from the polar ice cap, only the mountain peaks arose above it. There were reindeer in southern France. Reindeer... and the great shaggy bison. The long-haired ancestor of the horse lived somehow on those dead hills in the bitter cold of 200 centuries ago."

One for the Book

A Staff Sergeant from the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1937 visits Muroc Field for air maneuvers and dreams of one day flying a rocket-plane at over 1,000 miles an hour. While mulling over such possibilities, he hears a loud bang and watches a capsule descend to the ground suspended by parachute... an escape capsule manned by Major from the U.S. Air Force in 1951!

With Daniel Sutter (Sergeant Kerant), Melville Ruick (the colonel), Charles Egleston (the doctor), Floyd Buckley (the general), and Ernest Chappell (Westlake).

Snippet: "Ever heard of Muroc Dry Lake? Well, you go out San Fernando Road and you turn off at Fremont Pass onto 6th instead of going up over the Ridge Route. You go up through Mint Canyon, see, and on through Palmdale and Lancaster, then you take a road off to the right by the SP station. After about forty miles of Joshua trees you get to Muroc and a big, tough MP tells you turn around and go back where you came from. Because that's where they've got the jets, where guys are ringin' them out so fast they sometimes get where they're going before they've started."

One Hundred Thousand Diameters

A research bacteriologist who has improved the design of an electron microscope so that it doesn't merely magnify a substance placed inside it, it actually enlarges the substance, inadvertently enlarges a virus one hundred thousand times.

See also "Chicken Heart" (Lights Out). [A tip from Anonymous indicates this show is not lost, but not in general circulation either; apparently copies survive at the Museum of Radio and Television in New York and California.] Note: the prototype electron microscope was developed in 1931.

With Dan Sutter (Kurt), Anne Seymour (Jean), Art Kohl (Dr. Patterson), and Ernest Chappell (Verne R. Judd).

Snippet: "There was something else in that tank. Something that stirred the heavy sludge at the bottom of the container; something that slithered and rustled and bumped soggily against the stainless steel sides. Something that didn't seem to have a shape; something that seemed to be only a little denser than the solution it floated in; something that smelled of death and decay and a kind of ghoulish hunger."

Other Side of the Stars

A radio disc jockey questioned about his association with a missing girl by her brother relates an unlikely tale about a well in the Arizona desert where an alien entity stole her body. A sequel to "Nothing Behind the Door".

With Jane White (Dorothy), Mark Forbes (the young man), and Ernest Chappell (Esau).

Snippet: "I was looking for the gold, of course. The old map that showed where the well was, the old map with the Spanish words and the mark like the planet Saturn. Complete with rings. Marked 'Pozo del cielos'—Well of the Heavens, Well of the Sky. And the other words alongside it in the crabbed soldier's handwriting: 'Lleno de oro y plata'—full of gold and silver."

Pathetic Fallacy, The

An inventor has created a computer that can perform calculations of immense complexity in a matter of seconds. Yet when he has it displayed to the public, it suddenly can't even get two plus two right.

With Charita Bauer (Alice King), Michael Fitzmaurice (Sandy Burns), Vicki Vola (the machine), and Ernest Chappell (Mr. Quinn).

Snippet: "You see, after all, it's merely a differential integrator. Everybody knows what a differential integrator is, of course. But this one is the most complicated and versatile one that's ever been built. What you see here is only the outer shell of the thing. You see, all the walls of this room are covered with banks of jacks and relays and these electronic glow tubes. And up there are sequence analyzers with multiple [dimewave?] selectors. These are the precepts all along here and the master control is at the desk there in the center."

Pavane

An American who has lived for more than six months in post-war France explains why he is not happy to be returning home to his wife. Features piano music of Ravel: "Pavane pour une infante défunte".

Another version of this script was previously produced under the title "La Fille aux Cheveaux de Lin", 1947, except all musical references were to Debussy instead of Ravel.

With Joan Lazer (Joan), Donald Briggs (Achmet Ali), Anne Seymore (Miss Lewis), and Ernest Chappell (Andrew).

