Wyllis Cooper
Wyllis Cooper | |
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Born | Wyllis Oswald Cooper January 26, 1899 |
Died | June 22, 1955 | (aged 56)
Occupation | Radio writer |
Notable work |
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Wyllis Oswald Cooper (January 26, 1899 – June 22, 1955) was an American writer and producer.
He is best remembered for creating and writing the old time radio programs Lights Out (1934–1947) and Quiet, Please (1947–1949).
Biography
Born Willis Oswald Cooper in
By the late 1920s he was writing advertising copy in Chicago and entered radio, writing scripts for the 1929–1931 NBC radio program 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.
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
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 NBC floors of Chicago's Merchandise Mart. The pappy was a rotund writer by the name of Willys (sic) Cooper."[2]
By 1940, Cooper moved to New York City. Here he changed his name from “Willis” to “Wyllis” in order "to please his wife's
During
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. It began over the Mutual Broadcasting System network and later moved to ABC. He also wrote and directed a crime anthology for NBC entitled Whitehall 1212, which debuted on November 18, 1951. The series was hosted by Chief Superintendent John Davidson, fictional curator of the Black Museum at Scotland Yard. It featured an allegedly 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.
As television became the dominant entertainment medium, Cooper experimented with various programs including Volume One, which he wrote and produced.
Cooper resided in Glen Gardner, New Jersey, and died in High Bridge, New Jersey, on June 22, 1955.[3]
References
- ^ "1". Archived from the original on October 27, 2009. Retrieved September 21, 2004.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ "Windy Kilocycles". www.richsamuels.com. Retrieved Apr 22, 2019.
- ^ Wyllis Cooper, 56, Scenarist, Dead, copy of obituary from The New York Times, June 23, 1955, accessed April 23, 2007. "High Bridge, N.J., June 22 – Wyllis Cooper, writer, director and producer for films, radio and television, died today at a local hospital after a long illness. He was 56 years old and resided in the neighboring community of Glen Gardner"
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!'" at the Wayback Machine (archived October 27, 2009), by Harriet Cannon (from Writer's Digest, May 1949