| Title | Cooper & Chappell clippings |
| Message Text | Various mentions of Ernest Chappell and Wyllis Cooper in old newspapers. In chronological order, more or less. Items separated by a line. Text in brackets is for context or clarification. ________________________________ [January 8, 1933 Washington Post "Radio Dial Flashes" column by Robert D. Heinl] ... "Tales of the Foreign Legion," formerly presented over WBBM and a limited Columbia network, will move to WABC and a coast-to-coast hook-up of this same system with the broadcast tonight. WJSV, 8:30 o'clock. Each of the weekly series is an original drama from the pen of Willis Cooper. In addition to writing the dramas, Cooper also plays the role of Mendoza, the Spanish soldier. Several voices familiar to the followers of other dramatic programs will be heard in the "Legion" shows. Vinton Haworth, who is the Jack Arnold of "Myrt & Marge," is Corpl. Smith in this series. Ray Appleby, the Jimmie of the back-stage series is the director of Cooper's show. He also plays the part of the hard-boiled sergeant. John C. Daly, who plays the radio role of "Fu Manchu," will be heard as Achmet Ali in the "Legion." Others in the Sunday night series are Douglas Hope, as Lieut. Vibart; Goldie Cassin, as Amelia Le Blanc, the only woman in the cast, and Charles Calvert as Kraus, the German soldier. ... ________________________________ [March 2, 1933 Washington Post "Radio Dial Flashes" column by Robert D. Heinl] ... "Tales of the Foreign Legion," dramatic program originating in Chicago, will be heard on WJSV at 10 o'clock tonight. This is a change in schedule from Sundays at 10:30 o'clock. The leading roles are taken by Marigold Cassin, Douglas Hope, Vinton Haworth, a local boy, Willis Cooper, Stanley Andrews, John Daly, Ray Appleby and Tom Shirley. ... ________________________________ [May 11, 1933 Washington Post "Radio Dial Flashes" column by Robert D. Heinl] ... "Tales of the Foreign Legion," broadcast over WJSV Thursdays, 9 o'clock p.m., will leave that schedule after the presentation tonight, moving into the Friday period, beginning at 7:30 p.m. on May 19. Written by Willis Cooper, who also plays the role of Mendoza, the Spanish legionnaire, this sustaining series is produced in Chicago. John C. Daly, the late "Fu Manchu," takes the role of Achmet Ali; Stanley Andrews is cast for Tchernov, the Russian; Douglas Hope is Vibart, the Frenchman, and Ray Appleby plays the hard-boiled American sergeant. With the change of time, a new character will enter the script, Slattery, a New York taxi driver, who has joined the Legion. This role will be played by Frank Dane. ... ________________________________ [February 11, 1934 Washington Post article headlined "Washington V.F.W. Prepares For 'Hello America' Initiation"] ... All veterans belonging to the District of Columbia Department No. 1, Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, will assemble to honor National Commander James E. VanZandt, Thursday night, at the Mayflower Hotel. A record class of thousands of recruits will stand before approximately 3,000 radios in all parts of the country on that night, to take the oath of obligation given over a Nation-wide network of the National Broadcasting Co. by Commander in Chief VanZandt. The ceremony will be a feature of the third annual V.F.W. "Hello America!" radio broadcast. During the hour on the air, starting at 11:30 p.m., the D.C. department will participate by presenting a large class of recruits. Addresses will be made by Senator Patrick A. McCarran, of Nevada, and by Brig. Gen. Smedley D. Butler, U.S.M.C. There will also be appropriate musical selections by the United States Marine Band. Another feature will be a dramatic sketch, "Remember the Maine," written especially for the V.F.W. by Willis Cooper, continuity editor of the N.B.C. in commemoration of the thirty-sixth anniversary of that historic disaster. ... ________________________________ [IMMORTAL DRAMAS 1935 Cooper directs (and writes?) these half-hour adaptations of stories from the Old Testament. Sponsored by Montgomery Ward. Excerpts from the second movement of Franck's Symphony in D minor (the QP theme!) are used in the premiere as the hero's theme. Dates and titles from various radio listings:] 01-13 "David and Goliath" 01-20 "Exodus From Egypt" 01-27 "Daniel in the Lion's Den" 02-03 "Story of Samson" 02-10 "Story of Esther" 02-17 "Joseph and the Coat of Many Colors" 02-24 "Joseph in Egypt" 03-03 "Solomon and the Queen of Sheba" 03-10 "The Story of Gideon" 03-17 "The Walls of Jericho" 03-24 "Ruth and Naomi" 03-31 "Saul and Jonathan" 04-07 "Jezebel" ________________________________ [January 12, 1935 The Bismarck Tribune (North Dakota) article headlined "Dramatizes Old Testament In New Series Over Radio / 'Immortal Dramas,' Program Sponsored by Montgomery Ward, Opens Sunday"] "Immortal Dramas," a panoramic series of stories from the Old Testament, dramatized against a background of choral and instrumental music, will be introduced over a coast-to-coast NBC-WEAF network Sunday, Jan. 13, by Montgomery Ward. Recreating famous characters and events from the Old Testament on the air for the first time in the history of radio, "Immortal Dramas" will be heard each Sunday afternoon from 1 to 1:30 p. m. (CST), from the NBC Chicago studios. No commercial announcements will be made during the program. The series will also mark a new departure in music technique. Works of old masters like Richard Strauss, Franck and Tschaikowsky and original compositions for the orchestra and vocal ensemble will be used as definite dramatic devices to heighten emotional effect. Heretofore radio music has always been employed only for transition or background. The adaptation and script are the work of Lloyd Lewis. Will Employ Narration Drama, music, and exciting narration will be employed as an effective combination in the presentation of the famed story of David and Goliath, which has been selected as the first episode on the "Immortal Dramas" series. As the drama begins David, his father and brothers, are heard discussing the struggle between the Israelites and the Philistines and mention of the mysterious giant, Goliath, fills everyone with fear except David. Action then shifts to the Philistine stronghold where Goliath is cheered by his soldiers as he roars his challenges of combat to his already weary opponents. The story reaches the exciting climax when David, having received permission from his father to take food and a word of cheer to the Israelite soldiers, enters the camp and accepts the challenge of Goliath to engage in man-to-man combat and kills his adversary by cunning. Music Selected Carefully Carefully selected music will be used throughout to aid the narrator in bridging transitions from one scene to another and will also serve to heighten the dramatic effect of the spoken word. As a theme for David, excerpts from the second movement of Franck's Symphony in D minor will be played by the orchestra. Bars from Richard Strauss' spirited "Don Juan" will introduce the braggart Goliath and "Pines of Rome," Respighi's fourth dimensional conception of vast marching armies, will help build the mental picture of the Israelite and Philistine hosts massed in the Vale of Elah. Tschaikowsky's dramatic "Pathetique" will prepare the audience for David's encounter with Goliath. Ancient battle chants of the two armies will be sung by an a cappella choir. [Photo caption:] Introducing Lloyd Lewis, author of the "Immortal Dramas" series which will be broadcast over NBC each Sunday. ________________________________ [January 13, 1935 Washington Post radio column item about the premiere episode of Cooper's "Immortal Dramas"] ... Drama goes