Snippet: "And Achmet Ali and I have spent some pleasant evenings alternately at the piano and in long and complicated discussions of Christian and Mahometan theology. Achmet shares with me an inordinate admiration for the works of Ravel, and in particular the one called 'Pavane pour une infante défunte' — 'Pavane for a Dead Princess'."

Portrait of a Character

A musician preparing for an upcoming gig—a really big gig—takes his horn in for emergency repairs and gossips about the horribly improper behaviour of some of his boss' people... the boss sure is steamed when he finds out!

With Athena Lorde (the woman), Charles Egleston (the man), and Ernest Chappell (the horn player).

Snippet: "Mister, you suppose you can fix this horn for me? I don't know, the... the mouthpiece is kinda worn, I guess. And there's... er... some dents in it. See, here on the bell? I dropped it one day. No, no, I don't want a new one, this old horn's good enough for me. I've had it a long time, it's got sentimental value, you know. Huh? No, I don't care what it costs, but I need it pretty quick. Gotta play a big job, see?"

Presto Change-O, I'm Sure

A 16 year-old boy discovers the magic wand he's been given by a stage magician has the power to make anything disappear. Years later, the magician returns and wants his wand back.

With Edgar Stehli (the Professor), Ed Latimer (Bernard), Peggy Stanley (Genevieve), Brad Barker (the dog and the gorilla), and Ernest Chappell (Sarsfield).

Snippet: "We were standin' there by the Illinois Central freight depot and it was early in the mornin' and the circus was [all unloadin'?] and Johnny and I were watchin'. We—we were about sixteen years old, I guess, and—and when the elephants started to come down the gangplank from the big car they were in, Johnny grinned at me and he said, 'Sarsfield, can you make an elephant disappear?'"

Quiet, Please

The last man alive on a dying world reminisces about his life and of those things that were important to him... and how those who could not live without war managed to destroy everything... in the name of preserving it.

The script was broadcast twice, once as the series finale. [The 1948 episode appears to be lost, but the 1949 episode is in circulation and is sometimes mislabeled as 1948.]

With Floyd Buckley (Krogh), Vinton Hayworth (Dale), Lotte Stavisky (Rae), Claudi Morgon (Mrs. Ernest Chappell - as Morna), and Ernest Chappell (Tor).

Snippet: "No. I have never solved the problem, either. Why people can love individually and hate collectively.... I suppose it's only strangers we hate for Rae was a daughter of the nation we had fought bitterly with—and yet when our friends became acquainted with her, they, too, grew to love her."

Rain on New Year's Eve

A screenwriter on a B horror flick, frustrated with the unreasonable demands of the director, is incensed over the idea that he must work on New Year's Eve; strangely enough, the monster in the movie only possesses its power to kill on that same yearly event...

With Muriel Kirkland (Mary Lou), Pat O'Malley (Dody), and Ernest Chappell (Ramsey).

Snippet: "It's raining again... Pretty near New Year's and it's raining again. Back east, it's probably snowing different places. Or maybe the moon's out, shining on the snow and people are saying, "Why, it's so bright out you could read a newspaper!" Ya can't read a newspaper by moonlight. Only the headlines. Maybe if you take your newspaper out in the yard and stand in the moonlight, you might find a headline with my name in it. It's been there before..."

Red and White Guidon, A

A cavalry officer explains about his passion and devotion to the red and white guidon that served as the symbol for his troop... and about how he lost it and why he is now barred from Fiddler's Green.

With Pat O'Malley (Shamus Daly), Arthur Kohl (Captain Tom Custer), Floyd Buckley (Captain George Armstrong Custer), and Ernest Chappell (Noah Wellman).

Snippet: "You know what a guidon is. Well, it's a kind o' little swallow-tailed flag. Nowadays every outfit in the army has one. Company flag, you know. All colors. Even the MPs, they got one that's yellow and green. But there was a day when nobody but cavalry had a guidon. Red and white. Top half red with the regiment's number in white. Lower half white with the troop letter in red, like 7-A -- A Troop, Seventh Cavalry. Only when I first enlisted, they still called 'em companies, just like in the doughboys."

Rede Me This Riddle    *LOST*

A young traveler dressed in rags and claiming to be the king from a distant land, begs food from those he meets and encounters an elderly man who appears to be running the same scheme.

