Mail: Vance Lauderdale, Memphis magazine,
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. 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. : 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. He never acted this way before. They can coexist. We already ordered the baby announcements. Chester A. Riley: Do you need any help with the dishes? 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 . Babs Riley: Guess what? Other photos show preparations for the publicity stunt. Riley could easily be described as the Archie Bunker of the 1940s. When my father died, I was not prepared to put him in the ground then. This character was extremelly successfull, with many puns based on his profession. I'll hug her and I'll kiss her. I admire entrepreneurs and performers as much as the next guy, but it was surely a miserable way to make a living. So yes, the hurt is there, but the hurt does not overwhelm. The character of Digger O'Dell was not resurrected as a result of actor John Brown having been placed on the Hollywood blacklist. 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. He first started doing various stunts in 1932, a time when people were trying to make crazy money with dancing marathons, flagpole sitting, and other endurance feats. Quotes.net. Does it affect the nature of the grief if someone was present for the dying of the loved one? In terms of the practical details, what are some of the things you learned from your dad? And does the rise in cremation in America parallel changes in demographics? "; from "what are we going to buy?" Lewis, and I think, how would you get by without it? It was produced by Tom McKnight for NBC and featured William Bendix. Well. 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. O'Dell was a character hastily written into the long-running radio (and, later, television) show, "The Life of Riley," which had its debut on radio in 1944, while Americans were dying by the thousands in Europe and the Far East. Opening credits conclude with the following written statement: "America! 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. Chester A. Riley: You mean I'm going to live? In some ways it is a culture that's based on convenience and cost efficiency. Babs Riley: But Mother, this is the opportunity of my entire life! I said what about a kiss? 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 character of Digger O'Dell was not resurrected as a result of actor John Brown having been placed on . Chester A. Riley: Yes. There's been a sort of national conversation about funerals over the years. Vance Lauderdale is the history columnist for Memphis magazine and Inside Memphis Business. I just gave him a sedative. May 25, 2021 #1 One of my favorite characters from classic radio is Digby "Digger" O'Dell, the friendly undertaker portrayed by John Brown in THE LIFE OF RILEY. He jumps across the line just as a girl, who is covered by a blanket, is being shot by an arrow and plunges off a cliff. You'd better stop talking that way. 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. So this pilgrimage, this journey that we go on, replicates in many ways other journeys that we see in life, from infancy to toddlerhood, from toddlerhood to teenagers to adulthood, the journeys we take in life in our heart, in the life of our mind, the life of our spirit. If you havent visited this area of the park, you should. We'd just say, "Well, let's not think about that anymore." I've always been touched by the fact that there seems to be as much laughter as weeping at the big life events. UP AND UNDER ANNCR: Prell brings you "The Life of Riley"! Digby 'Digger' O'Dell : It is I, Digby O'Dell, the friendly undertaker. The CBS program starred Lionel Stander as J. Riley Farnsworth and had no real connection with the more famous series that followed a few years later. Rejected everywhere, Riley reluctantly asks Monahan for the money, but Monahan also refuses him. For more and more people it's a trip to the crematory and some variation on the wake where people pay different types of witness. 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. Bearing witness one way or another, that's a key ingredient. And are you a cremation or a burial man? This is the edited transcript of interviews conducted with hin during the winter and spring of 2006-2007. And you have mentioned the range of feelings and emotions at a funeral. What are you doin' here in the park? [Riley believes Junior stole five dollars]. Give me a sense of the changes in attitudes toward death in America. Thanks for any help. Chester A. Riley: I'll tell you what harm there is! [1] (Marx would get his own series Blue Ribbon Town instead.) Peg Riley: Every day this week, he's been kept in after school. 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. Mrs. Abigail Uppington, the wimpy Wallace Wimple and the "friendly undertaker," Digger O'Dell. DIGGER, Digby O'Dell, the Friendly Undertaker MOTHER, Irish and obnoxious ANNOUNCER SINGERS MUSIC: THEME . The company offers Elephant Gigantes seeds, as well as free seeds that come with recommended shelf life information included. Peg Riley: What's the matter? He would have thought much of it ridiculous and much of it sublime. I enjoy listening to the frogs croak. 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. As a result, when Digger delivered his first line, it was usually greeted with howls of laughter and applause from surprised audience members. It just doesn't work out that way. I cant find any record that Digger ever returned to Bluff City Buick, or to the Bluff City for that matter, to finish the job. Back in Atlanta, a judge allowed him to conduct his stunt for an Atlanta shopping center, but he had to turn the money he would be paid only $2,250 over to his family. The Life of Riley, 1944 to 1951. Ferguson: That's the type of citizen we're sworn to protect. For 28 years, the CHFB has been the essential site for classic horror news, research and enthusiasm. By using this site, you agree to our updated. 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. I remember it hitting me there in the house: She actually died; we actually buried her today; she's actually not coming back here; she's actually gone. Chester A. Riley: I don't have to be fair - I'm your father. And they open your mouth. What is missing is the corpse: the thing itself, not the idea of the thing. Bendix was able to return to the role on NBC from 1953 to 1958, where the program was consistently in the top 25. [citation needed], The series was co-developed by the nonperforming Marx Brother turned agent Gummo. If you're playing human to human, you'll do fine. So it's not like you do things for them as much as you do it with them and embolden them to do for themselves. He didnt come close to breaking his record. 2023. It seems "Digger O'Dell" was a "friendly undertaker" character in The Life of Riley , a radio soap opera that aired back in the 1930s, but that still doesn't explain the curious popularity of the name, if you ask me. And I do think that while the dead don't care, the dead matter. He calculated that he had been "buried alive" 94 times, and some of these almost ended his life. Chester A. Riley: Oh, you're gonna count my blood? 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?". I have children at home; my wife had taken them home from the luncheon. He never came back here, as promised, but he continued to perform these stunts until he died in 1999, at the age of 83. I cant say what finally happened to Digger. For some people it's not the open casket and the three-day wake and the roses and the limousines and the Panis Angelicus. Chester A. Riley: I'll go home right now. And this movement, emotionally, is mirrored by a physical movement. A great memorable quote from the The Life of Riley movie on Quotes.net - "It is I, Digger O'Dell, your friendly undertaker. It's Prell! It has to do with the gift of language. The Life of Riley, 1944 to 1951. Im five-foot-eleven. Digger O'Dell @diggerodell7655 56 subscribers Subscribe Home Videos Shorts Playlists Community Channels About Videos Play all 16:13 Searching for the lost Asylum (SHD, FX removed to fix some.
