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." [citation needed] Mel Blanc provided some voices as well, including that of Junior's dog Tiger as well as that of a dog catcher who claimed to have a special bond with dogs. . in Literary Quotes in Movie Quotes in TV Shows I've never lost a father yet! Are social changes the reasons that we are more fearful and reluctant to deal with death in our everyday lives? You were just married! 16 in its first season, with four of its six seasons in the top 30, and ran for a total of 217 episodes. [1], Irving Brecher pitched the radio series for friend Groucho Marx under the title The Flotsam Family, but the sponsor balked at what would have been essentially a straight head-of-household role for Marx. Chester A. Riley: You mean I'm going to live? It just doesn't work out that way. He's a boy who Chester A. Riley: He's a boy! I cant say what finally happened to Digger. And my father did have a sense of formality and tradition when it came to funerals. If you don't pay attention Peg Riley: Well, I'm trying to tell ya, he just moons around the house! Chester A. Riley: Yeah! [5] Originally, William Bendix was to have appeared on both radio and TV, but Bendix's RKO Radio Pictures movie contract prevented him from appearing on the TV version. 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]. There are days I can get behind that theory and have. What can you tell me about this interesting fellow? His frequent exclamation of indignation became one of the most famous catch phrases of the 1940s: "What a revoltin' development this is!" The radio series greatly benefited from the immense popularity of a supporting character, Digby "Digger" O'Dell (John Brown), "the friendly undertaker." * TELEVISION: And I have found that, whether I'm walking in the door with a stretcher and one of my own to help carry their dead out, or if I'm going to the hospital to visit a sick relative or friend, or if I show up for a funeral at another place, you know, at a distance, they thank you for that. Oh, yeah. I think the national rate now is right around 38 percent. And you have mentioned the range of feelings and emotions at a funeral. The radio series also benefited from the immense popularity of a supporting character, Digby "Digger" O'Dell (John Brown), "the friendly undertaker." He always knew that the real traffic was between the living and the dead, and it is in managing that and emboldening the living to deal with their dead that you do them the most service. I do not care but that they do it honorably. In many ways they're all replicated by this journey that we take between the living and the dead when someone dies, this procession. Web. When families come in and have their loved one cremated, do you talk to them about going with you to the crematorium? 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." 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. William Bendix is heard as Riley, along with co-stars Paula Winslowe, John Brown, Tommy Cook, and Barbara Eiler - plus series creator Irving Brecher . We'd just say, "Well, let's not think about that anymore." And they take a very sharp instrument. There's been a sort of national conversation about funerals over the years. But when some widowed person comes out and takes you by the shoulders and said, "Thank you, I couldn't have done this without you," and all you did was be there, or answer the call, or show up, there's this deep sense of having been of use to people at a time of need. 2 Mar. Burial was the norm in the Western world probably until the mid-60s. Don't forget the gallon I gave to the Red Cross. Dr. Beamish: Not now, I'm afraid. Whether in the most abstract sense or in the most particular, this is a safe harbor, a place they can have that conversation. And particularly when you see the transaction . Peg Riley: Oh? So in a sense, cremation suits us in that way. [after Riley discovers the man he accused of bank robbery is a policeman]. Well. Who were the other musicians in that performance? Dear Vance:My parents remember a Memphian named Digger ODell who had himself buried alive here sometime in the 1960s as a promotional stunt. And he's sorry to this day! He'll never amount to anything. She means other kinds of trouble. The American Meat Institute (194445), Procter & Gamble (Teel dentifrice and Prell shampoo) (194549), and Pabst Blue Ribbon beer (194951) took turns as the radio program's sponsor. It seemed like an appropriate time for this sainted woman. And yet someone's weeping because of the changed life that we're seeing before us. Banners asked customers and anyone driving past the Buick showroom on Union Avenue, "HOW LONG CAN HE STAY BURIED ALIVE?" What age were you when you really seriously thought you might become a funeral director, and how much of your dad's influence was a part of that decision? Except I want to send out those circulars, so bring me some round paper. And I'm, along with the next guy, as interested in those cartoons as everyone else is. Not sure where the voice actor was inspired from, but Mancubus sounds exactly like Digger O'Dell, the friendly undertaker from the old Life of Rile Press J to jump to the feed. But maybe with the fact that 75 million baby boomers are working their way up to the bar of mortality now, it's dawning on them that this could happen to them. Peg Riley: Theatre, huh? But I have graves at Oak Grove; I have graves in West Clare [County, Ireland]. What does your funeral home represent for this town? Digby 'Digger' O'Dell : It is I, Digby O'Dell, the friendly undertaker. They come in to talk about what to do with a child who's grieving because a schoolmate died, to talk about what will happen in the event of their own death, how to handle a dying parent, nursing home arrangements, elder care. [1] (Marx would get his own series Blue Ribbon Town instead.) 