With Ralph Schoolman (Mel), Craig McDonnell (Balt), and Ernest Chappell (Gas).

Snippet: "Nay, smile not that I am a beardless youth, and that I am clad in garments most unkingly, nor smile not at the burthen I bear like to a wandering merchant or forsooth a beggar upon the highways. For I am truly king in my own country, and I shall be king again when that I return. Though, in these latter days I am become somewhat bony, and certes footsore."

Retreat at Dunkirk

According to a tip from a Q.P. fan: [This episode should be deleted from the list. "Retreat at Dunkerque" was actually the regular local New York City rebroadcast on WOR of that week's Mutual episode, "A Ribbon of Lincoln Green" (which is about the British retreat at Dunkerque) Apparently, a local newspaper or some other source printed "Retreat at Dunkerque" as the title, thus confusing everybody decades later.]

Ribbon of Lincoln Green, A    *LOST*

In May of 1940, the German military offensive ripped through France, Belgium, and Holland, cutting off the Allied troops in Northern France and Belgium from those in the South. Many people remember the heroic evacuation at Dunkerque. Fewer remember the defense of Calais, which stalled an entire panzer division for several days and possibly allowed for the successful evacuation of over 300,000 people. Captain Robert Hood, formerly of the King's Royal Rifle Corps, relates his role in the defense of Calais... and the help he had from an unexpected corner.

With Pat O'Malley (Alan), Court Benson (Forsythe), Nancy Sheridan (Marian), and Ernest Chappell (Captain Hood).

Snippet: "I was young and full of stuff back in 1939 when I first joined up at Winchester, at the Rifle Depot. They were kind of tickled at having an American in the outfit, even though I was only second-generation American, and they saw to it right away that I went to Officers' Training School. So I got my commission early, and I was in France as a very Junior Captain when the phoney war ended and the shooting war started."

Room Where the Ghosts Live, The

A man, dying in his snowbound cabin, tells his doctor friend how and why he came to be shot by an American Revolutionary War pistol.

With Claudia Morgan (Melanie), James Van Dyke (the doctor), and Ernest Chappell (Laurence).

Snippet: "No! No, I won't let you take me out of the house. No, I'm going to stay right here. I'm sorry doctor."

Shadow of the Wings

A patient little girl—who has never known what it is to walk like other little girls—lies in bed, always in pain, hoping her doctor and mother can cure her. Lately, when she is alone, she notices a fleeting visitor who keeps returning to her bedroom window.

With Cecil Roy (Carol Sue), William Marshall (Doctor Sam), Bess Johnson (the mother), and Ernest Chappell (the man who spoke to you).

Snippet: "Oh! You DID come back! I was so lonesome all by myself. Mommy says she can't stay here with me. Mommy says I have to be alone so I won't get excited and she won't stay with me. But you did come back. I knew you'd come back. [sobs] I'm so sick. But I... I'm not so lonesome now."

Sketch for a Screenplay

A series of montages, flashbacks, and brief scenes tell the story of three steadfast children from a chateau in France who cherish the legend of Roland, their subsequent separation as they grow older and their reunion on the battlefields of France during WWII.

With Lotte Stavisky (Madeleine), Frank Thomas (Paul), James Monks (Harry), Ernest Chappell (Fred Arthur).

Snippet: "PAUL: And Roland blew his horn again and again, but the king was far away and he did not hear. MADELEINE: And Roland and all the army died in the pass of Roncevaux, because King Charlemagne did not hear the horn of Roland. PAUL: No, Madeleine, THEY died, but Roland didn't die. MADELEINE: The book says he died. PAUL: No. Roland did not die."

Smell of High Wines, The

Some people become nostalgic over sounds (a church bell, a train whistle, a long-forgotten voice), for other people, it's sights (brown cows on a green hillside, a 'Y'-shaped fencepost), and for yet others it's smells (fresh tanned leather, printer's ink, newspaper ink). For Eugene, it the smell of high wines... which seems to take on a predictive importance.

With Murray Forbes (Grover), Frank Thomas Jr. (Dutch), Walter Black (Red), and Ernest Chappell (Eugene).

