He didnt come close to breaking his record. And what about the formalities, the particular traditions and customs that are a part of the funeral? 2023. All rights reserved. Western movie question: Movie likely from the 70s, has the climax where a man/boy is racing through the desert to beat a shadow across a certain line to save a girl captured by Indians. The till still rings. There are days I can get behind that theory and have. Chester A. Riley: You know, it's funny. 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. None of us knew what reference was being made here.In grade five very few people here NL (Canada) were familiar with American radio.When the "Life Of Reilly" came to TV my appreciation of "Digger" was finally launched. I'm the guy that has the hearse, but there's someone else in town who is making a strawberry rhubarb pie to bring to the luncheon afterward, and that's what she's doing on the day. He noted that "the grave that he can't escape from" is located in Sawnee View Memorial Gardens, just outside of Cummings, Georgia. 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. Digger O-Dell And The Friendly Undertakers. When he his first line, it was usually greeted with howls of laughter and applause from the audience. [6][7], The NBC adaptation, also created by Irving Brecher, was a single-season Peg Riley: Maybe he's sick or something. Starting with the right soil and conditions can make all the difference when it comes to germination and transplanting of pepper seedlings. 460 Tennessee Street #200, Memphis, TN 38103. 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. Years later I had audio tapes to which I listened to repeatidly and learned to really admire Digger's council to Reilly via puns related to the profession of undertaking. Though other friends may fail you, I shall be the last to let you down.". 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 . When families have gone to the crematory, has it made a difference? 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. 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. 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. All the same, 100 percent of the people that have gone with us are grateful that we invited them to go. This character was extremelly successfull, with many puns based on his profession. 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." And there's somebody else arranging the flowers. FRONTLINE series home|wgbh|pbs, FRONTLINE is a registered trademark of wgbh educational foundation. The open casket, it is something that's often mocked. Thanks to Chester's interference, Junior now has two dates for the school dance. While we would all agree that death is never funny, this show had an usual character in it by the name of Digby "Digger". Babs: Well, I think he ought to get a fair trial. Thomas Lynch is a writer and a poet. According to the 1999 obituary, Digger was survived by his wife, Julie Ann "Maggie" Smith of Dawsonville, Georgia; a son, Bobby Smith, of Lakewell, Florida; and a stepson, Timothy Eugene Fowler, of Gainesville, Georgia. Down your throat it goes. People will say, "I'd like something simple and inexpensive," and I want to say, "Well, over here we have simplicity; over here we have cheap." From NE Ohio to North Central Mississippi, everyone has their own ideas and preferences for what they will plant this year. 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. 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. Chester A. Riley: Okay, maybe he ain't no Gregory Peck, but my boy's got it up here [points to head] . 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. When Monahan and his new wife Lucy arrive for dinner, Riley is envious of his former rival's obvious wealth and tries to hide his own financial shortcomings. Chester A. Riley: I got troubles, Digger. She must have money. 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. Where is the meaning? Thomas Lynch reads to camera his essay Tract, in which he broaches the topic of his own funeral. Chester A. Riley, a riveter at Stevenson Aircraft in Los Angeles, works hard but is always behind in his bills. Chester A. Riley: I know what you did! Do they get through it better? Chester A. Riley: The baby announcements? STANDS4 LLC, 2023. Help came from Digger O'Dell, the "friendly undertaker," who offered gruesome theories laced with repetitive puns, brilliantly delivered by John Brown. 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. "Life goes on!" With William Bendix the protagonist, as Riley and among others John Brown, who portrayed the friendly undertaker "Digger" O'Dell. 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. Singles & EPs. The elements are the elements. Irving Brecher, who would direct the film adaptation of Life of Riley, had seen William Bendix in a film called The McGuerins of Brooklyn (1942) and knew he'd found his man. William Bendix is heard as Riley, along with co-stars Paula Winslowe, John Brown, Tommy Cook, and Barbara Eiler - plus series creator Irving Brecher . Chester A. Riley: Hello, Digger. Digger: Every good undertaker has his ear to the ground - we pick up a lot of dirt that way. I just gave him a sedative. It's not always the same thing, and for everyone it's different. Most say, "No, go ahead and take care of that." Barbara 'Babs' Riley: Oh Simon, he knows! He also portrayed "the friendly undertaker" Digby "Digger" O'Dell on the same show. Al was the boyfriend of Irma. 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. So yeah, I enjoyed writing that piece. Chester A. Riley: Yes. Peg Riley: Yeah? "You have to have helpers 24 hours a day.". 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! 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? Except I want to send out those circulars, so bring me some round paper. Opening credits conclude with the following written statement: "America! Maybe bigger. 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. And so they'll know what to do. They can coexist. They'll survive it. Sterling Holloway recurred as neighbor Waldo Binney, another radio character. 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! "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. Burial was the norm in the Western world probably until the mid-60s. 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. It was during this period that Gleason played Riley on one episode of the radio series. 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. For 28 years, the CHFB has been the essential site for classic horror news, research and enthusiasm. Other photos show preparations for the publicity stunt. 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. His dramatic life story is so well-known that schoolchildren are taught to recite it for extra credit. Chester A. Riley: Babs, do you realize when I was 20, your mother was supporting me and a baby? I want reports! 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." Every time I have a birthday, I realize that Mom's getting a year older. We do have a charge for our caskets. [in a flashback sequence, Peg has just given birth to her first child]. He never came back here, as promised, but he continued to perform these stunts until he died in 1999, at the age of 83. [Riley is talking on the phone with the hospital's maternity ward]. Does it affect the nature of the grief if someone was present for the dying of the loved one? I have often noticed the difference between the first day that a family will spend here and the next day. But he said, "When a death occurs, people feel so helpless, it's good to have some of these things already invented." 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. The stores are open. 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. We're celebrating love, huh? The local newspapers reported that an 18x24-inch plywood air shaft allowed Digger to receive air and food, and he had carefully stocked his tiny domicile with lights, reading glasses, even packs of cigarettes. And there's somebody else trying to get the choir to sing in tune. So we learn to live with it. Punchy: Hey, why don't you get up, pal? As usual, he doesn't know what to do, until Digby O'Dell, the Friendly Unde. People will know that. 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. 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. Peppers take longer than tomatoes to get going, so start them first. In 1949, Universal Studios released a Life of Riley motion picture, and later that same year NBC produced a TV version with Jackie Gleason playing Riley (Bendix was unable to play the role . During a burial in California, a sudden earthquake caved in the sides of his "apartment" and he had to be rescued. Barbara 'Babs' Riley: But Dad, Simon's only 20. He would announce himself with, "'Tis I, Digger O'Dell, your friendly undertaker. And it works; it does work. [citation needed], The series was co-developed by the nonperforming Marx Brother turned agent Gummo. I think we're all complicit in the banishment of the dead to the peripheries. And my father did have a sense of formality and tradition when it came to funerals. 2023. Peg Riley: Well, of all the revolting ideas! There's been a sort of national conversation about funerals over the years. 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. Digger kept up his strange act for many years. So we had those advantages. And particularly when you see the transaction . This character was extremelly successfull, with many puns based on his profession. 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. That they do it for themselves I think is very important. Give me a sense of the changes in attitudes toward death in America. Riley could easily be described as the Archie Bunker of the 1940s. Bearing witness one way or another, that's a key ingredient. 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