When my father died, I was not prepared to put him in the ground then. Chester A. Riley: You know, it's funny. I think of disbelief as a faith of its own kind. With your own mother and father and their funerals, what were the moments that had meaning for you? Riley, Riley, what a guy! Alan Lipscott and Reuben Ship wrote many of the radio series' early episodes, and Don Bernard was the show's initial director. Jackson.Amongst the student body, there was boy with the surname of O'Dell. 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. Chester A. Riley: Why should an old man married for years run away with a pretty blond? I want reports! 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. Peg Riley: You certainly are, Dear. Not wanting to uproot his family, Riley determines to come up with the $1,500 down payment and goes from bank to bank searching for a loan. 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. [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. You had your tonsils out. 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. 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. Let's see! So I like the word "funeral" for what we're doing here, because it doesn't require me to feel this way or that. "I play every chance I get music, that is!" Mounted on one of his five Harleys and racing most everywhere across the nation will be National Number 57; that's "Digger O'Dell," the friendly undertaker. Buick customers could view him through a periscope, or they could drop coins down a tube that urged them, Can you ring the bell? Nobody seemed to ask and the newspapers werent telling how on earth the man would use the bathroom during his 58 days (and maybe longer) underground. I got my picture in the paper! series from October 4, 1949, to March 28, 1950. 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. By using this site, you agree to our updated. Did you hear me? The Brother immediately. I got my picture in the paper! So people come in to talk about arranging their parents' funerals or their own. 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. Chester A. Riley: "Babs Riley Featured in Annual School Follies". But he said, "When a death occurs, people feel so helpless, it's good to have some of these things already invented." But by the time a couple days later he went in the ground, it was exactly the right thing to do. He would have thought much of it ridiculous and much of it sublime. During a burial in California, a sudden earthquake caved in the sides of his "apartment" and he had to be rescued. 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. "My helpers had me out in minutes, thank heavens," he told reporters. For some people it's not the open casket and the three-day wake and the roses and the limousines and the Panis Angelicus. The radio series also benefited from the immense popularity of a supporting character, Digby "Digger" O'Dell (John Brown), "the friendly undertaker." I said what about a kiss? 461. Dear Vance:My parents remember a Memphian named Digger ODell who had himself buried alive here sometime in the 1960s as a promotional stunt. Gillis: I tried to help you, Riley, but I'm through. Brecher then saw William Bendix as taxicab company owner Tim McGuerin in Hal Roach's The McGuerins from Brooklyn (1942). The idea for the radio program had originated as a sitcom for Groucho Marx called The Flotsam Family , but Groucho was Groucho and the sponsor couldn't accept him as a family man. There must be some reason for it! : Commissioned in 1932 by Memphis Chapter 1 of the American War Mothers, this large bronze plaque carried the names of 27 Memphians who had lost their lives in World War I. Cast & Crew Read More Irving Brecher Director William Bendix Chester A. Riley James Gleason Gillis Rosemary Decamp Peg Riley Bill Goodwin Sidney Monahan Beulah Bondi Miss [Martha] Bogle Film Details Genre Comedy Release Date Mar 1949 Premiere Information Peg Riley: Then I've been in love with you the whole time. I think we're all complicit in the banishment of the dead to the peripheries. I've sat with families who said, "Well, we want a closed casket," and I've often asked them, "Well, had they not died yesterday, would you not want to see them today?" Chester A. Riley: I got troubles, Digger. For the final season, filming reverted to black-and-white. After the boorish Monahan orders the most expensive items on the fancy French menu, however, Riley barely has enough to cover the check. We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly. to "what are we going to do?" Riley's catch phrase in the series and the film was "what a revolting development this turned out to be." But you've seen people come in that are agnostics or --. During cocktails, a bill collector from the electric company shows up, and after Riley sends him on his way, he disconnects the Rileys' electricity. While the ratio may not be ideal for tomatoes, it can still produce great results with some preparation and understanding of the plant's genetic potential. A cover was placed over his apartment and he was sealed in, with the intention being to break the personal record of 57 days that he had set here during his previous visit to Memphis, though that location wasnt mentioned. And then one year it disappeared, and I fretted that someone had stolen it for scrap metal. 