Rain on New Years Eve 1947-12-29

Summary

Podcast Summary: Harold's Old Time Radio

Episode: Rain on New Year's Eve (Quiet, Please, 1947-12-29)
Date: December 31, 2025
Host: Harold's Old Time Radio

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Episode Overview

Harold’s Old Time Radio presents the classic radio play "Rain on New Year’s Eve," an episode of the legendary series Quiet, Please, written and directed by Willis Cooper and starring Ernest Chappell. This dark, psychological tale blurs the lines between reality and horror as it follows a weary screenwriter on a Hollywood horror film set, driven to the edge by relentless pressures, a temperamental director, and a monstrous creation that may not be confined to fiction.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

The Setting: Rain, Hollywood, and a Fraying Mind

• The story unfolds on a rainy New Year's Eve, with Ramsey, the screenwriter, reminiscing about another similarly dismal night spent locked in the thankless grind of B-movie production in Los Angeles.
• Rain becomes a motif, reflecting Ramsey’s mounting exhaustion and frustration.

Life on a “B Picture” Set

• Ramsey describes the chaos and grind of low-budget horror filmmaking, belabored by indecisive producer Mr. Doty and a convoluted script.
• Quotes explore the absurdity of Hollywood's working conditions—a director who “makes the picture up as he goes along” and a film with an ever-increasing number of monsters.

Memorable Exchange:

Mary Lou (Ramsey's secretary): "Are we ever going to finish this picture, for heaven's sake?" (03:18)
Ramsey: "If we leave it to Mr. Dooley, this here picture ain’t never gonna be finished. A hundred years from now, somebody will come upstairs here and they'll find an old, old man with a long white beard beating out the 59th revision of scene 456." (03:28)

The Monster and Its Origins

• Ramsey recounts how he invented the monster: based on an old book, with the chilling trait, “He didn't have any face. You take it from there.” (07:15)
• The harmless actor, Ollie Tharp, is cast to play the monster, highlighting the paradox between artifice and horror.

The Director’s Demands and Writer’s Fatigue

• Mr. Doty, the demanding director, is the bane of Ramsey's existence, constantly requiring rewrites and changes, especially as the film’s deadline looms.
• Ramsey’s exhaustion is palpable; he has sacrificed holidays, sleep, and sanity for the interminable project.

Notable Line:

Ramsey: "I didn't have any Thanksgiving. I ate a bent ham sandwich in my office that day, because Mr. Doty had to have three new scenes Friday morning...I didn't have any Christmas. I locked the door on my office and baked my brains out." (14:23)

The Monster’s Power and the Doomed New Year

• The script’s central gimmick: The monster has power only during the last hour of the year, heightening the parallel between Ramsey’s unraveling reality and the fictional horror.

Exchange:

Mary Lou: "Oh, that's what you said last night."
Ramsey: "I was kidding. You know, this monster only has power the last hour of the year." (10:26–10:34)

Frayed Relationships and Vulnerability

• As New Year's approaches, moments of tenderness slip through the fatigue between Ramsey and Mary Lou, the only two who seem to care for each other amid the studio madness.

Tender Moment:

Ramsey: "Anybody ever tell you you’re a nice gal?"
Mary Lou: "Couple of people."
Ramsey: "I could marry a gal like you."
Mary Lou: "Don’t kid people, Ramsey." (18:31–18:43)

The Macabre Dream

• Ramsey, overtired, slides into a nightmare in which the fiction of the faceless monster and his resentment toward Doty collide—blurring the lines between dream and reality.
• In his dream, the monster (mirroring Ramsey’s own repressed rage) kills Doty, and as Ramsey awakes, reality and horror overlap.

Memorable Sequence:

"I saw the monster’s big hairy hands grab Doty, and Doty screamed. The monster’s hands were fumbling at Doty’s neck...When I raised my hand to look at it, right across the thick of my palm were teeth marks. Deep, bloody teeth marks where Doty had bit me when I strangled him." (20:36–21:43)

The Grisly Aftermath

• Ramsey wakes to find Mary Lou dead from terror, her face frozen in horror.
• News bursts in: Ollie Tharp (the actor inside the monster suit) and Doty are both dead.
• Ramsey discovers incriminating bite marks on his own hand, suggesting he fulfilled the monster’s role during the fateful final hour of New Year’s Eve—unwittingly possessed by his own creation.

