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. Do you hear that, Peg? Well, it's showing up and just being there is worth an awful lot. I think we act out things that are hard to put in words. Not wanting to uproot his family, Riley determines to come up with the $1,500 down payment and goes from bank to bank searching for a loan. STANDS4 LLC, 2023. You're sweet, though. A daughter is no longer the daughter only or the son no longer the son only. But I find that if you just show up, if you just walk in the door, people think you're a hero. Just as all appears lost, Riley learns from Burt that he has been promoted to a high-paying executive position. Cullen, Frank, Hackman, Florence and McNeilly, Donald Vaudeville Old & New: An Encyclopedia of Variety Performers in America Vol. Bareiss, Warren "The Life of Riley" Encyclopedia of Television "Lux Radio Theater" broadcast a 60-minute radio adaptation of the movie on May 8, 1950 with William Bendix, Rosemary DeCamp, Meg Randall . 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. Peg Riley: Well, he's always been so bright. Jim Gillis: They put you to sleep. The Life of Riley starring William Bendix as lovable, blundering, Chester A. Riley, was a radio situation comedy broadcast during and after wartime 40s. So I like the word "funeral" for what we're doing here, because it doesn't require me to feel this way or that. But by the time a couple days later he went in the ground, it was exactly the right thing to do. Here in Milford we're around 40 percent, and there are places where it's 60 percent and places where it's 16 percent. 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. And sure enough, he came to Memphis in September 1961 to do this stunt for Bluff City Buick, located back then at 739 Union. Babs Riley: Guess what? What does your funeral home represent for this town? 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. 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". 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. Chester A. Riley: No. I see no difference in the machinery it takes to dig a hole [and] the machinery it takes to build a fire. Riley's penchant for turning mere trouble into near-disaster through his well-intentioned bumbling was often aided or instigated by his arch best friend/next-door neighbor, Gillis. A great memorable quote from the The Life of Riley movie on Quotes.net - "It is I, Digger O'Dell, your friendly undertaker. An unrelated radio show with the name Life of Riley was a summer replacement sh, Many,many, many years ago when I was in grade five I had as a teacher an American Christian Brother named Bro. During cocktails, a bill collector from the electric company shows up, and after Riley sends him on his way, he disconnects the Rileys' electricity. 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. Once Riley declares to Stevenson that he does not want the promotion, Babs realizes she is free and runs into Jeff's waiting arms. William Bendix is heard as Riley, along with co-stars Paula Winslowe, John Brown, Tommy Cook, and Barbara Eiler - plus series creator Irving Brecher . Everything seems to fall into place. What a revoltin' development, indeed." Thanks for any help. But it's not just my job. Digby 'Digger' O'Dell: It is I, Digby O'Dell, the friendly undertaker. 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. That is a wheel we can only invent at the time it happens. All to the good, I say. That they do it for themselves I think is very important. I've sat with families who said, "Well, we want a closed casket," and I've often asked them, "Well, had they not died yesterday, would you not want to see them today?" 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. It was produced by Tom McKnight for NBC and featured William Bendix. [5] Originally, William Bendix was to have appeared on both radio and TV, but Bendix's RKO Radio Pictures movie contract prevented him from appearing on the TV version. 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." Peg Riley: Maybe he's sick or something. Peg Riley: Then I've been in love with you the whole time. Procter and Gamble's new Radiant Creme Shampoo in the handy tube! I've come to admire the earth, the wind and the fire. And does the rise in cremation in America parallel changes in demographics? Lewis, and I think, how would you get by without it? I think they used to call that "social death"; that actual death happens like that. So I'm interested in it. Mar "The Life of Riley Quotes." started calling him "Digger". Digby 'Digger' O'Dell : It is I, Digby O'Dell, the friendly undertaker. It's a culture that doesn't like to be reminded of mortality. I admire entrepreneurs and performers as much as the next guy, but it was surely a miserable way to make a living. [Riley is talking on the phone with the hospital's maternity ward]. Chester A. Riley : Hello, Digger. At weddings people are forever weeping at what is supposed to be a joyous event. And that's very seductive, because, I mean, it's human-to-human contact. The supporting cast featured Paula Winslowe as Riley's wife, Peg, and as Riley's mother-in law; Brown as O'Dell and as Riley's co-worker Jim Gillis; Francis "Dink" Trout as Waldo Binney; Tommy Cook, Bobby Ellis and Scotty Beckett as Junior at various times during the show's run; Barbara Eiler as Riley's daughter, Babs; Shirley Mitchell as Honeybee Gillis; Hans Conried as Uncle Baxter; and Alan Reed as multiple characters, including Riley's boss (Mr. Stevenson) and Peg's father. 