Snippet: "I know what that smell is... I've smelled that before... That's high wines... Never mistake that smell... That's what comes out after the first distillation of the mash you make whiskey out of."

Some People Don't Die

Dewey Lancaster, an expert on prehistoric cliff-dwellings, tells of the time, some six years ago, when he and his wife first came to the Mesa Encantada. He recognised it at once from the pictures he had seen in various cliff deweller's houses. Their Native American helper, who also recognized it, promptly issued a dire warning and fled.

With Sid Cassell (Fermin), Anne Seymour (Muriel), Ted Osborne (Keno), William Adams (Cabeza de Baca), and Ernest Chappell (Dewey).

Snippet: "There are few cliff-dwellings in the United States that I don't know about as well as their original inhabitants did. Lethotican... Mesa Verde... all the big ones, most of the little ones. They're quite interesting. Quite. Now when I tell you that this particular one is called Mesa Encantada, don't look superior and say you know where the Mesa Encantada is. Because the Southwest has more 'Enchanted Mesas' than there are Main Streets in the United States. And the chance of your finding this particular one is about seven million to one. And you don't want to find it anyway. I'll say you don't."

Summer, Goodbye

A husband and wife make off into the hills of Southern California with a stolen fortune. They race through the San Fernando Valley... Calabasas... and Las Virgenes... eluding the police, but not the strange hitch-hiker who keeps showing up on the road.

With Cathleen Cordell (Madeleine), and Ernest Chappell (Noel).

Snippet: "The last stoplight, the last traffic light, is where Sepulveda Boulevard crosses Ventura at Sherman Oaks. The next one's nearly forty miles northwest at Camarillo. So we felt pretty sure there'd be nothing to stop us for a long time. And, even though they weren't very far behind us then, I knew most of the side roads. I wasn't sure THEY did."

Symphony in D Minor

Ray, a ruthless self-made man who gets whatever he wants, decides to steal the wife of a blind psychologist. He thinks it will be like stealing candy from a baby... but the blind man is not as helpless as he seems.

With Charita Bauer (Carol), James Van Dyke (Johannes), Pat O'Malley (the police officer), and Ernest Chappell (Ray).

Snippet: "Personally, I believe in the law of the jungle. I believe that the fight goes to the strong, to the one that's smarter, to the one that ought to win. I made my way in life that way, you can't tell me anything different. I never got past high school myself. I had too much to do to waste time going to college. Eh gad, I did it. I've got just about everything I ever wanted. What I haven't got yet, I'll get. The only thing I ask of anybody is get out of my way."

Take Me Out to the Graveyard

A cabbie is vexed by a series of passengers who insist he deliver them to a graveyard, any graveyard, where they intend to die. He's not a superstitious person, but still, this seems rather odd. With each new passenger he grows increasingly nervous and vows never to go to a graveyard again.

With Don Briggs (Mr. Booth), Evelyn Juster (Miss Gilbert), Ed Latimer (the inspector), and Ernest Chappell (the cab driver).

Snippet: "Well! You drive a cab twelve, fifteen years like I done, you get some funny ones. Drunks that wanna take you home with 'em, guys that tell ya to take 'em to the Whosit Hotel when you're parked practically in front of it, dames that want you... Well, ya get some funny ones, but this is the first time I run into this kind o' character."

Tanglefoot

Herbie, a plumber in the early 20th century, finds a way of turning a common housefly into a 'pet' the size of a small dog. It's so cute! Wtih those jillions of eyes and the sharp bristles on its legs... and the way it unrolls its trunk and always cleans its face. Unfortunately, it also has a voracious appetite.

With Jack Lescoulie (Herbie), and Ernest Chappell (Bert).

See also "The Insect" (2000 Plus), "Strange New World" (Mysterious Traveler), and "The Crawling Thing" (Hall of Fantasy).

Snippet: "I used to be a plumber. No cracks about leaving tools in the shop when you go out on a job. Because if a plumber took along all the tools he's liable to need on a job he don't know nothing about till he gets there, he'd need one of those moving vans to tote 'em. Just the same, what you can do with a 14" Stillson wrench and a mitt full of oakum, you'd be surprised at."

