Chester A. Riley: Oh. 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). When you grow up in funeral service, you always have a job.
Chester A. Riley: Hello, Digger. 1949. And at least so far as my experience is concerned, the living who bear those burdens honorably are better off for it. The bearing of it is so very, very important. At the mobile home park, a local reporter didnt have a very high opinion of the aging stuntman, writing, He has the flushed face and shaking hand of a man who has seen the sun rise over many an empty bottle. Digger showed up at the park wearing only a bathrobe. The expression "life of Riley" or "living the life of Riley (Reilly)" emerged in the early 1920s, and was probably derived from turn-of-the-century Irish songs, such as "The Best in the House Is None Too Good for Reilly." Is he in some of of trouble or something? Buried alive? And we come away from these memorial events, these celebrations of life, with the increasing sense that something is missing. I know it won't matter, it will be others, but do you see yourself as the fire or the earth, or --? I got my picture in the paper! As a result, when Digger delivered his first line, it was usually greeted with howls of laughter and applause from surprised audience members. Punchy: Hey, why don't you get up, pal? Opening credits conclude with the following written statement: "America! Not all of the radio cast made the transition to film; Paula Winslowe and Barbara Eiler were replaced with DeCamp and Meg Randall as Riley's wife, Peg, and daughter, Babs respectively. Paula Winslowe played "Peg" for most of the series' run. So yes, I think all of these things help to sort of "fix" us in the firmament of where we are at any given time with our youth and our age, our well-being or our infirmity, our dying, our death and our remembrance. Yeah, it's a mystery. [citation needed] Brown's lines as the undertaker were often repetitive, including puns based on his profession; but thanks to Brown's delivery, the audience loved him. Chester A. Riley is back, with long-suffering wife Peg, trouble-prone kids Junior and Babs, moochy pal Gillis, and Digger O'Dell, The Friendly Undertaker in sixteen hilarious half-hour episodes. The crematory we use is impeccably run by ethical people, people we inspect, unannounced, a couple times every year. While we would all agree that death is never funny, this show had an usual character in it by the name of Digby "Digger". web site copyright 1995-2014 Humiliated, Riley vows to Peg that he will become more successful, and after six weeks of working overtime, he volunteers to host the company's Labor Day beach picnic. That's enough, isn't it? Gillis then forgives Riley, and Riley is satisfied that his family is happy once more. Riley's penchant for turning mere trouble into near-disaster through his well-intentioned bumbling was often aided or instigated by his arch best friend/next-door neighbor, Gillis. I've never lost a father yet! I think it's always been the case that funerals in general, and funeral directors in particular, provide an easy target for cartooning, because there is so much about what we do that can be held up for ridicule. there are very few hands raised in the room, because cremation is often shorthand for disappearance. When families have gone to the crematory, has it made a difference? But there's no question that cremation has become normative in a way that it used to be exceptional. Digby 'Digger' O'Dell: Why, I was just taking a stroll around the pond. [3], An unrelated radio show with the title Life of Riley was a summer replacement show heard on CBS from April 12, 1941, to September 6, 1941. So it's easy enough. Rejected everywhere, Riley reluctantly asks Monahan for the money, but Monahan also refuses him. FRONTLINE series home|wgbh|pbs, FRONTLINE is a registered trademark of wgbh educational foundation. Brown also played "Gillis" on the radio. What we have missed, however, in cremation in this culture is all the powerful metaphoric values provided by fire, its elemental worth. The open casket, it is something that's often mocked. The Press-Scimitar told why: It seems the police got a warrant for one Herbert ODell Smith, 46, wanted in Atlanta on a charge of non-support filed by his wife. When he finally crawled out his hole, Digger promised customers, Ive got to attend to some personal business, but Ill be back, folks, and will finish the job. Later, he told reporters, Thats the way the cookie crumbles. Whether we consign our dead to scavenger birds, as they do in Tibet, or to the sea, as they do when the sea is around them, or the tree, as our Native Americans did, it doesn't make any difference. Chester A. Riley: Well, if you do, just holler. Copyright 2022 Memphis Magazine. So everything is weakened; weakened and tightened at the same time. We already ordered the baby announcements. An unrelated radio show with the name Life of Riley was a summer replacement sh, Many,many, many years ago when I was in grade five I