biblical in the first of a series of heroic events of the Old Testament, NBC this afternoon. David and Goliath, the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, exploits of Samson and others, will be given musical and dramatic interpretation. David and Goliath occupy first place in the series. Fifteen N.B.C. actors, a chorus of 24 and 26-piece orchestra complete the set-up. ... ________________________________ [February 24, 1935 Washington Post radio column by Katherine Smith] ... "Joseph in Egypt," an immortal drama series, WRC, 2 p.m. ... ... And while in a critical mood, the Immortal Dramas, WRC, 2 p.m., series make you feel far from "religioso." Perhaps because it sounds odd to hear a modern voice mouth "Hark Ye, My Sons," and such-like. The acting is extreme -- in the extreme, the delivery affected. As it is, the dramas sound neither mortal nor immortal -- at least, not genuinely human. ... ________________________________ [March 11, 1935 The Hammond Times (Indiana) "Radio Short Circuits" column by Paul K. Damai] ... Lights Out fans are registering kicks with this column over the new half-past midnight time on Wednesdays. ... ________________________________ [April 11, 1935 New York Times article headlined: RADIO PROGRAMS WIN FOUR PRIZES] ... Anning S. Prail, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, presented the citations in behalf of the [Women's National Radio Committee], which was formed last Summer for the advancement of higher standards of radio entertainment. ... [Prize-winning programs were "The March of Time," "Columbia Concert Music Hall," "You and Your Government" and General Motors' symphony concert series.] ... In making the awards it was stressed that the determining factors considered by the judges were their entertainment and instructional value, their contribution to the cultural tastes of the radio audience and the dignified manner in which the advertising material was handled. The character and content of the advertising received special consideration, it was pointed out by Mme. Yolanda Mero-Irion, advisory chairman of the committee. She said that if in the judges' opinion the advertising was too long, too persistent or lacking in good taste, the program on which it appeared was eliminated from consideration, however excellent the material might otherwise be. Programs that received honorable mention ... "Immortal Dramas," which was praised for its brief advertising; ... ________________________________ [April 17, 1935 Washington Post "On the Air Today" column] ... Three premieres today -- Gertrude Berg starts off in "The House of Glass" at 8:30 p. m., WMAL, and WJSV offers his "Johnnie and His Foursome," a quartet at 8 p. m. Then on WRC at 12:30 a. m. "Lights Out" is prepared to chill the marrow of your bones. This is probably the worst horror drama you've ever heard. It is not intended for children nor yet for adults with weak hearts. ... ________________________________ [April 17, 1935 The Lima News (Ohio) radio column headlined: Spooks To Branch Out On Network Program Wednesday / "Lights Out" Series To Become Regular Eerie Hour Feature Thru WEAF; ...] "Lights Out," the series of ghost and horror dramas which has thrilled and chilled midnight listeners of station WENR, Chicago, for more than a year, will come to the WEAF network Wednesday and will be heard regularly thereafter at 12:30 a. m. Originally planned as a spine-tickling novelty for those hardy listeners who prefer something different in the way of late broadcasts, "Lights Out" has proved enormously popular. It is distinctly not a program for the children, nor for adults who are faint of heart. ... ________________________________ [December 13, 1935 Washington Post "On the Air Today" column by J. H. H. which describes in part one of Cooper's lost Lights Out episodes -- apparently a warm-up (ha, ha) for QP's "Tap the Heat, Bogdan"] The old clock on the mantel had stopped. So I sat down at the radio, turned the switch and waited for the first break which would indicate the hour. It was, I figured, between 12:15 and 12:45 a. m. In a few seconds, with the heating of the tubes, came a sudden crescendo of agonized, screaming pleadings. "Don't keel me. I'll do anything ... but not that ... I geeve you my money ... $2,000 in the mattress ..." The blood-curdling dialog was doubly impressive because I had expected to find a dance band playing at that early morning hour, whatever the station last tuned in. I was fascinated with the hair-raising awfulness of the script lines. Suddenly it became apparent that the victim was protesting being dumped in a ladle of -- liquid steel! And while I was dwelling on this gentle situation as a plot for an air play -- the unfortunate gentleman was, in truth, thrown into the white-hot cauldron, with his last earthly screams imposed on the throaty, chuckling observations of his murderers. The scene faded into a conversation between a steel-mill employe and a visitor, in which it was explained that a man recently had lost his life in a ladle of liquid metal -- but the process of fashioning steel rails, bridge girders and so on had not been stopped. The jolly part of it all was (laugh, laugh) that the victim even now was a fragmentary part (ho, ho, ha, ha) of the finished pieces before them. Again, a transition -- and the voices of the three slayers are heard, one week or so later. One, named Sampson, set the plot. He was to be a victim of the slain man through an overwhelming desire to work, to go down to the nearby bridge under construction and work. From that point, the unfortunate mill worker dealt out his revenge. The manner in which the three assailants died is not appropriate for reporting in a column that is scanned by many at the breakfast table. Let it be said that this attempt to be baldly, deliberately revolting in details -- ghastly, shocking in realism -- can be reported as notably successful. Finesse and subtleness were eliminated in favor of gory, crude obviousness. Sometimes the mass radio audience becomes a mystery to me. There can be no doubt about it, many persons like this N.B.C. feature. It would not be continued if it did not meet with the approval and pleasure of some listeners. Yet -- many a bell-ringing idea, many a delightful bit of entertainment has been refused with arched eyebrows because it was in bad taste, or too "in the raw" or otherwise deemed offensive to the public mind. Many a capricious alteration has been made in scripts and speeches by the same authorities who put the stamp of approval on "Lights Out," thus putting a crimp in the author's work and usually aiding the presentation in no way whatever. "Lights Out," if I got a fair sample, is the most blatent [sic] evidence of policy inconsistency coming to my attention in many a day. ... ________________________________ [December 14, 1935 Washington Post "On the Air Today" column by J. H. H.] ... Shannon Allen, production manager of N.B.C., in Washington, has risen to the defense of "Lights Out," which I took occasion to give space to yesterday. Mr. Allen has nothing whatever to do with the production of "Lights Out" as the midnight hour drama originates in the Chicago studios. But Mr. Allen is first and foremost a production man and instinctively puts up his mitts in behalf of any show which, as he calmly and smilingly maintains, attracts the large audience as does "Lights Out." It seems, among other things, that in missing the opening announcement last Wednesday night, I missed the subtle tongue-in-the-cheek foreword explaining that the half-hour is slightly on the burlesque side, somewhat inclined to be sly hokum. Further, it is spotted at 12:30 a.m. for the express purpose of providing a "lights