Ernest E. Chappell (June 10, 1903 - July 4, 1983)DeLong, Thomas A. (1996). ''Radio Stars: An Illustrated Biographical Dictionary of 953 Performers, 1920 through 1960''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . P. 53. was an American radio announcer and actor, best remembered for his featured role in the late 1940s radio program ''

Quiet, Please ''Quiet, Please!'' was a 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'' debuted June 8, 1947 on the Mutual Broadca ...

''. The show ran from 1947 to 1949, and ''Quiet, Please'' was Chappell's major acting credit. His signature line was: "And so, until next week at this same time, I am quietly yours, Ernest Chappell."

Early years

Chappell graduated from

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...

in 1925, planning to be a singer.Cox, Jim (2007). ''Radio Speakers: Narrators, News Junkies, Sports Jockeys, Tattletales, Tipsters, Toastmasters and Coffee Klatch Couples Who Verbalized the Jargon of the Aural Ether from the 1920s to the 1980s--A Biographical Dictionary''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . P. 58.

Early professional work

Before he began his career on radio, Chappell was "a concert baritone, a song-and-dance man in musical comedy, a lecturer and a stock company actor."

Radio

On February 10, 1925, Chappell was the announcer, as well as the director of the first radio station in

Syracuse, New York Syracuse ( ) is a City (New York), city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, Onondaga County, New York, United States. It is the fifth-most populous city in the state of New York following New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffa ...

WFBL WFBL (1390 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Syracuse, New York and owned by Wolf Radio, Inc. It serves Syracuse and its suburbs, with studios and offices located on Smokey Hollow Road in Baldwinsville. Since September 2017 the statio ...

(which stood for First Broadcast License). He worked in Syracuse 1925-1927 and went to Rochester, New York, in 1928 to work at

WHAM Wham! was a British pop music duo. Wham may also refer to: Places * Wham, North Yorkshire, England, a hamlet in the Yorkshire Dales, United Kingdom * Wham, Louisiana, an unincorporated community, United States Stations * WHAM (AM), a talk radio ...

.Sies, Luther F. (2014). ''Encyclopedia of American Radio, 1920-1960, 2nd Edition, Volume 1''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . P. 125. On Monday, November 9, 1925, Chappell began writing for the ''Syracuse Herald''. His column, "Riding the Waves With Chap", included promotion for the broadcasting industry and the local station. In the 1930s, Chappell was master of ceremonies for Phil Spitalny's radio program. For several years on each program, Chappell also served as the announcer for '' The Campbell Playhouse'' (the sponsored continuation of ''

The Mercury Theatre on the Air ''The Mercury Theatre on the Air'' is a radio series of live radio dramas created and hosted by Orson Welles. The weekly hour-long show presented classic literary works performed by Welles's celebrated Mercury Theatre repertory company, with mus ...

'') and for ''

The Adventures of Ellery Queen ''The Adventures of Ellery Queen'' is the title of a The Adventures of Ellery Queen (radio program), radio series and four separate television series made from the 1950s through the 1970s. They were based on the fictional character, fictional dete ...

''.Dunning, John. (1998). ''On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio''. Oxford University Press; . pp. 8-9.

Television

Chappell was also "the voice of Pall Mall" in

American Tobacco The American Tobacco Company was a tobacco company founded in 1890 by J. B. Duke through a merger between a number of U.S. tobacco manufacturers including Allen and Ginter and Goodwin & Company. The company was one of the original 12 members of ...

's television cigarette commercials from the mid-1950s into the mid-'60s. His famous tag line: "Buy Pall Mall famous cigarettes...'OUTSTANDING! ''and'' they are mild!'".

Recording

In 1941, Chappell narrated ''A Christmas Carol'' on an

RCA Victor RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also Aris ...

album containing four 12-inch records.

References

External links

''Quiet Please'': Forum and MP3sErnest Chappell's ''A Christmas Carol''
1903 births 1983 deaths 20th-century American male actors American male radio actors American radio personalities Male actors from Syracuse, New York Radio and television announcers Syracuse University alumni {{US-radio-bio-stub