The Eerie Conclusion

• Ramsey’s closing words become a chilling warning about the power of imagination and the darkness within the human mind.

Coda:

"That’s why I say never take any of those old books too seriously. Remember I said I wished I was a monster? Remember what the book said: the monster only possessed his murderous power for one hour—the last hour of the year. New Year's Eve again, and it's raining. Got anybody you want murdered?" (21:47–22:21)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Monster Description:
  "He didn't have any face. You take it from there. But don’t kid yourself. He was a thing." (07:15)

• On Studio Life:
  "That guy could make a B picture out of the signing of the Declaration of Independence even if he had the original cast." (12:33)

• Overworked and Undervalued:
  "I, my friend, damn near lost my mind all the time Mr. Dobie [the director]." (14:23)

• Nightmare and Reality Collide:
  "When I raised my hand to look at it, right across the thick of my palm were teeth marks...where Doty had bit me when I strangled him." (21:39)

• Haunting Closing Question:
  "Got anybody you want murdered?" (22:21)

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Important Segments with Timestamps

• Setting the Scene & Studio Satire: 00:03–06:30
• Monster’s Origin & Movie Madness: 06:30–09:30
• Final Push to New Year’s Deadline: 09:30–14:23
• Ramsey’s Exhaustion and Tenderness with Mary Lou: 17:47–19:00
• Dream Sequence – The Monster Strikes: 19:00–21:43
• Disturbing Awakening & Conclusion: 21:43–end

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Tone and Legacy

With dry, sardonic humor and dark, atmospheric narration, "Rain on New Year's Eve" explores the blurred boundaries between creativity, desperation, and inner demons. The episode offers an atmospheric look at show business’s underbelly during the Golden Age of Radio, wrapped in the trappings of supernatural horror—a haunting listen for fans of vintage radio drama or psychological suspense.

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For the Curious

• Actors: Ernest Chappell (Ramsey), Muriel Kirkland (Mary Lou), Pat O’Malley (Doty)
• Original Air Date: December 29, 1947
• Series: Quiet, Please (Mutual Broadcasting System)

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If you love tales where Hollywood’s shadows come alive, where the rain never quite stops, and where monsters might be closer than you think, this episode is essential listening.

Transcript

[A]

Quiet, please. Quiet, please. The Mutual Broadcasting System presents Quiet, Please. Which is written and directed by Willis Cooper and which features Ernest Chapel. Quiet, please, for tonight is called Rain on New Year's Eve. 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 can read a newspaper. They can't read a newspaper by moonlight. Only the headlines. Maybe if you take your newspaper out in the yard and stand on the moonlight, you might find a headline with my name in it. It's been there before. Well, anyway, so there's moonlight here, there's rain, like it was that other New Year's Eve. That's what the rain makes me think of. As if I ever thought of anything else. Listen to the rain. I was sitting in my office in the writer's court out there after we'd been on the picture for two or three months. Writing it, that is. They'd been shooting for about three weeks, but I was still on the picture because we had a producer that couldn't make up his mind. And the director was one of those guys, sort of road company Hitchcock, you know, he makes the picture up as he goes along. Only there has to be a writer file away someplace where he can find him when he runs out of ideas. Which is not more than 11 times a day. So I'm dying. I go on the set and I find actors there I never heard of, speaking lines I never wrote in scenes I couldn't figure out. Then the director would get me in a corner and put the arm on me. This thing doesn't seem to quaint. Jail, old man, you know. And me and my little typewriter go to work to unscrew things while the overtime and the gin army games go right on. Great life. That's. Well. So I'm sitting in my office and the rain is on the roof and the gas heater is frying my ankles while the draft from the window is giving my neck the deep breeze. Mary Lou, my secretary comes in from her little cubbyhole next to mine.

[B]

When do I get to do my Christmas shopping, Mr. Ramsey?

