Quiet, Please - Old Time Radio Horror
The Oldest Man in the World - Quiet, Please | 05/21/1949 (Ep101)
Disclaimer - The audio is quite poor on several of these episodes. A lot of crackling Hope you enjoy this episode of Quiet, Please! Find all our OTR radio stations and podcasts at theaterofthemind-otr.com - Audio Credit: The Old Time Radio Researchers Group. - Podcast @ Spreaker | Apple Podcasts | YouTube Music
- Broadcast on:
- 25 Sep 2024
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- other
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The American broad-jasting company presents Quiet, please, which is written and directed by Willis Cooper, in which features Ernest Chapel. Quiet, please, for tonight is called The Oldest Man in the World. It was bitter cold up there on the upland, 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 two-hundred centuries ago. No man wrote down the time when the southern glaciers let go their icy hold on the countryside, for there were no men to see it, only the fierce great bears roaming the barren frigid hills, praying horribly on the reindeer and the bison, and the gentle frightened horses. Where the men came from, nobody knows. Perhaps they struggled up from the Spanish peninsula over the jagged passes of the Pyrenees, following the retreating wall of ice, perhaps they burnt its fruitless to speculate. The ice melted away to the north when the earth appeared, and there were men living in the high caves of the Pyrenees. In the Cro-Manian caves along the Daudonin, France, they found what they said was indisputable evidence of prehistoric men. That intelligent, walking upright man who made weapons, fought, worshiped, and died. The Cro-Manian man, you've seen the drawings they made of in a beetle-browed, heavy-jawed cave man, a short step on the ladder of evolution above his anthropoid for bears. And in certain caves hidden away in the foothills of the Pyrenees, you can find drawings that the Cro-Manian man scratched on the cave walls 20,000 years ago. So he did live, and flourish, and finally perished, and they say he vanished utterly. That is what they say. Now I'll tell you what I know. I think I ought to tell Lucas, I know the story even better. Did you hear that? Did you hear a voice speaking to you? I thought I heard a voice, I thought I heard Harry's voice. Listen, it couldn't be Harry's voice, could it? Not Harry's voice, Harry's. Harry's dead, Harry. And the last time I saw Harry alive was 27 years ago, this coming August. Listen, it can't be. I wonder if Harry's bicycle is still up there beneath a clump of bushes. They'd be trees now, up there at the mouth of the cave on the road. The lonesome road that leaks past the ruins of the castle must span. The frame will be rusty, the tires will be in shreds, and the shiny leather will be weather-worn, and they'll do it, if some village boy from out of span didn't find the bicycle and ride it away many years ago. But I doubt anybody found it, nobody found the mouth of that cave, not for 20,000 years. We looked up my sickles at the mouth of the cave, Harry and Lucille and I. They can sit here on the cave until the storm's over, long ride down to the village, and I don't want to get caught in one of these young floods, and even find a road when it starts to rain. Pull your bike inside, Lucille, and start running any second. What made it just in time, it looks like. Stonewogers. Good, Lucille. Have one cigarette. Here. Thanks. Come on, it's me. You boys are self-helite. No, no, no. Three from one match, Lucille. Oh, Joe. I've got any matches. Here. Thanks. It's lightning. Righting the never strikes game. Sit closer to me. Ah. Cold, Lucille. I don't like lightning. There comes the rain. Let's get farther inside. It's coming right in here. It's probably damp in there too. No, it's nice and dry. Dark, though. My look is blowing right in there. I'll say it is. Where are you, Lucille? Here. Dry leaves. Ah. Fine. Sit down. Sit down, Lucis. Not on me. I can't see you. Oh. Huh. This is all right. Comfortable, Lucille? Fine. Listen to him. Rain. Nice and cozy in here. Yeah, no wonder they live in caves. Oh. Cade men. Crowmanian men. Those any of them? Here? Big cave. Seems big, anyway. Probably they did. Lived in all the caves around here, remember what they have? You told us down the village? Oh, true. Look where you're talking. Surely. Find relics everywhere. They lived here all right. Nobody harm now, though. Hardly. And that was 20,000 years ago. Pass you there, Charlie? Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. They lived in all the caves around here. They must have lived here. They've explored all the caves from here to Toulouse. This one's kind of hidden, though. We just found it by accident. Good accident. Well, we'd be out in that. Sure. Coming down. I'm hungry. That'll stop pretty soon. I hope so. Yeah, this keeps up. That road will be something. Broad. Goat path. Well, you're drunk. You're drunk. Well, you're drunk now. We're going soon. Glory. Find a caveman. What's the matter with me? You're too gentle. I can get rough. Don't go far, Lucille. Break your leg in the dark back there. Yeah, and I don't want to have to carry you down that mountainside in the mud. I've got my flashlight. Be careful. You gonna have a cigarette? Hmm. Yeah, match. You've got nothing but the habit, Lucille. Thanks. Okay, go way back under the hill. Well, be careful. Oh, shut up. My bride. Yeah, what if this cave really has not explored? I wouldn't know. It'd be nice to find a souvenir. Take home with us. What kind of souvenir? A bone or something. With some caveman's name carved on it. Property of Ugg. Son of Ugg. Yeah, carved things on bones. Mm-hmm. Carved pictures on the walls of the caves. How are you gonna pry the wall off a cave? A seal. A seal. Hey, a seal. I'm all right. Hey, there's bats in here. What'd you expect? Robins. I'm all right. I wouldn't wander around back there, Lucille. I'm all right. Well, be careful. Shut up. Come back here. Tell him that. Hi, there's a big hole back here. Well, stay away from it. I will. Stop running it. Yeah, it's coming down harder than ever. Getting dark out, though. Well, we're dry. None of that brandy left, is he? I heard that. Well, all right, honey. Think about that, by the way. We should come back here. Look at it. Hey, that's a wonderful back here. Well, come on back here. Yes, it's dark. Come back before you get lost. All right. See any pictures back there? I think I'll move there. But what? The Louvre. Where the pictures are in Paris. France. No. No, I'm the walls. No. No pictures. Well, you better come back. Why not see that hole in the floor? You stay away from it. Well, way, way down. I think there's water down there. Water outside, too. Well, let me see you. Come back here now. Stop pulling around. You'll break it. No, I will. You will, too. Hey! What's the matter here? We'll see you. We'll see you. We'll see you. Come back here! What is it? Come on, Lucas. But wait, I got my flashlight. We'll see you now. Stay still. Look out for that hole, Harry. Look out this way. What happened? What is it? You're both scared to death. What happened? Look! What? A foot print. A caveman's foot print. Let's see. In a solid rock. Oh, how did it get there? Yeah. A caveman put it there. Twenty thousand years ago. In a solid rock? Well, that was salt and mud twenty thousand years ago. And the man. A beetle browned, heavy jawed, chrome manion man left it there in the salt limestone mud. And the mud is hardened through all those two hundred times and hundred years, and it's... The man looks at me, just walked away from it. The man I've made it. He's not even a dead man anymore. He died. He was a skeleton somewhere in here in the bowels of the earth. The centuries went on and on. He's... He's not even dust. The man I've made that foot print. It is. You don't need to be afraid of him, Lucille. Listen. Harry. Thunder. Thunder, that's all. Oh, my hand, Harry. I'm scared, all of a sudden. It's nothing to be afraid of. Harry. I know there's nothing to be afraid of, Lucille. But... Let's get out of here. I'm scared. Come on, dear. Let's go back where we were and not wander around till the rain stops. Over this way, Harry. Harry! Harry, darling! He fell. That hurt on the floor. Yes, Paul. You pushed him. Lucille! You pushed him. You pushed him. You mad. Well, I pushed him. His eyes were on the footprint of the yellow limestone for the cave as he took a backward step. Directly toward the awning hole that led to it. And I pushed him into. Just the lightest touch on his arm just enough to take his balance away from him on that glaze of ancient crystalline limestone. Just the lightest push. And Lucille's sight. Of course. Lucille had promised to marry me. That was before Harry's time. Lucille loved me. That was before Harry's time. I loved Lucille. Before Harry's time and after Harry's time, it always. What? She married Harry. They asked me to come along to the south of France with only the old good friend, the friend of the family, the man who loved and lost and forgave and wrapped up his broken heart. Lucas the Angelus. Lucas, the good loser, the good fellow, good old Lucas. And at last the storm sent opportunity deep in the cave where the oldest man in the world lived. He would forget the man who died of an accident in that ancient place. And in time the good friend would take up his role as the lover. The role he had never forgotten. But Lucille saw what I did. I remember the thoughts that raced through my mind as we stood beside that pit there in the brief lights from our paupy flashlights. I'll have to do something. I'll have to try and have to make a look as if I was only trying to save him from falling. He's dead down there. We hit his head on the rocks as he's powdery's brown and his black water's down there. There's something to convince her. Look. Look, they're at the side of the pit. 