out" shocker for those who wish to be "shocked." No one has even faintly suggested I lack imagination or am intolerant of any entertainment simply because I do not like it personally. As an example of showmanship, "Lights Out" is tops. I still maintain, however, that it is at fault in dealing with plot situations and climaxes that are stomach-turning. Mr. Allen contends that a "thriller" is not intended to be successful on finely drawn finesses. After all, you, as the composite radio listener, are the judge. And I guess the mass audience likes "Lights Out." ... ________________________________ [June 2, 1936 The Lima News (Ohio) radio column which mentions a 15-minute, 5-day-a-week serial of Cooper's that seems to have run from 06-25-1935 to 12-07-1936] Willis Cooper, author of two dramatic programs, will start for Hollywood soon to begin work on movie scripts. Cooper will continue to write for "Flying Time," an aviation serial, and "Lights Out," a ghost drama. The former is heard over WEAF at 5 p. m. Tuesday and "Lights Out" at 12:30 a. m. Wednesday over the same network. ________________________________ [September 9, 1936 - LA Times] ... It looks like Chicago has moved to Hollywood. Willis Cooper, former Windy City continuity chief, is here authoring the next Shirley Temple picture. ... ________________________________ [June 6, 1937 The Lima News (Ohio) article about Chicago radio headlined "Where Radio Names are Made" -- "Dan Harding's Wife" ran on NBC's Red network from 01-20-1936 to 1939] ... Willis Cooper, former assistant continuity editor is now responsible for the Dan Harding's Wife serial ... ________________________________ [April 7, 1938 The Lowell Sun (Massachusetts) "Notes Over the Air Waves" radio column] ... Brewster Morgan, who takes over production reins from Fred Ibbett on "Hollywood Hotel" May 15, has been signed to a year's contract at a reported salary of $500 a week. He will also collaborate on the scripts with Willis Cooper. ________________________________ [May 22, 1939 - LA Times column headlined "Film Sleuth Now Going 'High Hat'"] ... Super-Super Horror A super-super horror picture -- that's the advance tip on "Friday, the 13th," which Universal schedules with Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff, the screen bogey men, featured. Willis Cooper wrote the yarn which concerns a genial chap who commits a murder every Friday, the 13th. ... ________________________________ [January 8, 1939 - Washington Post radio column] ... "Show of the Week" -- with Ernest Chappell as master of ceremonies, Harry Salter's orchestra and vocalist Buddy Clark -- WOL, 6:30 p. m. ... ________________________________ [November 7, 1940 - Washington Post column "The New Yorker" by Leonard Lyons] ... The first radio serial about conscription will be called "This Man's Army." Wyllis Cooper will write it for N.B.C. ... ________________________________ [December 13, 1940 - Washington Post "Listen! with Glynn" column] "Charlie and Jessie" is the name of the new Columbia network dramatic serial which you'll hear over WJSV Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 11 a.m., starting today. Starred in it will be Donald Cook, of the stage -- his most recent stage hit was "Skylark," with Gertrude Lawrence -- and Florence Lake, of the films -- she's been in "To Mary With Love," "Quality Street," "Love in a Bungalow" and "I Met Love Again." Together they'll portray the adventure of Charlie and Jessie, a newly-married and entirely irresponsible couple who, as the author Wyllis Cooper expresses it, were married in a madhouse and walked down the aisle festooned with haywire. Charlie is a young and ernest advertising man, but a fairly frantic husband. Jessie is an enthusiastic, but somewhat scatterbrained wife. The new series replaces "Short Short Story" and represents an unusual radio development in that listener enthusiasm for what was originally written as a complete-in-one broadcast resulted in its being elongated into the series. The story of "Charlie and Jessie" was an immediate hit and the demand for more of the daffy dramas resulted, establishing them as a thrice-weekly feature on the network. They'll be presented by the same sponsor. [Campbell Soup] To give you an idea of how certain that sponsor is that the series will be a success, look at the date he's starting it on -- Friday the thirteenth! ________________________________ [GOOD NEIGHBORS 1941 Cooper directs and writes this weekly NBC propaganda series about Latin America from 05-22-1941 to 10-16-1941, Thursdays, 10:30 P.M. to 11. Featuring Concert Orchestras (led by Dr. Frank Black, H. Leopold Spitalny, and others), a troupe of twenty actors, and speeches by appropriate Latin American diplomats. In the New York Times radio listings, the program is at first called "Good Neighbors" but, increasingly, the title is simplified as "Salute to _____" with the name of that week's country filling in the blank. Here's a rudimentary log from the NYT and other radio listings:] 05-22 Premiere 05-29 Peru; Don Manuel de Freyre y Santander, Peruvian Ambassador to U.S. 06-05 Argentina; Don Felipe de Espil, Argentine Ambassador to U.S. 06-12 Mexico; Don Francisco Castillo Najero, Mexican Ambassador to U.S. 06-19 Ecuador; Sixto Duran Ballen, Consul General in New York 06-26 Brazil; Fernando Sabota de Madeiros, of Brazilian Embassy 07-03 Venezuela; Don Arturo Lares, Venezuelan Charge d'Affaires 07-10 Colombia; Dr. Gabriel Turbay, Colombian Ambassador to U.S. 07-17 Panama; Julio Briceno, Counselor Panama Embassy 07-24 Chile; Don Rodolfo Michels, Chilean Ambassador to U.S. 07-31 Cuba; Aurelio F. Concheso, Cuban Ambassador to U.S. 08-07 Guatemala; Enrique Lopez-Herrarte, Guatemalan Charge d'Affaires 08-14 Uruguay; No diplomat listed. Concert Orchestra; Soloists. 08-21 El Salvador; Don Hector D. Castro, Minister; Rosita Arguello, Soprano. 08-28 Dominican Republic; Dr. Julio Vega Battle, Charge d'Affaires 09-04 Bolivia; Carlos Dorado, First Secretary of Bolivian Legation 09-11 Nicaragua; Don Leon de Bayle, Nicaraguan Minister 09-18 Honduras; Dr. Julian R. Caceras, Honduran Minister 09-26 Costa Rica; Don Luis Fernandez, Costa Rican Minister 10-02 Paraguay; William W. White, Paraguayan Consul General 10-09 Haiti; Elie Garcia, Secretary Haitian Legation 10-16 Henry Wallace, U.S. Vice President; Niles Trammell, president of NBC; Dr. Manuel de Freyre y Santander, Ambassador of Peru; Albert Spalding, violinist; Emma Otero, Cuban soprano; Dr. Frank Black conducts the NBC Symphony Orchestra in 'a program of music of the Americas, including the "Symphonie Espagnole" of Edouard Lalo, the aria from "Il Guany" and Ernesto Lecuona's "Malaguena." Also broadcast was a synthesis of the works of Archibald MacLeish, librarian of Congress, and Walt Whitman.' [June 2, 1941 - In an article about the series, Time Magazine reports that Cooper changed the spelling of his first name (from "Willis" to "Wyllis") in order "to please his wife's numerological inclinations." That same article also mentions that by the time Cooper left "Lights Out" in '36, the series had inspired around 600 fan clubs and that he had visited one in Kansas City, MO which was so organized that it had officers and by-laws.] ________________________________ [August 26, 1941 Christian Science Monitor "The Mid-Week Dialer" column headlined "Good Neighbor Policy Is Again Emphasized on Air"] ... The Dominican Republic, said to be the first land sighted by Columbus in the Western Hemisphere on his first voyage in 1492, will receive a salute from NBC's "Good Neighbors" program on its tour of the Republics of Latin America on Thursday evening. Dr. Julio Vega Battle, Chargé d'Affaires and First Secretary of the Dominican Embassy