Lights Out - Old Time Radio Horror

Immortal Gentleman - Lights Out | 08/31/1943 (48)

Hope you enjoy this episode of Lights Out! We offer an old time radio horror and thriller and other OTR radio stations at theaterofthemind-otr.com - Audio Credit: The Old Time Radio Researchers Group - All Podcasts @ Spreaker | Apple Podcasts | YouTube Music

Duration:: 23m
Broadcast on:: 15 Sep 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

Metacom presents Arch-Oblers, lights out everybody. [Music] It is later than you think. This is Arch-Oblers bringing you another in our series of stories of the unusual. And once again we caution you, these lights out stories are definitely not for the timid soul. So we tell you calmly and very sincerely, if you frighten easily, turn off your radio now. Be a mortal gentleman, a melodrama about something every one of us is thought of at one time or another, if I could only live forever. Our star, Mr. French O'Tone, in Arch-Oblers newest radio drama, Be a mortal gentleman. People that the hands of the sisters death and night incessantly, softly, remold again and ever again the face of the soiled world. Now don't be frightened John, please don't be, yes I know I screamed, but don't be afraid for me. I'm all right really I am. No, no, don't say anything. Don't say anything just listen. The reason that I screamed, it made me happy. Oh what a... Oh I know it sounds confused, but I can tell you freely now for the first time since I've known you. Tell me what? About what happened. Tell you about myself and then you'll understand and then we'll both be happy. Remember you once said you never could be happy with me. Oh please. Don't say anything if you do I want to hold you in my arms. And I've got to talk this thing out first, talk it out from the time before I knew you until a few moments ago when I screamed and frightened you. You know, you were right. I've been a coward, but not of men or things or living, just of... not living. You don't know what I mean do you? Must I say it? Must I say the word? All right I will. I've been afraid of... death. Just believe me John, all my life it was that way even as a boy I couldn't be happy because of him. So one thought was in me all through life. If I could only live forever, if I wouldn't die, if I could only live forever, the thought chasing itself in a never-ending circle. So there was no happiness and the fear in me was in my face and in my work and you knew it and everyone knew it, but they didn't know why. No. Tonight the echo that is still in my ears, I cried out in fear in front of everyone and I'm going to tell you why I cried out and then you'll understand me and why I say I'm free and happy for the first time in my life and John if it's too strange to believe, just listen patiently. We were sitting in the auditorium, you and I, the politician up on the stage, talking, talking. In this coming election I repeat again the issue will be clear, an issue made clear by our glorious party. You young men and women. Sitting there, you next to me, I wasn't listening to him on the stage. I was thinking the same infernal thoughts I thought all my life whenever I was alone. Of him. Of him. And then, yes to you, to every one of you here, a challenge that we must accept, face and challenge in turn. Speaker's voice wasn't the same. I looked up. No, not the same. The other one, an old man, this one young, couldn't quite see his face or dark in the hall. Had something happened to the lights? A turn to her. You said. Joan, when did the lights? I stopped. You weren't there. Believe me, not there. Another woman. You just speak to me? She said that. I said, where, where's Joan? Joan? Well, she was sitting right next to me. You have her chair. Where did she? I mean the young lady who was sitting here, where did she go? I've been here for hours. But she was here. Here I tell you. Quiet. Quiet, the speaker. Then, past for pleadings, the time is past for petitions. We are representative of youth and youth is the time for action. So we must act. The speaker. What did he matter? I sat there. Couldn't figure it out. You, Joan, where have you gone? Could I have dozed off? You've slipped out and this other woman taking your place? Yet, how strange you're leaving without a word. And then, wind, wind in the auditorium. I looked up at the sky, no roof, a single star and clouds, no roof. Sleep? No. Awake. I got up to go. No, no. Sit down. No one can leave. But my friend. You have sworn to stay. You must. I sat down. Sworn to stay. What in the world? I sat down. You know there can be no compromise. There will be no compromise. But if we come from us, we are doomed as they have always doomed us. Speaker, what did he matter? No roof on the place, crazy. How could a roof disappear in a moment without? I said to the girl, where's the roof? What's happened to this place? Where are we? You know. No? What? Well, I'd get out of the place. I'd find you, Joan. Started to go again with the girl's hand tight on my wrist. No, don't. The swore to