Quiet, Please!

50 episodes listed below

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Old radio unease, told close to the ear.

The gist

Quiet, Please! turns ordinary recollection into supernatural unease. Roads through Santa Ynez, a weather-beaten childhood house, a plumbing shop, and prehistoric caves become settings where memory starts to feel unstable.

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About Quiet, Please!

Quiet, Please! is a fantasy-horror radio drama that treats memory as dangerous ground. The show does not hurry toward the strange. It settles first into roads, houses, workrooms, hillsides, and voices that seem perfectly sure of what they remember. Then the certainty starts to bend. In “The Veil of Glencoe,” the road through Santa Barbara, Goleta, Gaviota Pass, and the Santa Ynez Mountains is described with the pressure of a dream returning. In “In the House Where I Was Born,” a childhood home is rebuilt through gray paint, red trim, a missing porch, a front window, and plants remembered by name. Those details matter because the show’s horror often begins as observation. It trusts small objects to carry the disturbance. The recent run also reaches far outside domestic memory. “The Oldest Man in the World” opens on glacial ice, reindeer, bison, horses, bears, and the caves of the Pyrenees, giving the show a prehistoric scale without losing its spoken intimacy. “Dark Gray Magic” shifts into clipped telephone confusion and a room that may not be as empty as its speaker insists. “Tanglefoot” finds texture in plumbing-shop smells, galvanized iron, blowtorches, tools, and trade slang. “The Hat, The Bed, and John J. Catherine” brings a more comic, combative stagehand voice into the same eerie frame. “Valentine” moves through snow, river country, remembered towns, Abraham Lincoln, Ann Rutledge, and a graveyard image. The show’s range is broad, but the method is steady. A voice begins with confidence. Place gathers weight. History, grief, magic, or fear enters by degrees. Quiet, Please! stands out because its suspense is verbal and atmospheric rather than merely event-driven. It suits listeners who like old radio drama where the image forms in the ear before the fright arrives.

Made for: Suits a listener who likes vintage fantasy-horror, first-person narration, and stories where place, memory, and mood do much of the frightening work.

What sets it apart: Its edge is the precision of its spoken detail: roads, rooms, tools, landscapes, and old names accumulate until the ordinary world feels quietly wrong.

In their own words

Quiet, Please! was a radio fantasy and horror program created by Wyllis Cooper, also known for creating Lights Out. Ernest Chappell was the show's announcer and lead actor. Quiet, Please debuted June 8, 1947, on the Mutual Broadcasting System, and its last episode was broadcast June 25, 1949, on the ABC

Why you'd press play

An old key follows a dreamer into waking life; you may want the lights on.

Press play if you want

  • to doubt whether a recurring dream house is less real than the life outside it
  • to feel the stars turn uncomfortably close beside a mysterious well
Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →
haunted memoryold houses and roadsfantasy-horror atmospheredeep time and ancient landscapesworkplaces and trade detailstage and performance settingsromance, loss, and remembrance

Talks about

Best episodes of Quiet, Please!

Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.

Quiet Please - 031349, episode 91 - 91 - Dark RosaleenJun 17, 2020

A grieving man follows a stranger through the rain, where rescue begins to feel like a passage into the unknown.

A rain-soaked New York night becomes something stranger when Wayne, grieving Elizabeth and ready to end his life, is stopped by a man who knows his name.

Quiet Please - 100348, episode 68 - 00 - Meet John Smith, JohnJun 17, 2020

A snow-haunted barroom mystery turns shared memories into a quiet, uneasy reckoning with identity and time.

Snow hangs over "Meet John Smith, John" with a hushed, almost sacred chill. The Quiet, Please drama opens on memories of white battlefields, then narrows into a barroom conversation where two men trade fragments of newspaper work, firings, birthdays, bottles, and old trouble…

Quiet Please - 101748, episode 70 - 00 - And Jeannie Dreams of MeJun 17, 2020

A recurring dream leads to a white house where longing, memory, and death begin to blur.

Troy has spent a lifetime returning, in dreams, to a tall white house at the end of a winding path. There, Jeannie offers a life that feels more substantial than the one waiting when he wakes.

Quiet Please - 050849, episode 99 - 99 - Other Side of the StarsJun 17, 2020

A mountaintop mystery folds cosmic dread, bleak humor, and a vanished companion into old radio unease.