at Washington, will speak, and an NBC concert orchestra, under the direction of H. Leopold Spitalny, and a Dominican orchestra will play native tunes. ... The dramatization, prepared by Wyllis Cooper and produced by Charles Schenck, will depict highlights in the history of the Republic. NBC Red network, 10:30. Beamed to Latin America over NBC's International Shortwave stations WARC and WNBI the following day. ... ________________________________ [October 17, 1941 Washington Post article headlined "Radio Lauded For Linking Two Americas"] Vice President Wallace complimented the radio industry last night for playing "a most important part" in "the phenomenal progress which we have witnessed in our inter-American relations during the last decade. " The Vice President spoke at impressive ceremonies broadcast from the Hall of the Americas at the Pan American Union, where an unprecedented testimonial was given by the Latin American diplomatic corps to the National Broadcasting Co. in recognition of N.B.C.'s "Good Neighbors" series of programs. A scroll signed by the ambassadors and ministers of the 20 Latin American countries was presented to Niles Trammell, president of N.B.C., by Dr. Manuel de Freyre y Santander, Ambassador of Peru and dean of the Diplomatic Corps in Washington. Spalding, Otero Soloists The ceremony, which comprised the final program in the "Good Neighbors" series, included a concert by the N.B.C. Symphony Orchestra with Albert Spalding, celebrated United States violinist and Emma Otero, noted Cuban soprano, as soloists. It was dedicated to "all of the Americas." "This inter-American cooperative effort," Wallace said of the N.B.C. series, "is but one example of what has been happening during the past few years in every phase of American life. The phenomenal progress which we have witnessed in our inter-American relations during the last decade is due not only to the efforts of the governments themselves, but also to an awakened public interest in inter-American affairs; and in this the radio companies have played a most important part." Still Task Ahead Nevertheless, Wallace warned, much remains to be done. "If we in America can bring about cooperation in times of peace as well as in war, who can foretell what may be the effect of the example thus given by the American nations upon world affairs after the war in bringing about better understanding among nations?" In order to attain the goal, said Wallace, "we must act in common agreement and realize that the progress of one country in the American family of nations is intimately tied up with the progress of the others." The Peruvian ambassador said the value of the "Good Neighbor" broadcasts "cannot be overemphasized." The symphony orchestra, under direction of Dr. Frank Black, presented a program of music of the Americas, including the "Symphonie Espagnole" of Edouard Lalo, the aria from "Il Guany" and Ernesto Lecuona's "Malaguena." Also broadcast was a synthesis of the works of Archibald MacLeish, librarian of Congress, and Walt Whitman. MacLeish was in the audience. Others who accepted invitations to attend included British Ambassador Halifax and Viscountess Halifax. Ambassadors and Ministers of 19 other countries, Supreme Court Justice and Mrs. Robert H. Jackson, Undersecretary of War and Mrs. Robert P. Patterson, Assistant Secretary of State and Mrs. A. A. Berle, jr., Mrs. Frank Knox, wife of the Secretary of War, and a number of Senators and Representatives. [Photo caption:] "GOOD NEIGHBORS" -- Top -- Emma Otero (center), Cuban soprano, is congratulated on her performance at last night's "Good Neighbors" broadcast by Cristina Michels (left), daughter of the Chilean Ambassador, and Leda Fernandez, daughter of the Minister from Costa Rica. Lower -- Among those attending the concert in the Pan American Union Building were Niles Trammell (left), president of the National Broadcasting Co., and Vice President Wallace. ________________________________ [November 16, 1941 - Washington Post record review headlined "Dickens 'Christmas Carol' Tops Children's Yuletide Albums" by Jay Walz] We turn for a minute to the Children's Corner where a large variety of things are being piled up, possibly for the help of Santa Claus. For example, Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" is done up in an attractive four-disc Victor album which means you can have the famous Yuletide without reading it. Ernest Chappell who has been associated with the annual radio broadcast of the carol for several years, adapted and produced the piece for the records. He also narrates it with the help of a score of actors and musicians. It is all done with the utmost sympathy for the Christmas spirit, with the appropriate exception of the part of Scrooge who is played most villainously by Eustace Wyatt, Lew White supplements traditional Christmas tunes with original music, and plays it all on the organ. The album, G-29, is listed at $3.50. [Chappell - a supernatural story - and organ music? Sounds like a blueprint for QP.] Mr. Chappell has another Christmas album, "The Christmas Adventure of Billy and Betty" (two discs). Only this time Chappell (Daddy) does most of the listening, while little Betty Philson does the story telling, which isn't a bad idea, as it works out. ... ________________________________ [SPIRIT OF '41 / SPIRIT OF '42 In late 1941, early 1942, Cooper travels the country as a contributor to this half-hour CBS documentary-propaganda series about war preparations. Apparently, Cooper leaves the series in March to work on "The Army Hour." 12-28-1941 Series title changes to SPIRIT OF '42] ________________________________ [March 1, 1942 - Washington Post "Today's Radio Highlights" column] ... 2 [p.m.], WJSV -- Fort Benning's Officers Candidate School, how it functions and its importance, occupies Spirit of '42 with Brewster Morgan, Wyllis Cooper and Rush Hughes. ... ________________________________ [April 5, 1942 - Washington Post article headlined "This Is the Army Hour -- A War Department Presentation" by Richard L. Coe] The Army Hour begins this afternoon at 3:30 on WRC. This precedent-shattering program marks the first time the United States War Department has written and produced a radio program to accomplish a military mission. That mission is "to serve as a reference point to which the American people can turn each week to find out what their Army is doing and how they, the civilians, can best work to help the fighting men." Shortwave will bring the Army Hour to an Army scattered over the face of the earth as well as to the men and civilians on the home front. Its purpose is clearcut: to give an informative view of the war as the War Department sees it. United Nations leaders will take part in the series, speaking from all parts of the globe; their identities will be military secrets previous to their appearance, so as not to give advance hint to the enemy of their whereabouts. "If, for example," says the program's author, Wyllis Cooper, "we announced that Gen. MacArthur was to broadcast from a certain place at a specific date, we'd be courting bombs from the Japs. Listeners, though, can expect quite a few surprises in the roster of men who will be heard during the series." Other features of each Army Hour will include pickups from training centers in the United States, Australia, Hawaii, Ireland, Iceland and the Caribbean to show the development of our armed forces. Each program will normally close with an on-the-spot broadcast from one of America's great national shrines, such as the Lincoln Memorial, Arlington National Cemetery, Independence Hall and Monticello. This portion of the broadcast usually will include dramatic and musical features. The War