[A]

You don't get to do your Christmas shopping, Mary Lou.

[B]

Yes, I know I didn't. What Christmas was two days ago, Mr. Ramsay, was it?

[A]

Well, Merry Christmas.

[B]

Are we ever going to finish this picture, for heaven's sake?

[A]

Well, I'll tell you, angel. Mr. Doty, the great director, is getting $3,500 a week.

[B]

I know it.

[A]

And my dear, Mr. Doty has not got $3,500 a week for a long, long time. See? So Mr. Doty, the great Director, is going to make $3,500 a week just as long as he possibly can. And characters like us can. You know what?

[B]

That man.

[A]

I have a different word for him, sweetheart. But as I was saying, if we leave it to Mr. Dooley, this here picture ain't never gonna be finished. A hundred years from now, somebody will come upstairs here and they'll find an old, old man with a long white beard being out the 59th revision of scene 456. And in the next room, a little apple cheeked old lady.

[B]

Oh, cut it out.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Oh, when are they going to finish it? No kidding.

[A]

New Year's Eve.

[B]

Well, maybe there'll be champagne and stuff on the set.

[A]

Yeah, no doubt for the expensive actors and the producers and the fine upstanding directors. For you and me, a nice bottle of 60 cent claret imported from right over there on Ventura Boulevard.

[B]

You're so funny.

[A]

On the contrary.

[B]

Well, I'm getting awful sick of this, Mr. Ramsey. We've had to work every single night for the last four weeks. Do you realize that?

[A]

You kidding? Do I realize? Go get me some coffee, will you, kid? I gotta stay awake from Mr. Doty.

[B]

Coffee. I bet you and I could be elected president of Brazil all the coffee we've put away.

[A]

Answer the phone.

[B]

It's Doty.

[A]

Well, we gotta be dignified.

[B]

Oh, no one. Mr. Ramsay's office. Who's calling, please? Oh, yes, Mr. Doughty. He's here.

[A]

I'm always here. Ramsey. Yes, Mr. Doughty. What seems to be the trouble? I see. Yes, I see. But Mr. Doughty, I. Well, that'll mean rewriting practically all. Well, yes, I know. I mean, but what do you gain that way? What? Two monsters? Well, what's two monsters got that one monster hasn't? Oh, yeah, sure, but who scares who? Whom, I mean. But Mr. Doty, I saw a picture once with two monsters in it and it was silly. What? Oh, you directed it. Well, I'll be right over. Skip the coffee, Mary Lou.

[B]

Two monsters.

[A]

Two, count them, two and I'll lay you six to an even though by the time I get to the stage you'll be hollering for three.

[B]

Take your raincoat, it's raining pitchfork.

[A]

Maybe one of them will stab me. I better tell you about this monster stuff. This was a horror picture, you see. Kind of the poor man's Frankenstein. Yeah, they couldn't get Karloff, naturally. And they couldn't use the Frankenstein monster makeup because Jack Pierce over at Universal invented that. I guess Universal owned it. So they had me dream up a monster, and, boy, did I dream one up. There's an old book. It's called. No, I guess I won't tell you what it's called. Well, you don't want to take those old books too seriously. So I kind of swiped this monster out of the book. Well, you'll never see the picture, I suppose, so maybe I better tell you a little about him. No, I guess I won't either. He was. He was the most horrible monster I ever saw. No kidding. And what the makeup department did with my sketch and my description. Oh, boy. Just one thing. I'll tell you about him, and you can figure out the rest for yourself. He didn't have any face. You take it from there. But don't kid yourself. He was a thing. They got Ollie Tharp to play the goon. Nice fella. Quiet, always grinning, modest, good actor. Last guy in the world you'd expect to play a monster. Oh, yeah, sure. Karloff did the Frankenstein thing, and he's the mildest mannered guy in the world. I remember him on the Son of Frankenstein set years ago in his monster suit, all gray and green, showing pictures of his new baby to people. That's a laugh. Well, I. I guess monsters are human sometimes, huh? And maybe humans are. Yeah, well, all right. I spend three hours listening to Mr. Doty run off at the mouth with the whole company, having the screaming Mimies over all this nonsense. It's five minutes to 12 when he finally decides to quit and everybody goes home. They're all burned at Doty, but they'll wake up in the morning, remember the overtime, and they'll feel better. Me, writers don't get overtime. So I get back to the writers court and the light's burning on the window and Mary Lou's snoring away with her face in a stack of carbon paper. She wakes up and asks me a question. How many monsters now we got four now, see? Including me. So the next morning, it's not raining anymore. The sun is shining bright, and you can see. See snow on top of the mountains. And it's a very nice day, and monsters are pretty hazy in my mind as I pick up my copy of the Reporter and head for the rickety stairway to my palatial office. I'll tell you how much good the sunshine did me. I was whistling as I climbed up the stairs and opened the door.

