Well, to find the answer to that question, you need to read the full story here. I really don't care. We are more mobile, more portable, more scattered. What a revoltin' development, indeed." I cant even blame my wife too much. And for those who are unchurched or unfamiliar in any tradition that gives them sort of the framework for this, a funeral home is still a safe place to talk about matters mortuary and matters of mortality. I have often noticed the difference between the first day that a family will spend here and the next day. Although Bendix's considerable acting chops allowed him to believably play both heroes and villains, it was as the loveable blue-collar factory worker Chester A. Riley that he is best remembered, first on radio and then in the 1949 movie of the same name. And sure enough, he came to Memphis in September 1961 to do this stunt for Bluff City Buick, located back then at 739 Union. It's not always the same thing, and for everyone it's different. Dear Vance:What happened to the Memory Grove plaque an old war memorial that stood in Overton Park, in a stand of trees close to Poplar Avenue? We saw people start organizing these commemorative events to which everyone was invited but the dead guy. But you have to do that first, because people will sense if you're not willing to do that, if you're just sort of going through the motions. Buried alive? I enjoy listening to the frogs croak. Chester A. Riley: Well, if you do, just holler. Anyway, I presume the Digger ODell weve been discussing here was eventually buried one final time, and I hope his gravestone wherever it is pays tribute to one of this countrys unique stuntmen. Digby 'Digger' O'Dell: Why, I was just taking a stroll around the pond. John Brown returned as the morbid, counseling undertaker Digby (Digger) O'Dell. Jim Gillis: They put you to sleep. And you have mentioned the range of feelings and emotions at a funeral. Hal: I'm a father! The supporting cast featured Paula Winslowe as Riley's wife, Peg, and as Riley's mother-in law; Brown as O'Dell and as Riley's co-worker Jim Gillis; Francis "Dink" Trout as Waldo Binney; Tommy Cook, Bobby Ellis and Scotty Beckett as Junior at various times during the show's run; Barbara Eiler as Riley's daughter, Babs; Shirley Mitchell as Honeybee Gillis; Hans Conried as Uncle Baxter; and Alan Reed as multiple characters, including Riley's boss (Mr. Stevenson) and Peg's father. Still, as every grieving person knows, we have to reinvent the wheel in which we are now orphaned. Alan Lipscott and Reuben Ship wrote many of the radio series' early episodes, and Don Bernard was the show's initial director. Quotes.net. As a result, when Digger delivered his first line, it was usually greeted with howls of laughter and applause from surprised audience members. [Riley believes Junior stole five dollars]. It's a kind of theater, I suppose. It is the ridiculous and the sublime. Though these things werent discussed in the Memphis newspapers of the 1950s or 1960s, later newspapers provided the details that Digger was equipped with a 60-gallon chemical toilet while he was underground, which must have made his living (and breathing) conditions horrible. When you grow up in funeral service, you always have a job. Peg Riley: Every day this week, he's been kept in after school. For more than 30 years he also has been the director of the Lynch & Sons funeral home in the small town of Milford, Mich. And I think this has to do with our notions about fire itself. I'll be the dead guy, and the dead say nothing. And I'm the most blissful man in the world. Jackie Gleason starred as Riley during the show's first year, while DeCamp and Lanny Rees reprised their film roles for the series. Question #48486. 460 Tennessee Street #200, Memphis, TN 38103. And that's unfortunate. So Ive got only one inch to run around in.. He would have probably had a difficult way of managing some of the changes that we see nowadays. And there's somebody else doing this, that. But when people go with us, it's at the back end of an industrial park in Lavonia, near a railroad track, so it's unlike the kind of commemorative surroundings that we have in our local cemeteries -- more is the pity. We are now without a mother or without a father. It's not that you don't want to see them dressed up or laid out or with glasses on, or too much makeup or their hair done in a clumsy way. We make appointments for cremations because we have to go and watch the placement of the body in the retort and the beginning of the process, the identification process that's part of that, and we retrieve the ashes. Peg Riley: Maybe he's sick or something. (CONTINUES HUMMING IN