I think mine will know what to do, too, not because I've said, "Do this or that," but because they have seen life as I have seen it, and they sort of know me and I know them. Paula Winslowe played "Peg" for most of the series' run. Whether or not my family is involved with the care of my body, that's their business. 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. She must have money. Do you hear that, Peg? 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. Bearing witness one way or another, that's a key ingredient. During a burial in California, a sudden earthquake caved in the sides of his "apartment" and he had to be rescued. Could have been man/wife or brother/sister. The auto dealers did their part by displaying a huge banner that asked of anyone driving by, HOW LONG CAN HE STAY BURIED ALIVE?. Once Riley declares to Stevenson that he does not want the promotion, Babs realizes she is free and runs into Jeff's waiting arms. But I find that if you just show up, if you just walk in the door, people think you're a hero. He would announce himself with, "'Tis I, Digger O'Dell, your friendly undertaker. The Milford location is one of six Lynch funeral homes in the state. 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. And at least so far as my experience is concerned, the living who bear those burdens honorably are better off for it. 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. He later finds out it was an Indian girl who stood in for her and they are reunited at the end of the movie. What are you doin' here in the park? 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. started calling him "Digger". 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. No one escaped Crowther's vitriol: Bendix was "an oaf," Lanny Rees, as son, Junior, looked "slightly frightening," Randall as Babs was "just another shapely blonde," and John Brown as Digger was "extremely disappointing in the flesh." [1] (Marx would get his own series Blue Ribbon Town instead.) Why would he leave his wife? Give me a sense of the changes in attitudes toward death in America. [1], William Bendix also starred in the 1949 film version of The Life of Riley directed by Irving Brecher. 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 . Chester A. Riley: I know what you did! What you're looking at [in the case of someone being there during that time] is everything's in order. This character was extremelly successfull, with many puns based on his profession. But he said, "When a death occurs, people feel so helpless, it's good to have some of these things already invented." William Bendix is heard as Riley, along with co-stars Paula Winslowe, John Brown, Tommy Cook, and Barbara Eilerplus series creator Irving Brecher . 1949. He has been buried in a concrete vault for 36 days, sealed in glass 33 days, and spent 26 days underwater., But somewhere along the way, he decided to concentrate on burying himself in the worlds smallest apartment, as the various promotions called it. What are you doin' here in the park? "became one of the most famous catchphrases of the 1940s. Chester A. Riley: Hello, Digger. He's a boy who Chester A. Riley: He's a boy! 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. 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. Will you care after your death if they take care of you in death as you did your dad? Brecher then saw William Bendix as taxicab company owner Tim McGuerin in Hal Roach's The McGuerins from Brooklyn (1942). 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. It's that time of year again when gardeners all over the world are planning what to grow in their gardens. Chester A. Riley: Okay, maybe he ain't no Gregory Peck, but my boy's got it up here [points to head] . And particularly when you see the transaction which involves this rather impressive life-or-death event with the rather mundane mercantility of it all. And I've seen it work, I've seen it work. Help came from Digger O'Dell, the "friendly undertaker," who offered gruesome theories laced with repetitive puns, brilliantly delivered by John Brown. The till doesn't ring as precisely, and what works and where the values are require more discernment. 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. 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 really don't care. A reader named Ronnie Bierbrodt, who obviously did more research than I did, even turned up his obituary and a copy of the memorial booklet given out at his funeral. I think the national rate now is right around 38 percent. But I have graves at Oak Grove; I have graves in West Clare [County, Ireland]. And we come away from these memorial events, these celebrations of life, with the increasing sense that something is missing. 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! Chester A. Riley: Well, if you do, just holler. Jim Gillis: I know a lot about surgery. He's a man who's understood In Brooklyn or in Hollywood. 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. 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. Humans figured out both before they had backhoes and retorts. And something is. And yet someone's weeping because of the changed life that we're seeing before us. The dirt on Herbert ODell Smith. Lewis, and I think, how would you get by without it? So yeah, I do find that people who have dealt with their dying -- whether it was taking them to their chemotherapy or sitting those weeks through hospice care, or checking in those weeks through hospice care, because we can't always be physically present -- those people who were thoroughly engaged with this are thoroughly engaged with the rest of it. I think of disbelief as a faith of its own kind. . When Riley learns that the couple is to spend their honeymoon in separate rooms, he becomes suspicious. MUSIC: THEME FILLS A PAUSE, THEN FADES OUT ANNCR: He would have probably had a difficult way of managing some of the changes that we see nowadays. I enjoy listening to the frogs croak. 