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. 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. Chester A. Riley: Well, if you do, just holler. [6][7], The NBC adaptation, also created by Irving Brecher, was a single-season What can you tell me about this interesting fellow? Don't forget the gallon I gave to the Red Cross. Chester A. Riley: Hello, Digger. 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. Jackie Gleason starred as Riley during the show's first year, while DeCamp and Lanny Rees reprised their film roles for the series. Chester A. Riley: I'm just as much a show-off as they are, ain't I? In the early 1970s, he had apparently retired and had opened World-Famous Digger ODells Farmers Market somewhere in that state, but had returned to his old stunts after the death of his wife from a heart attack. Do you hear that, Peg? "became one of the most famous catchphrases of the 1940s. What age were you when you really seriously thought you might become a funeral director, and how much of your dad's influence was a part of that decision? 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. For the final season, filming reverted to black-and-white. It has to do with the gift of language. Don't you worry about him; we'll pull him through. [citation needed], In 1948, NBC broadcast "two live television test programs based on the radio series. 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? Today he is just living the life of RileyThis is the story of Chester A. Rileywho is just livingin Los Angeles California." Unreliable advice on how to handle these situations came from Riley's pal Digger O'Dell, the friendly undertaker, who would sneak in a string of dark-humored jokes before he had to be "shoveling off". The till doesn't ring as precisely, and what works and where the values are require more discernment. He never acted this way before. Question #48486. I enjoy listening to the frogs croak. Sterling Holloway recurred as neighbor Waldo Binney, another radio character. Ferguson: That's the type of citizen we're sworn to protect. Babs Riley: But Mother, this is the opportunity of my entire life! 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. Radio historian Gerald Nachman quotes Brecher as stating, "He was a Brooklyn guy and there was something about him. I enjoy listening to the frogs croak. The Press-Scimitar told why: It seems the police got a warrant for one Herbert ODell Smith, 46, wanted in Atlanta on a charge of non-support filed by his wife. When he finally crawled out his hole, Digger promised customers, Ive got to attend to some personal business, but Ill be back, folks, and will finish the job. Later, he told reporters, Thats the way the cookie crumbles. By what name was The Life of Riley (1949) officially released in Canada in English? It gives me room to do either, all along this sort of emotional register. Does it make it easier? When families have gone to the crematory, has it made a difference? When the publicity manager urged him to change into a dark suit (so it would be more funeral-like) Digger refused: Ive got to have my robe. When the promoter begged him to change clothes once he was below ground, Digger explained the situation: No room. 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. 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. Brecher then saw William Bendix as taxicab company owner Tim McGuerin in Hal Roach's The McGuerins from Brooklyn (1942). j.b., memphis. I see my sons now working through this, and their generation. Plunged into darkness, Riley takes the advice of friend and neighbor, undertaker "Digger" O'Dell, and invites his guests to a restaurant. See production, box office & company info, Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA. We are now without a mother or without a father. Well, if you ask any group of ordinary citizens, "How many here have attended a cremation?" We saw people start organizing these commemorative events to which everyone was invited but the dead guy. Actor Ted de Corsia's name appears as both "de Corsia" and "deCorsia" in the onscreen credits. 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. Banners asked customers and anyone driving past the Buick showroom on Union Avenue, "HOW LONG CAN HE STAY BURIED ALIVE?" Brief Synopsis A factory worker tries to cope when his daughter dates the boss's son. Thanks to Chester's interference, Junior now has two dates for the school dance. I enjoy listening to the frogs croak. And oftentimes I'm impressed by how people will wrap their existential concerns about a dying parent in the prearrangement conference. "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. 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. There are days I can get behind that theory and have. Digger: Every good undertaker has his ear to the ground - we pick up a lot of dirt that way. And I've seen it work, I've seen it work. 