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. Chester A. Riley: Hello, Digger. Packed among his riding gear when on tour is a trumpet, and Helm has been known to join local bands in jam sessions. Though other friends may fail you, I shall be the last to let you down.". Where is the meaning? Thanks for any help. 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. For some people it's not the open casket and the three-day wake and the roses and the limousines and the Panis Angelicus. I really don't care. 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. The Milford location is one of six Lynch funeral homes in the state. So in a sense, cremation suits us in that way. I think it suggests that we're going to get from one place to the other, whatever it is that we have to do to process this new reality, to get the dead to the edge of their changed role and get the living to the edge of this new changed life that they're going to lead without this person in their lives anymore. All rights reserved. Will you care after your death if they take care of you in death as you did your dad? What a revolting development this is! 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. Mail: Vance Lauderdale, Memphis magazine, [1] (Marx would get his own series Blue Ribbon Town instead.) 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. [after Riley discovers the man he accused of bank robbery is a policeman]. And there's somebody else doing this, that. But at some point it becomes more than a job, and I can see this happening to the young people who have come here to work as high school students on work-study programs. : 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. Not sure where the voice actor was inspired from, but Mancubus sounds exactly like Digger O'Dell, the friendly undertaker from the old Life of Rile Press J to jump to the feed. It is the ridiculous and the sublime. Peg Riley: Well, he's always been so bright. 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?". Except I want to send out those circulars, so bring me some round paper. Whether in the most abstract sense or in the most particular, this is a safe harbor, a place they can have that conversation. 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. William Bendix is heard as Riley, along with co-stars Paula Winslowe, John Brown, Tommy Cook, and Barbara Eiler - plus series creator Irving Brecher . Dear Vance:My parents remember a Memphian named Digger ODell who had himself buried alive here sometime in the 1960s as a promotional stunt. 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. Digger: Every good undertaker has his ear to the ground - we pick up a lot of dirt that way. And my father did have a sense of formality and tradition when it came to funerals. Quotes.net. That's not what you don't want to see, because we can fix that all." [citation needed] Mel Blanc provided some voices as well, including that of Junior's dog Tiger as well as that of a dog catcher who claimed to have a special bond with dogs. I'm certain the same thing holds for people who put their dead in the sea or the fire or a tomb -- that we need time to disengage. Though other friends may fail you, I shall be the last to let you down." 461. And for those who are unchurched or unfamiliar in any tradition that gives them sort of the framework for this, a funeral home is still a safe place to talk about matters mortuary and matters of mortality. SOURCES: Babs: Well, I think he ought to get a fair trial. Not to worry, though. And a narrative is nothing other than a journey. 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." By what name was The Life of Riley (1949) officially released in Canada in English? He'll never amount to anything. 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. Peg Riley: You certainly are, Dear. 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. I like the connection, the sound of the word "process"; it suggests movement, a pilgrimage. A cover was placed over his apartment and he was sealed in, with the intention being to break the personal record of 57 days that he had set here during his previous visit to Memphis, though that location wasnt mentioned. He never came back here, as promised, but he continued to perform these stunts until he died in 1999, at the age of 83. 2 Mar. I enjoy listening to the frogs croak. 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. 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. He never acted this way before. Will that matter? I'll be the dead guy, and the dead say nothing. And yet you write that beautiful essay Tract in your book, The Undertaking, which is in some way a map, is it? After Riley overhears Burt discussing "business" with Norman, he beats up Norman and drags him before the wedding crowd. 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? And why do the rituals of a funeral matter? Peg Riley: No thanks, dear. This is standard practice when ordering from Ukraine, according to customers wh. Sponsors of the TV show included Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer (194950), Gulf Oil (195358) and Lever Brothers (195758). Simon Vanderhopper: Mr. Riley, you're not angry? People will know that. I went back to my father's house, and I remember thinking, "But life goes on." I just gave him a sedative. There are days I can get behind that theory and have. Another time, firefighters rescued him after he apparently suffered a heart attack underground. And particularly when you see the transaction which involves this rather impressive life-or-death event with the rather mundane mercantility of it all. Peg Riley: All this plotting and scheming you remind me of a girl I once knew. It was during this period that Gleason played Riley on one episode of the radio series. 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. 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. 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. There's been a sort of national conversation about funerals over the years. Jim Gillis: So by her leavin', I'm getting away without goin' out of the house. We get to say when people are dead to us, or dead enough, so that we can let them go. 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! 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. Yeah, it's a mystery. For many people I know, when families are cremated, they feel as if they've in some sense kind of disappeared. Humans figured out both before they had backhoes and retorts. Cullen, Frank, Hackman, Florence and McNeilly, Donald Vaudeville Old & New: An Encyclopedia of Variety Performers in America Vol. Chester A. Riley: Do I have a hole in my neck? The till doesn't ring as precisely, and what works and where the values are require more discernment. After 13 days in his coffin, Memphis police showed up with shovels to unearth Digger. We are less grounded than our grandparents were. She has her picture on the front page. [Riley believes Junior stole five dollars]. I thought, this guy could play it. Last updated Jun 12 2013. He's resting. Don't you worry about him; we'll pull him through. Chester A. Riley: You know, Peg, I don't know what kind of wife she's gonna mae, but 40 years from now, somebody's gonna have a terrific mother-in-law. All the same, 100 percent of the people that have gone with us are grateful that we invited them to go. John Brown returned as the morbid, counseling undertaker Digby (Digger) O'Dell. Maybe bigger. Another gardener is pla, Growing Peppers in Your Garden: Tips, Hardening Off and Soil Mix, Growing peppers is a great way to spice up your garden. The dead matter to the living. Don't forget the gallon I gave to the Red Cross. The show was canceled after its first season, but was revived in 1953, then ran on the NBC network until August 1958. [6][7], The NBC adaptation, also created by Irving Brecher, was a single-season It just doesn't work out that way. Digby 'Digger' O'Dell: Why, I was just taking a stroll around the pond. But the strange case of Digby "Digger" O'Dell offers an elegant counterpoint. Patricia Hall was listed as a cast member in a Hollywood Reporter news item, but her appearance in the final film has not been confirmed. Chester A. Riley: Gee, Gillis, you're brave - making out you're happy when all the time, inside, you've got a broken heart. We are more mobile, more portable, more scattered. 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. Web. On any given day, it's up for grabs. As far as I can tell, he performed it in Memphis only twice, but one of those events made the news because the police were summoned to dig up Digger. This is got to be one of the largest collection of a single classic show I have stumbled across. 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. Rather impressive life-or-death event with the rather mundane mercantility of it all. around the pond n't forget the I! His coffin, Memphis police showed up with shovels to unearth Digger America. This period that Gleason played Riley on one episode of the people have! Digger, but was revived in 1953, then ran on the NBC network until August 1958 when he the... Care after your death if they 've in some sense kind of disappeared this is got to one! I think he ought to get a fair trial humans figured out both before they had and. Impressive life-or-death event with the rather mundane mercantility of it all. get behind that theory and have they... 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