First Time On Air..

One Air for the First Time...

It was 1947 when Cooper was once again awarded the opportunity to write and direct a new original radio series of his own creation; (ironically this happened only a few months before 'Lights Out' was to air it's final show, and end it's sporadtic14 year run. )
And that's when 'Quiet, Please' came into existence..

"..The bizarre and supernatural will be the material for writer Wyllis Cooper's "Quiet Please," a new dramatic series to be heard on WOR by transcription,..."  
-New York Times - July 23, 1947 - 'News of Radio' column

One of the first things Cooper did, was to urge and convince a specific, and very well known radio announcer and emcee - - not to be the announcer for the new show, - but to exclusively be the featured actor on all episodes...
Cooper must have sensed that man's talent was crucial to make Quiet Please really work.
That man was the beloved Ernest Chappell.

Chappell had next to nil on acting experience, still, he was a 25 year veteran in broadcast radio, and possessed a manner and a voice that the public had already grown to know and admire. And besides, Cooper didn't want "acting" on his show, his aim was to have the stories exhibit a more natural and realistic feel, and he insisted such deliveries from all participating cast members. Yet, it was also mandatory they stay true to the scripts.

Cooper likes to think of himself as a rebel..."I don't believe in too strong a story line because it's apt to be too hard for the listener to keep in mind," he says. "The charm in radio consists of good characterization. Plot should consist of a twist rather than a formalized structure." He doesn't rewrite, nor does he permit his actors to "ad lib" although his dialogue achieves a smooth flowing naturalness. He beats no drums, espouses no causes, says his function is "to entertain. - Writer's Digest magazine, May 1949

 
Yes, Cooper's superb creativity, writing, and direction was an extremely major contribution.. he was the very backbone to the Quiet Please aura. He must have possessed a tremendous energy. His seemingly effortlessly written stories week after week, month after month, year after year, never dry, never dull, always insightful, always knowledgeable, always diverse, and always entertaining. How did he tap into that never ending stream?
The question resides now as it did then: Wyllis Cooper, where did you get your ideas?

"Wyllis Cooper, a writer of eerie, sometimes incomprehensible though remarkably literate radio and television dramas, looks as if he'd stepped out of one of his own scripts. He's a short, bespectacled man, broad of brow and sweeping of girth. His double chin is an expanse of incomparable grandeur. He works, hunched over a typewriter like an intelligent spider, in a large office in the Hotel Brittany behind drawn blinds. The drawn blinds, he explains, are to protect him from street noises, which is the sort of contradiction he loves to use in his radio plays.
                      - Oakland Tribune, September 6, 1949

The First Quiet Please Episode: Recorded on 6/3/47 Studio 6 - 100 - 530
Interesting note: The original script called for a ticking clock to start the show:
 (MUSIC ... THEME)
 ANNCR: Quiet, please.
 SOUND: (A QUIET CLOCK TICKING)
 ANNCR: (ON CUE) Quiet, please.
 SOUND: (FADE THE CLOCK-TICKING OUT SLOWLY
Evidently, Cooper changed his mind..

Episode #1. June 8, 1947
Nothing Behind The Door
Air Date:
Sunday, June 8, 1947,  2:30 PM,  MBS
Summary:( Actual reviews from the time)
"Quiet, Please! Reviewed June 8, 1947. Wyllis Cooper.. unveiled a promising program over at the Mutual network Sunday (8), 3:30-4 pm. Tabbed Nothing Behind the Door, The shot--..impressed as imaginative venture ingeniously put together at very low production cost... ..Thus, In Door three thieves decide to use a fenced off building atop Mount Wilson as a cache for stolen money. Astronomers at the Mount Wilson observatory "who know a lot more than they are telling" warn off intruders, but the thieves are undaunted....[spoilers omitted] ... Currently the program is heard over MBS, but not in New York. The web is considering shifting the show to a nighttime spot. It rates-- it's good, effective, imaginative radio.
-Paul Ackerman, - The Billboard   June 21, 1947 [excerpt, spoilers omitted]
.
"Another batch of summer shows goes into replacement spots on three networks Sunday.. ..on MBS -- 2:30 Quiet Please, eerie drama, temporarily for Juvenile Jury;" - Dixon Evening Telegraph June 7, 1947

LISTEN:
or Download mp3
Audio Quality:
I cleaned a lot of scratch and pop throughout the audio, it was my first time ever trying to repair any audio, and its not too terrible, better than what it sounded before. Certainly bearable for the sake of a good episode.