Listen to me on
As always, the further we go back in Hollywood history, the more that fact and legend become intertwined. It's hard to say where the truth really lies.
June 1, 1926
Andy Samuel Griffith was born in Mount Airy, North Carolina. At a very young age,
Griffith had to live with relatives until his parents could afford to get a
home of their own. Without a crib or a bed, he slept in drawers for a few months. In
1929, when Griffith was three years old, his father took a job working as a carpenter and was finally able
to purchase a home in Mount Airy's "blue-collar" southside.
Like his mother, Griffith grew up listening to music.
His father instilled a sense of humor from old family stories. By the time he
entered school he was well aware that he was from what many considered the
"wrong side of the tracks". He was a shy student, but once he found a
way to make his peers laugh, he began to come out of his shell and come into
his own.
As a student at Mount Airy High School, Griffith
cultivated an interest in the arts, and he participated in the school's drama program. A growing love of music, particularly swing, would change his life.
Griffith was raised Baptist and
looked up to Ed Mickey, a minister at Grace Moravian Church, who led the brass band and taught him to
sing and play the trombone.
Mickey nurtured Griffith's talent throughout high school until graduation in
1944. Griffith was delighted when he was offered a role in The Lost Colony, a play still performed today on Roanoke Island. He performed as
a cast member of the play for several years, playing a variety of roles, until
he finally landed the role of Sir Walter Raleigh, the namesake of North Carolina's
capital.
He began college studying to be a Moravian preacher,
but he changed his major to music and became a part of the school's Carolina
Play Makers. He attended the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC)
in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and graduated with a bachelor of music degree in 1949. At UNC he was
president of the UNC Men's Glee Club and a member of the Alpha Rho Chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, America's oldest fraternity for men in music. He also played roles in several
student operettas, including The Chimes of Normandy (1946), and Gilbert and Sullivan's The Gondoliers (1945), The Mikado (1948) and H.M.S. Pinafore (1949).
After graduation, he taught English for a few years at
Goldsboro High School in Goldsboro, North Carolina, where he taught, among others, Carl Kasell. He also began to
write.
Career
From
rising comedian to film star
Griffith's early career was as a monologist, delivering long
stories such as What it Was, Was Football, which is told from the point of view of a rural backwoodsman trying to figure
out what was going on in a football game. Released as a single
in 1953 on the Colonial label, the monologue was a hit for Griffith, reaching
number nine on the charts in 1954.
Griffith starred in a one-hour teleplay version of No Time for Sergeants (March 1955)—a story about a country boy in the US Air Forc—on The United States
Steel Hour, a television anthology series. He expanded
that role in a full-length theatrical version of the same name (October 1955) on Broadway in New York City, New York. His Broadway career
also included the title role in the 1957 musical, Destry Rides Again,
co-starring Delores Gray. The show, with a score by Harold Rome, ran for more
than a year.
Griffith later reprised his role for the film version (1958)
of No Time for Sergeants; the
film also featured Don Knotts,
as a corporal in charge of manual-dexterity tests, marking
the beginning of a life-long association between Griffith and Knotts. No
Time for Sergeants is considered the direct inspiration for the later
television situation comedy Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.
He also portrayed a US Coast Guard sailor in the feature film Onionhead (1958); it was
neither a critical nor a commercial success.
Dramatic
role in A Face in the Crowd (1957)
In 1957 Griffith made his film début, starring in the film A Face in the Crowd. Although he plays a "country boy", this
country boy is manipulative and power-hungry, a drifter who becomes a television host and uses his
show as a gateway to political power. Co-starring Patricia Neal, Walter Matthau, Tony Franciosa, and Lee Remick (in her film début
as well), this now-classic film, directed by Elia Kazan, showcases
Griffith's powerful talents. Written by Budd Schulberg, and partly
based on the on-stage phoniness of Arthur Godfrey, the film
demonstrated, quite early on, the power that television can have upon the
masses. This prescient film was seldom run on television until the 1990s.
A 2005 DVD reissue of A Face in the Crowd includes a
mini-documentary on the film, with comments from Schulberg and
surviving cast members Griffith, Franciosa, and Neal. In his interview,
Griffith, revered for his wholesome image for decades, reveals a more complex
side of himself. He recalls Kazan prepping him to shoot his first scene with
Remick's teenaged baton twirler, who captivates Griffith's character on a trip to Arkansas. Griffith also
expresses his belief that the film was far more popular and respected in more
recent decades than it was when originally released.
Griffith's first appearance on television had been in
1955 in the one-hour teleplay of No Time for Sergeants on The United
States Steel Hour. That was the first of two appearances on that series.
In 1960, Griffith appeared as a county sheriff (who was also a justice of the peace and the editor of the local newspaper)
in an episode of Make Room for Daddy, starring Danny Thomas. This episode, in
which Thomas' character is stopped for speeding in a little town, served as a backdoor pilot for The Andy
Griffith Show. Both shows were produced by Sheldon Leonard.
The Andy Griffith Show (1960–1968)
Beginning in 1960, Griffith starred as Sheriff Andy Taylor in The Andy Griffith Show for the CBS television network. The show took place in the fictional town of Mayberry, North Carolina, where
Taylor, a widower, was the sheriff and town sage. The show was filmed at
Desilu Studios, with exteriors filmed at Forty Acres in Culver City, CA.
From 1960 to 1965, the show co-starred character actor and
comedian—and Griffith's longtime friend—Don Knotts in the role of Deputy Barney Fife, Taylor's best friend
and partner. He was also Taylor's cousin in the show. In the series première
episode, in a conversation between the two, Fife calls Taylor "Cousin
Andy", and Taylor calls Fife "Cousin Barney". The show also
starred child actor
Ron Howard (then known as Ronny
Howard), who played Taylor's only child, Opie Taylor.
