# Who was Doghouse Riley? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 15, 2013, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-doghouse-riley/676373 "2013-12-15T11:49:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Picaro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc348/32.png) [@Picaro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Picaro)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2013, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-doghouse-riley/676373/1 "2013-12-15T11:49:10Z")
A couple of pop culture references from the 1930s indicate there was a character named Doghouse Riley-- perhaps in a song, or a radio show, or a comic strip. Do any octagenarians on this list know who this was? The references I know are these: (i) In Raymond Chandler’s _The Big Sleep_ (1939), the general’s naughty younger daughter asks Philip Marlowe his name. He replies ‘I’m Doghouse Riley-- the man who grew too tall.’ (ii) In the ‘Little Lindbergh’ trial of 1935, the defendant Bruno Richard Hauptmann was represented by a lawyer named Edward Reilly. He was known for his incompetence, and for that reason had the unfortunate nickname ‘Death House Reilly’, presumably a play on ‘Doghouse’. (Parenthetically, Mr Reilly turned out to have neurosyphilis, diagnosed shortly after Hauptmann’s conviction.) These examples suggests the character of Doghouse Riley would have been familiar to a lot of people. Who was he? Note that I’m not referencing the many recent uses of this name, probably inspired by the Chandler novel and Bogart’s portrayal. There’s a band named Doghouse Riley, and a recently-died political blogger, and I think a few people on Facebook using the name. I’m wondering who Doghouse Riley was in 1935. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2013, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-doghouse-riley/676373/2 "2013-12-15T13:40:49Z")
I thought I might turn something up under a different spelling. I Googled “Doghouse Reilly” and found an [analysis of _The Big Sleep_](http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/bigsleep/canalysis.html), which includes this: > [@](#): > > Despite the tough front Marlowe puts up, on the inside he is good and almost sensitive. We see this clearly in the fact that he tells Carmen his name is Doghouse Reilly, even though his real name is Philip Marlowe. Doghouse Reilly seems like a street name, ringing with the same tough-sounding bell that names like Eddie Mars or Canino do, for instance. [This](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=600286) may also be of interest. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2013, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-doghouse-riley/676373/3 "2013-12-15T14:22:38Z")
Heh. Sometimes I still wish I had that name. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2013, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-doghouse-riley/676373/4 "2013-12-15T14:33:11Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > I thought I might turn something up under a different spelling. I Googled “Doghouse Reilly” and found an [analysis of _The Big Sleep_](http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/bigsleep/canalysis.html), which includes this: > > [This](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=600286) may also be of interest. Ditto. I also found a snippet which suggested that the name might have come from some of Chandler’s earlier short stories which were combined to make _The Big Sleep_. [Google Books](http://books.google.com/books?id=4VmHkmSWog4C&pg=PA24&lpg=PA24&dq=%22doghouse+reilly%22+chandler&source=bl&ots=wGRNwUiL7N&sig=r-HeNDl0UCSqV5W-X7PrsKLGqFs&hl=en&sa=X&ei=vLetUuinMYnEyQHgtoHAAw&ved=0CDIQ6AEwATgK#v=onepage&q=%22doghouse%20reilly%22%20chandler&f=false) ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2013, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-doghouse-riley/676373/5 "2013-12-15T15:40:42Z")
My hazy memory of my history of American Pop Music suggests a swing/jazz/blues connection. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2013, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-doghouse-riley/676373/6 "2013-12-15T15:58:08Z")
> [@Picaro](#): > > (ii) In the ‘Little Lindbergh’ trial of 1935, the defendant Bruno Richard Hauptmann was represented by a lawyer named Edward Reilly. He was known for his incompetence, and for that reason had the unfortunate nickname ‘Death House Reilly’, presumably a play on ‘Doghouse’. This is unlikely. The Death House was the part of the prison that contained the prisoners to be executed. It’s more usually referred to these days as “death row” but that was almost never used in 1935. In fact, since the short stories that make up The Big Sleep were published in 1935 and 1936 it’s possible, maybe even probable, that it was Chandler who was making the pun on something in the news that contemporary readers would understand. My rule of thumb on older stories is to always assume that the writers were working real life into their stories, not that they were inventing things for the first time. This is almost always true for the supposed inventions in science fiction but it is usually true in mystery as well since those writers were always scanning murder stories for tidbits they could adapt and new ways of killing people. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2013, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-doghouse-riley/676373/7 "2013-12-15T16:25:08Z")
When I read Chandler and Hammett recently I spent time researching some of the stuff [(like the _French Shave_ mentioned here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=692663&highlight=Chandler) ) that I didn’t know. Doghouse Riley was one I gave up on, finding only speculation, no definitive answer. ---
**Author:** ![Marion\_Wormer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d07c76/32.png) [@Marion\_Wormer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marion_Wormer)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2013, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-doghouse-riley/676373/8 "2013-12-16T02:25:26Z")
Hmm, ‘Dog House Reilly’. I’m going to start a list of "Things I’ve heard about in the 20’s and 30’s that no one knows what they mean anymore. So far, the only other item on the list is “box back coat”. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2013, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-doghouse-riley/676373/9 "2013-12-16T04:03:35Z")