BG) ANNOUNCER: Humans figured out both before they had backhoes and retorts. He was Herbert ODell Smith, and he conducted this buried alive stunt, along with countless other feats of endurance, across the South. Give me a sense of the changes in attitudes toward death in America. The latter portion of the fifth season, broadcast between April and June 1957, was filmed and originally broadcast in color, although only black-and-white film prints of those episodes were syndicated. His dramatic life story is so well-known that schoolchildren are taught to recite it for extra credit. It's something handled by "them" offsite, elsewhere, and I think that's problematical. But the strange case of Digby "Digger" O'Dell offers an elegant counterpoint. That's why I came over here tonight. Nevertheless, this Life of Riley series with Bendix was a ratings hit, ranking at No. Learn how and when to remove this template message, "The Blade's Log of Radio and Television Programs (9:00 p.m.)", Zoot Radio, free old time radio show downloads of, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Life_of_Riley&oldid=1135022718, This page was last edited on 22 January 2023, at 03:47. Why would he leave his wife? But, you know, we used to say to my father, who directed a fair few funerals, "What do you want done with you when you're dead?," and he'd say, "Well, you'll know what to do." Chester A. Riley: You mean I'm going to live? For more and more people it's a trip to the crematory and some variation on the wake where people pay different types of witness. [6][7], The NBC adaptation, also created by Irving Brecher, was a single-season It's the people who, in many ways, try to put on the smiley face, that brittle grin you see so often that says, "We're going to be happy." Digby 'Digger' O'Dell: Why, I was just taking a stroll around the pond. Chester A. Riley: "Babs Riley Featured in Annual School Follies". An unrelated radio show with the name Life of Riley was a summer replacement show heard on CBS from April 12, 1941, to September 6, 1941. Thanks to Chester's interference, Junior now has two dates for the school dance. There is a fee. I figure once a year, every married man should get away from his wife for a few days. It was a sudden inspiration brought on by ownership of a tuxedo T-shirt! I cant find any record that Digger ever returned to Bluff City Buick, or to the Bluff City for that matter, to finish the job. Back in Atlanta, a judge allowed him to conduct his stunt for an Atlanta shopping center, but he had to turn the money he would be paid only $2,250 over to his family. Let's see! The year before he died, Digger told reporters that he had probably spent six years of his life underground, earning as much as $600 a week for his efforts. The second TV series ran for six seasons, from January 2, 1953, to May 23, 1958. The last mention I can find of his exploits came from a 1979 newspaper published in the little town of Phenix City, Alabama, which reported that Digger was performing his 158th burial in the parking lot of Macks Mobile Homes there. I mean, that is the terrible, terrible part. Digger kept up his strange act for many years. For that matter, a popular plant nursery just outside of town on Highway 64 is called Digger ODells, but thats yet another Digger (real name: Dennis). There are several videos on line. His real name, it seems, was Herbert O'Dell Smith. According to the obituary, Digger was born in Georgia in 1915. I see my sons now working through this, and their generation. Bendix was able to return to the role on NBC from 1953 to 1958, where the program was consistently in the top 25. All these things are part of the ongoing conversation that we here have. A great memorable quote from the The Life of Riley movie on Quotes.net - "It is I, Digger O'Dell, your friendly undertaker. Even a criminal gets time off for good behavior. It seems Digger ODell was a friendly undertaker character in The Life of Riley , a radio soap opera that aired back in the 1930s, but that still doesnt explain the curious popularity of the name, if you ask me. Id like to think that the cemetery installed a periscope so visitors could see him, or at least a tube where they could drop coins and see if they could ring the bell but I doubt it. The Life of Riley is an American radio situation comedy series of the 1940s that was adapted into a 1949 feature film, a 1950s television series, and a 1958 comic book. From NE Ohio to North Central Mississippi, everyone has their own ideas and preferences for what they will plant this year. When families come in and have their loved one cremated, do you talk to them about going with you to the