Department makes specific point of the fact that this is an official, Government-sponsored series, written and produced entirely by the United States Army. This gives the one-network Army Hour a decided advantage over the confusing position of the four-network This Is War! in the background of which lurks the shadow of the Office of Facts and Figures but which on the surface is a program promoted privately by the four important networks. This openly official character should give The Army Hour the clarity whose lack has vitiated This Is War! so frequently. Author Wyllis Cooper is an Army man from way back to his seventeenth year. He began as a bugler in 1916, chased bandits down along the Mexican border when things weren't so friendly, was wounded on the Somme, gassed in the Argonne, served in the Army of occupation in Germany and returned to this country for work with the Army Intelligence. In 1933 he retired as a Captain in the National Guard. Shortly before that he began radio work, entering through advertising. He did a pack of dramatic series, most notable of which were the Lights Out chillers beside which contemporary hair-raisers fall back into a neat part. Arch Oboler finally succeeded Cooper in this when the latter went to Hollywood for assignments that ranged from Shirley Temple to Frankenstein. Last year he went back to the more serious side of radio writing, authoring the Good Neighbors series of N.B.C. which, practically speaking, prepared him for a return to the Army and The Army Hour. Now 43, paunchy Cooper has given up all other chores for his new task. He's been covering the country for the past eight months as civilian correspondent with all Army maneuvers. He rode tanks in Louisiana and lay in the Carolina mud. He boasts that he's tried out every vehicle on the Army's list -- from jeep to bomber. As your own tribute on the eve of Army Day, why not hear what the Army's got to say? ________________________________ [April 4, 1943 New York Times article headlined: "THE ARMY HOUR: A YEAR OF SUNDAYS" - Article is accompanied by photo with caption which reads: "Colonel R. Ernest DePuy, who presents the weekly news summary on the Army Hour (Sundays, 3:30 P. M. to 4:30, WEAF-NBC)."] At 3:30 P. M. today, and for an hour thereafter, there will go winging across the country -- and later, by shortwave, around the world -- the program known as the Army Hour, which has been making this trip for just a year of Sundays. It was on April 5, 1942, that "the Army's own show" was launched over WEAF-NBC, since which time it has acquired a reputation as one of the very best of government radio shows. More than 3,000,000 American radio-equipped homes, or 39 per cent of those having sets in operation during the Army Hour's sixty minutes, are tuned into this program, the government estimates. Platform The reason for this popularity might just be that the Army Hour began with a sound, businesslike idea and has stayed with it. Among the objectives it has kept in mind are these: -- The American people should have a weekly opportunity to hear about the progress of the war in the Army's own words. The welfare of the sons, brothers and fathers who have gone into the service is the Army's principal public relations problem. The global aspect of the war must be emphasized; ditto the relationship of the home front and the fighting fronts. The enemy's attempt to create mistrust among the United Nations must be counter-attacked. With increasing America[n] casualties, our dead are to be honored with reverence, but without sentimentality. Standing on that platform, and described by Secretary of War Stimson at its première as "a military operation of the United States," the Army Hour was off on a career that has included: Three hundred and one field broadcasts, of which sixty-nine originated in fifteen foreign countries and 232 in the Continental United States (thirty-two states and the District of Columbia). Special messages by 216 speakers (186 United States speakers, thirty Allied representatives). A total of 144 broadcasts from ninety-one military installations, chiefly from Army posts and stations. Forty-seven demonstrations of weapons -- three by the Army Service Forces, six by the Army Air Forces, eighteen by the Army Ground Forces and twenty other demonstrations of weapons common to all branches. From the beginning, the program has represented something like a triumph of radio technique. Indeed, so smoothly are the complex "remote-pickups" handled that probably only a small minority of listeners appreciate the engineering and organizational problems that are surmounted by the Army working in collaboration with the National Broadcasting Company. A speech from London, a report from Cairo, an interview from Sydney, a demonstration of thirty planes in flight, aerial gunnery training in Texas, a special new war song from New York -- all this, on one show, takes some doing. A single "remote" broadcast within the United States calls for an announcer, a production director, an engineer, at least one microphone, a field telephone direct to Radio City. When the program goes overseas, channels must be cleared, tests conducted, cues exchanged and important information cleared by the censors. In a year there have only been a few hitches, and those were due to bad reception and other unavoidable circumstances. On the other hand, the highly dramatic moments have been many, doubtless topped by Captain Eddie Rickenbacker's heroic saga of the South Seas. Others, to name only a few among a wide range of speakers whom Army Hour listeners have heard, were Generalissimo and Mme. Chiang Kai-shek, Irving Berlin, Joe Louis. Among general officers the major generals have been heard most often -- twenty-five of them -- and, among field officers, the colonels lead the list with fifty-eight. Wyllis Cooper is the writer-producer of the program. ________________________________ [January 2, 1944 - brief Washington Post article headlined "Penicillin Provided For Claudia Morgan"] New York, Jan. 1 (INS). -- Claudia Morgan, daughter of Frank Morgan, screen star, and a radio star in her own right, was critically ill of pneumonia in Lenox Hill Hospital tonight. An allotment of penicillin was obtained for her. Miss Morgan was married to Ernest Chappell, radio announcer, last May. He said that her blood is of a type not susceptible to the customary sulfa treatment. ________________________________ [December 24, 1944 - Washington Post article headlined "Big Christmas Programs Ready for Radio Listeners"] ... At 10:15 Ernest Chappell will read Dickens' "A Christmas Carol." [on Mutual-WOL] ... ________________________________ [But that same day, December 24, 1944, in a Washington Post column headlined "Selected Listening For Today":] ... "A Christmas Carol" will be dramatized. Everett Sloane plays Scrooge in this Ernest Chappell version of Dickens' book. WOL--10:15 p. m. ... ________________________________ [August 31, 1947 - Washington Post "Radio in Review" column by John Crosby, refers to the lost QP episode "A Mile High and a Mile Deep"] ... "Quiet, Please" The author and director of a fairly new and rather unusual dramatic series called "Quiet, Please" is Wyllis Cooper and the principal actor and narrator is Ernest Chappell. These two make an excellent team and between them they have given this series a personality all its own. Cooper writes fanciful stories, some of them dripping deeply into the grotesque, which consistently quiver with suspense. There was a recent one in which two young men, the sons of prosperous mining executives in Butte, Mont., tagged along with a group of politicians on an inspection trip of the mines. They descended 3700 feet. When the time came