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. Vance Lauderdale is the history columnist for Memphis magazine and Inside Memphis Business. 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. Babs: Well, I think he ought to get a fair trial. We'd just say, "Well, let's not think about that anymore." Peg Riley: Every day this week, he's been kept in after school. Nevertheless, this Life of Riley series with Bendix was a ratings hit, ranking at No. Dear j.b.: Well, for starters I can tell you that this interesting fellow (and Im certainly not disputing that) was not a Memphian, and his name wasnt really Digger ODell. 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. Digger O'Dell Buried For Good This Time. And yeah, everything plays its part in that. Comedy Romance A factory worker's family is thrown into an uproar when his teenage daughter starts to date his boss' son. Peg Riley: All this plotting and scheming you remind me of a girl I once knew. While the ratio may not be ideal for tomatoes, it can still produce great results with some preparation and understanding of the plant's genetic potential. 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. home|introduction|watch online|stories & special video|to be an undertaker|join the discussion 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. Even a criminal gets time off for good behavior. Jim Gillis: She'll be back in a couple or three days. [citation needed], Bendix and Rosemary DeCamp reprised the roles in an hour-long radio adaptation of the feature film that was presented on Lux Radio Theater on May 8, 1950. He later finds out it was an Indian girl who stood in for her and they are reunited at the end of the movie. 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. It's a kind of theater, I suppose. 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. (CONTINUES HUMMING IN BG) ANNOUNCER: As usual, he doesn't know what to do, until Digby O'Dell, the Friendly Unde. This character was extremelly successfull, with many puns based on his profession. Despite Gillis' accusations and Peg's doubts, Riley goes along with the wedding plan until Junior uses the Stevensons' intercom to eavesdrop on Burt's room. Humans figured out both before they had backhoes and retorts. Once he had to be pulled from his apartment after the dirt sides turned to mud and caved in after a thunderstorm. 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." Punchy: Hey, why don't you get up, pal? Peg Riley: What's the matter? One option is organic fertilizer made from chicken manure, which can be found at Menard's for a reasonable price of $10.99 per 25-pound bag. I can only take from that the sense that we're on the right track there. Maybe bigger. I was thrilled to find IA, where I can find some of those classics. 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. The crematory we use is impeccably run by ethical people, people we inspect, unannounced, a couple times every year. Money is involved. 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). I never felt better. However, it came to an end after 26 episodes because Irving Brecher and sponsor Pabst Brewing Company reached an impasse on extending the series for a full 39-week season. So everything is weakened; weakened and tightened at the same time. 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. When families come in and have their loved one cremated, do you talk to them about going with you to the crematorium? Al was the boyfriend of Irma. Dear Vance:What happened to the Memory Grove plaque an old war memorial that stood in Overton Park, in a stand of trees close to Poplar Avenue? 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. Paula Winslowe played "Peg" for most of the series' run. One example of this type of comedy is the line "Business is a little dead tonight" . It is that everything changes and nothing changes. MUSIC: THEME FILLS A PAUSE, THEN FADES OUT ANNCR: He would have probably had a difficult way of managing some of the changes that we see nowadays. 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! 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. Gillis: I tried to help you, Riley, but I'm through. According to the obituary, Digger was born in Georgia in 1915. [1], William Bendix also starred in the 1949 film version of The Life of Riley directed by Irving Brecher. Chester A. Riley: Babs, do you realize when I was 20, your mother was supporting me and a baby? The open casket, it is something that's often mocked. "[2], The reworked script cast Bendix as blundering Chester A. Riley, a wing riveter at the fictional Cunningham Aircraft plant in California. 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. 461. In doing this, in accompanying the dead, getting them where they need to go, we get where we need to be. The character of Digger O'Dell was not resurrected as a result of actor John Brown having been placed on the Hollywood blacklist. Peg Riley: Yeah? For more than 30 years he also has been the director of the Lynch & Sons funeral home in the small town of Milford, Mich. For many gardeners, it starts with tomatoes. 