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We handle everything from marketing and showing your property to screening tenants and preparing the lease. Find collection to maintenance coordination all for one flat monthly fee. Go to runnerswarehouse.com for a free rental analysis to find out how much your home can rent for. Or call 303-974-9444 to speak with a rent estate advisor today. Because from now on, the only thing you need on your to-do list is to call runners warehouse. What's next? At Moss Adams, that question inspires us to help people and their businesses strategically define and claim their future. As one of America's leading accounting, consulting and wealth management firms, our collaborative approach creates solutions for your unique business needs. We leverage industry-focused insights with the collective technical resources of our firm to elevate your performance. Uncover opportunity and move upward at MossAtoms.com. Well, I'll make it look good. She'll be sure I was trying to save him if I climbed down after him, and he's dead anyway. I thought he'd do it, I thought he'd do it, I thought he'd do it. I said, "You see, listen to me, you know perfectly well I didn't push Harry, you know I didn't push Harry." Harry, status, I said, is fit sleeping on the floor there, and I tried to save him from falling, but I didn't push him. You see, you know I didn't push him. And Harry's my best friend, you see him. Why should I try to kill him? I love you, and I love Harry like a brother, you see him. Harry didn't push him, I tried to save his life. Listen to the seal, listen, stop crying a second, I'm going down there. There, see where it looks, is it the steps, steps through, cabling and making sense so long ago? And you stay right here in the seal, and I'll go down and I'll do everything I can to bring Harry back to you. No, I'll stay there and wait, wait in the seal, wait. I can climb to all of you. No, I don't want you to do it. Let me kill you, sir. I know you want to make sure you're dead, and you're down there, no. I know you want to make sure you're dead, and you're down there, no. I know you want to make sure you're dead, and you're down there, no. I know you want to make sure you're dead, and you're down there, no. I know you want to make sure you're dead, and you're down there, no. I know you want to make sure you're dead, and you're down there, no. I know you want to make sure you're dead, and you're down there, no. I know you want to make sure you're dead, and you're down there, no. I thank you very much for the suggestion I have. That solves the whole problem there, innately. And now down the slippery steps cut into the limestone. Down moves so carefully in the dark. The little gurgling sound of dark waters below me. But slip, be careful and listen for yourself, Lucas. And up above the dim beam from the seal's flashlight was very, very neat as I climbed down. Hey, old boy. Are you all right? Hey. Hey, old boy. Maybe he is dead. Maybe he did drop. How much more is it? The rocks are slippery. But can I see water left suddenly at my foot? Are you ready? No, my own life's like to see down here. I head by the on the surface of the water. Harry! No. And being sweet's back and forth over the swirling, dark icy waters. Harry? This wall. The firewall. To the right. To the left. Harry! Harry! Harry! Harry! Harry! He's not down here. Lucas! I heard. Lucas! Is that you, Harry? Where? Lucas! Where are you? Harry! Harry! I hear you. Harry! You all right? First one, I'm all right. Go down into the water. Go! Where are you right? The water isn't deep. Go down! Listen, I got you. Go down! I think my heart's broken. Come on, Harry! Come on, quick! Where are you? They're all around the side. Water's on my cupboard chest. They're all around the side. A tunnel! You're in the red darkness, getting around the slimy walls. And what about being so ugly in my chest? You're feeling all around, don't find it. I can't help you. No, no. You're out of suck and hooly of my legs. It's a suffocating water-filled tunnel. The rocky roof from the six inches above my head. It's not open with her. Harry, I've been carried by she arms. Water, darkness, the place is gone from there. I'll find it. I'll be back in hell. All right. Harry! You're all right. You know, it's a tunnel that comes out of that hole I fell into. Underground river or something. Kind of a beach here. I'm still not all right. How you? I think I broke my arm, and I fell. I tried to get back through the tunnel, but the current's too strong. You'll have to help me, Lucas. Wait. I'm ready. I'm not scared, are you? This is another cave. Not afraid of the cave, man, I am. Harry, where are you? Right here. It's so dark. Can't see a thing. Try a flashlight, unless you've got the water left. Hey, that's worth it. Still actites. The hundred feet long hanging dismally from the ceilings from far away. The silent rushing underground river, with a shore of yellow crystallized limestone. Beside me a world deep scratched with giant drones that I recognize in a feverlight as a great shaggy bison at the Ice Age. Rude drones in red and black are the general little horses that run the countryside above me one day. A rude order. An ancient terrifying not scratched into the solid rock in the days under the soft mud. Marks at the cavemen's high priests must have made their in their holy of holies in the ancient cave. Beside me the incredibly old statue of the great Ice Bear, learning horribly in the middle of the light. The marks of the ritual stern spirits clear in its hulking sides after 20,000 years. Look. This hot, menacing figure of the... I'm an almost man, beaten brown, heavy broad, heavy jawed, and hurting horribly at the overhead shoulder. He, you want to hurt your locus? He's a