to return, the cage was quickly filled with politicians and went up to the surface without them. The two boys were left alone 3700 feet down. One boy named Lincoln had been in and out of the mines many times; the other, Louis, had never been down there and was scared to death. To reassure his timorous friend while waiting for the cage to return for them, Lincoln invited him to proceed down a passage about 20 feet from the elevator shaft and inspect an odd and totally unexplainable tunnel. Apparently it had been there for centuries 3700 feet straight down, and the strangest part of all was the fact the shaft was covered with what looked like Indian hieroglyphics. While looking over the Indian pictures, though they were only 20 feet from the elevator shaft, the boys found themselves inexplicably lost, their miners' lamps blown out. Soon they were several hundred miles into the earth, led by a spectral figure. I don't think I'll tell you any more than that. After that, the story began to dissolve a little bit into total malarkey. However, it is Cooper's gift to lead you into these macabre stories so skillfully that you don't really mind his denouements. "Quiet, Please" is broadcast at 10 p. m. (EDT) over the Mutual Broadcasting System (WOL) on Sundays. ... ________________________________ [October 5, 1947 - brief publicity blurb in The Washington Post headlined "How to Get Rid Of That Salesman" about the QP episode "Be a Good Dog, Darling"] There's more than one way to skin a cat and to get rid of a book salesman, too. Wyllis Cooper, who kills people weekly with his pen on "Quiet Please" (WOL-Mutual, Wednesdays) got a persistent encyclopedia salesman off his mind by changing him into a dog in one of his scripts. Unfortunately, he also had to buy the books to make the matter permanent. ________________________________ ["Student Plagiarists Make Hay With Free Radio Scripts" by Hal Boyle - This syndicated article appeared in various papers. This version is from The Berkshire Evening Eagle, December 22, 1947] NEW YORK (AP)--Wyllis Cooper is helping a lot of kids through college -- and he doesn't like it. His doctor tells him he shouldn't get excited, but everytime Cooper thinks about how the students are milking him his blood pressure goes up like an Arizona thermometer in August. Here is how enterprising young scholars across the land capitalize on Cooper, author of "Quiet Please," a weekly half-hour dramatic show on the Mutual network. "They write in fan letters to the network saying they enjoyed the program and asking for a copy of the script. When they get it, they stick in a few 'he saids' and 'she saids,' and turn it into their English classes as original themes. "Most of them don't even have energy or brains enough to change the names of the characters." What angers Cooper and other bigtime radio writers even more than this collegiate petty larceny is "the plagiarism extant in radio itself today -- by people on small isolated waffle-iron stations who ask for scripts, of your shows, then change them only slightly and broadcast them as their own." He said many broadcasters were beginning to combat this "idea thievery" by curtly refusing most pleas for program scripts. Cooper specializes in radio drama, an art which he thinks many writers abuse "by trying to cut their stories in the same old corny pattern." Phrases for Ear It is lonely, exacting work, this framing phrases tuned to give a picture to the ear rather than the eye. "My definition of a writer is a man who hates to write," Cooper said. He speaks with bitter knowledge. For a quarter of a century he has been putting clean white sheets of paper into his typewriter and pulling them out again all broke out with high-priced prose. He wrote "Son of Frankenstein" and several "Mr. Moto" scripts for the movies, but he prefers radio writing. He originated the NBC "Lights Out" mystery series and also wrote scores of NBC "Army Hour" scripts in wartime. "In 1935 I wrote 18 shows a week for a year -- all original stuff," he said. That required an output of 30,000 words every seven days, each conceived in pain and delivered in anguish. Cooper now writes in a small Greenwich Village hotel room he rents for the purpose. He recalled how a friend once tried to help Bob Benchley out of the periodic creative paralysis all writers get at times. "He told Benchley to sit down and write the word 'the' on a sheet of paper and the rest would be easy," Cooper smiled. "Benchley tried it. He typed out 'the' and sat staring at it for two hours. Then he typed 'hell with it' -- and got up and left." ________________________________ [Monday, March 22, 1948 - The Era, Bradford, PA.] 9:30 P. M. -- QUIET PLEASE -- Another Wyllis Cooper Thriller. ... ... Wyllis Cooper, writer-director of Mutual's weird "Quiet Please" air tales, has titled tonight's 9:30 to 10 p. m. offering "A Night to Forget." The story describes the plight of a man who wishes he could forget, but can't. Ernest Chappell will play the role of the man faced with this strange dilemma. ________________________________ [Monday, June 7, 1948 - The Era, Bradford, PA.] Electronic microscopes are said to magnify objects to approximately 20,000 times their normal size. However Wyllis Cooper, writer-director of Mutual's "Quiet Please" fantasy series has constructed one that magnifies up to "100,000 diameters" which he'll audibly display on tonight's broadcast at 9:30. Ernest Chappell is cast as a scientist who sees too much through the lens. ________________________________ [Monday, July 19, 1948 - The Era, Bradford, PA.] 9:30 P. M. -- QUIET PLEASE -- A drama written especially for the radio. ... A whirlwind of swift, unique and terrible revenge engulfs narrator Ernest Chappell during tonight's "Quiet Please" presentation entitled "As Long As I Live" at 9:30 over WESB. The story, created by Wyllis Cooper, once again finds Chappell in a chilling dilemma. ________________________________ [Monday, August 9, 1948 - The Era, Bradford, PA.] Fourble board! Doubletalk? No, it's just oilmen's lingo for the platform half-way up the derrick holding oil well drills. And it's "The Thing On the Fourble Board" that provides Wyllis Cooper, writer-director of Mutual's "Quiet Please" series with a story of a haunted oil well during tonight's chill-cast at 9:30 over WESB. Ernest Chappell is narrator. ________________________________ [June 3, 1950 - Associated Press item in Washington Post] "The Pay-Off," Wells Robinson's prize-winning play in the CBS Awards competition for original drama scripts by collegiate writers, will be presented on "Stage 13" over CBS-TV (WOIC) Wednesday at 9:30 p.m. Robinson, a 26-year-old former G.I. undergraduate at the University of North Carolina, is majoring in radio and has produced successful broadcasts for the university's communications center. "The Pay-Off," an exercise in the integration of plot and character, tells the story of two miserly spinster sisters whose avarice proves their undoing. The script attracted the interest of Wyllis Cooper, producer of "Stage 13," widely known for his origination of such series as "Lights Out," "Volume 1" and "Escape," when announcement was made of the prize award to Robinson. "Stage 13," a new series launched in April, is devoted to dramas of fanciful adventure and mystery. ________________________________ [June 11, 1950 - Associated Press item in Washington Post column headlined "Adelphi to Conduct Radio Festival"] The summer radio and television workshop of Adelphi College, Garden City, New York, will hold an International Radio Festival July 5 to August 15. Among the personalities scheduled to lecture at the festival are Robert Q. Lewis, star of the radio-TV "The Show Goes On" and "ABC's of Music"; Wyllis Cooper, director-producer-writer of "Stage 13"; and Joseph Liss, writer for "Studio One," "Suspense" and other radio and television shows. ________________________________ [October 1950 "Radio In Review" column by John Crosby, possibly refers to QP episode "Bring Me to Life" or to a similar "Lights Out" episode] On Lights Out, the N.B.C.