stay. Sworn? You swore. They swore. He speaks the truth. Listen. Good and now good friends. Let us put an end to words. This meeting of ours was destined for 500 years destined. What was he saying for 500 years destined? For what? None of us can say we have moved quickly. For in the meditation of these 500 years has come the essence of truth. A truth that burns bright in the hearts of all of us. What kind of a political speech was that? And so an end to words. In this meeting we have spoken words which none dare question. And now the time has come for action which none dare deny us. The girl leaned close and whispered. None dare deny us. Deny us? Deny? What? Wanted to yell out just the way I did a few moments ago but I couldn't. Something about the place. The speaker, the people around me, I could only sit there. Questions pounding in my head. Youth is action. Action is youth. We will act together and make ourselves a new world. A better world. Our world. Meeting over. Everyone getting up. The girl said. Come with me. Where? You know. I know. Proud, pressing around me. Dark, strange faces. Young, angry faces. None of my friends. My friends. Why were they? Joan, where were you? The auditorium in ruins. She led me out. I saw that. It was madness. Yet a strangely intriguing madness so I walked with it. He led me through a door. I could hear voices. She said. Stand here a moment. I'm going to talk to you. Tell me, why do you act so strangely? Would you want to go through with it? Through with what? There. That's what I mean. You talk as if you don't know. I couldn't speak. I stood there. It's a glorious morning for all of us. We've waited 500 years. Some of us for this? 500 years. What was she? I said. 500 years. Well, perhaps not you, but I've waited 350 myself. What? What did you say? Three hundred and fifty years and now I can't wait another moment. The fart of another empty day suffocates me. Am I insane or you? Insane? I don't know the word. Out of your head. You or I? You are a strange one. And yet you came here. Why? Would you hear a speech? Oh, to hear, but not to act. You will. You will. All of us will. And then the moonlight from under a cloud and then her face. I saw her face clearly for the first time. Hers was a loveliness beyond the word. Sixteen. Seventeen. She couldn't have been more freshness of the morning. And yet her eyes, all bright, wise, so strange for all eyes in that young face, I stood there staring at her. I can't do this. If one of us fails, we all fail and that can't happen. Remember that. Now come. They're waiting. Followed her? A room. Quite dark. Many people, isn't it? Quiet, please. Quiet. There is little time to waste. We will now draw lots. Each of you take a paper as the box is passed. Most of the slips are blank. Only 24 are numbered. Whoever draws a numbered slip stays. The others go. Slips? Draw lots? What was this? Draw lots for what? Someone came close. Held out a box. Take a paper. I did. She did. The others did. She said. Look at the slip. I did. A number. Eleven. She said. Good. I too. Held out the paper in her hand. I saw the number 12 on it. You and I. You and I. She and I. What? All those without numbers leave. All those without numbers leave. The push of bodies are on me. And in a moment, there were only a few left. The girl at my sight motionless. Now we can risk lights. And in a moment, lights began to glow. I stood there blinking and then I saw. Twenty-four people in that room, men and women. Twenty-four, I counted them and all of them looked alike. Yes, alike, I tell you. Men and women. And their faces. There's the girls. Twenty-four faces alike as copies of pictures strung along the wall. They in turn were staring at me. Who was he? A voice said. Who was he? Another said. They came close around. Not one of us. Who is he? Not one of us. All those faces alike. Staring. Staring. Staring. Talking. The girl spoke. I knew it was she because her hand was on my arm. Leave him alone. He is an Adivar. An Adivar. An Adivar. An Adivar. An Adivar. An Adivar. An Adivar. An Adivar. An Adivar. An Adivar. An Adivar. An Adivar. An Adivar. What was an Adivar? I wanted to speak, but she spoke. I do well. He will be with me. But they are only tenable. You know that. Never can tell about an Adivar. But I will take care of them. I will take care of them. They stood there arguing about me, June. Yes, arguing about me. Whether I could, whether I would, whether I was reliable, unreliable. And always that word, Adivar. Adivar. Adivar. Mad dreams or mad adventure. Whatever it was, I didn't know. Their arguments stopped. Apparently, the girl had won. The leader said. All right, Adivar. You will be with her. Now, all of you, listen. This Adivar is with us. And with us, he will stay until it's ended. End it. End it. What is the gun? What would end? One question, Adivar. What is your age? My age. You want to know my age? Or didn't you hear Adivar? What is your age? The girl said. Tell him. My age is twenty-five. What did you say? Twenty-five. Do not joke. Tell us