[B]

You might as well turn off the whistle. Mr. Doty's looking for you.

[A]

And now what?

[B]

He says it's very important.

[A]

Two more monsters.

[B]

Your coffee's on his desk.

[A]

Steaming cold, no doubt.

[B]

I've just brought it up. Give me 15 cents.

[A]

It's your turn to buy this morning.

[B]

I bought yesterday.

[A]

All right, all right. Hello? No, he isn't here yet. Ah, go ahead.

[B]

Mr. Ramsey's office. Yes, Mr. Doty.

[A]

Morning, Mr. Dougherty. How are you? Oh, no kidding. Why, that spot. What? Oh, of course. Yuck, yuck, yuck, yuck. Yeah, sure.

[B]

What about?

[A]

Why, sure, Mr. Doty. Yes, sir. I'll be right over.

[B]

What?

[A]

He has to finish the picture definitely by 12 midnight, December 31st.

[B]

Oh, that's what you said last night.

[A]

I was kidding. You know how it goes in the story.

[B]

I forgot.

[A]

I mean, the way it was originally. You know, this monster only has power the last hour of the year.

[B]

Oh, yes.

[A]

Remember, it was a New Year's party. The whole picture.

[B]

It's been so long ago, I forgot how it was.

[A]

Don't you remember our big payoff scene? She thinks the monster is her wicked uncle.

[B]

Who thinks?

[A]

You know, the babe with a teeth. The goon girl with a blue dress.

[B]

Oh, yeah.

[A]

Remember, she. She thinks the monster is her uncle. And she tries to rip his mask off and it ain't a mask.

[B]

Something like that.

[A]

And the house is on fire. And he grabs her and runs inside the house. And our hero busts in after her and rescues her some way. I never had a chance to figure out.

[B]

How would he do it without his glasses. He'd fall over the stoop.

[A]

What stoop? There's hundreds of them in pictures.

[B]

Drink your coffee and go see Mr. Dodie. Maybe he's changed his mind.

[A]

He can't change his mind. The front office puts a big fat arm on him or else. Whoopi, baby, three days and we can.

[B]

Sit down and rest away from this place.

[A]

You can say that again. Tell him I ain't here. Well, sir, that sunshine looked better than ever to me. But when the big door of the stage swung shut behind me, the sunshine sure disappeared. Well, Mr. Doty was a unhappy man. Well, three more days and there wouldn't be any more of those $3,500. And he didn't like it a little bit. And guess who? We took it out.

[B]

Hunt, this is the worst story I.

[A]

Ever had to work with.

[B]

It positively smells bad.

[A]

I didn't say it's your story, Mr. Doty. All I got left is A monster. And he'll probably turn out to be Santa Claus or somebody.

[B]

You listened to me when I told.

[A]

You how to do it. I didn't say I listened to you, Mr. Doty. And now look what we got.

[B]

Now I have to give up my beautiful idea of having three monsters instead of one.

[A]

Because then we'd have had to reshoot practically the whole picture and you'd have made another million bucks. I didn't say that either.

[B]

So if you think you could possibly dredge up your original script. I think I can possibly make it into an acceptable B picture. Although that's a task even for a director like me.

[A]

Mr. Doty doesn't realize what an unconscious humorist he is. That guy could make a B picture out of the signing of the Declaration of Independence even if he had the original cast.