statue too. Now you know, don't you, what the oldest man in the world looked like? Hey, nobody's ever seen anything like that, Harry. Better serve that light. We'll need it if we're going to get out of here to tell anybody about it. No, it's all right. This is a fresh battery. Harry, it's incredible. Look at his face. Solid rhinestone. Scary old boy. How long I want to get out of here? 10 weeks. Oh, wait, Harry, I want it. Listen. I want to get out of here. That's the sound of the water. The river there. I thought I heard the sound of the water here. Back there in the shadow. Nothing. There is too something back there. The cave man. The crow manion man alive after 20,000 years, locus. That's something. I can hear. Whatever it is, uh, man. Harry. What? He said you broke your arm. I said so. I said I couldn't get back through the passage with a broken arm, didn't I? Well, that's what your man couldn't get back there with a broken arm. Well, hardly because I wanted you in here with me, locus. I wanted you in here with whatever else is in here. Harry, you're the smart guy. You're the investigator. You're the man that knows all about the cave man. You're the, what? A murderer, locus. Hi. I saw him with face when you pushed me, murder him. So? No. Wait. For that, locus. You're not going to leave me. I can get through that passage just as well as you can. Now do you wear that broken arm, locus. Not with two broken arms. You're not going to add your arms, locus. No. No, you... Now look what you've done, locus. You've smashed the oldest statue in the world of bits. Not content with attempted murder. You hold out your arms, locus, and let's get through this over. Drop that rock. Hey! I told you. Hey! I made my way back through the passage. How long ever know that I made it? I made a climb up the slippery line. Stone rose. I've been prepared up to the floor of the cave. I don't know how I did that. I stood for a long arm in the wrong side. You'll see when I came up to the cave floor. And I remember how the yellow floor glittered in what was left of the light from her dying flashlight. The seal I said. The seal I loved you. And I wanted you. And I loved you enough to try to murder Harry. And if I let you go, Lucille, you'll tell everybody. They'll take me, and they'll hang me. And it's no good Lucille. Harry. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, Lucille. Harry is dead. Harry is dead. You murdered him. No, Lucille. No, I didn't murder him. I tell you, I didn't murder him. But he's dead. Yes. He's dead, but I didn't murder him. I don't want to live any longer. Yes, I know Lucille. But I didn't murder Harry. I tried, but I didn't do it. Murder her. And I picked her up. And just as gently as I could, I dropped her over the edge of the haunting black pit. Down into the water, down there. But before I loosened my hands, I let her fall. I leaned over. And I kissed her unafired. Because I did love her. They'd have hanged me. She wouldn't have believed me. Nobody in the world would have believed that thing that came out of the shutters behind Harry down there and lifted up a great jagged piece of the broken statue and smashed his head in. Nobody in the world would have believed me if I'd told him that Harry was killed by a real live, breathing caveman. The last of the people proud, heavy-jawed, squatty little men that lived 20,000 years ago. But that's what happened. That's what happened. [Music] [Music] The title of tonight's quiet plays story is the oldest man in the world. He was written and directed by Willis Cooper. And the man that spoke to you was Ernest Chapel. And Don Briggs was Harry. Nancy Sheridan was Lucille. As usual, music required plays is played by Albert Berman. I sound effects by Willing Jane McClintock. Now for a little bit about next week, I write a director, Willis Cooper. Thank you for listening to quiet plays. Next week, since so many of our listeners have requested it, I'm going to give you a memorial day story in the house where I was born. And so until next week, at the same time, I am proud of you, Ernest Chapel. [Music] Owning a rental property sounds like a dream until you realize how much work goes into getting it ready. Determinate competitive rent price, market the property, schedule the showing screen, tenants are at the lease at a rent collection, handle maintenance request, maintenance and communication. Sound complicated? Renner's warehouse is here to take the hard work off your rental to-do list. Qualified tenants, check, rent collection, check, maintenance coordination, you got it. Go to Rennerswearhouse.com for a free rental analysis to find out how much your home can rent for. Or call 303-974-9444. Because from now on, the only thing you need on your to-do list is to call Renner's warehouse. Next, at Moss Adams, that question inspires us to help people and their businesses strategically define and claim their future. As one of America's leading accounting, consulting and wealth management firms, our collaborative approach creates solutions for your unique business needs. We leverage industry-focused insights with the collective technical resources of our firm to elevate your performance, uncover opportunity, and move upward at Moss Adams.com.