Andy Griffith – A Man True to His Roots
He patrolled the mean and ugly streets of his city as a peace officer without a gun. He relied on his wit, charm and home spun good nature and common sense. Andy Griffith left his legacy in so many ways.
Born June 1, 1926 in Mt.Airy, North Carolina, the model for Mayberry. Young Andy always had music in his heart. While growing up he had visions of becoming an opera singer or preacher. He pursued music at the University of North Carolina and in 1949 graduated with a degree in music. It was while he was at UNC that he met his future wife, Barbara Edwards.
While teaching music in a high school for three years, he and Barbara developed a stage act that was to help develop Andy Griffith into the beloved Andy Taylor. The act involved singing and dancing and Andy doing down home monologs. He became known for his story telling with Southern charm and flavor. His popularity grew to the point that in 1953 he released a record album of his monologs.
With the success of the album Barbara and Andy moved to New York and in a year made an appearance on The Ed Sullivan. Sullivan and audiences loved them.
His career was rocketing. After the Sullivan show, he was on Broadway in “No Time For Sergeants.” Broadway loved him and he was nominated for a Tony. When the film for “No Time For Sergeants” was to be produced Andy was a natural to reprise his role.
Hollywood agreed with Andy because in 1957 his breakout role came in a film called, “A Face in the Crowd.” This was a great departure from the loveable country roles he was used to playing. The film paid off for him in other ways besides establishing him as credible actor-he met Don Knotts. The creative union was to last until Knotts left the Andy Griffith Show many years later.
1960 found him again on Broadway in “Destry Rides Again.” Andy dazzled the critics and was a Tony nominee for Best Actor in a Musical. Another great break came when he guested on Danny Thomas’s “Make Room For Daddy.”
Andy, a small town judge and officer who pulled over a speeding, big-city Danny was allowed to develop the Andy Taylor persona on the show. You easily see how comfortable Andy is in the role. He was made for it. Andy Taylor is Andy Griffith!
Because Danny Thomas and his producer Sheldon Leonard recognized the potential in the Taylor character, so they pushed CBS into developing a sitcom for Andy as a sheriff of a small Southern town. Who better to flesh out life in such a place than Andy? He used Mt.Airy as the model for Mayberry and characters from his past to populate Mayberry. Andy never forgot Don Knotts. Knotts was brought as the nervous, by the book deputy Barney Fife.
Tragedy struck Andy in 1983 when he was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre, a muscular disease. For three months he was paralyzed and then he battled back with six months of therapy. Not to sit idle, he morphed into “Matlock” the small town lawyer show that ran from 1986-1992 on NBC.
Mt.Airy celebrates Mayberry Days. There is an Andy Griffith Playhouse. The town even has a statue of Andy and young Opie together. The Martin guitar company has a special Andy Griffith model. He is the Country and the Gospel Hall of Fame. An eleven mile stretch into Mt. Airy is known as the Andy Griffith highway. Andy received the President’s Medal of Freedom in 2005.
You can view the Andy Griffith Show as a morality play with Andy teaching Opie about life in a soft and gentle manner. We knew that Gomer, Floyd, Howard, Goober Helen and even Otis always knew the right things to do. They became the neighbors you wish you had in the town you wanted to grow up in.
“”I was proud of it then and I am still proud of it today. Mayberry is a place people would want to call home with the warmest of friends.”
Andy we will miss you.
Contributed by staff writer George Khoury