When I was a kid we always used to go to the Chain of Rocks Fun Fair Park, which was an amusement park in North St. Louis. This was long before Six Flags was built and literally killed Chain of Rocks.
I can remember going there and seeing a man who was buried alive in a pit of some kind in the ground. There was a window that we could look through and see Digger. We could ask him questions and carry on a conversation with him. I can’t remember now how long he was going to stay in there, but he was shooting for some kind of record at the time.
Something made me think of him and since I had remembered his name for about 50 years, I did a Google search on him. I found this interesting story:
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In late September 1961, workers dug a hole in a parking lot at 739 Union Avenue, (in Memphis TN) and Digger hopped down into a coffin-like chamber, where he promised to remain underground for 60 days as a promotional stunt for Bluff City Buick. An 18 x 24-inch plywood air shaft allowed him to receive air and food, and photos show that he carefully stocked “the world’s smallest apartment,” as he called it, with lights, reading glasses, and even packs of cigarettes. Buick customers could peer through a viewer at him, while a colorful banner overhead wondered, “How Long Can He Stay Buried Alive?”
The police decided 13 days was plenty long enough. In early October they ordered construction workers to dig up Digger because the cops wanted to charge him with “non-support” of a wife back home in Atlanta. Even buried underground, he couldn’t escape from her, it seems.
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“I can’t even blame my wife too much,” he told reporters as he clambered out of the hole. “She just can’t help being money hungry.” No word on how much dough, if any, Digger earned for his underground stay.
More stories here and here and here and TIME has a story here.
I guess showering in his underground eco-pod thingy wasnt an option.
Digger O’Dell married a gold digger.
So how did Digger’s hole get from Memphis to North Saint Louis?
Apparently he was all over the South and made it as far North as St. Louis. I remember it like it was yesterday. For some strange reason I was impressed with him.
Richard – Underground railroad?
The long-forgotten Great Memphis/St.Louis Earthquake?
I was 5 years old and still have nightmares of ol’ Digger. Do you remember the guy who would bite the heads off of live chickens? Speaking of chickens, do you remember the one that played the piano?
I do remember the one that played the piano. You’d put your nickel in and the chicken would peck on the piano keys until some food would drop into its bowl. I can’t actually recall if that was at Chain of Rocks.
I don’t remember anybody biting heads off of chickens. That sounds like something from that traveling carnival…what was it called … the Royal American or something?
A different park, the fire at the Forest Park Highlands. Remember the Comet?
http://southsidejournal.stltoday.com/articles/2008/07/16/news/doc487e4f514e28b427191505.txt
I remember the Highlands, but I didn’t go there much, it just wasn’t in my area. I did go out to Holiday Hill off near Natural Bridge by the airport. I went there quite a few times.
Here are a couple other links to St. Louis memories:
Pictures – http://www.66postcards.com/cardsmo.html
Cool video – Crusing North County – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUd2GmJdxbo
It might be fun to visit KLAW’s world someday. Is it big enough for the big ass bbq?
A geek before geeks were cool. Scott, visit my world. You can’t make this crap up, perhaps this will prove I ain’t crazy. 🙂
http://secretgeek.net/geekVonnegut.asp
Jonco, this was a classic. You could rent it by the hour and they had garages to hide your car. (so I am told).
http://www.coralcourt.com/main.html
This was the Captcha on that geek page (don’t know if this’ll work…):
Not sure about this either.
http://www.futureredbirds.net/2009/01/22/klaw-top-100/
I am glad this happened. I will try this, dunno.
http://www.blackanthem.com/TheAllies/military_2005091401.html
Actually, I’m not sure if this will work.
http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/finance/907169/
Not sure about this one.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/klaw/2499067529/
DJ, that Captcha sent me here. How do you do that??
http://wonkette.com/405835/were-going-to-miss-you-meatbag
does anybody remember Digger Odell being buried alive in Detroit somewhere on Grand River?
I was a little kid then, the 60’s and don’t remember much except looking down at him in a hole at a car dealer I think…
He was buried alive everywhere…well except for the last time.
I looked him up because I remember him being buried here, and I have a vague memory of talking to him through a clear plastic cylinder like a 3″ clear pipe. I also remember someone threw something like firecrackers down there through it, and they had to bring him up early. It was a promotional stunt like a car dealership opening, or something, also probably around 1960.
That’s correct, you could speak to him down the tube. I remember that part.
I never heard the bit about the firecrackers. Poor guy, that must have hurt.
Sad that it couldn’t have been without incident.
Sure would like to know the rest of the stories. Does anyone know his family?
Yes I saw Digger O’dell at a dealership on the south side of grand river I’m guessing between Evergreen and Greenfield. It was a riot I remember that they had to bring him up early because the septic tank overflowed. Crazy memory Tlom
I saw Digger O’Dell in detroit in the 60s. It was on Grand River and, I think, Meyers Rd., or Wyoming Ave.