Tap the Heat, Bogdan

Bogdan, an intensely jealous Balkan immigrant, tangles with his foreman at the steel plant, a tough Irish immigrant, when they discover they are both in love with the same woman, Maria, a beautiful young Polish immigrant.

With Lotte Stavisky (Maria), J. Pat O'Malley (Magnus), Carl Emory (told how steel is made), and Ernest Chappell (Bogdan).

Snippet: "I'm Bogdan! And I can lick any man in the house! I'm Bogdan Petrovich! Dat's my name and I am from Crna Gora and I can lick any man in the house! 'Specially Irishers! In Crna Gora, we lick 'em all! Irishers, Austrians, everybody! We don't kid around in Crna Gora."

There Are Shadows Here

A sullen bartender mulls over the shadows in his ill-lighted bar and tells Woody a woman has been asking for him... a woman whose face he could not see because it was hidden in shadow.

With Ellen Sparrow (Esther), Ed Latimer (Paddy), Sid Cassell (the writer), Frank Thomas (Frankie), and Ernest Chappell (Woody).

Snippet: "Look at them shadows, Woody. At... that there one in the corner by the cannibal's head. Don't it look like the cannibal's head is making faces at you? Look now.... Yeah, I'm in here all alone, it pretty near sets me nuts. There's... there's one there by the second booth, you see? Looks like a big, black cat."

Thing on the Fourble Board, The

A roughneck tells about the time his crew was drilling for oil at around 4,500 feet... and found something other than rock and oil and gas. -- Often considered one of the best episodes of the Quiet, Please! series (certainly its most infamous), and one of the great classics of radio horror.

With Dan Sutter (Billy Gruenwald), Pat O'Malley (Ted), Cecil Roy (Mike), and Ernest Chappel (Porky).

Snippet: "A roughneck is an oil field worker, specifically, a guy on a drilling crew. Call 'em roughnecks like ya call a section hand on the railroad a gandy dancer or a garage hand a grease monkey.... The derrick floor or a fourble board's no place for a guy with a bow tie 'cause when you have to fool around with drillin' holes that go farther down in the ground than it is from the top of Pike's Peak down to sea level... Yeah, sure they do. Time I was a roughneck, we got this one well down to seventy-three hundred and thirteen feet. That was a record. But last May, Pure Oil brought one in out in the [Natrona?] Valley in Wyoming at fourteen thousand three hundred and nine feet. That, friend, is almost three miles. Quite a hole that, huh?"

Third Man's Story, The

A younger son, jeolous of the skills and knowledge of his older brother, strives to distinguish himself by accomplishing some task his brother can't. But rather than being content with his eventual success, he can't help but gloat... perhaps a bit too much.

With Lon Clark (the brother), Arthur Kohl (the father), Alice Reinheart (the mother), and Ernest Chappell (the man who spoke to you).

Snippet: "I've had a long time to meditate upon folly. And I think if I could live my life over again, this would be a better world today, dwelt in by happier people. For I think I would not have committed the folly of my youth. The folly that has drawn the lines for conflict and suffering that you are heir to now. My father and my mother, I know, committed a greater folly, but the punishment that was laid upon them was the sentence of an all-wise judge, and in the end a demonstrable blessing."

Thirteen and Eight

A news photographer explains that people are always trying to worm their way into his photos—to get their picture in the paper—but lately one particular 'lens louse' appears every time he takes a shot... except the lens louse never show up on the developed film!

With Murray Forbes (Big E.), Ed Wragge (? - Buzz), J. Pat O'Malley (reporters, cops, thugs, office boys), and Ernest Chappell (Rocco).

Snippet: "So we got a kind of yell we yell sometimes when we see a lens louse, lousing up a picture, to warn off the other guys, see? We holler 'thirteen and eight'. Then everybody is onto his guard see, and the lens louse ain't got a prayer. So I holler thirteen and eight. And all the other photographers, they look around, and just then..."

Three

After hearing a mysterious voice whisper in his ear, Sebastian becomes increasingly aware of how his life is influenced by the number 3—three pennies in his pocket, three men in his office, a funeral parlor with the telephone numbr 3333—and struggles to retain his sanity.