your age. I told you. Twenty-five. For a moment, no one spoke. They looked at each other. Shook their heads slowly. Shoulders shrugged. A matabar. Just a matabar. The girl said. Don't worry any of you. I'll take care of him. You'll do what he's told. Do what he's told. Do what? Told it or what? I want it open. My mouth. Then I didn't. Because the leader said. All right. Our last word. There are twenty-four of you. Twelve pairs. Each pair will go out together. If one fails, the other will succeed. But when? Now, at once. We have waited long enough for them. I alone have waited four hundred years. I, two hundred. I, four. Twenty-five. Twenty-five. I understood. Like a blow on the head, I understood. These people mad. That was at talking of living hundreds of years out of their heads all, listening to them. I knew that. Three hundred and forty years. I've waited 170 years. And that explained the likeness of their faces. Some sort of weird interbreeding of a family, resulting in feeble-mindedness. Well, how did I come among them? Well, outside. The girl with me, everyone going off in pairs. Their faces tense, angry. Going off to some strange madness. The girl said. Wait here. I'll get what we need, then we'll keep our appointment. Wait here. Joan, believe me. As she went off into the darkness, leaving me there alone, I swear my head was spinning as if it were on a pivot. And as it spun, the thoughts in my head spun with it. Madness, dream, madness, dream, madness, dream, madness, dream, madness, dream, madness, dream, madness, dream, madness, dream, madness, dream, madness, dream, madness, dream, madness, dream, madness, dream, madness, dream, madness, dream, madness, dream, madness, dream, madness, dream, madness, dream, madness. What was happening to me? And then I thought, had what I'd feared all my life happened at last, had I died? Dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead. Joan, I remember the wind suddenly was cold about. Dead? But I was... Dead? Colder. Dead? Was I? And then someone was standing by me, not the girl, but a man. Smooth, young, handsome face with those old, wise eyes looking at me. He said, "You have not started yet, out of all?" No. No. Strange, I've never seen you before. There was so few out of all. You know, generally, they are not permitted to develop. And looking at him, I knew I was alive. Of course. And dream? This was no dream. Yes, there are so few out of all. I said... Out of all? Out of all? What the devil are out of all? You are a strange one. Well, tell me, what are out of all? Why call me an out of all? Well, because you are, you are not like us, you know. You are a throwback to the individualistic, unconditioned, embryonic development. Why? But then, of course, you don't understand, do you? No, an out of all wouldn't. Well, tell me. It is strange that they should have permitted you to develop and not to have explained to you the difference. What difference? What? Once in every two thousand births, and that means once in every two thousand years, we don't have many new ones in this world, you know. Something happens in the incubation process, and instead of one of us, perfected ones, one of you develops. A throwback to ancient times, an imperfect creature, out of the past, in other words, an atavism. Understand? An atavism? Atavism? Atavar? Atavism? What the devil's name was this? But he kept talking. Yet, atavar, though you are, life must be miserable for you as it is for the rest of us. Life? Miserable? Well, of course, why else would you have joined with us? I know this is going to be a glorious night for us, but not for them. I don't understand exactly what-- Of course not. Things would be confused for the atavar mind, wouldn't they? That's the infertile trouble with our minds. Things are much too clear and concise and understandable. And they bred all the confusion out of us a long time ago. Well, now they'll pay for it. Please, tell me-- Just look at me. I've lived just a handful of years, 250. He said that, Joan. Just believe me, 250 years. And yet, believe me, Atavar, I'm weary unto the death we'll never know. Death? We'll never know. What good is there in it for any of us living forever? Living forever. For the first 50 years of our lives, they condition us. All right. We come out with our brains filled with all knowledge, of all time. Paragons, all geniuses, all but what good does it do us? What good? All was there in the way. They? Look, Atavar. You can't be so completely a fool or they would never have let you out. They are the old ones. And what is interesting and exciting in the world, they do. They and no one else. And we who came after them after they conditioned the world against sickness, illness, age and death. We have nothing left to do. I see. They hold the key positions. They and we stand by and grind the weary years away in nothingness. A world of youth, full of the ones to do and there's nothing to do. And yet there are worlds out there where we might go. But again, they stand on our way and say no, it