Wyllis Cooper

Wyllis Oswald Cooper (January 26, 1899 - June 22, 1955) was a writer during the golden age of radio. He is best remembered for creating and writing the programs Lights Out and Quiet, Please. Image File history File links Wcooper. ... January 26 is the 26th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1899 (MDCCCXCIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... June 22 is the 173rd day of the year (174th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 192 days remaining. ... 1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Ad for an Atwater Kent radio receiver in the Ladies Home Journal (September, 1926) Old-Time Radio (OTR) and the Golden Age of Radio are phrases used to refer to radio programs (audio theater) mainly broadcast, in the USA, during the 1920s through the late 1950s. ... Wyllis Cooper Lights Out was an American old-time radio program featuring tales of the supernatural and the supernormal. ... Quiet, Please! was an old-time radio fantasy and horror program created by Wyllis Cooper, also known for creating Lights Out. ...

Biography

Born Willis Oswald Cooper in Pekin, Illinois, 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 border. In 1917 he became a part of the Signal Corps and was sent to France during World War I. While in France he was gassed at the Meusse-Argonne Offensive 1. He remained on active duty until 1919 when he left to become an advertising writer, though he maintained his reserve status. Pekin is a city in Tazewell County, Illinois. ... The United States Cavalry was a horse-mounted cavalry force that existed in various forms between 1775 to 1942. ... The Signal Corps is a military branch, usually subordinate to a countrys army. ... Combatants Allied Powers: Russian Empire France British Empire Italy United States Central Powers: Austria-Hungary German Empire Ottoman Empire Bulgaria Commanders Nicholas II Aleksei Brusilov Georges Clemenceau Joseph Joffre Ferdinand Foch Herbert Henry Asquith Douglas Haig John Jellicoe Victor Emmanuel III Luigi Cadorna Armando Diaz Woodrow Wilson John Pershing Franz...

By the late 1920s he was writing advertising copy in Chicago 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, which he also directed. Airing at midnight, the program quickly earned a reputation for its gory deaths and sound effects. This article is about Illinois largest city. ... Radio broadcasts have been a popular entertainment since the 1910s, though popularity has declined a little in some countries since television became widespread. ... Wyllis Cooper Lights Out was an American old-time radio program featuring tales of the supernatural and the supernormal. ...

The show would prove to be a long-term success, but in 1936 he resigned from NBC and moved to Hollywood, California, where he worked as a screenwriter for various film studios. He wrote the screenplay for the 1939 film Son Of Frankenstein (which introduced the character of "Ygor") and contributed to a few of the Mr. Moto films. At the same time, he continued to provide radio scripts for various series including Hollywood Hotel. Greetings from Hollywood Hollywood is a district of the city of Los Angeles, California, U.S.A., that extends from Vermont Avenue on the east to just beyond Laurel Canyon Boulevard above Sunset and Crescent Heights Boulevards on the west; the north to south boundary east of La Brea Avenue... Son of Frankenstein is a horror film made by Universal Studios in 1939 and directed by Rowland V. Lee. ... Faithful Igor, serving Dr. Frankenstein since 1939 Igor or Egor is the traditional stock character or cliché hunch-backed lab assistant to the mad scientist, familiar from many horror movies and horror movie parodies. ... Mr. ...

Arch Oboler, 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, writing, "Radio drama (as distinguished from theatre 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 Cooper."[1] Arch Oboler was a writer, producer, director active in both radio and television. ... Radio drama is a form of audio storytelling broadcast on radio. ... Serge Sudeikins poster for the Bat Theatre (1922). ...

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 sponsored successor of Orson Welles' Mercury Theater. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The Campbell Playhouse was a sponsored continuation of the Mercury Theater on the Air, a direct result of the instant publicity from the War of the Worlds panic. ... George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American theatre and film producer and director, and a theatre, radio and film actor. ... See Mercury Theatre ...

During World War II, 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. Combatants Major Allied powers: United Kingdom Soviet Union United States France Republic of China and others Major Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Charles de Gaulle Chiang Kai-Shek Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hirohito Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead...

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, which began over the Mutual Broadcasting System network but which later moved to ABC. Quiet, Please! was an old-time radio fantasy and horror program created by Wyllis Cooper, also known for creating Lights Out. ... The Mutual Broadcasting System (MBS) was an American radio network, in operation from 1934 to 1999. ... The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) operates television and radio networks in the United States and is also shown on basic cable in Canada. ...

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 at Scotland Yard, it featured an allegedly all-British cast and told stories inspired by artifacts held by the famous London crime museum. Cooper's show competed with a similar program (hosted by Orson Welles), which ran on Mutual in 1952. The Black Museum of Scotland Yard was a collection of criminal memorabilia kept at the headquarters of Londons Metropolitan Police. ... New Scotland Yard, London New Scotland Yard, it blowwsssss often referred to simply as Scotland Yard or The Yard, is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service, responsible for policing Greater London (although not the City of London itself). ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ...

As television became the dominant entertainment medium, Cooper experimented with various programs including a series he wrote and produced called Volume One.

Cooper died in High Bridge, New Jersey on June 22, 1955. High Bridge highlighted in Hunterdon County. ...

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 Digest, May 1949