With Les Tremayne, Vinton Hayworth, Cameron Prud'homme, Kermit Murdock, and Ernest Chappell.

Snippet: "No, I know there's nothing unusual about a telephone ringing three times. Only this one—I picked up the receiver when it rang the first time. And it rang two more times! Telephones don't do that."

Three Sides to a Story    *LOST*

The three participants in a seemingly lethal love triangle tell their sides of the story: Frances (a beautiful, money-hungry young woman), Victor (her wheelchair-bound husband) and Clyde (their handy man).

With Claudia Morgan (Mrs. Ernest Chappell - Frances), Ralph Morgan (her father - Victor), and Ernest Chappell (Clyde).

Snippet: "We were walking along this road, and it was dark, sort of like twilight; a long straight road, and there wasn't anybody else on it. Just us three: Victor and Frances and me, and we were walking along. It was kind of funny we were WALKING along; as long as I can remember, I mean as long as I'd known him, Victor has gone around in a wheel-chair. But he was walking down the road with us. And then we came to three stones alongside the road; you know, like milestones, sort of, and they were the only things you could see along there in the twilight. Three stones, and there were three of us."

Three Thousand Words

Monk, the murderous woodworking dwarf, visits his crippled brother Hubert, the shady ventriloquist, and together they work out a new scheme to work over their gullible customers.

With Anne Seymour, Don Briggs, Kathleen Deday, Lon Clark, and Ernest Chappell (Hubert).

Snippet: "What'd you do if you heard a knock on your door some cold winter night. You went to the door and opened it, there was a fella 'bout three feet high standin' on your front porch in the snow. Jump about ten feet in the air and yell? Sure, probably. Only Hubert didn't jump. He couldn't. I was as surprised as he was. I saw my brother sittin' there in a wheelchair. He saw a dwarf covered with snow, looking as if he stepped out of a Walt Disney cartoon."

Ticket Taker, The

Ernie, Jock and Rubey are laying low after taking out Frank Gaffney and pinning the frame on Deedee Brandes for his murder. The cops knew Deedee was guilty, but they didn't have any evidence, so they let him go... right into the hands of Frank's boys. Now everybody's happy: Ernie, Jock and Rubey. The boys who paid them to knock-off Frank. The cops. Frank's boys. Everybody. And nobody can pin nothing on Ernie, Jock, and Rubey. Nobody. They're quite safe. Except...

With Floyd Buckley (the Ticket Taker), Lon Clarke (Rubey), Pat O'Malley (Jock), Roc Rogers (the Policeman), and Ernest Chappell (Ernie).

Snippet: "I've been wandering around for so long I don't know where I am. All by myself. Nobody seems to know me. It's awful. Only thing I know for sure is one of these days I'll run into him, and then it'll all be over. I keep listening for him, everyplace I go. I keep listening for that jingling, and his shuffling footsteps, and that whiny voice of his. And I know I won't be ready for him when I do hear him. You know - you're never ready for the guy with the bad news. (AN AFTERTHOUGHT) And he is bad news."

Time of the Big Snow, The

Little Katie and Teddy, who are finally allowed outside to play in the snow, get worried when the snow becomes deeper and deeper. They finally become completely lost and take refuge with a strange woman in her remote house: a woman who plucks geese... thousands and thousands of geese.

With Abby Lewis (Kate), Sarah Fussell (Teddy), Cecil Roy (Katie), Vicki Vola (the old woman), and Ernest Chappell (Ted).

Snippet: "There wasn't any nice, big, red-hot stove. There wasn't any oyster stew, either. Or coffee. Or cocoa. There wasn't anything. The house was empty. Katie and I walked into the big, bare, empty room and it was almost as cold in there as it was outside. Only, of course, it wasn't snowing."

Time to Be Born, and a Time to Die, A

A man's life is traced through Biblical verse.

To every thing there is a season, and a time for every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die;
A time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate;
To every thing there is a season, and a time for every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die;

With Edgar Stehli (Edgar), Joyce Gordon (Marilyn), Helen Choate (Julia), Athena Lord (the Reader from the Book of Ecclesiastes), and Ernest Chappell (the man).