crematorium? "; from "what are we going to buy?" Portrayed Chester A. Riley's neighbor Gillis on "The Life of Riley" for ABC Radio (1944-1945) and NBC Radio (1945-1951). William Bendix is heard as Riley, along with co-stars Paula Winslowe, John Brown, Tommy Cook, and Barbara Eiler - plus series creator Irving Brecher . It then went into syndicated reruns. They can coexist. I've come to admire the earth, the wind and the fire. Jim Gillis: Yeah, well, he oughta shampoo more often - with kerosene! Money is involved. P-R-E-L-L! But more and more, when we say to them, "You may, and maybe you ought " or, "Maybe someone in your family should be designated, just to go in as your proxy, to say, 'Everything was done as it should be done,'" they do it. When Burt finally tells Babs about his financial predicament and suggests that they marry quickly so that Riley can keep his job and he can save his life, Babs reluctantly agrees. Gillis then forgives Riley, and Riley is satisfied that his family is happy once more. So we had those advantages. So it's interesting times we live in that way. This is a sign to me that they don't care, that heaven is not having to worry about these things, so I'm determined not to worry about them either. I planned the whole thing. US. Do you speak French? And that's very seductive, because, I mean, it's human-to-human contact. The oblivion is the oblivion wherever it is. What is it, a boy or a girl? We can't prearrange that. William Bendix is heard as Riley, along with co-stars Paula Winslowe, John Brown, Tommy Cook, and Barbara Eiler - plus series creator Irving Brecher . So yeah, I enjoyed writing that piece. Riley's annoying co-worker, Gillis, was also voiced by Brown. It's Prell! I'm calling it off now! I mean, if it was just a matter of forgetting, we would do that. Does it affect the nature of the grief if someone was present for the dying of the loved one? The lead character was changed to Chester A. Riley, the title was changed to The Life of Riley and a show and star were born. So people come in to talk about arranging their parents' funerals or their own. He's resting. It has always been a family-owned and -operated firm, founded by Thomas Lynch's father, Edward Joseph Lynch. Whether someone comes into the funeral home insisting on the least expensive or the most expensive, I see in both cases an effort to assign value to cost, and I just think in my own experience it's never had much to do with it. And oftentimes I'm impressed by how people will wrap their existential concerns about a dying parent in the prearrangement conference. They prefer warmer temperatures and drier, Organic Fertilizers: A Natural Alternative for Feeding your Garden | Texas Tomato Food, GreenLeaf Nutrients & More, Fertilizers have become increasingly expensive in recent years, leading many gardeners to look for alternatives. Chester A. Riley: "Babs Riley Featured in Annual School Follies". Though other friends may fail you, I shall be the last to let you down.". "became one of the most famous catchphrases of the 1940s. Is he in some of of trouble or something? home|introduction|watch online|stories & special video|to be an undertaker|join the discussion What are you doin' here in the park? Every time I have a birthday, I realize that Mom's getting a year older. Life of Riley won the first Emmy Award (for "Best Film Made For and Shown on Television") with Groucho Marx receiving a credit for the story. She just cant help being money hungry.. After all, the people whose names are on these markers dont have that luxury. Gillis often gave Riley bad information that got him into trouble, whereas Digger gave him good information that "helped him out of a hole," as he might have put it. I always knew I'd bring up my daughter to be somebody someday. Don't forget the gallon I gave to the Red Cross. In the 19551956 season, the Riley family moved and were given new neighbors portrayed by Florence Sundstrom and George O'Hanlon.[8]. I know as a person who has grieved before, and I also know as a person who has been next to people in grief, that one of the awful messages on the day is "Life goes on." As far as I can tell, he performed it in Memphis only twice, but one of those events made the news because the police were summoned to dig up Digger. According to the obituary, Digger was born in Georgia in 1915. Asked by yeaux. https://www.quotes.net/movies/the_life_of_riley_107479, https://www.quotes.net/movies/the_life_of_riley_quotes_107479. I mean, it's uncomfortable, and I don't know what to say any more than the next guy, and I don't do strawberry rhubarb pie. Help came from Digger O'Dell, the "friendly undertaker," who offered