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. Another time, firefighters rescued him after he apparently suffered a heart attack underground. Thanks to Chester's interference, Junior now has two dates for the school dance. The radio series greatly benefited from the immense popularity of a supporting character, Digby "Digger" O'Dell (John Brown), "the friendly undertaker." The Life of Riley starring William Bendix as lovable, blundering, Chester A. Riley, was a radio situation comedy broadcast during and after wartime 40s. 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. 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). Chester A. Riley: Well, that'll be it, Miss Millie. Mar The dead matter to the living. Well, to find the answer to that question, you need to read the full story here. Let me begin this strange tale by saying that minutes and minutes of research failed to turn up many verifiable facts about Smith oh, good grief, lets just call him Digger here. 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. 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. With William Bendix the protagonist, as Riley and among others John Brown, who portrayed the friendly undertaker "Digger" O'Dell. 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. . Babs Riley: Guess what? I enjoy listening to the frogs croak. Jim Gillis: I know a lot about surgery. But you've seen people come in that are agnostics or --. Do you speak French? I needed to read that piece because I'm disinclined -- when someone's sick, when someone's out of sorts, when someone's dead -- I'm disinclined to be around that. I'll treat her just like she wasn't my wife. 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: Chester A. Riley: You know, it's funny. We are now without a mother or without a father. Every time I have a birthday, I realize that Mom's getting a year older. The only place your son will get his picture is in the post office. And it works; it does work. William Bendix and Digger O'Dell the friendly undertaker - The Life of Riley Complete Broadcast CBS Lux Radio Theatre 1950 (Lp) - Amazon.com Music Buy used: $198.00 $3.99 delivery January 26 - February 2. Peg Riley: Then I've been in love with you the whole time. It was during this period that Gleason played Riley on one episode of the radio series. The second TV series ran for six seasons, from January 2, 1953, to May 23, 1958. Digby 'Digger' O'Dell: It is I, Digby O'Dell, the friendly undertaker. Scars On My Heart / Her (7", Single) Ranger. The boss' son (Long), who is in love with Babs, suggests that they get married in order to save Riley's job. 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 Jeff, who had just proposed to Babs himself, is devastated by her announcement, as is Peg, who knows that her daughter does not love Burt. Junior will be glad to pitch in. 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. Peg Riley: My father let me decide who I wanted to go around with. He first started doing various stunts in 1932, a time when people were trying to make crazy money with dancing marathons, flagpole sitting, and other endurance feats. We do have a charge for our caskets. Chester A. Riley: Oh. web site copyright 1995-2014 I'll be the dead guy, and the dead say nothing. Peg Riley: No. He was Herbert ODell Smith, and he conducted this buried alive stunt, along with countless other feats of endurance, across the South. We saw people start organizing these commemorative events to which everyone was invited but the dead guy. Once Riley declares to Stevenson that he does not want the promotion, Babs realizes she is free and runs into Jeff's waiting arms. He had a new book out about God not being great. His real name, it seems, was Herbert O'Dell Smith. And yet you write that beautiful essay Tract in your book, The Undertaking, which is in some way a map, is it? Just as all appears lost, Riley learns from Burt that he has been promoted to a high-paying executive position. Chester A. Riley: No. 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. 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. To Babs's delight, Jeff, who has just moved in next door with his aunt, is a dedicated pre-med student. Simon Vanderhopper: Well, you can't call it off! t.r., memphis. After 13 days in his coffin, Memphis police showed up with shovels to unearth Digger. I think the national rate now is right around 38 percent. The Brother immediately. 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. This is standard practice when ordering from Ukraine, according to customers wh. Whether youre growing hot or sweet varieties, there are some important tips for success. But you have to do that first, because people will sense if you're not willing to do that, if you're just sort of going through the motions. What a revolting development this is! Chester A. Riley: [on the phone] What is it, a boy or a girl? His dramatic life story is so well-known that schoolchildren are taught to recite it for extra credit. Dear Vance:My parents remember a Memphian named Digger ODell who had himself buried alive here sometime in the 1960s as a promotional stunt. 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. When you grow up in funeral service, you always have a job.
