In some ways it is a culture that's based on convenience and cost efficiency. Not to worry, though. It's possible to pay with credit card or Western Union, but PayPal isn't an option. 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. Peg Riley: Chester Riley! Paula Winslowe played "Peg" for most of the series' run. 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. So it's easy enough. This character was extremelly successfull, with many puns based on his profession. SOURCES:
Chester A. Riley: Gee, Gillis, you're brave - making out you're happy when all the time, inside, you've got a broken heart. 2 Mar. 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. I said what about a kiss? So we learn to live with it. series from October 4, 1949, to March 28, 1950. By Lorraine LoBianco. We saw people start organizing these commemorative events to which everyone was invited but the dead guy. 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. I know it won't matter, it will be others, but do you see yourself as the fire or the earth, or --? Don't you worry about him; we'll pull him through. 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. Packed among his riding gear when on tour is a trumpet, and Helm has been known to join local bands in jam sessions. Except I want to send out those circulars, so bring me some round paper. 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 . Peg Riley: Well, he's always been so bright. What a revoltin' development, indeed." He'd made a few films, like Lifeboat, but he was not a name. Chester A. Riley: I don't think you heard me, peg. 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. I've seen it happen to Sean [his son], where you're swinging the door at night, helping people with their coats, directing them one place or another, carrying flowers, doing all the innocuous little things that add up to taking care of a family during visitation. 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. Chester A. Riley: "Babs Riley Featured in Annual School Follies". He's resting. Maybe the referee will give you a draw. Peg Riley: No thanks, dear. It's Prell! Once he had to be pulled from his apartment after the dirt sides turned to mud and caved in after a thunderstorm. 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. To Riley's amazement, Stevenson reveals that he had already planned to promote him to foreman, beginning in January. It seemed like an appropriate time for this sainted woman. . In many ways we represent the place where whatever conversation people want to have about death and dying and grief and bereavement. People will know that. Henry Morgan voiced Riley's father in one episode. DIGGER, Digby O'Dell, the Friendly Undertaker MOTHER, Irish and obnoxious ANNOUNCER SINGERS MUSIC: THEME . It then went into syndicated reruns. And a narrative is nothing other than a journey. Well, if you ask any group of ordinary citizens, "How many here have attended a cremation?" For many people I know, when families are cremated, they feel as if they've in some sense kind of disappeared. . The Life of Riley, 1944 to 1951. 2023 Turner Classic Movies, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Opening credits conclude with the following written statement: "America! "[2], The reworked script cast Bendix as blundering Chester A. Riley, a wing riveter at the fictional Cunningham Aircraft plant in California. Lewis, and I think, how would you get by without it? He'll never amount to anything. Thomas Lynch reads to camera his essay Tract (part II). "You have to have helpers 24 hours a day.". Chester A. Riley: Well, if you do, just holler. Babs Riley: All right, but Professor Van Plantan says I have a natural gift for acting. A great memorable quote from the The Life of Riley movie on Quotes.net - "It is I, Digger O'Dell, your friendly undertaker. Chester A. Riley : Hello, Digger. 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. 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. Too often Bendix was cast as a mental case who enjoyed smashing skulls, or his roles would take his gentle giant exterior to the extreme and he would be cast as an overgrown child as in "The Babe Ruth Story". "Lux Radio Theater" broadcast a 60-minute radio adaptation of the movie on May 8, 1950 with William Bendix, Rosemary DeCamp, Meg Randall . Copyright 2022 Memphis Magazine. (CONTINUES HUMMING IN BG) ANNOUNCER: Though other friends may fail you, I shall be the last to let you down." In terms of the practical details, what are some of the things you learned from your dad? Digger's morbid sense of humor buttressed by Brown's off-kilter delivery was a hit with the show's audience, and for me, often the high point of the episode. Later, while dropping off the rent to Miss Bogle, Babs receives her first kiss from Jeff. William Bendix is heard as Riley, along with co-stars Paula Winslowe, John Brown, Tommy Cook, and Barbara Eilerplus series creator Irving Brecher . Chester A. Riley: Hello, Digger. I'm not the type of friends who buts in. It's not that you don't want to see your mother or your father or your sister or your brother. Did you hear me? It gives us a way to get some little mastery over these uncontrollable things by giving it a narrative thread. Plunged into darkness, Riley takes the advice of friend and neighbor, undertaker "Digger" O'Dell, and invites his guests to a restaurant. When families have gone to the crematory, has it made a difference? Oh, yeah. Bareiss, Warren "The Life of Riley" Encyclopedia of Television
Thanks to Chester's interference, Junior now has two dates for the school dance. 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. 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: You know, it's funny.
I think we're all complicit in the banishment of the dead to the peripheries. 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." But I remember coming home after the mass and the burial and the luncheon, getting back to her house -- it was about 3:00-ish in the afternoon -- and thinking, "The trick-or-treaters are coming." 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. For the second run, Bendix returned as Riley, while Marjorie Reynolds appeared as Peg. 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. Why would he leave his wife? It seems Digger ODell was a friendly undertaker character in The Life of Riley , a radio soap opera that aired back in the 1930s, but that still doesnt explain the curious popularity of the name, if you ask me. On any given day, it's up for grabs. I got my picture in the paper! Simon Vanderhopper: Mr. Riley, you're not angry? 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. [Riley believes Junior stole five dollars]. Does it affect the nature of the grief if someone was present for the dying of the loved one? 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. I guess you might quibble that the Memory Grove itself the stand of trees that shaded it has been left behind, but the plaque is in better company here, near the famous Doughboy Statue (also a tribute to those lost in the First World War), along with memorials to the men and women who sacrificed their lives in World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and Operation Desert Storm. There are several videos on line. In doing this, in accompanying the dead, getting them where they need to go, we get where we need to be. Mrs. Abigail Uppington, the wimpy Wallace Wimple and the "friendly undertaker," Digger O'Dell. I always knew I'd bring up my daughter to be somebody someday. Another time, firefighters rescued him after he apparently suffered a heart attack underground. 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. Rejected everywhere, Riley reluctantly asks Monahan for the money, but Monahan also refuses him. 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. The radio series also benefited from the immense popularity of a supporting character, Digby "Digger" O'Dell (John Brown), "the friendly undertaker." 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 planned the whole thing. Are social changes the reasons that we are more fearful and reluctant to deal with death in our everyday lives? Chester A. Riley: None of that radical talk out of you just 'cause you go to high school! But when the entire conversation circles around and around about how much it's going to cost or how can you prevent this charge, I just find it silly after a while. 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