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. Get Ready for a New Season of Gardening -Choose from Tomatoes, Peaches, Corn, Zinnias & More! 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. And then one year it disappeared, and I fretted that someone had stolen it for scrap metal. All rights reserved. The Milford location is one of six Lynch funeral homes in the state. Riley's catch phrase in the series and the film was "what a revolting development this turned out to be." I was watching [author and cultural commentator] Christopher Hitchens the other day. And the things we have to do in that period of two days or three days, that's also largely what you do for us, is that right? . He would announce himself with, "'Tis I, Digger O'Dell, your friendly undertaker. He would have figured that out, but I think for him the funeral, the procession, was part of the process. I planned the whole thing. 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. They'll survive it. He didnt come close to breaking his record. Chester A. Riley: "Babs Riley Featured in Annual School Follies". 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. Chester A. Riley: The baby announcements? So Ive got only one inch to run around in.. The stock market is open. He's resting. 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. to "how come? He was supported by Marjorie Reynolds, replacing both Paula Winslowe and Rosemary DeCamp, as wife Peg; Tom D'Andrea as schemer buddy Jim Gillis; Gloria Blondell (sister of Joan Blondell) as Gillis' wife, Honeybee, and Gregory Marshall as their son Egbert; Lugene Sanders was Babs and Wesley Morgan was Junior. What are you doin' here in the park?Digby 'Digger' O'Dell: Why, I was just taking a stroll around the pond. 1949. That is a wheel we can only invent at the time it happens. I've seen at the end of the day people walking upright away from graves, people walking upright away from fires, as if they were going to survive it. 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. The radio series also benefited from the immense popularity of a supporting character, Digby "Digger" O'Dell , "the friendly undertaker." Brecher told Brown, "I want a very sepulchral voice, quavering, morbid," and he got it right away. Chester A. Riley: Hello, Digger. 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. But you've seen people come in that are agnostics or --. It earned $1.6 million in the U.S. and Canada,[4] preventing him from starring in the TV series that began in the same year. [Riley believes Junior stole five dollars]. Chester A. Riley: Yes. series from October 4, 1949, to March 28, 1950. "The Life of Riley Quotes." How different is confronting death without faith? We are more mobile, more portable, more scattered. With William Bendix the protagonist, as Riley and among others John Brown, who portrayed the friendly undertaker "Digger" O'Dell. Mrs. Abigail Uppington, the wimpy Wallace Wimple and the "friendly undertaker," Digger O'Dell. 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. 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. We are now without a mother or without a father. Not a day went by that I wasn't kept in after school. 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. I think they used to call that "social death"; that actual death happens like that. I enjoy listening to the frogs croak. Peg Riley: Well, he's always been so bright. And it works; it does work. Crowther, Bosley "'The Life of Riley,' With Bendix in the Title Role, Makes Its Appearance at Criterion" The New York Times April 18, 1949. Chester A. Riley: Christmas, nothing doing! 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. 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. there are very few hands raised in the room, because cremation is often shorthand for disappearance. Chester A. Riley: Do I have a hole in my neck? And yet you write that beautiful essay Tract in your book, The Undertaking, which is in some way a map, is it? Details Select delivery location Used: Like New | Details Sold by ral Add to Cart New & Used (2) from FREE Shipping Have one to sell? The character of Digger O'Dell was not resurrected as a result of actor John Brown having been placed on the Hollywood blacklist. She has her picture on the front page. 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. Simon Vanderhopper: Well, you can't call it off! Digby 'Digger' O'Dell: Why, I was just taking a stroll around the pond. In 1907, a penniless farmer named Ruben Shipp discovered gold while plowing his field. It gives us a way to get some little mastery over these uncontrollable things by giving it a narrative thread. The Life of Riley, 1944 to 1951. Land of miracles, where dreams come true! He calculated that he had been "buried alive" 94 times, and some of these almost ended his life. 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. Peg Riley: No thanks, dear. Chester A. Riley: Their gonna slit my throat from ear to ear and rip out my tonsils, and she says there's nothing to it! Jim Gillis: So by her leavin', I'm getting away without goin' out of the house. 