shouldn't be done. They. They, the old ones all around us, holding us down, giving us everlasting life and then giving us nothing to live for. But this night we'll change it. You and I and the rest of us 24. Well, here comes your partner and I must go with mine. Goodbye, Atavar. Good luck. He was gone. And then the girl at my side, under her arm, a small black box. All right, we can go now. She took my arm. We walked along. In almost a moment we were in a straight, broad street. Straight, shiny, glistening, bright with a light I've never seen. A quiet, empty street. Clean, bright and strange as if in a dream. A dream. This was no dream. And then she said, "In here." We stepped upon a platform. Part of the sidewalk it was moving, carrying a swiftly. Swiftly down the street. An excavator. Moving sidewalk I don't know what. Faster. Faster. Things rushing by. Strange, towering buildings. And then I heard that she was talking to me. I saw you talking to Arro. He has the easy one. We were hard one. Two hundred and fifty years, he said. Arro? Yes, that's true. Live? Two hundred and fifty years? It isn't much I know. You must be older. Or are you? Hard to tell with an out of our. How old are you? I. Four hundred. Four hundred years. But not of living. What do you mean? You know, they with all their years. Before we were born they took the work of the world. And what is left for us? To wander up and down. Pretty ornaments with empty lives. But they forgot one thing. They left ambition in us. And this night we'll find a place to use it. Oh. Adivai, you are a fool. You know and yet you don't know. How can we find a place for ourselves as long as they do as they please? Listen. In the very ancient world men lived a few years and then died. And they thought that was horrible, but that was good. For when they died there was a place for youth. Yes. One would fall in his place and a young one took his place. Sometimes he did better than the one who had gone before, so the world progressed. But now no one falls. No one dies. And so the old ones stay and stay and stay and we. The young ones have no place. And when we want to make a place the old ones say no. The thing we were riding climbed higher. Higher. And still she talked. We seated in the torsion and they do not listen. So tonight we act. You and I, Adivai, are one of twenty-four. By turning back the time to when men died and gave the young ones their place. What? The wrong of each man died with him when he died in that old world. And so tonight we'll see that wrongs are given their belated rest. How? You and I, Adivai, will do our part up there. She was pointing up. I looked up to where the building ended in a cloud. She said, "Pup there. Five thousand years she's lived every day since a day's science child death. Five thousand years, but tonight we begin to live here." Adivai, hand she thrust the black container. I said, "What?" You do it. You. In a moment we reach the fire. He'll come out old smiles and happiness. They can be happy, the old ones who have the words. Do it then you must. What? Throw it at her and she'll be free of life and will be free of life about living. You'll do it at the fire you will. Throw it at her. Throw it. What? The thing in my hands? What did she mean to free that person up there from life? The weight in my hands and suddenly I realized some kind of explosive. She expected me to throw it at that person up in the tower. Me to kill. You will. You will. No. No. The word tore through my head and with a tore away confusion. I knew. I understood. This was the world of the future where science had doomed the death I feared. Men lived forever and these young ones had no chance. And now they were out to kill and make their chance, and I was to kill for them. With them. You will. You will. You will. You will. You will. You will. You will. You will. I'm saying that I will. There she is, the matriarch. Throw it. Throw it. I won't kill. Not at all. Never. Never. Never. No. My jump. Falling. I was falling through the horrible space of that horrible future. Down and down and down. The glistening sides of the building rushing past me. Down. Twisting. Flowing at the air. Down and down. And then I remembered in my arms that explosive I tried. Throw it but my hands kite around it. I couldn't unlock them. The ground coming up, I screamed. And there I was. Sitting next to you in the hall where I'd been before. The politician upon the stage. My friends around me. You next to me frightened at my cry. And the roof quite intact above me. So here it ends Joan. Sitting there, I stepped ahead in time until a day when men had conquered death. And so somehow I... I'm not afraid of him. The one at my shoulder anymore. Because I think it's good that men should live. Then die and so end the evil in them and give their place to others. Tell me Joan, do you agree? [Music] Beautiful that the hands of the sisters death and night incessantly softly removed again and ever again. The face of the soiled world. [Music] It is later than you think. [Music]