Quiet Please Anthology - Enhanced Eposodic Log

 

Just a reminder.. The post in this blog are just bits and pieces of the complete Quiet Please dedication website of mine which is currently hosted on a free server from the UK. Google doesn't seem to pick it up very well in search results, but I highly recommend you check it out. It consist of a very thorough and interesting compilation of research, and I think an excellent source of structured information about everything concerning the show..
Also be sure to check out the Quiet Please Enhanced Episodic Log, and information on Radio Archives restored version..
 http://quietplease.96.lt/


http://quietplease.96.lt/

Here's the link..

http://quietplease.96.lt/


Let me know what you think..

Move to Monday Night - Pathetic Fallacy

Quiet Please page 35 full page ad in the February 1948 issue of Variety, announcing their schedule change to Monday..

 

The following was announced at the end of episode 33, "Green Light" - Wed. Jan. 28  1948 - 8:30pm).

=================================================

COOPER:

Next weeks Quiet Please is called "Pathetic Fallacy" in which I shall attempt to dramatize a figure of speech, which will probably be about as much surprised as you are.

ANNC: Next Monday night Quiet Please will be heard at a new time over most of these Mutual stations. Consult your local paper for time and station.

ANNC2: Quiet Please comes to you from New York, and will be heard next week at half past nine. This is the Mutual Broadcasting System. 

===========================================

 

Newspaper mentions from the week:

 

"MBS is moving Quiet Please, its eerie series of dramas from Wednesday nights to 9:30 on Monday." -Morning Herald - Feb 2 1948

 

"There's been a switch in broadcast times for Mutual network's two "whodunits"--High Adventure and Quiet Please--thus bringing the latter to the 9.30 o'clock WEBR spot tonight while High Adventure moves over to Wednesdays at 8.30 p. m. Quiet Please, as many dialers know, is written by Wyllis Cooper, who preceded Arch Oboler on the original Lights Out series. His writings, as in earlier days, incline to the psychological as is evidenced in tonight's stanza--Pathetic Fallacy--which casts Ernest Chappell, actor-narrator, in the role of a college professor of philosophy who learns even inanimate objects hold strange secrets.".  -Buffalo Courier-Express (NY)  February 2, 1948.

 

"Wyllis Cooper, writer-director of Mutual's eerie "Quiet Please" series, has titled and plotted his stories on many subjects. He plans to dramatize a figure of speech when he presents "Pathetic Fallacy," as the program moves to a new MBS time period tonight (9:30 to 10 p. m., EST) over WESB. Ernest Chappell will play the role of a college professor of philosophy who learns that even inanimate objects hold strange secrets." -The Era, Bradford, (PA) Feb. 2 1948

 The Pathetic Fallacy  

Audio quality: Very good
Monday, February 2, 1948 9:30 PM.

La fille aux cheveux de lin

Episode 19: "La fille aux cheveux de lin"
This episode is usually logged with the title "The Girl with the Flaxen Hair" which is what it means, but it's not the actual tile. This is confirmed by the fact it was announced as such at the end of the previous episode:
COOPER: The music of Claude Debussy was the inspiration for next week's story which, borrowing the composer's title, I have called "La fille aux cheveux de lin" -- "The Girl with the Flaxen Hair" .. If you like charming ghost, you'll probably like her.
As well as in the original script:
ANNCR: The Mutual Broadcasting System presents "Quiet, Please!" which is written and directed by Wyllis Cooper, and which features Ernest Chappell. "Quiet, Please!" for tonight is called "La Fille aux Cheveux de Lin."
 However, at least one newspaper of the time did show in it's listings as follows:
"7:30 p.m.--Quiet Please (WGN): musician meets "The Girl With the Flaxen Hair." - Wisconsin State Journal October 22, 1947
The cast consist of Ernest Chappell, Joan Lazer, Melville Ruick, and Mary Kay Simmons, with in-house musical composistions performed by Gene Parazzo.
Original broadcast was Monday, October 20, 1947 8:30PM on WOR, and again the following Wednesday, October 22, 1947 at 7:30PM over MBS, on WGN, and other mutual stations.
No recording of this episode is known to exist, and thus classified as one of the lost episodes ..

However, The script was rebroadcast as episode #104 with a different cast and retitled as "Pavane" on Saturday, June 18, 1949, at 9:00 PM over the ABC network. (WJZ listed Pavane on schedule in the Ogdensburg Journal, June 18, 1949, on Page 5)
Cast: Ernest Chappell, Anne Seymour, Don Briggs, and Joan Lazer, with Albert Buhrman (music), and William J. McClintock (Sound).
This version does still exist, and is the episode featured tonight...