Snippet: "No, I have had no experience. I'm willing to start at the bottom and work up... Yes, I have certain ambitions. Yes, I will work hard—for whatever you want to pay me. I'll do as you say and I'll live modestly and save my money and I'll not waste my time. Nor yours, sir. I'll work and study and try to be useful—to you and to me. And you'll find I'm a hard worker and honest and conscientious. And, when the time comes, you'll promote me and you'll find that I'm a very good man to have in your organization, sir."

Twelve to Five

A disc jockey working the lonely midnight-to-five shift unexpectedly receives a visitor who claims to from the news department and whose bulletins eerily portend the future.

With Jack Lescoulie (Herbie Buchanan), Ernest Chappell (Connie Duffin). Also included were Connie Lembcke, Mary Lee Joel, and Ed Latimer.

Snippet: "Play what? No, I haven't got 'I'll Be Glad When You're Dead, You Rascall You'... Yeah, we're not supposed to play it... Oh, ever since about 1934 or five or sometime. No, no kiddin'. Well, sure I'll play you something, just... just a while, the other phone's ringing."

Vahine Tahiti

On December 23, 1787, the Bounty, set sail from England on an experimental mission: to pickup breadfruit plants from Tahiti and take them to the West Indies in the hope they would grow there and become a cheap source of food for slaves. The voyage was harsh, the treatment of the crew, harsher, and after a layover of five months on Tahiti, the continuation of the voyage was not met with overwhelming enthusiasm. This is a re-telling of the mutiny on the Bounty with an emphasis on the role played by the fictional(?) Tahitian goddess, Vahine Tahiti—the mother goddess, the secret protector of the women of Tahiti.

[Note: Vahine - Tahitian; Wahine - Hawaiian, Maori]

With J. Pat O'Malley (William McCoy), Roy Irving (Fletcher Christian), Charles Penman (Captain Bligh), Charita Bauer (Para Haiti), Harriet Priestly (Vahine Tahiti), and Ernest Chappell (Alexander Smith - aka John Adams).

Snippet: "Para Haiti told me about it, of course, else how would I know why we came to Tahiti... ? It was the women, of course. They'd taken more than a fancy to the English sailors who came to their lovely island with Captain Cook. And they'd prayed for the white man to come back. They shouldn't have done it. But they prayed to Vahine Tahiti."

Vale of Glencoe, The

A nice, leisurely, drive along the Coast Highway, north of Santa Barbara, in late winter of 1944 provides an ideal opportunity for Alan (MacDonald) and Iona (Campbell) to discuss their common Scottish heritage. [Poor sound quality with some Scots-Gaelic dialog—be sure to download the radio script and read along.]

With J. Pat O'Malley (MacIain MacDonald), Helen Choate (Iona), and Ernest Chappell (Alan).

Snippet:
Iona: 'I stepped into another one of those darned ruts.'
Alan: 'Ruts?'
Iona: 'I told you, my high heals.'
Alan: 'I heard you the first time. I thought you were kidding.'
Iona: 'Kidding?'
Alan: 'There's no ruts in a concrete road.'
Iona: 'Concrete? Where's concrete?'
Alan: 'Why... Hey!'
Iona: 'Don't you know where you are?'
Alan: 'Where'd we get off the main road - we must have got off it somewhere.'
Iona: 'But this is a wagon road—a dirt road.' [sound of thunder]

Valentine

A young man, separated from his lover and busy with his new career, promises daily to write... tomorrow. Time stretches and, after many months, he returns home on the day before Valentine's Day and wonders what he will find. Will his lover still want him? Will she remember him?

With Anne Seymour (Ann), Jack Arthur (Offutt), Leora Thatcher (Hannah), and Ernest Chappell (Abe).

Snippet: "The little towns. I never see them any more. Pekin, Delavan, Bloomington, Galesburg, Lewiston—all the little towns above the river with the cobble stones going down to the steamboat landings. The little towns under the hills. And the shocks of corn standing lonely and snow-covered—like the teepees of old Shabbona's people, the good Indians that saved so many white men's lives in the old days."

Venetian Blind Man, The    *LOST*

Two men claiming to be the Venetian Blind Man visit the Man Who Knew Everything.

