Down your throat it goes. I said NO! I know it won't matter, it will be others, but do you see yourself as the fire or the earth, or --? See production, box office & company info, Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA. It's not always the same thing, and for everyone it's different. He would have probably had a difficult way of managing some of the changes that we see nowadays. During a burial in California, a sudden earthquake caved in the sides of his "apartment" and he had to be rescued. Give me a sense of the changes in attitudes toward death in America. Do they get through it better? A factory worker's family is thrown into an uproar when his teenage daughter starts to date his boss' son. And somebody else is pressing somebody's clothes. 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). Instead, Jackie Gleason starred, with Rosemary DeCamp replacing Paula Winslowe as wife Peg, Gloria Winters as daughter Barbara (Babs), Lanny Rees as son Chester Jr. (Junior), and Sid Tomack as Jim Gillis, Riley's manipulative best buddy and next-door neighbor. Unknown. I see it all as part of the one journey, all as part of the one pilgrimage. I see no difference in the machinery it takes to dig a hole [and] the machinery it takes to build a fire. "[2], The reworked script cast Bendix as blundering Chester A. Riley, a wing riveter at the fictional Cunningham Aircraft plant in California. Don't forget the gallon I gave to the Red Cross. 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. I mean, that is the terrible, terrible part. We'd just say, "Well, let's not think about that anymore." Get Ready for a New Season of Gardening -Choose from Tomatoes, Peaches, Corn, Zinnias & More! 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. What we don't want to see is our mother or our father dead, and that is the part we need to see. P-R-E-L-L! MUSIC: LOU KOSLOFF'S "LIFE OF RILEY THEME" . It's ridiculous, it's mundane, it's stupid, but at the end of the day what we are trying to do is assemble all our metaphoric weapons to do battle with this hurt, this still thing. We are less grounded than our grandparents were. 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. Not a day went by that I wasn't kept in after school. 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 many people I know, when families are cremated, they feel as if they've in some sense kind of disappeared. The expression "life of Riley" or "living the life of Riley (Reilly)" emerged in the early 1920s, and was probably derived from turn-of-the-century Irish songs, such as "The Best in the House Is None Too Good for Reilly." Well, both my parents were buried like Irish Catholics were buried, so there was this sort of tribal and religious language that had been developed over centuries for how we do this. Comedy Romance A factory worker's family is thrown into an uproar when his teenage daughter starts to date his boss' son. Dwarf Mr Snow, Fred's Tie Dye, Saucy Mary, Sweet Scarlet, Kangaroo Paw Green, Idaho Gem and Banana Toes are just a few of the varieties one gardener is growing in a 4x8 bed of "bulletproof" tomatoes. Digby 'Digger' O'Dell : Why, I was just taking a stroll around the pond. So yes, the hurt is there, but the hurt does not overwhelm. Rejected everywhere, Riley reluctantly asks Monahan for the money, but Monahan also refuses him. The question is not meant to mock; the question is to say: "What is it you don't want to see? Mar Sometimes it's as simple as going up the street, down the block, into the church, out of that building, over to the bridge, over the river, over to the graveyard. "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. Riley's annoying co-worker, Gillis, was also voiced by Brown. 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. Digby 'Digger' O'Dell: Why, I was just taking a stroll around the pond. Dunning, John On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio The Internet Movie Database You were just married! Nevertheless, this Life of Riley series with Bendix was a ratings hit, ranking at No. 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. We are more mobile, more portable, more scattered. Oh, yeah. 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. Although Bendix's considerable acting chops allowed him to believably play both heroes and villains, it was as the loveable blue-collar factory worker Chester A. Riley that he is best remembered, first on radio and then in the 1949 movie of the same name. And Mrs. Verrino's eulogy, her narrative of what she and her husband and their child were going through, was a way of sort of mastering this journey. The radio series also benefited from the immense popularity of a supporting character, Digby "Digger" O'Dell (John Brown), "the friendly undertaker." You're sweet, though. Digger: Every good undertaker has his ear to the ground - we pick up a lot of dirt that way. He never came back here, as promised, but he continued to perform these stunts until he died in 1999, at the age of 83. Bendix was able to return to the role on NBC from 1953 to 1958, where the program was consistently in the top 25. Sterling Holloway recurred as neighbor Waldo Binney, another radio character. Digger kept up his strange act for many years. By using this site, you agree to our updated. One of my favorite old time radio characters (other than Jack Benny) was Digger O'Dell "The Friendly Undertaker". Brecher told Brown, "I want a very sepulchral voice, quavering, morbid," and he got it right away.[2]. Land of miracles, where dreams come true! Quotes.net. Except I want to send out those circulars, so bring me some round paper. And we come away from these memorial events, these celebrations of life, with the increasing sense that something is missing. It was a sudden inspiration brought on by ownership of a tuxedo T-shirt! The only place your son will get his picture is in the post office. I've never lost a father yet! [after Riley discovers the man he accused of bank robbery is a policeman]. They'll survive it. She just cant help being money hungry.. His real name, it seems, was Herbert O'Dell Smith. He would announce himself with, "'Tis I, Digger O'Dell, your friendly undertaker. 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. Barbara 'Babs' Riley: But Dad, Simon's only 20. After all, the people whose names are on these markers dont have that luxury. (CONTINUES HUMMING IN BG) ANNOUNCER: 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. Id like to think that the cemetery installed a periscope so visitors could see him, or at least a tube where they could drop coins and see if they could ring the bell but I doubt it. 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 crematory we use is impeccably run by ethical people, people we inspect, unannounced, a couple times every year. He is best-known in Memphis for agreeing to be "buried alive" as a promotion that took place in September 1959 for Bluff City Buick. We'd be wise, as a culture, to examine some of these things. That's enough, isn't it? So I'm interested in it. And there's somebody else doing this, that. 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 there's somebody else digging the hole in the ground. So what I find is that before people bring their expertise as an embalmer or as a manager or as an executive or as a director, before any expertise, you ante up your humanity, you know? Well, to find the answer to that question, you need to read the full story here. It has to do with the gift of language. Plunged into darkness, Riley takes the advice of friend and neighbor, undertaker "Digger" O'Dell, and invites his guests to a restaurant. Chester A. Riley: I'm just as much a show-off as they are, ain't I? So what you've seen is what I've seen: that people who deal with their dead deal with death better. And I do think that while the dead don't care, the dead matter. It's possible to pay with credit card or Western Union, but PayPal isn't an option. Gillis then forgives Riley, and Riley is satisfied that his family is happy once more. Whether a person is consigned to the earth or the fire is, at the end of the day, no difference. 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. Chester A. Riley: Hello, Digger. All the same, 100 percent of the people that have gone with us are grateful that we invited them to go. Thanks for any help. Peg Riley: No. Thomas Lynch reads to camera his essay Tract (part II). Acti-Sol Hen Manure is one popular product that has been used with success by experienced, This website uses cookies for functionality, analytics and advertising purposes as described in our. That's why I came over here tonight. 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. I mean, if it was just a matter of forgetting, we would do that. he must have stuck eith me, because I will go as Digger to a neighborhood "post Halloween" block party this afternoon. And does the rise in cremation in America parallel changes in demographics? I'd have to say yeah, they do. So people come in to talk about arranging their parents' funerals or their own. Chester A. Riley: Do you need any help with the dishes? When Riley learns that the couple is to spend their honeymoon in separate rooms, he becomes suspicious. So it's easy enough. 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. And particularly when you see the transaction which involves this rather impressive life-or-death event with the rather mundane mercantility of it all. 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