QUIET, PLEASE

OLD TIME RADIO - CD - 92 mp3 - Total Time: 42:12:54   

Quiet, Please aired from June 8th of 1947 through June 20th of 1949. Until September 13th of 1948 it was featured on the Mutual Broadcasting System, and after that it moved to ABC. It is considered by many to be among the most uniquely creative series in history.
The creative forces behind the series were Wyllis Cooper (creator, writer, director) and Ernest Chappell (featured actor). Cooper was not at all new to radio drama when he began work on Quiet, Please. He teamed with John Housman in writing the scripts for the final season of Mercury Theatre on the Air (by then called Campbell Playhouse), and in 1934 created the popular horror series Lights Out. Although significantly different in style, and although Arch Obler took over in 1936, Lights Out had a similar goal. Both series seek to chill the listener through a completely immersing personal experience. The titles and introductory sequences of each series indicate the desired immersion -- the listener is expected to shut off distracting outside stimuli, such as light and sound, in order to fully concentrate on the unfolding story. Lights Out introQuiet, Please introIn both series, the introductions set a slow, dark, and mysterious mood.

Although Chappell had previously been a newsman and announcer, with no significant acting credits, he was perfectly suited to his Quiet, Please roles. The series did not feature him in action-oriented roles, but rather as a dramatic storyteller. Chappell introduces a story The credits for most episodes describe Chappell as "the man who spoke to you." The conversational approach is a major way in which the series accomplishes the difficult task of thoroughly immersing the listener into the story. By speaking directly to the radio audience, Chappell gives the listener a role in the unfolding plot. Chappell's character speaks to the radio audience The scripts manage to accomplish the difficult task of incorporating a character into the story without using any dialog, leaving each individual listener to fill in their own lines as they see fit. Although usually the main plot occurs in flashbacks described by Chappell's character, the audience is often involved in the crucial moments.
Quiet, Please is a creative series, but it's consistently creative -- there's continuity in the creativity. A regular listener knew before turning on the radio that the story would have the distinctive style of both Cooper and Chappell imprinted upon it. Every week, Chappell's stream of consciousness narrative would examine a world similar to our own, but not quite real -- one convincingly like our own, but with a touch of the supernatural. Calling All Souls The same indescribable sense of emotion would end each episode, concluding with a few seconds of silence followed by the slow strands of Cesar Franck's Symphony in D Minor. Symphony in D Minor Not the least of the reasons for the consistent quality of the series is that Cooper and Chappell worked well together, having already been close friends before the series began. No doubt Chappell's familiarity with Cooper helped him to better understand the characters he was portraying, while in turn Cooper was able to write characters with knowledge of the strengths of the person who would be acting the parts.

One of the most extraordinary features of the series is the depth of characterization. Each week Ernest Chappell portrays a different unique person with a complex background. Extraordinary research goes into describing every career in detail -- from railroad men to mountain climbers and oil rig workers and archeologists and soldiers. Archeologist speaks The detailed specialized information helps to produce a more thoroughly convincing and immersing world.

Quiet, Please is a unique accomplishment in the art of radio drama. Often an intense surrealistic experience, it challenges the usual formula of entertainment. Now, more than half a century after the series went off the air, the brilliance of Wyllis Cooper and Ernest Chappell continues to entertain and stretch the minds of people around the world via the internet.

See the listen section to sample a random episode. See episodes to read about and/or download each particular episode of the series. If you have any questions, ask them at the forum.
 