had as a teacher an American Christian Brother named Bro. After Riley overhears Burt discussing "business" with Norman, he beats up Norman and drags him before the wedding crowd. The Life of Riley was the initial release of Brecher Productions, Inc. William Bendix first played "Riley" in the popular NBC radio series on which this film was based, and John Brown played "'Digger' O'Dell" in the series. Peg Riley: Every day this week, he's been kept in after school. Well, read it closely, and what I've written is that as long as they deal with it, I don't care what they do. In many ways they're all replicated by this journey that we take between the living and the dead when someone dies, this procession. Months after my father died, I can remember this wave of feelings that would come over me, catching me at the most unpredictable times, this wallop of him being dead, him being gone. Peppers take longer than tomatoes to get going, so start them first. [1], William Bendix also starred in the 1949 film version of The Life of Riley directed by Irving Brecher. Alan Lipscott and Reuben Ship wrote many of the radio series' early episodes, and Don Bernard was the show's initial director. 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. We'd just say, "Well, let's not think about that anymore." Well, if it's such a gift, why did it cost you 25 dollars? Slap, slap, slap Rip, Rip, Rip it's over! With William Bendix the protagonist, as Riley and among others John Brown, who portrayed the friendly undertaker "Digger" O'Dell. He would announce himself with, "'Tis I, Digger O'Dell, your friendly undertaker. Im five-foot-eleven. And what about the formalities, the particular traditions and customs that are a part of the funeral? Barbara 'Babs' Riley: It's just not fair! Humans figured out both before they had backhoes and retorts. John Brown, Radio and TV Actor, Dies; Played Digger O'Dell in 'Life of Riley' Give this article May 18, 1957 The New York Times Archives See the article in its original context from May 18, 1957,. You're sweet, though. For the second run, Bendix returned as Riley, while Marjorie Reynolds appeared as Peg. You had your tonsils out. 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. What is your sense of what's driven and shaped that conversation, and what, if anything, has been missing from that public view of it all? Babs: Well, I think he ought to get a fair trial. I think he was keenly aware of the fact that a good funeral is not about what we buy or what we spend; that a good funeral is very much about what we do when someone dies. He then is embarrassed in front of the Monahans when Junior appears with his full piggy bank, having been unable to open it, and during a struggle with the waiter, the bank falls to the ground and breaks. Could have been man/wife or brother/sister. 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. Jackson.Amongst the student body, there was boy with the surname of O'Dell. It's not always the same thing, and for everyone it's different. [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. Plunged into darkness, Riley takes the advice of friend and neighbor, undertaker "Digger" O'Dell, and invites his guests to a restaurant. 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. So it's interesting times we live in that way. I think cremation very much is like us. Whats more, said one newspaper, in his heyday, he could knock down $15,000 for a 60-day burial. At the mobile home park, the only money he brought home came from contributions. There is a comfort when you don't have to reinvent that wheel, when we know we have to be at church at a certain time and that these prayers will be said and not those, and that this is accustomed behavior and this is outside the pale, and this is where we go. Except I want to send out those circulars, so bring me some round paper. He made the news by being buried alive. [9], William Bendix and Sterling Holloway, 1957. What are you doin' here in the park? Her testimony is like all testimony -- it is a combination of gratitude and grief, and that the gratitude does not trump the grief, nor does the grief undo the gratitude. The Life of Riley was 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. I have children at home; my wife had taken them home from the luncheon. If you don't pay attention Peg Riley: Well, I'm trying to tell ya, he just moons around the house! 