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. 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. Hal: I'm a father! It has always been a family-owned and -operated firm, founded by Thomas Lynch's father, Edward Joseph Lynch. 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. A comic book adaptation of the show was produced by Dell Comics in 1958 as part of their Four Color series of one-shots. I see it all as part of the one journey, all as part of the one pilgrimage. Does it make it easier? If you havent visited this area of the park, you should. 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: 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. Mar One option is organic fertilizer made from chicken manure, which can be found at Menard's for a reasonable price of $10.99 per 25-pound bag. Not to worry, though. Im five-foot-eleven. As usual, he doesn't know what to do, until Digby O'Dell, the Friendly Unde. And yeah, everything plays its part in that. For many people I know, when families are cremated, they feel as if they've in some sense kind of disappeared. It was later reused by Benjamin J. Grimm of the Fantastic Four. 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. Digger O'Dell Buried For Good This Time. During cocktails, a bill collector from the electric company shows up, and after Riley sends him on his way, he disconnects the Rileys' electricity. But the strange case of Digby "Digger" O'Dell offers an elegant counterpoint. He calculated that he had been "buried alive" 94 times, and some of these almost ended his life. 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. 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. I admire entrepreneurs and performers as much as the next guy, but it was surely a miserable way to make a living. Chester A. Riley: [on the phone] What is it, a boy or a girl? Brecher told Brown, "I want a very sepulchral voice, quavering, morbid," and he got it right away.[2]. producer's chat|readings & links|site map|dvd & transcript|press reaction So it's interesting times we live in that way. Jackie Gleason starred as Riley during the show's first year, while DeCamp and Lanny Rees reprised their film roles for the series. See production, box office & company info, Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA. He noted that "the grave that he can't escape from" is located in Sawnee View Memorial Gardens, just outside of Cummings, Georgia. Chester A. Riley: I don't think you heard me, peg. 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. 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." 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. Brief Synopsis A factory worker tries to cope when his daughter dates the boss's son. Chester A. Riley: None of that radical talk out of you just 'cause you go to high school! What a revolting development this is! Peg Riley: Theatre, huh? [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. So everything is weakened; weakened and tightened at the same time. Thanks for any help. Another time, firefighters rescued him after he apparently suffered a heart attack underground. About 40 percent of the dead that we're taking care of are cremated, and every family is asked if they'd like to come with us to the crematory. Brecher Productions, Inc.; Universal-International Pictures Co., Inc. "Digger" O'Dell, "the friendly undertaker", William Bendix came to the attention of the public in the 1944 Alfred Hitchcock film, Lifeboat , playing a dim-witted sailor who doesn't survive the ordeal. 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. The program was broadcast live with a studio audience, most of whom were not aware Brown played both characters. Not a day went by that I wasn't kept in after school. 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. I know it won't matter, it will be others, but do you see yourself as the fire or the earth, or --? Quotes.net. 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. With William Bendix the protagonist, as Riley and among others John Brown, who portrayed the friendly undertaker "Digger" O'Dell. P-R-E-L-L! We can't prearrange that. Digby 'Digger' O'Dell: It is I, Digby O'Dell, the friendly undertaker. The dead matter to the living. 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. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts His real name, it seems, was Herbert O'Dell Smith. It was produced by Tom McKnight for NBC and featured William Bendix. I'll treat her just like she wasn't my wife. 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. to "what are we going to do?" 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. 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. Radio historian Gerald Nachman quotes Brecher as stating, "He was a Brooklyn guy and there was something about him. 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. 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. CONTINUES IN BG SINGERS: Riley, Riley, what a pal! At [ in the park adaptation of the changes in attitudes toward death in America Oak Grove ; have. All over the world are planning what to grow in their gardens the living who bear those burdens are... Of disappeared the program was broadcast digger o'dell the friendly undertaker with a studio audience, most of the pilgrimage! Hal Roach 's the McGuerins from Brooklyn ( 1942 ) that time ] is 's! 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