gruesome theories laced with repetitive puns, brilliantly delivered by John Brown. I needed to read that piece because I'm disinclined -- when someone's sick, when someone's out of sorts, when someone's dead -- I'm disinclined to be around that. Rosemary DeCamp (as "Peg Riley"), Lanny Rees (as "Junior Riley") and John Brown (as "Digger O'Dell, the Friendly Undertaker") all reprised their movie roles in the original The Life of Riley (1948) TV series. Digby 'Digger' O'Dell: It is I, Digby O'Dell, the friendly undertaker.Chester A. Riley: Hello, Digger. [1], William Bendix also starred in the 1949 film version of The Life of Riley directed by Irving Brecher. I thought, this guy could play it. That's not what you don't want to see, because we can fix that all." Chester A. Riley: Babs, do you realize when I was 20, your mother was supporting me and a baby? As Bluff City Buick customers watched, Digger ODell (left) prepared to enter the worlds smallest apartment, where he planned to stay at least 57 days. Digby 'Digger' O'Dell : It is I, Digby O'Dell, the friendly undertaker. Its 32 inches across, 32 inches high, and six feet long. Bareiss, Warren "The Life of Riley" Encyclopedia of Television And they won't forget, and that's the thing. I know it won't matter, it will be others, but do you see yourself as the fire or the earth, or --? Instead, Jackie Gleason starred, with Rosemary DeCamp replacing Paula Winslowe as wife Peg, Gloria Winters as daughter Barbara (Babs), Lanny Rees as son Chester Jr. (Junior), and Sid Tomack as Jim Gillis, Riley's manipulative best buddy and next-door neighbor. It was just doing the next right thing. Old newspaper photos show a crew digging a coffin-sized hole in the parking lot of the dealership, and then Digger, dressed rather casually in black slacks and a white shirt, clambered down into the hole. Even though we can plan it and pay for it and all that, we can't really get that wheel to turn for us until it turns itself. Chester A. Riley: I don't think you heard me, peg. He would announce himself with, "'Tis I, Digger O'Dell, your friendly undertaker. I see it all as part of the one journey, all as part of the one pilgrimage. Digby 'Digger' O'Dell: It is I, Digby O'Dell, the friendly undertaker. 16 in its first season, with four of its six seasons in the top 30, and ran for a total of 217 episodes. I think we're all complicit in the banishment of the dead to the peripheries. Vance Lauderdale is the history columnist for Memphis magazine and Inside Memphis Business. The only place your son will get his picture is in the post office. Plunged into darkness, Riley takes the advice of friend and neighbor, undertaker "Digger" O'Dell, and invites his guests to a restaurant. in Literary Quotes in Movie Quotes in TV Shows Sign Up now to stay up to date with all of the latest news from TCM. When families have gone to the crematory, has it made a difference? I found an old newspaper article that said he was born in 1915 and called him a professional endurance man. Among other things, back in the flagpole-sitting days, he stayed aloft 109 days. I don't know what my part of it is, except it's duty, detail: Show up, do this, do that, be sure the car starts, keep it clean, you know, that type of thing. One day, after paying out all but five of his fifty-dollar-a-week paycheck, Riley has to sneak into his house to avoid his landlady, Miss Martha Bogle, to whom he owes money. There's this wonderful essay that was written -- I have it framed in the hallway there; the woman's name, I think, is Sullivan who wrote it. Babs Riley: Guess what? "The Life of Riley" The Billboard Magazine Dec 6, 1947 His dramatic life story is so well-known that schoolchildren are taught to recite it for extra credit. Are social changes the reasons that we are more fearful and reluctant to deal with death in our everyday lives? You'd better stop talking that way. And particularly when you see the transaction which involves this rather impressive life-or-death event with the rather mundane mercantility of it all. Barbara 'Babs' Riley: It's just not fair! Chester A. Riley: Well, that'll be it, Miss Millie. It's an easy target; it always is -- you know, the Digger O'Dell [the "friendly undertaker" character in the 1950s television series Life of Riley]. So we learn to live with it. I think we act out things that are hard to put in words. Peg Riley: Well, of all the revolting ideas! Could have been man/wife or brother/sister. And so I think of widowed people who must go through that when they're folding a sweater or cleaning out a drawer or looking for the power drill that their husband used to use to fix this drawer or that one -- these little mundane reminders that life is changed utterly and yet utterly the same. You were just married! Buy Organic Seeds Risk Free From Organic Seeds TOP - Credit Card & Western Union Payment Options, Organic Seeds TOP is a seed vendor based in the Ukraine. By Lorraine LoBianco. Chester A. Riley: None of that radical talk out of you just 'cause you go to high school! [citation needed], Bendix and Rosemary DeCamp reprised the roles in an hour-long radio adaptation of the feature film that was presented on Lux Radio Theater on May 8, 1950. He didnt come close to breaking his record. The radio program initially aired on the Blue Network (later known as ABC) from January 16, 1944, to July 8, 1945, it then moved to NBC, where it was broadcast from September 8, 1945, to June 29, 1951. "[2], The reworked script cast Bendix as blundering Chester A. Riley, a wing riveter at the fictional Cunningham Aircraft plant in California. But I have graves at Oak Grove; I have graves in West Clare [County, Ireland]. . William Bendix is heard as Riley, along with co-stars Paula Winslowe, John Brown, Tommy Cook, and Barbara Eilerplus series creator Irving Brecher . Thomas Lynch is a writer and a poet. producer's chat|readings & links|site map|dvd & transcript|press reaction And it works; it does work. I just read this card, and I just spoke to the Justice of the Peace! Chester A. Riley: What do you think I'm paying you ten cents a week for, to spy on Babs! I was thrilled to find IA, where I can find some of those classics. Who is the producer of syndicated radio's 'The Sean Hannity Show' that is consistently referred to on-air as "Sweet Baby James"? And Mrs. Verrino's eulogy, her narrative of what she and her husband and their child were going through, was a way of sort of mastering this journey. And yet you write that beautiful essay Tract in your book, The Undertaking, which is in some way a map, is it? On the day of Babs's wedding, which is to take place at the Stevenson mansion, Riley becomes annoyed and hurt when Gillis, his best friend and co-worker, snubs him because he is sure that Riley "sold" his daughter to get the promotion. [citation needed], In 1948, NBC broadcast "two live television test programs based on the radio series. I have children at home; my wife had taken them home from the luncheon. We're celebrating love, huh? While readying for Monahan, Riley's daughter Babs, a serious-minded college student, catches the eye of Miss Bogle's handsome young nephew, Jeff Taylor. And is that the purposefulness in the ebb and flow of a wake and a funeral? There must be some reason for it! But when the entire conversation circles around and around about how much it's going to cost or how can you prevent this charge, I just find it silly after a while. In the early 1970s, he had apparently retired and had opened World-Famous Digger ODells Farmers Market somewhere in that state, but had returned to his old stunts after the death of his wife from a heart attack. After roaming around the park a bit, I found the plaque has been carefully preserved and moved to a better (and more visible) location, bolted to a wall towards the rear of the new Veterans Plaza area of Overton Park. interview with the film's producers|credits|privacy policy|journalistic guidelines Lewis, and I think, how would you get by without it? Crowther concluded, "[W]e suppose there are millions who will like this sort of truck. I've always been touched by the fact that there seems to be as much laughter as weeping at the big life events. Jeff, who had just proposed to Babs himself, is devastated by her announcement, as is Peg, who knows that her daughter does not love Burt. It's amazing! Because of its overwhelming radio popularity, Riley graduated as easily to a 1949 feature film, as it did to 1950s television. We bid you welcome. And yeah, everything plays its part in that. And that is the cruel part, and that is the good news and the bad news all at once -- that things are happening even so. The bearing of it is so very, very important. So in a sense, cremation suits us in that way. Will that matter? Peg Riley: You know what they say - ignorance is bliss. You can read in history books about the way a funeral procession was laid out -- which civic group, which ecclesiastical group, which fraternal group, which family group -- how everybody was lined up, so that as people walked in, there was this rise and fall of relationship and grief, and people know this, that good, orderly direction that was assumed by this process, this ritual. But I find that if you just show up, if you just walk in the door, people think you're a hero. In many ways they're all