Wyllis Cooper
Encyclopedia
He is best remembered for creating and writing the old time radio programs Lights Out
Lights Out (radio show)
Lights Out is an extremely popular American old-time radio program, an early example of a network series devoted mostly to horror and the supernatural, predating Suspense and Inner Sanctum...
(1934 - 1947) and Quiet, Please
Quiet, Please
Quiet, Please! was a radio fantasy and horror program created by Wyllis Cooper, also known for creating Lights Out. Ernest Chappell was the show's announcer and lead actor. Quiet, Please! debuted June 8, 1947 on the Mutual Broadcasting System, and its last episode was broadcast June 25, 1949, on...
(1947 - 1949)
Biography
Born Willis Oswald Cooper in Pekin, IllinoisPekin, Illinois
Pekin is a the county seat of Tazewell County in the U.S. state of Illinois. Located on the Illinois River, Pekin is also the largest city of Tazewell County, and a key part of the Peoria metropolitan area. As of the 2010 census, its population is 34,094. A small portion of the city limits extends...
, he attended Pekin High School, graduating in 1916. He soon joined the U.S. Cavalry where, achieving the rank of Sergeant, he spent time on the Mexican
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
border. In 1917, he became a part of the Signal Corps and was sent to France during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. While in France he was gassed at the Meuse-Argonne Offensive
Meuse-Argonne Offensive
The Meuse-Argonne Offensive, or Maas-Argonne Offensive, also called the Battle of the Argonne Forest, was a part of the final Allied offensive of World War I that stretched along the entire western front.-Overview:...
1. He remained on active duty until 1919 when he left to become an advertising writer, though he maintained his reserve status.
By the late 1920s he was writing advertising copy in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
and entered radio, writing scripts for the 1929-1931 NBC radio program The Empire Builders. He later worked as continuity editor of CBS Chicago and, in 1933, left to take the same position at NBC Chicago. In 1934 he created his best known dramatic series, a late night horror radio program called Lights Out
Lights Out (radio show)
Lights Out is an extremely popular American old-time radio program, an early example of a network series devoted mostly to horror and the supernatural, predating Suspense and Inner Sanctum...
, which he also directed. Airing at midnight, the program quickly earned a reputation for its gory deaths and sound effects.
The show would prove to be a long-term success, but in 1936, Cooper capitalized on the fame of Lights Out and resigned from NBC, moving to Hollywood, California, where he worked as a screenwriter for various film studios. He wrote the screenplay for the 1939 film Son Of Frankenstein
Son of Frankenstein
Son of Frankenstein is the third film in Universal Studios' Frankenstein series and the last to feature Boris Karloff as the Monster as well as the first to feature Béla Lugosi as Ygor. It is a sequel to Bride of Frankenstein....
(which introduced the character of "Ygor
Igor (fictional character)
Igor is the traditional stock character or cliché hunch-backed assistant or butler to many types of villain, such as Count Dracula or a mad scientist, familiar from many horror movies and horror movie parodies, the Frankenstein series and Van Helsing films in particular.-Origins:Dwight Frye's...
") and contributed to a few of the Mr. Moto
Mr. Moto
Mr. Moto is a fictional Japanese secret agent created by the American author John P. Marquand. He appeared in six novels by Marquand published between 1935 and 1957. Marquand initially created the character for the Saturday Evening Post, which was seeking stories with an Asian hero after the death...
films. At the same time, he continued to provide radio scripts for various series including Hollywood Hotel.
Arch Oboler
Arch Oboler
Arch Oboler was an American actor, playwright, screenwriter, novelist, producer, and director who was active in radio, films, theater, and television. He generated much attention with his radio scripts, particularly the horror series Lights Out, and his work in radio remains the outstanding period...
, who took over the writing of Lights Out when Cooper left, would suggest that Cooper was the first person to create a unique form of radio drama
Radio drama
Radio drama is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance, broadcast on radio or published on audio media, such as tape or CD. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine the characters and story...
, writing, "Radio drama (as distinguished from theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
plays boiled down to kilocycle size) began at midnight, in the middle thirties, on one of the upper floors of Chicago's Merchandise Mart. The pappy was a rotund writer by the name of Willys (sic) Cooper."http://www.richsamuels.com/nbcmm/windy.html
By 1940, Cooper moved to New York City where he changed his name from “Willis” to “Wyllis” in order "to please his wife's numerological inclinations". He continued to make his living writing radio scripts for various network programs including The Campbell Playhouse
The Campbell Playhouse
The Campbell Playhouse was a CBS radio drama series directed by and starring Orson Welles. Produced by John Houseman, it was a sponsored continuation of the Mercury Theatre on the Air...
, the sponsored successor of Orson Welles
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
' Mercury Theatre
Mercury Theatre
The Mercury Theatre was a theatre company founded in New York City in 1937 by Orson Welles and John Houseman. After a string of live theatrical productions, in 1938 the Mercury Theatre progressed into their best-known period as The Mercury Theatre on the Air, a radio series that included one of the...
.
During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, he was made a consultant to the Secretary of War and produced, directed and wrote The Army Hour, a weekly news and variety propaganda series.
In 1944, Cooper joined the radio department of New York's Compton Advertising, Inc. In 1947, he created what was arguably his finest radio effort, Quiet, Please
Quiet, Please
Quiet, Please! was a radio fantasy and horror program created by Wyllis Cooper, also known for creating Lights Out. Ernest Chappell was the show's announcer and lead actor. Quiet, Please! debuted June 8, 1947 on the Mutual Broadcasting System, and its last episode was broadcast June 25, 1949, on...
, which began over the Mutual Broadcasting System
Mutual Broadcasting System
The Mutual Broadcasting System was an American radio network, in operation from 1934 to 1999. In the golden age of U.S. radio drama, MBS was best known as the original network home of The Lone Ranger and The Adventures of Superman and as the long-time radio residence of The Shadow...
network but which later moved to ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
.
He also wrote and directed a crime anthology for NBC called Whitehall 1212 that debuted on November 18, 1951. Hosted by Chief Superintendent John Davidson, fictional curator of the Black Museum
Black Museum
The Black Museum of Scotland Yard is a famed collection of criminal memorabilia kept at the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police in London, England. The museum came into existence sometime in 1874, although unofficially. It was housed at Scotland Yard, and grew from the collection of prisoners'...
at Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...
, it featured an allegedly all-British cast and told stories inspired by artifacts held by the famous London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
crime museum. Cooper's show competed with a similar program (hosted by Orson Welles), which ran on Mutual in 1952.
As television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
became the dominant entertainment medium, Cooper experimented with various programs including a series he wrote and produced called Volume One.
Cooper resided in Glen Gardner, New Jersey
Glen Gardner, New Jersey
Glen Gardner is a borough in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, United States. At the time of the United States 2010 Census, the borough population was 1,704....
, and died in High Bridge, New Jersey
High Bridge, New Jersey
High Bridge is a borough in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2010 Census, the borough population was 3,648.-History:...
on June 22, 1955.
External links
- Quiet Please site with discussion forum and MP3 downloads
- Discusses Welles' and Cooper's similar productions inspired by the Black Museum
- "Wyllis Cooper's 'Quiet, Please!'", by Harriet Cannon (from Writer's DigestWriter's DigestWriter's Digest is an American magazine devoted to both beginning and established writers, offering interviews, market listings, calls for manuscripts, and how-to articles....
, May 1949