Episode 104:
Pavane: (aka: "The Girl with the Flaxen Hair" ) or Download mp3
An entertaining story about a mysterious little girl who stays hidden in the dark corners, and is never seen. Who is she? a ghost? an angel? or is she just a little girl? Heartwarming, charming, & memorable.
Mild crackle, with clear audio.

12 to 5

Will The Real Quiet Please Producer Please Stand Up!.

In numerous entertainment publications of the time, Wyllis Cooper is usually credited as writer, director, and producer of Quiet Please.

However occasionally, publications would credit Ernest Chappell with the position of Producer.. But which one actually held the official position?..
Afew months prior to the series first going on the air, Cooper had drew up a contract which specified Chappell the producer, and a 50% partner in the Quiet Please rights.

(Incidentally, and not to imply it was a joke, but curiously, the contract was drawn up on April Fools day)..: 

"April 1, 1947 - Being the creator, writer and owner of a radio program tentivly called "Quiet please",  I herewith assign you, as producer, 50% of my rights to this property..."

So then, this concludes that apparently Chappell was the producer.. Yet, doesn't it seem odd, that in the first episode on June 8, 1947, "Nothing Behind the Door", Chappell credits Cooper with the position??:
".. And now for a word about Quiet Please for next week, here is our writer producer. -- Bill?..."

Then again, almost 2 years later, in the Febuary 27, 1949 episode entitled "If I should Wake before I Die", Chappell again credits Cooper as the producer!:
"..Now, for a word about next week, if he can get through the door, here is our writer-producer, Wyllis Cooper..."

            Come on guys! What's the story??
            It seems we'll never know.

Episode #44.
12 to 5 aka: Twelve to Five 
Listen:
or Download mp3
Original Air Date(s):
Monday April 12,  1948
 9:30 PM MBS, WOR 
Summary: 
Disc jockeys who work the graveyard shift, spinning records from "12 to 5," come under writer-director Wyllis Cooper's surveillance when he presents tonight's "Quiet Please" story over Mutual. Ernest Chappell is narrator-actor." - The Bradford Era (PA) April 12, 1948
Transcript (from quietlyyours)

Quiet from Sponsors

Quiet from Sponsors..

.
It appears evident that Cooper and Chappell may have done "Quiet Please" mostly as a labor of love. The show never drew any network sponsors, so it obviously wasn't making any money. It was what was known as a "sustainer", which basically meant that the network carried the show, but payed out of their own pocket to support it. So none of the cast, nor staff, could have been making much of an income for their work.Cooper possibly still scripting other shows (ie: "Crime Club"), and Chappell still worked on other networks, all concurrent to doing Quiet Please. As a matter of fact, after only the fourth episode (The Ticket Taker), Chappell's work on an opposing  network ( ABC's the Big Story" ), interfered by being in the same time slot as Quiet Please, so they had to actually discontinue the QP series until another open time slot on Mutual could be secured to air the show.. Postponement was the only option to accompany Chappell's position.. So, in the closing comments of the 4th show on June 29, 1947, it was announced that Quiet Please would no longer be heard...

Who could have guessed what would happen next..

Conceivably, the postponement of the series may have caused more of an disruption in the mysterious scheme of things than initially anticipated, because the very next week, an shocking incident took place that still resonates today.. A flying saucer crashed in the farmlands of Roswell New Mexico.
But seriously folks... Although the the notorious event has absolutely no relation to our story, it is a wonder that Cooper had not incorporated the Roswell crash into one of his scripts!

But all nonsense aside..

Quiet Please had ceased the airing of it's program, but, fortunately, it took only three weeks to find another time slot, after which Quiet Please promptly returned back on the air, resuming their weekly programing schedule as planned.
So there they are, going  out of their way, securing time to do it, for little money, to make the episodes happen every week... Obviously they must have enjoyed what they were doing.. If it wasn't a labor of love, then what was it?

But of course, they must have expected a sponsor would eventually come in, and then there would be money to be made. But for some inexplicable reason that never happened.

For tonight's episode we play the fourth episode..

Episode #4. June 29, 1947
The Ticket Taker 
Listen:
or Download mp3 
Original Air Date(s):
Sunday,June 29, 1947
3:30 PM  MBS
Summary: 
Three murdering crooks have repeating encounters with "the ticket taker", a mysterious man who keeps seemingly appearing from nowhere each time the men attempt to leave the town. One of them tries to avoid him entirely. But can the Ticket Taker be evaded?..
This episode is amongst the worst damaged ones of the series, This copy is my attempt to clean the roar of noise out of it,-  involved heavy processing and a lot of manual second by second labor, Now the episode is listenable, but it's still very poor. Good story! Enjoy...