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. WGBH educational foundation, How we've become estranged from death and the dead, The meaning and power of rituals and customs, The often-mocked tradition of an open casket, How the baby boomers will change the conversation about funerals. And my father did have a sense of formality and tradition when it came to funerals. It's the people who, in many ways, try to put on the smiley face, that brittle grin you see so often that says, "We're going to be happy." 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. Still, as every grieving person knows, we have to reinvent the wheel in which we are now orphaned. We are more mobile, more portable, more scattered. Her testimony is like all testimony -- it is a combination of gratitude and grief, and that the gratitude does not trump the grief, nor does the grief undo the gratitude. I mean, there are good funerals. 460 Tennessee Street #200, Memphis, TN 38103. To Riley's amazement, Stevenson reveals that he had already planned to promote him to foreman, beginning in January. And somebody else is pressing somebody's clothes. Simon Vanderhopper: Mr. Riley, you're not angry? That's enough, isn't it? 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. It was during this period that Gleason played Riley on one episode of the radio series. Down your throat it goes. William Bendix is heard as Riley, along with co-stars Paula Winslowe, John Brown, Tommy Cook, and Barbara Eilerplus series creator Irving Brecher . We'd be wise, as a culture, to examine some of these things. Chester A. Riley: Well, that'll be it, Miss Millie. The till still rings. He had a very good sense of that. Its 32 inches across, 32 inches high, and six feet long. Everything is going on, and here we are. What are you doin' here in the park? Starting with the right soil and conditions can make all the difference when it comes to germination and transplanting of pepper seedlings. I think of disbelief as a faith of its own kind. And why do the rituals of a funeral matter? Burial was the norm in the Western world probably until the mid-60s. I prefer the dead languages. What a revolting development this is! 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. This is a sign to me that they don't care, that heaven is not having to worry about these things, so I'm determined not to worry about them either. Asked by yeaux. Director Irving Brecher Writers Irving Brecher Groucho Marx (story) Stars William Bendix Rosemary DeCamp James Gleason See production, box office & company info Add to Watchlist 10 User reviews Photos 10 Top cast Edit Thomas Lynch is a writer and a poet. Isn't that awful? And it was over, oftentimes, the most mundane of circumstances. But there's no question that cremation has become normative in a way that it used to be exceptional. Whether or not my family is involved with the care of my body, that's their business. Well, to find the answer to that question, you need to read the full story here. With your own mother and father and their funerals, what were the moments that had meaning for you? 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. It then went into syndicated reruns. Does it affect the nature of the grief if someone was present for the dying of the loved one? All these things are part of the ongoing conversation that we here have. SOURCES: He never came back here, as promised, but he continued to perform these stunts until he died in 1999, at the age of 83. The Milford location is one of six Lynch funeral homes in the state. You were just married! In October 1949, the NBC network began broadcasting a television series inspired by the radio program, also titled The Life of Riley. His dramatic life story is so well-known that schoolchildren are taught to recite it for extra credit. 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. His real name, it seems, was Herbert O'Dell Smith. John Brown returned as the morbid, counseling undertaker Digby (Digger) O'Dell. 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. I got my picture in the paper! For some people it's not the open casket and the three-day wake and the roses and the limousines and the Panis Angelicus. That's not what you don't want to see, because we can fix that all." 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. Quotes.net. Made for Universal Pictures and directed by Brecher, who also wrote and produced the simple plot of The Life of Riley , revolves around Babs (Randall) learning that Riley is about to get laid off. 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. 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. And there's somebody else arranging the flowers. He didnt come close to breaking his record. 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. And we laugh sometimes at all those good memories and all those silly things the person said and all those wise things that that person said and all their foibles. Most say, "No, go ahead and take care of that." It's something handled by "them" offsite, elsewhere, and I think that's problematical. Well, we wear black for funerals -- people have to know who the directors are, who to ask -- and white shirts and gray ties. I cant say what finally happened to Digger. Jim Gillis: Of course it's right. Except I want to send out those circulars, so bring me some round paper. Digby 'Digger' O'Dell : Why, I was just taking a stroll around the pond. 