replicated by this journey that we take between the living and the dead when someone dies, this procession. Except I want to send out those circulars, so bring me some round paper. Land of miracles, where dreams come true! He's a man who's understood In Brooklyn or in Hollywood. Thanks for any help. After the boorish Monahan orders the most expensive items on the fancy French menu, however, Riley barely has enough to cover the check. In addition to Bendix' Riley, the show featured immensely popular supporting characters, including Digby "Digger" O'Dell, the ghoulish "friendly undertaker" voiced by John Brown (who also played Thorny on Ozzie and Harriet, Al on My Friend Irma, and Broadway on The Damon Runyan Theatre). What we have missed, however, in cremation in this culture is all the powerful metaphoric values provided by fire, its elemental worth. But people will go home, and they will look at pictures of the dead; they'll look at movies of the dead; they'll quote the dead to one another; and they will weep and laugh and carry on. During cocktails, a bill collector from the electric company shows up, and after Riley sends him on his way, he disconnects the Rileys' electricity. When he heard the sad news about his wife, said a newspaper, Diggers own heart broke like a clod of dirt. I know his nickname was Digger, but thats just mean. Chester A. Riley: I don't have to be fair - I'm your father. And there's somebody else arranging the flowers. Sterling Holloway recurred as neighbor Waldo Binney, another radio character. It has to do with the gift of language. He later finds out it was an Indian girl who stood in for her and they are reunited at the end of the movie. series from October 4, 1949, to March 28, 1950. I cant say what finally happened to Digger. Acti-Sol Hen Manure is one popular product that has been used with success by experienced, This website uses cookies for functionality, analytics and advertising purposes as described in our. Chester A. Riley: I know what you did! Peg Riley: Theatre, huh? Actor Ted de Corsia's name appears as both "de Corsia" and "deCorsia" in the onscreen credits. Let me begin this strange tale by saying that minutes and minutes of research failed to turn up many verifiable facts about Smith oh, good grief, lets just call him Digger here. Simon Vanderhopper: Yes sir, I don't let the grass grow under my feet! Chester A. Riley: Gee, Gillis, you're brave - making out you're happy when all the time, inside, you've got a broken heart. The open casket, it is something that's often mocked. Two years ago, in our July 2015 issue, I told the story of Digger O'Dell, a remarkable fellow who traveled around the country performing all kinds of dangerous stunts. My mother died on the 27th of October and was buried on the 31st of October, so it was the Eve of All Saints. He first started doing various stunts in 1932, a time when people were trying to make crazy money with dancing marathons, flagpole sitting, and other endurance feats. FRONTLINE series home|wgbh|pbs, FRONTLINE is a registered trademark of wgbh educational foundation. And at least so far as my experience is concerned, the living who bear those burdens honorably are better off for it. These included Molly's drunken Uncle Dennis and Myrt, the town's telephone operator with whom Fibber shared many a I do not care but that they do it honorably. Last updated Jun 12 2013. With your own mother and father and their funerals, what were the moments that had meaning for you? I'm certain the same thing holds for people who put their dead in the sea or the fire or a tomb -- that we need time to disengage. Today he is just living the life of RileyThis is the story of Chester A. Rileywho is just livingin Los Angeles California." Digby 'Digger' O'Dell: No, only Latin and Greek. He also portrayed "the friendly undertaker" Digby "Digger" O'Dell on the same show. But he said, "When a death occurs, people feel so helpless, it's good to have some of these things already invented." `` ; from `` what are you doin ' here in the door, people think you 're a.. Life events - I 'm impressed by how people will wrap their existential concerns about dying! Here have of wgbh educational foundation just cant help being money hungry.. after all, friendly. Was just taking a stroll around the pond later finds out it was just a matter of forgetting, have! I 'll be it, Miss Millie this card, and Don Bernard was show. Funerals or their own noticed the difference between the first day that family! They had backhoes and retorts john Brown returned as the morbid, counseling undertaker digby ( Digger ) O'Dell nothing. 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