New Years Eve Horror

In 1936, after the first three years of wildly successful run of his earlier creation "Lights Out", Cooper  opted to leave the show behind, so production was transferred over into the hands of Arch Oobler who became very famous because of it, and carried it on-and-off for another decade.          
           

".. Willis Cooper was the writer who originated the show, but he left for Hollywood in 1936. Arch Obeler took it over "and made it his," according to Schaden. "Lights out, everybody," was the announcer's greeting during the show's Chicago run.." - Chicago Tribune Feb 23, 1986 section C, pg. 7, "Way We Were. A look at Chicago's past"
                                      

Lights Out to Hollywood Lights...

Cooper's desire to leave  was to satisfy an urge to pursue other ventures in Hollywood..  And so he went, and for the next 4 years he was both sole screenplay writer, and  contributing writer on over a dozen motion pictures and television productions. A few notable movie mentions include 'Black Friday' (aka 'Friday the 13th), 'Mr Moto', 'Electric Man' (aka 'Man Made Monster') and at least one of  'Shirley Temple's films.
But certainly, the most famous, was his screenplay for the motion picture 'Son of Frankenstein'.. it was also the last script for a movie he'd ever write.
As successful as 'Son of Frankenstein' was, Coopers experience while scripting it, was an excessively miserable one, and undoubtedly the reason he became disenchanted with Hollywood...

(Bear with me here, the following leads to a direct relationship to 'Quiet Please'..)

The release date for the movie Son of Frankenstein had been set for January 1939. Universal Studios was still awaiting a director in September when they had hired Cooper to create the screenplay. Cooper checked in at Universal, screened both Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein to familiarize with the theme, and then set out to write the script.
On October 20, Cooper completed the screenplay for the movie. Universal was enthused over Coopers finished script, and ready to begin shooting, But their recently hired producer/director Rowland V. Lee threw a monkey wrench into the whole production, when he began re-crafting the Son of Frankenstein story in the way he envisioned it..
Cooper was then put into a constant 24/7 standby at the studio for months, and had to rewrite the script, little by little, every day, based on the the ever-changing spare-of-the-moment ideas Lee was continuously pitching at him.

The shooting finally began in November, and "Cooper was still a virtual prisoner at the studio cranking out a few pages at a time based on Lee's impromptu inspirations."
This continued on through December, on into the evening of Christmas Eve.. and on past New Years Eve..
 
"Son of Frankenstein has a literate story, fascinating principles, and some classic dialogue. As such, it seems almost unbelievable the story was made up day to day. Lee might have fashioned the basic story but the sole screenplay credit went to Wyllis Cooper, who'd written the original abandoned script. Now, during the shoot, Cooper was on call, apparently 24/7, to develop Lee's ideas.  Was it an enjoyable challenge?".... "..it seems safe to assume that Wyllis Cooper hardly cherished his memories.. of Son of Frankenstein."- 'Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff: The expanded Story of a Haunting Collaboration' by William Mank - Page 352

The above quote from the book is but a small portion describing Coopers ordeal, you can read more of it here. How does it have a relation to 'Quiet Please'? Well, for one, the whole ordeal had so discouraged Cooper, that immediately after it, he abandoned his other screenplay obligations, and left Hollywood. Had he not left, he might not of ever created "Quiet, Please!".

"Wyllis Cooper, reported to be writing the new Karloff and Lugusi movie ["Friday the 13th"], had escaped the job -- possibly frighted of being held captive at the studio as he'd been on Son of Frankenstein". - P. 384

But the direct relationship between his work on the movie and the Quiet Please series is that, eight years later, Cooper  turned that horrific ordeal  into a  QP episode, that he entitled "Rain on New Year's Eve" (#29). Everything that happened in the episode, corresponds almost exactly, and very thinly veiled, with what went on at Universal, but fortunately, the real life experience didn't conclude in the drastic way the episode did.. Still, it did make clear on Coopers attitude about the whole thing.

Anyway, in 1939, Cooper decided that Hollywood was not his game, so he left California for New York, and a return to his roots in radio..

So with tonight being New Years Eve,...


Episode #29 December 31  1947
Rain On New Years Eve
Listen:
or Download mp3
Original Air Date(s):
Monday, December 29, 1947 ?PM WOR
Wednesday, December 31 1947 8:30 P.M. MBS - WNDR
Summary:
An overbearing director of a horror film puts unreasonable demands upon the cast and crew, making them work unreasonable hours, while also consuming both their Christmas, and New Years Eve holidays..
 This episode is based on the real life events of Wyllis Cooper which occurred about eight years earlier at Universal Studios, while he was writing the screenplay for the famous 1939 motion picture "Son of Frankenstein" - (Though in real life it didn't end the same!).
Audio Quality:
Other than some brief spans of noise at the very beginning and around the  halfway mark, audio is clean.