A tip from Anonymous indicates "[Not in circulation, but the Indiana University Archive of Traditional Music has an incomplete recording of this.]"

With Dorothy McBride (Miss Tragacanth), Carl Emory (Pamson), James ???? (Volcano), Pat O'Malley (Orville), and Ernest Chappell (the man).

Snippet: "Now, I very seldom make mistakes. In fact, I never made a mistake in my life until a few weeks ago when I made rather an idiot of myself before a large radio audience by dying. It embarrassed me no end, as Mr. Ivor Lambe of London, England sometimes says, when I came to life again. Came to life, to realize that I was not the victim of an aortal aneurysm as I thought, and that I had not fallen a victim to what Miss Sissie Williams of New York sometimes calls a tummyache."

Very Unimportant Person

A couple on a private plane witness the advent of Armageddon, and desperately try to outrun the mushroom clouds to reach the wilds of northern Canada, where they hope they might be safe. Then an enigmatic stowaway appears who offers them an alternative...

With Nancy Sheridan (Ruth), James Monks (the V.U.P.), Frank Thomas (the pilot), and Ernest Chappell (Tom).

Snippet: "'The Hollow Men.' Ever read it? Lot of people were very fond o' quoting from it when T. S. Eliot got the Nobel Prize. Especially that part, 'This is how the world ends / Not with a bang but a whimper.' Well, it wasn't so, Mr. Eliot, you were wrong. Me? How do I know? I was there."

We Were Here First

An entire race of beings is at constant war with another race—a race of giants. They've been at war for many millenia and will be at war for many more. The giants are bigger and better organized, but, well... the bigger they are, the harder they fall. And, besides, the little one were here first.

With Nancy Douglass, Walter Black, Kermit Murdoch, and Ernest Chappell.

Snippet: "I began to crawl toward the door, toward the gaping mouth of that gas-jet. I tried hard to warn a few of my friends, but they were heavy with good living, and it was useless. I found my way through the labyrinth, hoping, hoping there would be time. I had a goal now—if I could make it."

Wear the Dead Man's Coat

When an old down-and-out friend, "Kidneyfoot" Cassidy, bums some money from Floyd to buy another bottle—and then murders his supplier and steals his coat—he finds that they old saying is true: "Wear a dead man's coat, nobody takes note"... but there are unintended consequences.

With Ed Latimer (Walter "Kidneyfoot" Cassidy), Leora Thatcher (Mrs. Fryeburg), Morton Lawrence (the conductor and the doctor), and Ernest Chappell (Floyd).

Snippet: "So, it was seven o'clock in the morning when I went over to the bureau and got out my Georgia boxin' glove. You know what a Georgia boxin' glove is? Switchblade knife—blade about an inch longer than the palm of your hand is wide."

Whence Came You?

An archaeologist on assignment in Egypt meets an old war-buddy-turned-newspaperman and learns that a mysterious woman has been asking about him in the bar... a woman with beautiful black eyes and beautiful black hair... who smells of death.

With Murray Forbes (Abe Feldman), Don Briggs (Martin Weaver), and Ernest Chappell (Austin).

Snippet: "I could have told him what the... incense was. I've smelled cinnamon and myrrh and spikenard too often not to recognize it instantly. When I opened the door to my room, the smell was almost overpowering, used as I am to the funeral spices of ancient Egyptian tombs... No... No, I'm not gonna tell you that a beautiful Egyptian princess of the days of [Hixtos?] was waiting for me in the darkness. This isn't a ghost story. It's a true story. There wasn't anyone in the room."

Where Do You Get Your Ideas?

A radio drama writer runs into a drunk in a bar who claims to have murdered his wife; no big deal, however, since she is from the Moon and thus cannot stay dead for long.... Willis Cooper actually stars in this show, playing himself! [edit: perhaps]

[possible cast] With Kathleen Niday (Helen), Frank Thomas (Charlie), Charles Egleston (the writer), and Ernest Chappell (Basil).

There wasn't anybody else in the bar but this skinny little guy in a corduroy shirt sitting down at the other end of the bar drinking ginger ale, and talking, kind of, to Charlie.

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