Acres O'Riley was a nine-foot tall taxi driver who worked in Dick Tracy's city. She had long blonde hair and a statuesque build.
Brier Volts and the "Ghost"[]
While fleeing from Dick Tracy, the criminal Brier Volts encountered Acres O'Riley. Volts demanded her car keys. When Acres refused, Volts stabbed her in the back with the jagged end of his broken tobacco pipe.
Acres was taken to the hospital under guard. She escaped, wearing only a sheet on which she had accidentally spilled luminous paint. She ran through the city in a daze, attempting to find her stolen taxicab. This resulted in a city-wide panic over multiple sightings of a large "ghost".
The "ghost" was soon observed by a police car entering the same salvage yard where Brier Volts was hiding. When Tracy arrived, he found that Acres had knocked Brier's head through the roof of the stolen taxicab in which the fugitive had been hiding. Volts survived and went to jail.
Heels Beals[]
After capturing Brier Volts, Acres O' Riley went back to the hospital where she was visited by an old boyfriend, the diminutive Heels Beals. Acres' story had become a popular news item, and Heels intended to capitalize on her fame. Heels booked Acres into working as an attraction at a drive-in movie theater, where she would stand in front a of a spotlight and have her large silhouette projected onto a wall behind her. The venue was re-named "Acres O'Riley's Acres" in her honor.
Heels managed Acres' money, cashing her checks and giving her only a small percentage. Tracy tried to convince Acres that she was being taken advantage of, but the paycheck stub that he planned to use to prove it to her dissolved in his hands due to a chemical trick of Heels'. Acres was so enamored of Heels that she refused to believe that he was mistreating her.
Tracy soon learned that Heels was a wanted confidence man, embezzler and forger. Tracy arrested Heels, but Acres bailed him out. Heels arranged a death-trap for Tracy wherein he was almost beheaded by a fan blade. After a brief escape attempt, Heels was put in jail. Acres had been injured while trying to help Heels escape, but she finally saw the truth about Heels and denounced him. She later returned to her job driving a taxi.
Appearances in Other Media[]
1950s Live-Action TV Series[]
Dorothy Ford as Acres O'Reilly, right
Acres O'Riley was a minor character in one episode of the 1950s Dick Tracy Live-Action TV series starring Ralph Byrd. She was played by Dorothy Ford, who was reportedly 6 feet and 2 inches tall at the time.
In the episode "Dick Tracy vs. The Swami", Acres was a taxi cab driver who provided Tracy with some information about a passenger she had driven. Acres had brown hair and was not as tall as she was depicted in the strip.
In the episode's credits, the character's name was spelt "O'Reilly".
Notes[]
- The dynamic of Acres O'Riley and Heels Beals was similar to that of Jerome Trohs and Mamma, characters from a storyline that appeared in the strip in 1940. They both involved giant women whose actions were motivated by their affection for a small man. In both cases, the giant women ultimately turned against the small men. The biggest difference between the two storylines is in the characterization of the giant woman- Mamma was consistently depicted as a vicious, sadistic criminal, while Acres was a relatively innocent person who turned against Heels when she discovered his true criminal nature.