"Other Side of the Stars" makes Van Dyck's mountaintop feel uneasy by letting absence do most of the work. His galvanized-iron house sits empty, and the narrator's memories fill that blank space with stars that seemed horribly close, a flying-saucer craze, and a sound that…

Quiet Please - 032749, episode 93 - 00 - A Time to Be Born, and a Time to DieJun 17, 2020

A life measured by work, love, and need, set to the grave rhythm of Ecclesiastes.

Quiet, Please! follows a man who announces himself as born, alone, and ready to work, then spends a life trying to prove his value through labor, salary, ambition, and ownership.

Podcasts like Quiet, Please!

Episodes

  1. 1

    Quiet Please - 052849, episode 102 - 00 - In the House Where I Was Born

    A man returns to his childhood home and reflects on memories, setting the stage for a supernatural or psychological horror story.

    Jun 17, 2020·28m
  2. 2

    Quiet Please - 052149, episode 101 - 00 - The Oldest Man in the World

    A radio horror drama set 20,000 years ago in the Pyrenees, describing the harsh ice age environment and the arrival of early humans.

    Jun 17, 2020·29m
  3. 3

    Quiet Please - 051549, episode 100 - 00 - The Little Morning

    A classic radio horror/fantasy drama episode titled 'The Little Morning' from the series Quiet, Please!