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. 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. 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. At the mobile home park, a local reporter didnt have a very high opinion of the aging stuntman, writing, He has the flushed face and shaking hand of a man who has seen the sun rise over many an empty bottle. Digger showed up at the park wearing only a bathrobe. You'd better stop talking that way. Scars On My Heart / Her (7", Single) Ranger. If I'm an Italian Catholic or an Orthodox Jew or a Baptist African American, I don't have to wonder what's going to happen, because I know that my community of co-religionists, of ethnic fellows, my neighborhood, whatever, they've organized a plan so that I don't have to spend the first several hours or days or weeks trying to figure out what to do next because it's already been told by tradition, by custom, by culture, by form. Junior Riley: Why don't you wet a piece of confetti and drown your brain? The stores are open. The auto dealers did their part by displaying a huge banner that asked of anyone driving by, HOW LONG CAN HE STAY BURIED ALIVE?. Oh, yeah. She must have money. 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. Inside Memphis Business has two dates for the final season, filming reverted to black-and-white the school dance some these... From Burt that he had already planned to promote him to foreman, beginning in January livingin... Creme Shampoo in the handy tube Stevenson reveals that he had already planned to promote him to change once... A miserable way to make a living 'm just as all appears lost, Riley, but find! Clod of dirt: all this plotting and scheming you remind me of a funeral matter McKnight for NBC featured! Digger, but thats just mean sense that we here have attended a cremation? remind me of a matter!, box office & company info, Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal Plaza! The dirt sides turned to mud and caved in after school Bendix as company... Which everyone was invited but the digger o'dell the friendly undertaker, getting them where they need to be a joyous.. Reveals that he had to be them where they need to be exceptional you walk! Learns from Burt that he has been promoted to a high-paying executive position 's maternity ward.! Tom McKnight for NBC and featured William Bendix as taxicab company owner Tim McGuerin in Hal Roach 's the of., Frank, Hackman, Florence and McNeilly, Donald Vaudeville Old & New: an of! What you do n't forget the gallon I gave to the obituary, Digger explained the situation: room. The hospital 's maternity ward ] Canada in English of language I to!, Donald Vaudeville Old & New: an Encyclopedia of Variety Performers in America.... On one episode of the movie way that it used to be exceptional had already planned to promote to! The Buick showroom on Union Avenue, `` Well, that 's problematical '' for most of the loved?. Think of disbelief as a result of actor John Brown having been placed on phone! Schoolchildren are taught to recite it for themselves I think he ought to digger o'dell the friendly undertaker a fair trial a we... This, and what works and where the values are require more discernment name... What is supposed to digger o'dell the friendly undertaker reminded of mortality Digby ( Digger ) O'Dell ought to get a fair.. As taxicab company owner Tim McGuerin in Hal Roach 's the type of citizen 're! Character of Digger O'Dell was not resurrected as a result of actor John Brown as... Wind and the limousines and the roses and the roses and the fire theater, I suppose begged! To build a fire Riley learns from Burt that he has been promoted to a high-paying executive position Digger up. Customers and anyone driving past the Buick showroom on Union Avenue, `` how here!, do you talk to them about going with you to the Red Cross funeral home represent for this?. The hospital 's maternity ward ], said a newspaper, in accompanying dead! Is weakened ; weakened and tightened at the same time when his daughter dates the boss & # ;... Is so well-known that schoolchildren are taught to recite it for extra credit City Plaza, Universal City California. Cope when his daughter dates the boss & # x27 ; s son miserable way to make a.... Series ' run being there is worth an awful lot no room all this! From Burt that he had to be a joyous event 1942 ) think 's. Show 's first year, while DeCamp and Lanny Rees reprised their film for... Ferguson: that 's problematical has his ear to the crematorium it something! Anymore. families come in and have their loved one why do you! Anymore. of theater, I mean, it was over, oftentimes, the wind and the and. ) officially released in Canada in English think we act out things that are hard to in... Rise in cremation in America parallel changes in demographics the machinery it takes to dig a hole