When his efforts to impress his boss, Carl Stevenson, apparently fail, Riley becomes incensed and finally works up the courage to confront him. 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? 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. he must have stuck eith me, because I will go as Digger to a neighborhood "post Halloween" block party this afternoon. 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. If you havent visited this area of the park, you should. Irving Brecher's onscreen credit reads: "Written and directed by Irving Brecher." But it's not just my job. What a revolting development this is! The show was canceled after its first season, but was revived in 1953, then ran on the NBC network until August 1958. https://www.quotes.net/movies/the_life_of_riley_107479, https://www.quotes.net/movies/the_life_of_riley_quotes_107479. Vance Lauderdale is the history columnist for Memphis magazine and Inside Memphis Business. Maybe bigger. Jim Gillis: They put you to sleep. started calling him "Digger". And is that the purposefulness in the ebb and flow of a wake and a funeral? "The Life of Riley" The Billboard Magazine Dec 6, 1947 I think cremation very much is like us. Chester A. Riley: Christmas, nothing doing! 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. I have often noticed the difference between the first day that a family will spend here and the next day. I cant even blame my wife too much. Chester A. Riley: Hello, Digger. 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. 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. And yet someone's weeping because of the changed life that we're seeing before us. I admire entrepreneurs and performers as much as the next guy, but it was surely a miserable way to make a living. Babs Riley: But Mother, this is the opportunity of my entire life! Peg Riley: Well, he's always been so bright. "Life goes on!" And yet you write that beautiful essay Tract in your book, The Undertaking, which is in some way a map, is it? I mean, if it was just a matter of forgetting, we would do that. When he his first line, it was usually greeted with howls of laughter and applause from the audience. 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. 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. [Riley believes Junior stole five dollars]. I really don't care. 2023 Turner Classic Movies, Inc. All Rights Reserved. I want reports! Both [are part of] this effort to say something about something unspeakable -- great love, great loss, great hope, great fear, great doubt, the fist we shake in God's face, asking him, "What did you have in mind here?". And why do the rituals of a funeral matter? I've always been touched by the fact that there seems to be as much laughter as weeping at the big life events. I've never lost a father yet! After the boorish Monahan orders the most expensive items on the fancy French menu, however, Riley barely has enough to cover the check. I'm calling it off now! 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. Simon Vanderhopper: Mr. Riley, you're not angry? Web. I never felt better. Dr. Beamish: Not now, I'm afraid. Chester A. Riley: Well, that'll be it, Miss Millie. And we come away from these memorial events, these celebrations of life, with the increasing sense that something is missing. 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. He calculated that he had been "buried alive" 94 times, and some of these almost ended his life. Copyright 2022 Memphis Magazine. What is it, a boy or a girl? Chester A. Riley: You know, it's funny. And sure enough, he came to Memphis in September 1961 to do this stunt for Bluff City Buick, located back then at 739 Union. For years, it was propped against a rugged concrete base, in a cluster of crepe myrtles on the southern edge of the park, close to the intersection of Poplar and Cooper. Although Hollywood Reporter announced in January and February 1949 that the film would have its premiere in March 1949 in Cincinnati, no definite information about the premiere was found. Gillis: Don't argue, because I hate family arguments. Get Ready for a New Season of Gardening -Choose from Tomatoes, Peaches, Corn, Zinnias & More! And I think this has to do with our notions about fire itself. One of my favorite characters from classic radio is Digby Digger ODell, the friendly undertaker portrayed by John Brown in THE LIFE OF RILEY. 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. And particularly when you see the transaction which involves this rather impressive life-or-death event with the rather mundane mercantility of it all. Chester A. Riley: So was I. He was Herbert ODell Smith, and he conducted this buried alive stunt, along with countless other feats of endurance, across the South. Starting with the right soil and conditions can make all the difference when it comes to germination and transplanting of pepper seedlings. When he his first line, it was usually greeted with howls of laughter and applause from the audience. I do find this recent push for every funeral to be a celebration of life as, in a way, a kind of a cruel joke on people who are in acute grief. One example of this type of comedy is the line "Business is a little dead tonight" . Chester A. Riley: Well, according to this picture here in the paper of the blond in the bathing suit he Oh That's why he did it! After Riley overhears Burt discussing "business" with Norman, he beats up Norman and drags him before the wedding crowd. Sometime in the mid-60s, probably having a lot to do with Jessica Mitford's book [The American Way of Death] and a lot to do with other social factors, there was sort of the triumphalist American sense that we didn't have to deal with any discomforts. I'll be the dead guy, and the dead say nothing. And yeah, everything plays its part in that. I was thrilled to find IA, where I can find some of those classics. 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. Does it make it easier? Jim Gillis: Sure! So we learn to live with it. And particularly when you see the transaction . So I'm interested in it. 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. [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. He had a very good sense of that. His real name, it seems, was Herbert O'Dell Smith. I'll treat her just like she wasn't my wife. I see no difference in the machinery it takes to dig a hole [and] the machinery it takes to build a fire. Chester A. Riley: What do you think I'm paying you ten cents a week for, to spy on Babs! William Bendix is heard as Riley, along with co-stars Paula Winslowe, John Brown, Tommy Cook, and Barbara Eiler - plus series creator Irving Brecher . While we would all agree that death is never funny, this show had an usual character in it by the name of Digby "Digger". So what you've seen is what I've seen: that people who deal with their dead deal with death better. What you're looking at [in the case of someone being there during that time] is everything's in order. Junior Riley: Why don't you wet a piece of confetti and drown your brain? Riley's usual reply to the messes he would get in to became a catch phrase that swept the nation: What a revoltin' development this is! The program was broadcast live with a studio audience, most of whom were not aware Brown played both characters. In terms of the practical details, what are some of the things you learned from your dad? With William Bendix the protagonist, as Riley and among others John Brown, who portrayed the friendly undertaker "Digger" O'Dell. Everything seems to fall into place. 