-TV show, a couple of weeks ago, a disfigured playwright locked himself in a tenement of an office to write a play. He created a couple of characters, as playwrights do, but these characters, unlike those of, say, Robert E. Sherwood, instantly sprang into existence in his dirty little office. One was a blind girl. The playwright had deliberately created her that way so she couldn't see his maimed face. Love ensued. The other character was her brother, a reptilian individual, who was the playwright's self or Inner Self, or something like that. I forget how it ended. The other day on Stars Over Hollywood, a TV show filmed in Hollywood, another author set himself down in an old New England town to write a novel about the Puritans and was immediately confronted by a Puritan girl who had been dead for 289 years. She wanted her diary back. The author, as authors will, was shamefully pilfering ideas from it. He kissed her, her first kiss since 1668, and all sorts of complications arose. I bring it all up now because the device of authors creating characters who suddenly loom up in front of the typewriter had better be given a rest for a while. Years ago, Wyllis Cooper did the same thing on the old Lights Out, the radio version. On this one, a radio writer created a bunch of pirates who chased him all over the house. And, of course, Pirandello experimented with the same thing in Six Characters in Search of an Author. (Nowadays they find the author.) ... ________________________________ [March 30, 1951 - LA Times - "Drama" column by Edwin Schallert] ... FU MANCHU DUE FOR RETURN TO SCREEN Herbert Bayard Swope Jr., who produces "Lights Out" for TV in New York and who expects to enter picturemaking, has acquired the rights to Sax Rohmer stories for the video medium as well as the screen. He intends to inaugurate a new series of Fu Manchu features, these having been very popular in the past, and has Writer Wyllis Cooper working on both the TV and film features. ... ________________________________ [New York Herald Tribune "Radio and Television" column by John Crosby, which appeared in The Washington Post, July 27, 1955, headlined "Both Mediums Will Miss This Talentd Artist" refers to two QP episodes: "Motive" and "Never Send to Know"] Broke and all but forgotten by the industry to which he had devoted his life, Wyllis Cooper died last month, mourned only by a small coterie of admirers who considered him one of the few genuine creative talents radio ever produced. If he will be remembered at all, it will be chiefly for his eerie radio series, "Lights Out," and later "Quiet, Please." But he was far more versatile than that. In radio for 27 years, Cooper had turned out more dialogue than a truck driver could lift. Not many remember "Immortal Dramas," one of the great radio series of all time, based on bible stories, written, directed and produced by Cooper. These had tremendous casts, symphony orchestra and a cappella choir -- but in those days actors worked for money they wouldn't pay a baby sitter now. Cooper also created one of the first radio adventure series, "Tales of the Foreign Legion," with Don Ameche in the lead, and later he wrote and produced one of the first domestic comedy shows, "Charlie and Jessie." In this period he was also a redoubtable script doctor. Whenever some writer had written his actors into a corner -- that is, got them into a situation he couldn't get them out of, he'd call on Cooper. Cooper could get anyone out of anything. He was a tireless innovator and a good many of the devices which are standard routines in radio drama and TV drama (some of them have even filtered into the movies), were invented by Cooper. He invented the stream of consciousness style of telling a story. A man would open saying: "Oh, the heat! The heat! I can't stand it ..." and end up killing his wife. He always loved sound effects, and he used them long before the experts took over and made a science of it. Never a man to be squeamish, Cooper would have somebody break chicken bones to sound like human bones, or break an egg to sound like somebody's eye being splashed out. If necessary, he'd build a gallows, and once he dropped a sound man through a real gallows to get the proper sound. He had a million ideas about radio acting, and the old-timers who worked with him had some memorable experiences. He had actors walking around darkened studios, acting out their parts into different mikes, rather than just standing there. Way back in 1932 he was talking about binaural effects -- placing two speakers at opposite ends of a room. Even today that's considered avant garde. His stories dwelt heavily on the macabre, which he diluted with strong doses of puckish humor. I recall one about a private detective named Kramer who opens with: "I wouldn't be caught dead in an alley with a derby hat. I have a 45 calibre automatic which I never call a roscoe or a rod. I have never been called a private eye." The story was about a timid Casper Milquetoast of a ghost who wanted Kramer to find out who murdered him. The murderer turned out to be Kramer himself in a drunken brawl of such small moment that both murderer and murderee had clean forgotten it. They were that kind of story - satire, slightly morbid, definitely offbeat. As radio got to be big business, less of an art form, there was less and less room for him to experiment, less patience with the offbeat. Always a stubborn man, Cooper would not yield to convention, would not alter his convictions. At the close of his life, he was almost out of the industry to which he had contributed so much altogether. ________________________________ [January 7, 1973 Washington Post "Radio: The Lost Medium" by Michael Kernan] ... True radio technique was pioneered by Wyllis Cooper, whose midnight horror show, "Lights Out," was taken over in 1935 by Arch Oboler. ... Reached last week at his home in Malibu, Oboler said he now works in TV and radio -- he has just completed work on a 3-D film -- but still regrets the radio days. "It was a great art form, and we didn't know it at the time," he said, "I think Cooper was the first to realize this. ... " ________________________________ Miami Herald, The (FL) - July 6, 1983 ERNEST CHAPPELL, 80, VETERAN RADIO-TV ANNOUNCER Veteran radio and television announcer Ernest Chappell has died after suffering a stroke last month at his home. He was 80. Famed for his deep, pleasantly firm voice, Mr. Chappell, who was retired, was best known as the spokesman for Pall Mall cigarets, for whom he worked 27 years. He also was the host and star of "Quiet, Please," a radio mystery series in 1947-48. He died Monday. Memorial services will be Thursday. A broadcasting pioneer whose career spanned more than 50 years, Mr. Chappell began in radio production in 1926 in his native Syracuse, N.Y. Shortly afterward, he moved to New York City to continue as a producer for a young radio network now known as CBS. Later "Chappie," as his friends called him, became one of the top announcers in the golden era of network radio in the 1930s and 1940s. He also was a newscaster in the early days of the Mutual Broadcasting System. At his request, his body will be cremated, according to his widow, Helen. ________________________________ Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA) - July 6, 1983 Deceased Name: Ernest Chappell Ernest