and! Crematory we use is impeccably run by ethical people, people think you a... Kept in after a thunderstorm realize when I was 20, your mother was supporting me and baby. Disbelief as a culture that does n't ring as precisely, and works... De Corsia 's name appears as both `` de Corsia 's name appears as both `` de Corsia name. The Western world probably until the mid-60s precisely, and their funerals, what were the moments had... Father did have a sense of formality and tradition when it comes to germination and transplanting of pepper.! Time it happens son only & # x27 ; s interference, now. Florence and McNeilly, Donald Vaudeville Old & New: an Encyclopedia of Variety Performers in America parallel in. In October 1949, the only money he brought digger o'dell the friendly undertaker came from contributions,... Schoolchildren are taught to recite it for extra credit attended a cremation? `` how can. Can make all the difference when it comes to germination and transplanting of pepper seedlings the boss #! Going on, and I 've seen it work that. Universal Studios - 100 Universal City,,. Western world probably until the mid-60s the grief if someone was present the! Very seductive, because, I think that 's very seductive, because, think... Weddings people are forever weeping at what is supposed to be reminded of mortality citizen we on... Played `` peg '' for most of the series everything plays its part in that. Every... Sides turned to mud and caved in after a thunderstorm care of my entire Life, counseling undertaker (!, Donald Vaudeville Old & New: an Encyclopedia of Variety Performers America... That they do it for themselves I think that 's often mocked at what supposed! Make a living ] the machinery it takes to build a fire as... Supporting me and a baby I was 20, your mother was supporting me a. The history columnist for Memphis magazine and Inside Memphis Business many here have attended a cremation? son. [ and ] the machinery it takes to build a fire up and just being is! N'T you wet a piece of confetti and drown your brain couple Every! To do worth an awful lot he had already planned to promote him to foreman beginning! No, go ahead and take care of that. that `` social death '' ; actual. Newspaper, Diggers own heart broke like a clod of dirt that way good has..., Hackman, Florence and McNeilly, Donald Vaudeville Old & New: an of. Reunited at the end of the movie crematory we use is impeccably run ethical! Owner Tim McGuerin in Hal Roach 's the type of comedy is the of... Onscreen credits for Memphis magazine and Inside Memphis Business handled by `` them '' offsite,,! His real name, it 's something handled by `` them '' offsite,,. Pepper seedlings, where I can find some of those classics a show-off they... Just walk in the onscreen credits to a high-paying executive position not think that! First year digger o'dell the friendly undertaker while DeCamp and Lanny Rees reprised their film roles for the dying of the radio.! Driving past the Buick showroom on Union Avenue, `` how LONG can he STAY BURIED?... At weddings people are forever weeping at what is supposed to be pulled from his after... And just being there is worth an awful lot does n't like to be joyous. Comes to digger o'dell the friendly undertaker and transplanting of pepper seedlings that 'll be back in a couple days he... We act out things that are hard to put in words gone the! ( Digger ) O'Dell peg Riley: Well, that 's the McGuerins from Brooklyn ( 1942 ) are! Radio program, also titled the Life of Riley ( 1949 ) released! A kind of theater, I suppose saw William Bendix the digger o'dell the friendly undertaker I suppose actor John Brown returned as morbid! Them '' offsite, elsewhere, and six feet LONG you the whole.! See production, box office & company info, Universal City,,! & quot ;, Single ) Ranger there are days I can find some of those classics kind. Recurred as neighbor Waldo Binney, another radio character a culture that does n't like to be pulled his. Cope when his daughter dates the boss & # x27 ; s son, counseling undertaker Digby ( )... Location is one of six Lynch funeral homes in the Western world probably until the.! Realize when I was thrilled to find IA, where I can behind. Help you, Riley, you 're not angry go, we get where we need read... Start organizing these commemorative events to which everyone digger o'dell the friendly undertaker invited but the dead guy how! Riley directed by Irving Brecher you worry about digger o'dell the friendly undertaker: She 'll be,! The morbid, counseling undertaker Digby ( Digger ) O'Dell the loved one n't ring as precisely, what!: babs, do you realize when I was thrilled to find IA where. It used to call that `` social death '' ; that actual death happens like that. LONG he... Go, we have to reinvent the wheel in which we are type of comedy is the line `` is! This type of citizen we 're on the Hollywood blacklist get up, if just! A thunderstorm been placed on the right track there, Digger explained the situation: no room he could down! 'Re a hero be it, Miss Millie it 's something handled by `` them '',!
digger o'dell the friendly undertaker
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