The Life of Riley History and Origin

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

I’m so glad you took my call.

Oh, of course. Who are we talking with?

My name is Marie-Claire Lapointe, and I’m calling you from Montreal.

I’ve been listening to you for years.

Marie-Claire, welcome to the show. We’re glad to have you on. What can we do for you?

You know, I’m a woman in her 70s, and I live along with my cat, Toby.

But sometimes an old expression that I’ve read somewhere that people don’t use much these days comes to mind.

As I’m petting Toby, I look at him and I think, you know, he lives a perfect, privileged life.

Not necessarily my life, but his life is perfect.

Spoiled kitty, right?

And perfect, as far as I could see.

So I tell him this, I say, Toby, you’re living the life of Riley.

And that’s the expression.

I would love to know the source of it.

Riley sounds like an Irish name.

And I just wonder, because maybe Riley did not live the life of a prince.

Maybe he left with the, I don’t know where it comes from, and I’m so curious.

So your sweet kitty is living in the lap of luxury.

Yeah, and that’s the meaning of living the life of Riley.

It means living an easy life, a luxurious one.

You really don’t have a care in the world, which sounds like certain domestic house cats I know, including Toby, it sounds like.

It’s a phrase that’s mystified people for a very long time, and it seems like it might be related to early vaudeville songs back in the 1800s,

Particularly one that was by a fellow named Rooney who wrote a song about a Mr. Riley who was an innkeeper and was dreaming of when he could be a hotel owner.

And there are lines in it that go things like,

Is that Mr. Riley?

Can anyone tell? Is that Mr. Riley that owns the hotel?

Well, if that’s Mr. Riley, they speak of so highly, upon me soul, Riley, you’re doing quite well.

That phrase was popularized during World War I.

We see a lot of letters from American soldiers writing home,

And they’re talking about living the life of Riley, talking about a luxurious life,

Or sarcastically talking about conditions in camps.

And you see that often with the life of Riley in quotation marks, which suggests to us that maybe they picked it up over there or it was a relatively new phrase to them in one way or another.

So, Martha, we know that it was popularized during World War I.

It first pops up in 1902 or so.

But there was a second round of this expression becoming popular, right, after World War I, right?

Oh, yes.

Yes.

The radio show.

And you’re an old-time radio fan.

Yeah.

And a TV show, right?

Right.

The Life of Riley starring William Bendix.

So there was a 40s and 50s.

There was a radio show and a TV show.

Actually, there was a short-lived TV show starring Jackie Gleason that didn’t catch on.

Oh, I didn’t know that.

Yeah, it was a flop, unfortunately.

But the version starring William Bendix was really successful and actually kind of reinvigorated this phrase.

And you can see it pop up again and again outside of talking about the radio show in newspapers and books in the 40s and 50s.

And ever since then, it’s kind of tailed off.

But people like you still remember it, Marie Claire.

You know, I think that’s where I first read it.

I started reading English with comic books,

And I think I heard that expression really years and decades ago.

There was a Life of Riley comic book.

It wasn’t very long-lived, but it did exist.

Okay, I don’t remember the title,

But I’m pretty sure I heard that very young, that expression.

Well, thank you so much for listening to the show,

And thank you for your question today.

I know that a lot of people probably go,

Oh, yeah, I remember that,

And they’re probably very satisfied to get that answer.

Well, I’m very satisfied.

I’m thanking you.

I’m assuming that Toby listens to us as well.

Well, I can’t really help it, but he sleeps a lot.

Yeah.

Sounds like a cat.

Okay.

Thank you.

Au revoir.

Thank you.

Bye.

Thanks for calling.

Bye-bye.

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