At the end of the previous weeks episode, Cooper had announced:
"Thank you for listening to "Quiet, Please!" Our story for next week is called 'Be Whose Valentine?'"
However, the actual airing was simply titled: Valentine.
Sunday
WEAV - 8:30 - Quiet Please --Plattsburgh press-Republican., Saturday February 12, 1949, Page 7 RADIO
"An Illinois romance almost founders, due to lack of a Valentine." - Goldin Index
Original Airdate and Times:
Sunday February 13, 1949
5:30 PM ABC 8:30 PM WEAV
(and other stations on the network)
(and other networked stations)
"..Sometimes a valentine can be more in the form of emotion than in the form of a physical object. Even a memory can be a sort of valentine. All physical things decay and disappear over the centuries. Emotion and memory endure."
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/
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.
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.
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)
. 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...
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.
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.
Willis to Wyllis... .When Wyliss Cooper returned from Hollywood after writing the screenplay for the motion picture 'Son of Frankenstein, curiously, he legally changed the spelling of his name from "Willis" to "Wyllis".. 'Radio Mirror' magazine appears to be the first to mention it in 1940, saying "a numerologist advised him to change it" then Time magazine made a similar mention in 1941, but elaborated further that it was due to "his wife's numerological inclinations". Then in 1942 'Capital Times' newspaper in Madison WI seemed to merge the two previous reports as: "..a numerologist told his wife it should be spelled Wyllis and he's done so ever since." Other than the brief passages in those publications, there appears to be no other specifics, no direct or indirect quotes from Cooper on the matter to be found anywhere...
Upon utilizing several present day numerology calculators found online, the results conclude that both spellings have virtually identical meanings in every respect.
" ...But there may have been another, more rational, reason for it. In mid-1939, the year of the change, Cooper lost a court case to NBC. Subsequently, his wages were garnished so the network could collect what he owed them... Judging by some of the NBC papers at the Wisconsin Historical Society, Cooper resisted paying and made things difficult for his creditors. I can't prove it, but I think it's possible he changed the spelling to make it a little harder to attach his money... Or maybe our guy was just plain eccentric; it's hard to tell." - from a post by "MS', a senior member at quietplease.org
But anyway... Speaking of Numerology, here's a bit of trivia before playing this posts featured episode.. Think Cooper Had a Thing for Three?...
Three - Story about a man haunted by the number three.
Three Sides to a Story - three participants in a seemingly lethal love triangle.
The Third Man's Story- Story about Abel, the third man on earth.
Adam and the Darkest Day - Story about the last three people on earth.
How Are You, Pal? - About the three words he wants you to write down.
Little Fellow- A carnival midget with a Egyptian amulate that'll grant three wishes.
Three Thousand Words - A three foot dwarf and a ventriloquist,
Thing on the Fourble Board - About a monster from three miles underground.
Sketch for a Screenplay - 3 children reunite on battlefields of France during WWII.
Very Unimportant Person- Three People on a plane, a world wide nuclear war below, they can't land, and running out of gas.
Beezers Cellar - Three criminals trapped in a cellar and an expanding hole in the floor.
Not Responsible After Thirty Years - After 3 years, a man is getting out of prison.
Oldest Man in the World - Three friends seek shelter in a cave to escape a storm.
Nothing Behind the Door - Three criminals break into an empty observatory building.
The Ticket Taker - 3 murdering crooks have repeating encounters with "the ticket taker"
I Remember Tomorrow- Three criminals want a time machine built.
Perhaps I'm beginning to stretch the "three" thing to far now, but several of Coopers scripts do tend to carry the number! And speaking of three... Quiet Please Episode #22,THREE Original Air Date:Monday November 10, 1947 on WOR and Wednesday, November 12 1947 8:30 P.M on MBS. + WNDR Summary:Story of a man, seemingly being pursued by the number three.. Pursuit leads to persecution as the number three continues to twist his perceptions of reality, eroding his sanity, to the point he believes it to be a threat to his very life. This story kind of hangs in mid-hair due to it's apparent lack of any solid final conclusion... It's basically a look at a man who's lost grip, and his circular hopelessness leading to madness. It's a story of his journey, without specifically knowing his final fate. Although I seen others review this episode unfavorably, I actually liked it.. Whimsical but suspenseful. Listen: or Download mp3 Audio Quality:This is my cleaned up version.. I didn't originally intend to work the whole thing, I was just out to remove the thick scratch groove in the first 5 minutes.. I applied heavy processing to the music at the start, and then mild processing for the next 2 minutes or so. After that applied no processing at all, just removal of the heavy pops and clicks. particularly the heavy crackle during the mid point. The results is not perfect, but an improvement.
Quiet, Please! - First Of It's Kind.. There are claims that Rod Serling had been so enthused by the Quiet Please programs, that it inspired his formulation of "The Twilight Zone". Some observe this to be only speculation since there's no direct documentation available to confirm it. Still, it's hardly a far fetched possibility, considering the similarities of the program, and that Serling was a known fan of the radio dramas of the time. What can be confirmed however, is that in 1960, Rod Serling had explicitly attempted to contact Cooper to purchase rights to the Quiet Please script entitled "One For the Book" (episode 74), because it was virtually identical to his own upcoming tv episode titled "The Last Flight" and he did not want to risk script infringement... but Serling was unable to make contact, he did not realize that sadly, Cooper had died five years earlier. So onward into production it went, becoming a Twilight Zone episode without further consideration for Cooper. (source)
Here is Quiet Please Episode #74, ONE FOR THE BOOK Original Air Date:Sunday, November 21, 1948. 5:00 PM on the ABC Radio Network Summary: USAF XF131.. Whats a XF131?Max Westlake, USAF, talks about the days when he was a sergeant, with dreams of piloting a super speed jet.. or a "sky rocket" as his sarcastic friend called it.. Starts off with a jet pilot introductory narration with patriotic music playing in the background, then you're in a bar listening to two pilots discussing the possibility of flying faster than sound.. Ultimately a pilot does end up flying faster than sound, faster than light even..
What happens is One for the books... Listen: or Download mp3 Audio Quality:
Mild crackling throughout. Has occasional thumps, worst at at the 20 minute mark for 40 seconds, Otherwise excellent.
To define the entire series is elusive. Often times labeled as "Horror", but that's a bit deceptive, though that is the genre in which some of these episodes fall; For example, the episode entitled "The Thing on the Fourble Board" is consistently awarded the unofficial honor as being: "Best radio horror show of all time", and more so, best radio drama ever.. which all may be very well true, but that's only one of the episodes, there are 104 more, some having nothing to do with monsters, or other things that go bump in the night. Other episodes - though still surreal - focus towards spiritual obligations, effects of actions, and personal responsibility, or simply a look at life from a different perspective... The point is, as a whole, it's really not a horror series. Perhaps the most accurate classification would be "Fantasy". How ever you decide to define it, one thing can be agreed upon; the series was very original, and the first of it's kind, with it's signature laid back atmosphere.
Episode #59 August 9, 1948.
The Thing on the Fourble Board or Download mp3
Two workers on an oil rig
discover something strange brought up from a mile
underground, and then something comes to get it
back... This is
the most famous episode of the Quiet Please
series, and holds claim as the best radio drama of
all time. Audio quality is great.