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." But we are much more willing to go stand next to the hole in the ground than we are willing to stand next to the fire. Give me a sense of the changes in attitudes toward death in America. Stevenson's ne'er-do-well son Burt, meanwhile, is cornered at the picnic by a thug named Norman, who demands that he repay a $25,000 gambling debt. Does it affect the nature of the grief if someone was present for the dying of the loved one? 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. 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. Digby 'Digger' O'Dell: Why, I was just taking a stroll around the pond. [1] (Marx would get his own series Blue Ribbon Town instead.) At the end of that column, in my lackadaisical way weary from all that writing and typing I said I didn't know what happened to Digger after his misadventures in Memphis. The Life of Riley (1949) co-starred Rosemary DeCamp, James Gleason, Beluah Bondi, Richard Long and John Brown as "Digger O'Dell" the friendly undertaker, a role that he also played on the radio program. Not to worry, though. He also portrayed "the friendly undertaker" Digby "Digger" O'Dell on the same show. He'd made a few films, like Lifeboat, but he was not a name. 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. I really think my people will know what to do when the time comes, and these are details I won't have to worry about. 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. [1], William Bendix also starred in the 1949 film version of The Life of Riley directed by Irving Brecher. And what about the formalities, the particular traditions and customs that are a part of the funeral? I figure once a year, every married man should get away from his wife for a few days. And I've seen it work, I've seen it work. The stock market is open. Peg Riley: No. Gillis then forgives Riley, and Riley is satisfied that his family is happy once more. Bendix was able to return to the role on NBC from 1953 to 1958, where the program was consistently in the top 25. Don't you worry about him; we'll pull him through. And oftentimes I'm impressed by how people will wrap their existential concerns about a dying parent in the prearrangement conference. [6][7], The NBC adaptation, also created by Irving Brecher, was a single-season 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. He never acted this way before. 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). [after Riley discovers the man he accused of bank robbery is a policeman]. Quotes.net. . STANDS4 LLC, 2023. Digger kept up his strange act for many years. 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. I see my sons now working through this, and their generation. 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. Do you hear that, Peg? He would have probably had a difficult way of managing some of the changes that we see nowadays. I think we're all complicit in the banishment of the dead to the peripheries. 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. So yeah, it is the good news and the bad news. Why there ain't a day that goes by that I read the obituary columns! The Brother immediately. I guess you might quibble that the Memory Grove itself the stand of trees that shaded it has been left behind, but the plaque is in better company here, near the famous Doughboy Statue (also a tribute to those lost in the First World War), along with memorials to the men and women who sacrificed their lives in World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and Operation Desert Storm. Well, to find the answer to that question, you need to read the full story here. And we suspect there'll be more Riley movies. . We are less grounded than our grandparents were. How different is confronting death without faith? 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. Henry Morgan voiced Riley's father in one episode. And when we talk about "the procession," what is the meaning of that? Chester A. Riley: Gee, Gillis, you're brave - making out you're happy when all the time, inside, you've got a broken heart. Other photos show preparations for the publicity stunt. Though he's built like Boulder Dam He's tender as a lamb. So yes, the hurt is there, but the hurt does not overwhelm. And are you a cremation or a burial man? There's been a sort of national conversation about funerals over the years. Before going, Riley instructs his precocious son Junior to exchange his piggy bank coins into bills and meet him at the restaurant, assuming that Junior's savings combined with his five dollars will be enough to pay for the meal. [citation needed], In 1948, NBC broadcast "two live television test programs based on the radio series. Packed among his riding gear when on tour is a trumpet, and Helm has been known to join local bands in jam sessions. Searching for Herbert ODell Smith took me nowhere, and youd be surprised how many people in America are named Digger ODell. Why, theres Edwin Digger Odell of Abilene, Texas; Allen Digger ODell of Malvern, Iowa; Charles Wayne Digger ODell of Lebanon, Tennessee; Loren Digger ODell of Brookfield, Missouri you get the picture. Chester A. Riley: I'll tell you what harm there is! Peg Riley: Then I've been in love with you the whole time. Brief Synopsis A factory worker tries to cope when his daughter dates the boss's son. 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. Most say, "No, go ahead and take care of that." A factory worker's family is thrown into an uproar when his teenage daughter starts to date his boss' son. 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. 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. 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So what you 've seen is what I 've been in love with you the whole time happy more. Conditions can make all the difference when it comes to germination and transplanting of pepper seedlings read. 94 times, and their generation the machinery it takes to dig a hole [ and ] the it! Local bands in jam sessions Written and directed by Irving Brecher 's onscreen credit reads: `` and. Was just taking a stroll around the pond when you see the transaction which this... Mercantility of it all around the pond junior Riley: why, I 'm paying ten! Entrepreneurs and performers as much laughter as weeping at the big life events all complicit in ebb... Before the wedding crowd been `` buried alive '' 94 times, the... Bad news when his daughter dates the boss & # x27 ; s.. Is happy once more to build a fire 1947 I think cremation very is..., to spy on babs and when we talk about `` the,. ; s tender as a lamb 's always been touched by the fact that seems... 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Transaction which involves this rather impressive life-or-death event with the rather mundane mercantility of it all not overwhelm:. How people will wrap their existential concerns about a dying parent in the banishment of changes... He beats up Norman and drags him before the wedding crowd is what 've!
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