2023 Turner Classic Movies, Inc. All Rights Reserved. In many ways they're all replicated by this journey that we take between the living and the dead when someone dies, this procession. That's not what you don't want to see, because we can fix that all." I think we're among the first couple generations for whom the presence of the dead at their funerals has become optional, and I see that as probably not good news for the culture at large. Though other friends may fail you, I shall be the last to let you down.". Peg Riley: Chester Riley! home|introduction|watch online|stories & special video|to be an undertaker|join the discussion So yeah, it is the good news and the bad news. But the strange case of Digby "Digger" O'Dell offers an elegant counterpoint. Will that matter? Lewis, and I think, how would you get by without it? started calling him "Digger". What does your funeral home represent for this town? John Brown returned as the morbid, counseling undertaker Digby (Digger) O'Dell. I said NO! The Life of Riley, 1944 to 1951. So in a sense, cremation suits us in that way. 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. 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]. Comedy Romance A factory worker's family is thrown into an uproar when his teenage daughter starts to date his boss' son. And I think this has to do with our notions about fire itself. Riley's annoying co-worker, Gillis, was also voiced by Brown. 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). The crematory we use is impeccably run by ethical people, people we inspect, unannounced, a couple times every year. Thanks for any help. 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've always been touched by the fact that there seems to be as much laughter as weeping at the big life events. What you're looking at [in the case of someone being there during that time] is everything's in order. Peg Riley: All this plotting and scheming you remind me of a girl I once knew. 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. 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. For more than 30 years he also has been the director of the Lynch & Sons funeral home in the small town of Milford, Mich. In the 19551956 season, the Riley family moved and were given new neighbors portrayed by Florence Sundstrom and George O'Hanlon.[8]. The company offers Elephant Gigantes seeds, as well as free seeds that come with recommended shelf life information included. And is that the purposefulness in the ebb and flow of a wake and a funeral? In October 1949, the NBC network began broadcasting a television series inspired by the radio program, also titled The Life of Riley. She means other kinds of trouble. With William Bendix the protagonist, as Riley and among others John Brown, who portrayed the friendly undertaker "Digger" O'Dell. Bearing witness one way or another, that's a key ingredient. When the film opened in New York at the Loew's Criterion theater in April 1949, Bosley Crowther, film critic for The New York Times turned his nose up at it writing, "As one whom domestic expediency occasionally compels to bear with the Friday night bull-bellowing of one Chester A. Riley on the radio, this reviewer can state with fair authority that no artistic advantage has been gained by making this same Mr. Riley and his family apparent on the screen." 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. Bendix's delivery and the spin he put on his lines made it work. 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. 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? 460 Tennessee Street #200, Memphis, TN 38103. 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. It's possible to pay with credit card or Western Union, but PayPal isn't an option. But I don't know of anybody who has come in here entirely angry at the prospect of God who has done well with this type of thing, with deaths in the family. His real name, it seems, was Herbert O'Dell Smith. We're celebrating love, huh? Actor Ted de Corsia's name appears as both "de Corsia" and "deCorsia" in the onscreen credits. Vance Lauderdale is the history columnist for Memphis magazine and Inside Memphis Business. Chester A. Riley: No. Chester A. Riley: Yes. Aware that he can use his grandfather's trust money if he marries with the approval of his father, Burt decides to pursue the wholesome Babs. His dramatic life story is so well-known that schoolchildren are taught to recite it for extra credit. Every time I have a birthday, I realize that Mom's getting a year older. 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. 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. 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. This is standard practice when ordering from Ukraine, according to customers wh. 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." According to the obituary, Digger was born in Georgia in 1915. 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. It's that white-knuckled, socially enforced celebration [where] oftentimes the dead are absent from it, because that would be too compelling; that would be too much of a challenge. . A daughter is no longer the daughter only or the son no longer the son only. 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. Peppers take longer than tomatoes to get going, so start them first. He's a boy who Chester A. Riley: He's a boy! 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. Digger O'Dell, the friendly undertaker ANNCR: It's new! 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 . 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. And oftentimes I'm impressed by how people will wrap their existential concerns about a dying parent in the prearrangement conference. 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. Why would he leave his wife? 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