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. I want reports! My, you're looking fine today; very natural" and leave stage with ""Cheerio, I'd better be shoveling off", https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Life_of_Riley. Chester A. Riley: No. Peg Riley: What's the matter? Chester A. Riley: What do you think I'm paying you ten cents a week for, to spy on Babs! Still, as every grieving person knows, we have to reinvent the wheel in which we are now orphaned. And then one year it disappeared, and I fretted that someone had stolen it for scrap metal. What a revolting development this is! "Life goes on!" I mean, that is the terrible, terrible part. To Babs's delight, Jeff, who has just moved in next door with his aunt, is a dedicated pre-med student. And we laugh sometimes at all those good memories and all those silly things the person said and all those wise things that that person said and all their foibles. Gillis: I tried to help you, Riley, but I'm through. Digger: Every good undertaker has his ear to the ground - we pick up a lot of dirt that way. Jim Gillis: So by her leavin', I'm getting away without goin' out of the house. I cant say what finally happened to Digger. Thomas Lynch is a writer and a poet. At the beginning of the November 11, 1949 radio episode the announcer explained that William Bendix had strained his voice while performing the role of an umpire for an upcoming film (Kill the Umpire) and Gleason substituted for him that one night. Simon Vanderhopper: Yes sir, I don't let the grass grow under my feet! Chester A. Riley: What do you mean the baby announcements? 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 there's somebody else digging the hole in the ground. And yet you write that beautiful essay Tract in your book, The Undertaking, which is in some way a map, is it? And I'm, along with the next guy, as interested in those cartoons as everyone else is. Executives, who immediately began production on a television series, did not share Crowther's opinion, but because Bendix's movie contract barred him from doing television (a not uncommon ban in the early days of the medium when studios wanted to discourage audiences from staying home and watching TV), Jackie Gleason played Riley for one unsuccessful season in 1950. It's that time of year again when gardeners all over the world are planning what to grow in their gardens. "[2], The reworked script cast Bendix as blundering Chester A. Riley, a wing riveter at the fictional Cunningham Aircraft plant in California. I got my picture in the paper! So Ive got only one inch to run around in.. Everything seems to fall into place. I guess he likes this blond's cooking. It's possible to pay with credit card or Western Union, but PayPal isn't an option. Bendix's delivery and the spin he put on his lines made it work. He never came back here, as promised, but he continued to perform these stunts until he died in 1999, at the age of 83. Digger O'Dell, the friendly undertaker ANNCR: It's new! "; from "what are we going to buy?" Scars On My Heart / Her (7", Single) Ranger. His real name, it seems, was Herbert O'Dell Smith. During cocktails, a bill collector from the electric company shows up, and after Riley sends him on his way, he disconnects the Rileys' electricity. Barbara 'Babs' Riley: There's still Christmas. One of my favorite old time radio characters (other than Jack Benny) was Digger O'Dell "The Friendly Undertaker". A comic book adaptation of the show was produced by Dell Comics in 1958 as part of their Four Color series of one-shots. Oh, yeah. 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. Chester A. Riley: "Babs Riley Featured in Annual School Follies". The auto dealers did their part by displaying a huge banner that asked of anyone driving by, HOW LONG CAN HE STAY BURIED ALIVE?. That's why I came over here tonight. And they won't forget, and that's the thing. The trouble is, in our culture we try to have one or the other -- either/or -- and it's both and then some in real experience. Jackie Gleason starred as Riley during the show's first year, while DeCamp and Lanny Rees reprised their film roles for the series. Some do. He noted that "the grave that he can't escape from" is located in Sawnee View Memorial Gardens, just outside of Cummings, Georgia. For many people I know, when families are cremated, they feel as if they've in some sense kind of disappeared. Peg Riley: You know what they say - ignorance is bliss. It was during this period that Gleason played Riley on one episode of the radio series. They need to talk to someone. And I'm the most blissful man in the world. Are social changes the reasons that we are more fearful and reluctant to deal with death in our everyday lives? 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. People will sometimes ask me about the connections between poetry and funerals, and I do see this huge connection between the use of language in the two of them and how both rely on ritual and symbol and metaphor. "[6] The April 13 episode starred Herb Vigran as Riley, and the April 20 episode had Buddy Gray in the title role. It was produced by Tom McKnight for NBC and featured William Bendix. The elements are the elements. Peg Riley: Theatre, huh? Despite Gillis' accusations and Peg's doubts, Riley goes along with the wedding plan until Junior uses the Stevensons' intercom to eavesdrop on Burt's room. Today he is just living the life of RileyThis is the story of Chester A. Rileywho is just livingin Los Angeles California." Jim Gillis: Of course it's right. 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