[B]

Get to work. Get to work and do something. Have I got to do everything around here? Get a move on you.

[A]

Oh, I got a move on me. None of you think I dislike that guy up to now what. He did to me the last two days.

[B]

You've got to get some sleep somehow. You've been on your feet for almost two days, Mr. Ramsay.

[A]

Yeah? Where were we?

[B]

Seen 168 long shot inferior maps in night. From the top of the stairway a city appears. Seamless print in the shadows. We sense rather than see the twisted evil form of the monster as he peers over the balustrade from the foreground right. The butler appears and starts slowly up the stairway. As he reaches the fourth or fifth step, the camera starts to move in the following with crame of the stairs and the camera. Hold on the last as the butler reaches the cops. Car soup. Hey, wake up.

[A]

Oh, I'm sorry. Where were we?

[B]

Ramsey, you've got to get some sleep. Lie down for 10 minutes.

[A]

Yeah, sure, like that.

[B]

Mr. Ramsey's office.

[A]

I'm not here.

[B]

Yes, Mr. Doughty.

[A]

All right, all right, all right. Hello? Yes. Sure, I'll be right over.

[B]

Oh, Mr. Ramsey, I wish.

[A]

You know what, Mary Lou?

[B]

Who put on your coat? It's raining again.

[A]

You know what?

[B]

What?

[A]

I wish I was a monster. You know, I was a tired little fellow. I didn't have any Thanksgiving. I ate a bent ham sandwich in my office that day because Mr. Doty had to have three new scenes Friday morning he called me at the office to see how I was doing. He just finished his Thanksgiving dinner. I didn't have any Christmas. I locked the door on my office and baked my brains out on a whole new sequence. Mr. Doughty had thought up. All around me people were drinking whiskey and chasing each other through the corridors and up and down the stairs. I didn't have any sundaes and I didn't have any evenings. I, my friend, damn near lost my mind all the time. Mr. Dobie. Wow. It's no wonder that by New Year's Eve I was ready to hire a man with a cleaver to extirpate the guy. But I didn't. Nope, I sure didn't. At nine o' clock he called me over to the set again. Could I rewrite some dialogue? Well, I crossed him up on that one. I threw out the hash he'd made of my original dialogue and substituted what I'd originally written. It played okay after seven different takes, all exactly alike. I went back to my office in the rain.

[B]

Mr. Ramsay's office. Yes, Mr. Doty. Yes, Mr. Doty doty. I'll tell him.

[A]

Mr. Ramsey, I heard you.

[B]

He needs you right away. Again.

[A]

Gay.

[B]

Okay, you poor thing.

[A]

Only another couple hours. Hope I can take it.

[B]

Take your raincoat. It's ringing. Captain Dog.

[A]

They're telling me that time. It was a little piece of action he couldn't get through his ivory head. I explained it in words of one syllable, carefully avoiding the four letter ones. He thanked me, old boy, and I went out into the rain again. Rain? What rain in California can do to you. I heard of a fellow that jumped into the Los Angeles river once after a week of rain. Ordinarily he'd break his ankle, but he drowned. You know, it just comes down steadily. I know I could probably be a lot more graphic than that. But that's all there is to rain in California. It comes down steadily. Ice cold. Steadily. Of course, it always stops about the time you've decided to start out on foot for the East. The sun shines and poinsettias bloom and the hills are green. Hello, man. It's wonderful. I guess they have the rain. Like hitting yourself on the head with a hammer. It feels so good when you stop. Yeah, that's a bum gag. But I was a pretty beat up character. Three more times that New Year's Eve in the rain. Like, I get meaner and meaner each time. Well, at least it was going to be over pretty soon. It was 10 minutes to 11 when I came into the office and Mary Lou took my coat from me.

[B]

You just got to get a little sleep, Ramsey. Now you sit down at your desk and put your head down and catch 40 wings.

[A]

Thanks very Lou. Ah, if I had to see that man just One more time tonight. I won't be responsible. I'm not kidding.

[B]

I know you. Go to sleep.

[A]

The kid. You're as all in as I am.