    Jun 17, 2020·28m
  4. 4

    Quiet Please - 010249, episode 81 - 00 - The Time of the Big Snow

    Jun 17, 2020·28m
  5. 5

    Quiet Please - 041749, episode 96 - 00 - Shadow of the Wings

    Jun 17, 2020·30m
  6. 6

    Quiet Please - 041049, episode 95 - 00 - Dialogue for a Tragedy

    Jun 17, 2020·30m
  7. 7

    Quiet Please - 032049, episode 92 - 00 - The Smell of High Wines

    Jun 17, 2020·27m
  8. 8

    Quiet Please - 030649, episode 90 - 00 - The Man Who Knew Everything

    Jun 17, 2020·28m
  9. 9

    Quiet Please - 022749, episode 89 - 89 - If I Should Wake Before I Die

    Jun 17, 2020·30m
  10. 10

    Quiet Please - 022049, episode 88 - 00 - Where Do You Get Your Ideas

    Jun 17, 2020·26m
  11. 11

    Quiet Please - 020649, episode 86 - 00 - Tap the Heat, Bogdan

    Jun 17, 2020·28m
  12. 12

    Quiet Please - 013049, episode 85 - 85 - Northern Lights

    Jun 17, 2020·29m
  13. 13

    Quiet Please - 011649, episode 83 - 00 - Is This Murder

    Jun 17, 2020·29m
  14. 14

    Quiet Please - 010949, episode 82 - 00 - Portrait of a Character

    Jun 17, 2020·30m
  15. 15

    Quiet Please - 021349, episode 87 - 00 - Valentine

    Jun 17, 2020·29m
  16. 16

    Quiet Please - 122648, episode 80 - 00 - Berlin, 1945

    Jun 17, 2020·30m
  17. 17

    Quiet Please - 081648, episode 61 - 00 - Presto-Change-O, I'm Sure

    Jun 17, 2020·27m
  18. 18

    Quiet Please - 112848, episode 76 - 76 - My Son John

    Jun 17, 2020·28m
  19. 19

    Quiet Please - 112148, episode 75 - 00 - One for the Book

    Jun 17, 2020·30m
  20. 20

    Quiet Please - 111448, episode 74 - 00 - The Evening and the Morning

    Jun 17, 2020·28m
  21. 21

    Quiet Please - 110748, episode 73 - 00 - Adam and the Darkest Day

    Jun 17, 2020·29m
  22. 22

    Quiet Please - 103148, episode 72 - 00 - Calling All Souls

    Jun 17, 2020·29m
  23. 23

    Quiet Please - 101048, episode 69 - 00 - Beezer's Cellar

    Jun 17, 2020·29m
  24. 24

    Quiet Please - 092648, episode 67 - 00 - Light the Lamp for Me

    Jun 17, 2020·29m
  25. 25

    Quiet Please - 091348, episode 65 - 00 - Symphony in Minor

    Jun 17, 2020·24m
  26. 26

    Quiet Please - 082348, episode 62 - 00 - 3000 Words

    Jun 17, 2020·22m
  27. 27

    Quiet Please - 090648, episode 64 - 00 - The Third Man's Story

    Jun 17, 2020·22m
  28. 28

    Quiet Please - 080948, episode 60 - 60 - The Thing on the Fourble Board

    Jun 17, 2020·30m
  29. 29

    Quiet Please - 080248, episode 59 - 00 - It's Later Then You Think

    Jun 17, 2020·24m
  30. 30

    Quiet Please - 072648, episode 58 - 00 - The Man Who Stole a Planet

    Jun 17, 2020·24m
  31. 31

    Quiet Please - 071948, episode 57 - 00 - As Long as I Live

    Jun 17, 2020·25m
  32. 32

    Quiet Please - 070548, episode 56 - 00 - Wahine Tahiti

    Jun 17, 2020·24m
  33. 33

    Quiet Please - 062848, episode 55 - 00 - Let the Lillies Consider

    Jun 17, 2020·24m
  34. 34

    Quiet Please - 061448, episode 54 - 00 - Not Responsible After 30 Years

    Jun 17, 2020·30m
  35. 35

    Quiet Please - 051748, episode 50 - 00 - Gem of Purest Ray

    Jun 17, 2020·29m
  36. 36

    Quiet Please - 050348, episode 48 - 49 - How Beautiful upon the Mountain

    Jun 17, 2020·29m
  37. 37

    Quiet Please - 042648, episode 47 - 00 - 13 and 8

    Jun 17, 2020·28m
  38. 38

    Quiet Please - 041948, episode 46 - 00 - Clarissa

    Jun 17, 2020·29m
  39. 39

    Quiet Please - 101748, episode 70 - 00 - And Jeannie Dreams of Me

    Hidden gem

    ["Willis Cooper's Quiet, Please episode \"And Jeannie Dreams of Me\" follows Troy from a childhood dream of a white house, a locked door, and a song he hears in sleep.", "At the piano, Troy asks his mother about \"Dreaming with a light brown hair,\" says he needs a key for the door, and insists the dream place keeps returning.", "Dr.

    Jun 17, 2020·29m·2 clips
  40. 40

    Quiet Please - 060449, episode 103 - 00 - Tanglefoot

    A plumber reminisces about his trade and hints at strange experiences involving a wrench and opium.

    Jun 17, 2020·29m
  41. 41

    Quiet Please - 061149, episode 104 - 104 - The Hat, the Bed, and John J Catherine

    A stagehand named John J.

    Jun 17, 2020·28m
  42. 42

    Quiet Please - 050149, episode 98 - 00 - Dark Grey Magic

    A man receives a mysterious phone call in his room, setting the stage for a supernatural radio drama.

    Jun 17, 2020·29m
  43. 43

    Quiet Please - 042449, episode 97 - 00 - The Vail of Glen Cove

    A classic radio horror/fantasy drama episode titled 'The Veil of Glencoe' set in the Santa Ynez Mountains.

    Jun 17, 2020·30m
  44. 44

    Quiet Please - 032749, episode 93 - 00 - A Time to Be Born, and a Time to Die

    Hidden gem

    Quiet, Please!

    Jun 17, 2020·27m·2 clips
  45. 45

    Quiet Please - 031349, episode 91 - 91 - Dark Rosaleen

    Hidden gem

    Quiet, Please!

    Jun 17, 2020·29m·2 clips
  46. 46

    Quiet Please - 050849, episode 99 - 99 - Other Side of the Stars

    Hidden gem

    Quiet, Please!'s “Other Side of the Stars” follows Esau's account of Dorothy, Van Dyck, and a 1542 map marked “Pozo del Cielo,” or Well of the Skies.

    Jun 17, 2020·30m·2 clips
  47. 47

    Quiet Please - 100348, episode 68 - 00 - Meet John Smith, John

    Hidden gem

    Quiet, Please!

    Jun 17, 2020·29m·1 clip
  48. 48

    Quiet Please - 051048, episode 49 - 00 - There Are Shadows Here

    Quiet, Please’s “There Are Shadows Here” was written and directed by Willis Cooper and features Ernest Chappell.

    Jun 17, 2020·29m·2 clips
  49. 49

    Quiet Please - 102448, episode 71 - 00 - Good Ghost

    Gus opens “Good Ghost” by recounting Schuster’s murder of him on a Chicago street and his first baffling limits as a ghost.

    Jun 17, 2020·29m·2 clips
  50. 50

    Quiet Please - 052448, episode 51 - 00 - In the House Where I Was Born

    Hidden gem

    Quiet, Please!'s “In the House Where I Was Born” turns remembered homes into a map of childhood, migration, and wartime absence.

    Jun 17, 2020·29m·2 clips