SHOWS LIST

Quiet Please 47-06-08 (001) Nothing Behind the Door
Quiet Please 47-06-15 (002) I've Been Looking for You
Quiet Please 47-06-22 (003) We Were Here First
Quiet Please 47-06-29 (004) The Ticket Taker
Quiet Please 47-07-20 (005) Cornelia
Quiet Please 47-07-27 (006) I Remember Tomorrow
Quiet Please 47-08-03 (007) Inquest
Quiet Please 47-08-10 (008) Bring Me to Life
Quiet Please 47-09-10 (014) How Are You, Pal
Quiet Please 47-09-22 (016) Be a Good Dog, Darling
Quiet Please 47-10-06 (018) Not Enough Time
Quiet Please 47-10-13 (019) Camera Obscura
Quiet Please 47-10-20 (020) Pavanne, the Girl with the Flaxen Hair
Quiet Please 47-10-27 (021) Don't Tell Me About Halloween
Quiet Please 47-11-03 (022) Take Me out to the Graveyard
Quiet Please 47-11-10 (023) Three
Quiet Please 47-11-17 (024) Kill Me Again
Quiet Please 47-11-24 (025) In Memory of Bernadine
Quiet Please 47-12-01 (026) Come In, Eddie
Quiet Please 47-12-08 (027) Some People Don't Die
Quiet Please 47-12-15 (028) Little Fellow
Quiet Please 47-12-22 (029) Berlin, 1945
Quiet Please 47-12-29 (030) Rain on New Year's Eve
Quiet Please 48-01-05 (031) Little Visitor
Quiet Please 48-01-12 (032) The Room Where Ghosts Live
Quiet Please 48-01-19 (033) Baker's Dozen
Quiet Please 48-01-26 (034) Green Light
Quiet Please 48-02-02 (035) The Pathetic Fallacy
Quiet Please 48-02-09 (036) A Red and White Guidon
Quiet Please 48-02-16 (037) Whence Came You
Quiet Please 48-02-23 (038) Wear the Dead Man's Coat
Quiet Please 48-03-01 (039) Sketch for a Screenplay
Quiet Please 48-03-08 (040) Never Send to Know
Quiet Please 48-03-22 (042) A Night to Forget
Quiet Please 48-03-29 (043) Quiet Please
Quiet Please 48-04-05 (044) I Always Marry Juliet
Quiet Please 48-04-12 (045) Twelve to Five
Quiet Please 48-04-19 (046) Clarissa
Quiet Please 48-04-26 (047) 13 and 8
Quiet Please 48-05-03 (048) How Beautiful Upon the Mountain
Quiet Please 48-05-10 (049) There Are Shadows Here
Quiet Please 48-05-17 (050) Gem of Purest Ray
Quiet Please 48-05-24 (051) In the House Where I Was Born
Quiet Please 48-06-14 (054) Not Responsible After 30 Years
Quiet Please 48-06-28 (055) Let the Lillies Consider
Quiet Please 48-07-05 (056) Wahine Tahiti
Quiet Please 48-07-19 (057) As Long as I Live
Quiet Please 48-07-26 (058) The Man Who Stole a Planet
Quiet Please 48-08-02 (059) It's Later Then You Think
Quiet Please 48-08-09 (060) The Thing on the Fourble Board
Quiet Please 48-08-16 (061) Presto-Change-O, I'm Sure
Quiet Please 48-08-23 (062) 3000 Words
Quiet Please 48-09-06 (064) The Third Man's Story
Quiet Please 48-09-13 (065) Symphony in Minor
Quiet Please 48-09-19 (066) Anonymous
Quiet Please 48-09-26 (067) Light the Lamp for Me
Quiet Please 48-10-03 (068) Meet John Smith, John
Quiet Please 48-10-10 (069) Beezer's Cellar
Quiet Please 48-10-17 (070) And Jeannie Dreams of Me
Quiet Please 48-10-24 (071) Good Ghost
Quiet Please 48-10-31 (072) Calling All Souls
Quiet Please 48-11-07 (073) Adam and the Darkest Day
Quiet Please 48-11-14 (074) The Evening and the Morning
Quiet Please 48-11-21 (075) One for the Book
Quiet Please 48-11-28 (076) My Son John
Quiet Please 48-12-05 (077) Very Unimportant Person
Quiet Please 48-12-26 (080) Berlin, 1945
Quiet Please 49-01-02 (081) The Time of the Big Snow
Quiet Please 49-01-09 (082) Portrait of a Character
Quiet Please 49-01-16 (083) Is This Murder
Quiet Please 49-01-23 (084) Summer Good-Bye
Quiet Please 49-01-30 (085) Northern Lights
Quiet Please 49-02-06 (086) Tap the Heat, Bogdan
Quiet Please 49-02-13 (087) Valentine
Quiet Please 49-02-20 (088) Where Do You Get Your Ideas
Quiet Please 49-02-27 (089) If I Should Wake Before I Die
Quiet Please 49-03-06 (090) The Man Who Knew Everything
Quiet Please 49-03-13 (091) Dark Rosaleen
Quiet Please 49-03-20 (092) The Smell of High Wines
Quiet Please 49-03-27 (093) A Time to Be Born, and a Time to Die
Quiet Please 49-04-10 (095) Dialogue for a Tragedy
Quiet Please 49-04-17 (096) Shadow of the Wings
Quiet Please 49-04-24 (097) The Vail of Glen Cove
Quiet Please 49-05-01 (098) Dark Grey Magic
Quiet Please 49-05-08 (099) Other Side of the Stars
Quiet Please 49-05-15 (100) The Little Morning
Quiet Please 49-05-21 (101) The Oldest Man in the World
Quiet Please 49-05-28 (102) In the House Where I Was Born
Quiet Please 49-06-04 (103) Tanglefoot
Quiet Please 49-06-11 (104) The Hat, the Bed, and John J Catherine
Quiet Please 49-06-18 (105) Pavanne of the Girl with the Flaxen Hair
Quiet Please 49-06-25 (106) Quiet Please

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