Chappell, 80, a veteran of 50 years in radio and television announcing, died Monday at his home in North Palm Beach, Fla. He had suffered a stroke. A spokesman for Pall Mall cigarettes for 27 years, he was host and star of a number of programs, including "Quiet Please," a mystery series. Memorial services will be held Thursday in North Palm Beach. ________________________________ Chicago Tribune (IL) - July 06, 1983 Deceased Name: Ernest Chappell NORTH PALM BEACH, Fla. [AP] -- Ernest Chappell, 80, veteran radio and television announcer, died Monday, a month after suffering a stroke. With his deep, pleasantly firm voice, Chappell was best known as the spokesman for Pall Mall cigarettes, for whom he worked 27 years. He also was the host and star of "Quiet, Please," a radio mystery series in 1947-48. A broadcasting pioneer whose career spanned more than 50 years, Chappell was a charter union member of the American Federation of Radio Artists, which later became the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. A GRADUATE of Syracuse University, he began in radio production in 1926 in his native Syracuse, N.Y. Shortly afterward, he moved to New York City to continue as a producer for a young radio network now known as CBS. Later, "Chappie," as his friends called him, became one of the top announcers in the golden era of network radio in the 1930s and 1940s, working on leading variety and dramatic shows. PHOTO CAPTION: Ernest Chappell in 1942 ________________________________ Boston Globe, The (MA) - July 8, 1983 Deceased Name: ERNEST CHAPPELL, 80;\ RADIO, TV ANNOUNCER\ ASSOCIATED PRESS NORTH PALM BEACH, Fla. - Veteran radio and television announcer Ernest Chappell died Monday after suffering a stroke last month at home. He was 80. Famed for his deep, pleasantly firm voice, Mr. Chappell, who was retired, was best known as the spokesman for Pall Mall cigarettes, for whom he worked 27 years. He also was the host and star of "Quiet, Please," a radio mystery series in 1947-48. Memorial services were yesterday. Mr. Chappell was a broadcasting pioneer whose career spanned more than 50 years. "Chappie," as his friends called him, became one of the top announcers in the golden era of network radio in the 1930s and 1940s, working on leading variety and dramatic shows. He also was a newscaster in the early days of the Mutual Broadcasting System. He leaves his wife, Helen; three daughters, Susan, Barbara and Marilyn; a son, James; two stepdaughters, Olivia and Pamela; 15 grandchildren and one great-grandson. ________________________________ [Feb 23, 1986 article from the Chicago Tribune SUNDAY MAGAZINE in FINAL EDITION, section C, pg. 7, headlined "Way We Were / A look at Chicago's past / '30S 'LIGHTS OUT' WAS A SHINING HALF HOUR IN RADIO HORROR" by Bob Hughes. For some reason, Arch Oboler's name is spelled incorrectly throughout.] Turn off the lights. Turn on the radio. Now sit with your back to the radio, alone in the dark. And listen to a sinister voice tell you that something ... something ... is creeping up behind you ... reaching for your neck ... but don't turn around .... And then, suddenly ... . But that would give away one of the terrifying taped episodes of "Lights Out," a radio show that originated in Chicago and chilled the blood of listeners for several years. "Lights Out" debuted on April 17, 1935, as a 15-minute show on NBC's Red Network out of Chicago but was so popular that it was expanded to a half hour. It ran until Aug. 16, 1939, according to Chuck Schaden, host of WNIB-FM radio's "Those Were the Days" show and WBBM-AM's "Radio Classics." 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. The spirits, ghouls and other minions of evil on "Lights Out" were very real to the regular fans, who often literally turned out their lights and sat close to each other in the dark to listen. Such masters of the macabre as Hollywood's Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre appeared in episodes, as did a whole host of talented shrieking and screaming local dramatic personnel. A column about radio in The Tribune in 1936 notes that one local star of the show, Sidney Ellstrom, "has been put to death in the show more than 100 times. And his endings have all been grisly and gruesome. He's been skinned alive, boiled in oil, devoured by a man-eating jungle plant, strangled by a vampire. He has been drowned, electrocuted, poisoned, buried alive, decapitated and dismembered." Another column notes that hard-boiled fans after one episode accused Cooper of "going soft." The previous night's episode had been too tame, they charged. The episode "concerned a guy harassed by his subconscious mind and wound up mildly with three suicides," the columnist related, noting that Cooper admitted it was not quite up to standard. [Apparently, the episode is "Man in the Middle," a version of which survives from the 1945 revival season of "Lights Out"] Cooper "brooded for several days," then cooked up a "masterpiece of fiendishness" which he called, "Sepulzeda's Revenge." "It will satisfy all who insist on HORROR with capital letters," Cooper said. "In this one," the columnist recounted, "Cooper warms up on a cleaver and trunk murder and tops it off with an episode in which a husband beheads his wife." Jules Herbuveaux, 88, former vice president of the National Broadcasting Company and first general manager of radio station WMAQ, remembers "Lights Out" as "a good, scary show." He notes that radio writing can sound somewhat stylistic and stilted, compared with television drama. In a radio show, a character might have to say, "Hand me that wrench over there. I've got to get this bolt loose." (GRUNT!) (SCREECH). On television, there's no need for such a monologue. The viewer sees the wrench and the bolt and the effort it takes to loosen it ... and thereby gains realism but loses what can only be created by personal imagination, Herbuveaux says. No picture can convey the horror expressed by the doctor who enters a room to find a man turned inside out by "The Dark," while a crazed hag laughs in the background, or his scream of terror when the creeping dark engulfs him. The sound-effects man played a more important role on "Lights Out" than on most radio shows. Herbuveaux chuckles as he recalls one "who was the first man to drop a pumpkin off a 12-foot stepladder onto a concrete slab to simulate a body hitting the pavement." Probably one of the sound man's triumphs on "Lights Out" came when a dentist strapped down a patient and drilled his teeth away--without anesthetic --in revenge for some atrocity the miscreant had visited upon a young wife named Mary. The sound of the drill was most compelling. In 1942 Obeler revived the show in New York, over CBS. It went off the air in 1946 but returned adapted for television from 1949 to 1952, Schaden says. The most famous of all "Lights Out" programs -- the one most listeners recall -- had overtones of Orson Welles' "War of the Worlds." It involved a chicken heart that ran amok in a scientist's laboratory ... beating ... beating ... and doubling in size every hour until the pulsating organ burst out of its building, engulfed the town and threatened to engulf the world. Efforts to stop it were too little and too late. ________________________________ Springfield News-Leader (MO) - January 31, 1999 Deceased Name: Albert J. "Bert" Buhrman Albert J. "Bert" Buhrman, Jr., 83, Springfield, a professional musician, died at 5:45 p.m. Friday in St. John's Regional Health Center. Arrangements will be announced by Gorman-Scharpf Brentwood Chapel. |
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| Ownership | MS |
| Views | 9,777 views. Averaging 1 view per day. |
| Submission Date | May 23, 2004 |