> [@Marion\_Wormer](#): > > Hmm, ‘Dog House Reilly’. I’m going to start a list of "Things I’ve heard about in the 20’s and 30’s that no one knows what they mean anymore. So far, the only other item on the list is “box back coat”. Easily found by Googling. The coat goes back to at least the 1880s. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Downtown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mr\_Downtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Downtown)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2013, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-doghouse-riley/676373/10 "2013-12-16T04:43:19Z")
No hits in the _Chicago Tribune_ archives. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2013, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-doghouse-riley/676373/11 "2013-12-16T13:21:21Z")
> [@Marion\_Wormer](#): > > Hmm, ‘Dog House Reilly’. I’m going to start a list of "Things I’ve heard about in the 20’s and 30’s that no one knows what they mean anymore. So far, the only other item on the list is “box back coat”. Like ['En Cuba](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=7473).’ ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2013, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-doghouse-riley/676373/12 "2013-12-16T16:09:02Z")
I really like the idea that Doghouse Reilly was a pun on Death House Reilly. Reilly was very much in the news in 1935. There had been a long New Yorker profile of it early in the year, although that nickname isn’t mentioned. And a site about him says: > [@](#): > > Reilly entered a mental institution, suffering from syphilis, not long after the trial. [The 1935 defense of Hauptmann.] He was a known alcoholic who drank martinis during his lunch breaks at the Flemington courthouse. Chandler would have loved a character like that. And his readers would know of him, too. I think this is a major find on Picaro’s part. ---
**Author:** ![Marion\_Wormer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d07c76/32.png) [@Marion\_Wormer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marion_Wormer)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2013, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-doghouse-riley/676373/13 "2013-12-17T00:47:45Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > Easily found by Googling. The coat goes back to at least the 1880s. Well, I read it in the lyrics of this song and another one that Phil Harris used to sing: Now, when I die, bury me in my straight-leg britches, Put on a box-back coat and a stetson hat, Put a twenty-dollar gold piece on my watch chain, So you can let all the boys know I died standing pat. Anyway, now that I was thinking about it, I started rooting around and it seems to be an indicator of a gambler or a pimp, or someone who was a flashy dresser, but not in a nice way. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2013, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-doghouse-riley/676373/14 "2013-12-17T01:26:13Z")
> [@Marion\_Wormer](#): > > Well, I read it in the lyrics of this song and another one that Phil Harris used to sing: > > Now, when I die, bury me in my straight-leg britches, > Put on a box-back coat and a stetson hat, > Put a twenty-dollar gold piece on my watch chain, > So you can let all the boys know I died standing pat. > > Anyway, now that I was thinking about it, I started rooting around and it seems to be an indicator of a gambler or a pimp, or someone who was a flashy dresser, but not in a nice way. No, actually a common coat variety from the period. ---
**Author:** ![Picaro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc348/32.png) [@Picaro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Picaro)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2013, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-doghouse-riley/676373/15 "2013-12-18T07:05:38Z")
Thanks everyone. I suspect this one will be lost to the ages. Would that there had been an internet in 1930. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2013, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-doghouse-riley/676373/16 "2013-12-18T12:06:46Z")
> [@Picaro](#): > > Would that there had been an internet in 1930. Yep. Imagine an era of candlestick smartphones. “Hello, Operator? I need Google7-2934.” ---
**Author:** ![jbaker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/59ef9b/32.png) [@jbaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jbaker)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2013, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-doghouse-riley/676373/17 "2013-12-18T23:18:07Z")
But why was Marlowe “the man who grew too tall”? The Death House Reilly theory doesn’t address that, at least not in any obvious way. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-doghouse-riley/676373/18 "2013-12-19T04:18:23Z")
> [@jbaker](#): > > But why was Marlowe “the man who grew too tall”? The Death House Reilly theory doesn’t address that, at least not in any obvious way. That wasn’t in the book either. IIRC, in the book Marlowe said “My name is Doghouse Reilly. I’m a prizefighter” So maybe it was a riff off of popular boxing ring monikers of the time? ---
**Author:** ![jbaker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/59ef9b/32.png) [@jbaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jbaker)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-doghouse-riley/676373/19 "2013-12-19T05:41:08Z")
Marlowe calls himself “Doghouse Reilly, the man that grew too tall,” the second time that he and Carmen meet. It’s probably just because she remarked that he was tall the first time they met. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2014, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-doghouse-riley/676373/20 "2014-05-20T16:24:30Z")
_The Big Sleep_ is on now, and the line was delivered a little bit ago. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-doghouse-riley/676373.md?page=2)