[B]

Well, at least I don't have to face him.

[A]

He's got to stop at midnight. Soon as he's through. Should you and me go someplace and have a New Year's drink?

[B]

I don't know whether I could keep awake.

[A]

Well, let's try, huh?

[B]

Okay.

[A]

Anybody ever tell you you're a nice gal?

[B]

Couple of people.

[A]

I could marry a gal like you.

[B]

Don't kid people, Ramsey.

[A]

I'm not.

[B]

See how you feel when you wake up.

[A]

I think I love you.

[B]

I wish you meant that. Ramsay.

[A]

I do get from your name.

[B]

Ramsay. You're sweet.

[A]

Excuse me. Sigh. Oh. Oh, I'm sorry.

[B]

Go to sleep.

[A]

So I went to sleep. Night. So I went to sleep. And I dreamed. Even when I was asleep, I couldn't get that guy Dodie off my mind. I dreamed I was on the set. I dreamed they were shooting the last scene, the one where the monster comes closer and closer to the camera till that head of his without any face fills the whole screen. You know how it is in dreams. You're here, then all of a sudden you're there. And you're one guy and then you're another, and it's all mixed up. Yeah, I can see the sep. And I could hear Dodie call out, run.

[B]

Exit.

[A]

Then I could see this faceless monster coming out of the shadows slowly, slowly, right up to the camera where George Robinson was standing, tired as everybody else. And I thought to myself, if the audience had any idea that little old mil toast Ali Tharp was inside that monster rig they bust. Then in the dream, I saw Dodie jumping up and down in one of those silly rages of his. And he yelled, cut.

[B]

Get back there. Fight over. You got about as much minute as.

[A]

As.

[B]

As much minute as a Ramsey over there dreams.

[A]

He was picking on me. And so they started all over again. My dream got kind of mixed up all right there. And I sort of seemed to be following the monster because I could see Dodie's face right in front of me as the monster moved in. When Dodie yelled, cut. Again, the monster and I didn't stop. I just sort of seemed to follow him. Right on. Father and father. I saw the monsters. Big hairy hands grabbed Dodie, and Dodie screamed. The monster's hands were fumbling at Dodie's neck. Dodie was fighting. And I thought, Dodie, bite. The monster's hand was so Real. I could almost feel it. And then everything got black in my dream. And there were a lot of. A lot of bells ringing. And that's what woke me up. So I raised my head, of course, there I was in my office. And I pulled myself out of it a little. And then I knew what the bells were. They were bells ringing in the new Year. The rain was hammering on the roof, and it was tomorrow. So I got up and hollered for Mary Lou. Mary Lou. Hey, Happy New Year, Mary Lou. And she didn't answer. I stepped through the door into her little office. And she was lying on the floor behind her desk. And the look on her face was something I never want to see again. It was a look of the most awful horror anybody could imagine. The kind of look you'd expect to see on the face of someone who'd been literally frightened to death by a monster who had no face at all. So I stood there. After a few seconds, I heard people yelling outside. And I heard somebody yell at Holly Tharp had killed Doty. Somebody else said, no. Holly Thorpe was dead, too, with a broken neck in his dressing room. And my hand hurt. When I raised my hand to look at it, right across the thick of my palm were teeth marks. Deep, bloody teeth marks where Doty had bit me when I strangled him. So you see, that's why I say never take any of those old books too seriously. Remember I said I wished I was a monster? Remember what the book said? The monster only possessed his murderous power for one hour. The last hour of the year. New Year's Eve again, and it's raining. Got anybody you want murder. You'll have listened to? Quiet, Please. Which is written and directed by Willis Cooper. The man who spoke to you was Ernest Chapel. And Muriel Kirkland was Mary Lou. Pat o' Malley was Doty. Music for Quiet, Please. Is composed and played by Albert Berman. Now for a word about next week's Quiet, Please. Here is our writer director, my good friend, Willis Cooper. I have a story for you next week about a man who was haunted. It's called the Little Visitor. And so, until next week at this time, I am quietly yours, Ernest Chapel. Quiet, please. Comes to you from new york. This is the mutual broadcasting system.