1 2023 Turner Classic Movies, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Chester A. Riley: Babs, do you realize when I was 20, your mother was supporting me and a baby? 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. STANDS4 LLC, 2023. That they do it for themselves I think is very important. And sure enough, he came to Memphis in September 1961 to do this stunt for Bluff City Buick, located back then at 739 Union. The Life of Riley starring William Bendix as lovable, blundering, Chester A. Riley, was a radio situation comedy broadcast during and after wartime 40s. And particularly when you see the transaction which involves this rather impressive life-or-death event with the rather mundane mercantility of it all. 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." The elements are the elements. And a narrative is nothing other than a journey. 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. Whether a person is consigned to the earth or the fire is, at the end of the day, no difference. But even people who do not believe or claim no religiosity or no particular faith, they are not without some text, some book they regard as, if not holy, it is the handle they're trying to hold onto to get through this. And what about the formalities, the particular traditions and customs that are a part of the funeral? I can only take from that the sense that we're on the right track there. I think cremation very much is like us. 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. Peg Riley: All this plotting and scheming you remind me of a girl I once knew. A great memorable quote from the The Life of Riley movie on Quotes.net - "It is I, Digger O'Dell, your friendly undertaker. All to the good, I say. This character was extremelly successfull, with many puns based on his profession. Buried alive? It's amazing! [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. It's a culture that doesn't like to be reminded of mortality. What a revoltin' development, indeed." I said NO! According to the obituary, Digger was born in Georgia in 1915. And we come away from these memorial events, these celebrations of life, with the increasing sense that something is missing. Bendix, Rosemary DeCamp, Richard Long, Meg Randall and John Brown reprised their screen roles for an May 8, 1950 Lux Radio Theatre broadcast. Chester A. Riley, a riveter at Stevenson Aircraft in Los Angeles, works hard but is always behind in his bills. 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. Peg Riley: You certainly are, Dear. No word on whether anyone felt like carrying on the family tradition. It is a sadness and a shame that cremation, the fire in this context, is seen as an industrial process instead of an elemental one, in the way that earth is elemental. It's that time of year again when gardeners all over the world are planning what to grow in their gardens. But it's not just my job. Chester A. Riley: I got troubles, Digger. 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. Chester A. Riley: "Babs Riley Featured in Annual School Follies". Up until a couple generations ago, humans were the species that dealt with death, the idea of the thing, by dealing with their dead, the thing itself, so that the way we processed mortality was by processing mortals from one place to the other, one station to the next in this little pilgrimage between as they were to how they are to what we hope they'll be. Do you speak French? This is got to be one of the largest collection of a single classic show I have stumbled across. Chester A. Riley: Oh, you're gonna count my blood? In doing this, in accompanying the dead, getting them where they need to go, we get where we need to be. After all, the people whose names are on these markers dont have that luxury. Asked by yeaux. And there's somebody else arranging the flowers. But by the time a couple days later he went in the ground, it was exactly the right thing to do. Though he's built like Boulder Dam He's tender as a lamb. Gillis: I tried to help you, Riley, but I'm through. 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. And that's very seductive, because, I mean, it's human-to-human contact. It was during this period that Gleason played Riley on one episode of the radio series. By using this site, you agree to our updated. Well, if it's such a gift, why did it cost you 25 dollars? Chester A. Riley: Okay, maybe he ain't no Gregory Peck, but my boy's got it up here [points to head] . j.b., memphis. "You have to have helpers 24 hours a day.". And they open your mouth. Help came from Digger O'Dell, the "friendly undertaker," who offered gruesome theories laced with repetitive puns, brilliantly delivered by John Brown. 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. It is the ridiculous and the sublime. 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. Paula Winslowe played "Peg" for most of the series' run. He never acted this way before. He also portrayed "the friendly undertaker" Digby "Digger" O'Dell on the same show. I cant even blame my wife too much. 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. Changes the reasons that we are more mobile, more scattered n't kept in after.. By using this site, you ca n't call it off out, but I have graves in Clare... Period that Gleason played Riley on one episode of the radio series Los Angeles, hard... Mundane mercantility of it all just moons around the house attention Peg Riley: he a. 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