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. An unrelated radio show with the name Life of Riley was a summer replacement show heard on CBS from April 12, 1941, to September 6, 1941. It follows the changes in our species, certainly in our culture. The question is not meant to mock; the question is to say: "What is it you don't want to see? Thomas Lynch reads to camera his essay Tract, in which he broaches the topic of his own funeral. Chester A. Riley: Besides that, he's nothing but a lazy loafer. We are more mobile, more portable, more scattered. The program even utilized a stable of so-called "silent" characters, individuals referred to often but never actually heard. Digby 'Digger' O'Dell: It is I, Digby O'Dell, the friendly undertaker. As usual, he doesn't know what to do, until Digby O'Dell, the Friendly Unde. All rights reserved. Babs: Well, I think he ought to get a fair trial. 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. Maybe the referee will give you a draw. 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. 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. On the day of Babs's wedding, which is to take place at the Stevenson mansion, Riley becomes annoyed and hurt when Gillis, his best friend and co-worker, snubs him because he is sure that Riley "sold" his daughter to get the promotion. I just read this card, and I just spoke to the Justice of the Peace! MUSIC: THEME FILLS A PAUSE, THEN FADES OUT ANNCR: Digger O'Dell, the friendly undertaker ANNCR: It's new! Jiffy peat pellets are a popular choice for starting tomatoes, but they can also be used for peppers. 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. 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. This is got to be one of the largest collection of a single classic show I have stumbled across. Riley is overjoyed by his unexpected "step up," unaware that Babs asked Burt to offer him the job, and that he did so without his father's knowledge. It gives me room to do either, all along this sort of emotional register. Plunged into darkness, Riley takes the advice of friend and neighbor, undertaker "Digger" O'Dell, and invites his guests to a restaurant. Everything assumes its natural order. The dirt on Herbert ODell Smith. 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. And is that the purposefulness in the ebb and flow of a wake and a funeral? The open casket, it is something that's often mocked. 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. 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! Chester A. Riley: Gee, Gillis, you're brave - making out you're happy when all the time, inside, you've got a broken heart. All to the good, I say. We are less grounded than our grandparents were. 1
460 Tennessee Street #200, Memphis, TN 38103. he must have stuck eith me, because I will go as Digger to a neighborhood "post Halloween" block party this afternoon. Buy Organic Seeds Risk Free From Organic Seeds TOP - Credit Card & Western Union Payment Options, Organic Seeds TOP is a seed vendor based in the Ukraine. Maybe because it's happening to their parents or their siblings and some of their friends now, suddenly I see the cultural conversation changing from "how much?" What does your funeral home represent for this town? SOURCES:
Simon Vanderhopper: Yes sir, I don't let the grass grow under my feet! Still, as every grieving person knows, we have to reinvent the wheel in which we are now orphaned. If you don't pay attention Peg Riley: Well, I'm trying to tell ya, he just moons around the house! [9], William Bendix and Sterling Holloway, 1957. Is he in some of of trouble or something? When Riley learns that the couple is to spend their honeymoon in separate rooms, he becomes suspicious. It's something handled by "them" offsite, elsewhere, and I think that's problematical. And particularly when you see the transaction which involves this rather impressive life-or-death event with the rather mundane mercantility of it all. I guess he likes this blond's cooking. Digger: Every good undertaker has his ear to the ground - we pick up a lot of dirt that way. I said NO! I got my picture in the paper! And I suppose this is the message at every graveside: They stay, we go, until we come to that point in which we are brought there, and we stay and they go. 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. It's possible to pay with credit card or Western Union, but PayPal isn't an option. He played "Al" on the radio series "My Friend Irma". By Lorraine LoBianco. In the 19551956 season, the Riley family moved and were given new neighbors portrayed by Florence Sundstrom and George O'Hanlon.[8]. Sterling Holloway recurred as neighbor Waldo Binney, another radio character. Digger O'Dell Buried For Good This Time. Humans figured out both before they had backhoes and retorts. What are you doin' here in the park? 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? 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. I was watching [author and cultural commentator] Christopher Hitchens the other day. [citation needed], In 1948, NBC broadcast "two live television test programs based on the radio series. producer's chat|readings & links|site map|dvd & transcript|press reaction It's a kind of theater, I suppose. I mean, if it was just a matter of forgetting, we would do that. [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 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. 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. Comedy Romance A factory worker's family is thrown into an uproar when his teenage daughter starts to date his boss' son. 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. This is the way I like to remember William Bendix - playing a family man doing the best he can in a world that tends to be a bit too much for him, with children that tend to be a bit too much for him too. I got my picture in the paper! "Lux Radio Theater" broadcast a 60-minute radio adaptation of the movie on May 8, 1950 with William Bendix, Rosemary DeCamp, Meg Randall .
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