Quiet, Please
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Quiet, Please! was an old-time 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! was first broadcast by ABC on June 8, 1947, and its last episode ran on June 25, 1949. A total of 106 shows were broadcast, with only a very few of them repeats.
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Overview
Though the general thrust of the stories were fantasy, horror and suspense, Cooper's Quiet, Please! scripts covered a large thematic range, including humor (some of it quite self-deprecating) romance, science fiction and crime and family drama. Regardless of content, most episodes had a dreamlike, surreal quality: Odd or paranormal events were not always explained.
Cooper often drew upon the Bible for inspiration, though he generally tweaked the stories and plots past the point of easy recognizability. Even the easily reconizable Bible stories are given a twist: "The Third Man's Story" (06 September 1948) retells the story of Cain and Abel, suggesting that Cain's act was motivated by Abel's arrogance and taunts
Many listeners (and critics) were baffled by the show's many unusual features, but it is still regarded as one of the high points of American radio drama. Some episodes will seem dated to modern ears, but others are arguably still as effective as when they were first broadcast.
Each episode began with Cooper intoning the show's title, followed by a long pause (sometimes up to seven seconds), before repeating the title. Then, the show's theme music was played, a dirgey, funereal organ and piano version of a portion of the second movement of Cesar Franck's 1899 Symphony in D Minor. The introduction established the sparse, understated tone of the show, and has inspired collectors and reviewers to remark upon Cooper's use of the dramatic power of silence.
As with many radio programs to feature prominent organ accompaniment, Quiet, Please! was a rather low-budget undertaking. The show's keyboardist (Albert Berman for most of the episodes), however, arguably utilized the instruments in a more innovative way than others--not only for punctuation of climactic moments, but also as an element of the scripts, as in the lazy, boogie woogie riffs in the clandestine casino scenes in "Good Ghost" (24 November 1948), or when the show's theme was used as a post-hypnotic trigger in by a hypnotist in "Symphony in D Minor" (13 September 1948)
Most episodes featured no more than two or three actors, with Chappell taking the first person voice in all but a handful of episodes, usually telling the tale via flashbacks. At the end of each program, Cooper offered a teaser for the next show. These were usually unrehersed, and often displayed Cooper's wry or morbid humor: "My story for you next week is called 'A Night to Forget'. It's about a man who wished he could –- and couldn't."[1] Cooper's teaser was always followed by his sign-off: "And so, until next week at this same time, I am quietly yours, Ernest Chappell."
Compared to other contemporary radio dramas, Quiet, Please! used fewer sound effects and less dialogue, relying instead on first person narration to drive each play. As noted above, silence was often used masterfully; a 1949 Oakland Tribune article by John Crosby notes, "There are long, long pauses, so long sometimes you wonder if your radio has gone on the blink. Networks are horrified at the amount of dead air they purchase along with Cooper. (A half hour Cooper script played at ordinary tempo would run about 11 minutes.)" [2] Though Crosby praised Quiet, Please!, he thought the dramas sometimes employed confused, deus ex machina endings and characters were occasionally underdeveloped. He also wrote that Cooper "avoids cliches with such intensity that he's creating his own."
Despite some positive reviews, the show never established itself and never attracted a sponsor. Quiet, Please! might have suffered from poor scheduling, which was often dependant upon a regular sponsor. During its first year, Quiet, Please! was broadcast at 3.30pm, a time slot usually reserved for after-school programming aimed at juveniles. Its second season found the show at a more appropriate 9.30pm, but its third and final season the show was bumped again, this time to 5.30pm.
Probably the most highly regarded episode of Quiet, Please! is "The Thing on the Fourble Board" (August 8, 1949), about an oil-field worker who encounters a mysterious subterranean being hiding on the derrick's catwalk. The story's twist ending has led some fans to label the episode one of the best radio horror programs ever broadcast. Especially effective was Cecil Roy's vocal performance as the creature. Though he appears only very briefly, Roy's vocal (barely recognizable as human) is perhaps one of the creepiest vocal performaces in the history of radio, still startling and chill-inducing even after decades.
Metafiction
Though many radio programs used various meta-fictional ploys, Quiet, Please! arguably offered some of the most effective and intriguing examples.
Scripts often broke down the fourth wall by speaking directly to the listener. On "The Other Side of the Stars", (broadcast May 8, 1949), Chappell appeared as Esau, who relates the tale of his girlfriend's odd fate after discovering a conquistador's armor while exploring a well in Arizona, but he is repeatedly interrupted by her brother, who arrived uninvited for the broadcast. In some episodes (such as "The Other Side..." and "The Man Who Knew Everything") the listener becomes a sort of character. Chappell's character in "Inquest" is forced to stand in front of a vast visible radio audience, while being assured that he will be supplied with sound effects as they are necessary to accompany the story he tells.
Unusually for episodic radio drama, several episodes were sequels of earlier broadcasts (though with occasional retcons): The main character from very first episode, "Nothing Behind the Door" (08 June 1947) had an ominous warning for the world in "The Other Side of the Stars"; in "The Man Who Knew Everything" (06 March 1949) the titular character seems to die at the episode's end, only to return in "The Venetian Blind Man" (03 April 1949); and the time travelling soldier from "It's Later Than You Think" (08 February 1948) tries to reclaim his enchanted wristwatch in "Not Responsible After Thirty Years" (14 June 1948)
Several episodes blurred the distiction between performer and fictional character: In a few episodes (such as "Is This Murder"), Ernest Chappell portrayed a man named "Ernest". In "Where Do You Get Your Ideas?" Cooper played himself, while Chappell portrayed a drunken barfly, pestering the writer.
Extant episodes
For many years, the majority of the show's episodes were feared lost, with only 12 episodes in general circulation among collectors until the late 1980s when more than 80 episodes were discovered, comprising the majority of the series' run. Many of the recordings are of rather poor sound quality but are treasured by collectors. Currently in circulation are 88 episodes, plus half of an 89th. Another 17 are presumed lost, though scripts survive for most of them.
Influence
Writer Harlan Ellison has praised Quiet, Please! and rates it as one of the finest and most effective programs in the history of radio or television. He discovered the show in his youth and states that even though the bulk of the episodes were lost for decades, several Quiet, Please! episodes haunted his memory and exerted a strong influence on his writing.