It was an immediate hit. Although Griffith never
received a writing credit for the show, he worked on the development of every
script. While Knotts was frequently lauded and won multiple Emmy Awards for his comedic
performances (as did Frances Bavier in 1967), Griffith was never nominated for
an Emmy Award during the show's run.
In 1967, Griffith was under contract with CBS to do
one more season of the show. However, he decided to quit the show to pursue a
movie career and other projects. The series continued as Mayberry R.F.D., with Ken Berry starring as a widower
farmer and many of the regular
characters recurring, some regularly and some as guest appearances. Griffith
served as executive producer (according to Griffith, he came in once a week to
review the week's scripts and give input) and guest starred in five episodes
(the pilot episode involved his marriage to Helen Crump). He made final
appearances as Taylor in the 1986 reunion television film, Return to Mayberry, and in two reunion specials in 1993 and 2003.
Matlock (1986–1995)
After leaving his still-popular show in 1968, and
starting his own production company (Andy Griffith Enterprises) in 1972,
Griffith starred in less-successful television series such as Headmaster (1970), The New Andy Griffith Show (1971), Adams of Eagle Lake (1975) Salvage 1 (1979), anThe
Yeagers (1980).
After spending time in rehabilitation for leg paralysis from Guillain–Barré syndrome in 1986, Griffith returned to television as the title
character, Ben Matlock, in the legal drama Matlock (1986–1995) on NBC and ABC. Matlock was a country lawyer in Atlanta, Georgia, who was known for his Southern drawl and for always winning his cases. Matlock also
starred unfamiliar actors (both of whom were childhood fans of Andy Griffith) Nancy Stafford as Michelle
Thomas (1987–1992) and Clarence Gilyard Jr. as Conrad
McMasters (1989–1993). By the end of its first season it was a ratings
powerhouse on Tuesday nights. Although the show was nominated for four Emmy
Awards, Griffith once again was never nominated. He did, however, win a
People's Choice Award in 1987 for his work as Matlock.
During the series' sixth season, he served as
unofficial director, executive producer and writer of the show.
This show is mentioned on TV's longest animated show The Simpsons and is noted as Grandpa Simpson's favorite show as
well as Marge Simpson's mother Jacqueline Bouvier's as well.
Griffith has also made other character appearances
through the years on Playhouse 90, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., The Mod Squad, Hawaii Five-O, The Doris Day Show, Here's Lucy, The Bionic Woman, Fantasy Island, among many
others. He also reprised his role as Ben Matlock on Diagnosis: Murder in 1997,
and his most recent guest-starring role was in 2001 in an episode of Dawson's Creek.
For most of the 1970s, Griffith starred or appeared in
many television films including The Strangers In 7A (1972), Go Ask Alice (1973), Winter Kill (1974), and Pray for the Wildcats (1974), which marked his first villainous role.
Griffith appeared again as a villain in Savages (1974), a television film based on the novel Deathwatch (1972) by Robb White. Griffith received
his only Primetime Emmy Award nomination as Outstanding Supporting Actor – Miniseries or a Movie for his role as the father of a murder victim in the
television film Murder In Texas (1981) and won further acclaim for his role as a homicidal villain in the television film Murder in Coweta County (1983), co-starring music legend Johnny Cash as the sheriff. He
also proved to be a good character actor and appeared in several television mini-series,
including the television version of From Here to
Eternity (1979), Roots: The Next
Generations (1979), Centennial (1978), and the Watergate scandal-inspired Washington: Behind Closed Doors (1977), playing a former president loosely based on Lyndon B. Johnson.
Most of the TV movies Griffith starred in were also
attempts to launch a new series. 1974's Winter Kill launched the
short lived Adams of Eagle Lake which was canceled after only two episodes in 1975. A
year later, he starred as a New York City attorney for the DA's office in Street
Killing which also failed to launch a new series. Two television films for
NBC in 1977, The Girl in The Empty Grave
and Deadly Game, were attempts
for Griffith to launch a new series featuring him as Police Chief Abel Marsh, a
more hard-edged version of Andy Taylor; despite strong ratings for both films,
both were unsuccessful.
While appearing in television films and guest roles on
television series over the next 10 years, Griffith also appeared in two feature
films, both of which flopped at the box office. He co-starred with Jeff Bridges as a crusty old
1930s western actor in the comedy Hearts of the West (1975), and he appeared alongside Tom Berenger as a gay
villainous colonel and cattle baron in the
western comedy spoof Rustlers' Rhapsody (1985).
He also appeared as an attorney in the NBC mini-series
Fatal Vision in 1984, which
is considered a precursor to his role in Matlock.
Griffith stunned many unfamiliar with his A Face in
the Crowd work in the television film Crime of
Innocence (1985), where he
portrayed a callous judge who routinely sentenced juveniles to hard prison
time. He further stunned audiences with his role as a dangerous and mysterious
grandfather in 1995's Gramps,
co-starring the late John Ritter.
He also appeared as a comical villain in the spy movie spoof Spy Hard (1996) starring Leslie Nielsen. In the
television film A Holiday Romance (1999), Griffith played the role of "Jake
Peterson." In the film Daddy and Them (2001),
Griffith portrayed a patriarch of a dysfunctional southern family.
In the feature film Waitress (2007), Griffith played a crusty diner owner who takes a shine to Keri Russell's character. His
latest appearance was the leading role in the romantic comedy, independent film Play The Game (2009) as a lonely, widowed grandfather re-entering the
dating world after a 60-year hiatus. The cast of Play The Game also
included Rance Howard,
Ron Howard's real-life father, who made appearances in various supporting roles
on The Andy Griffith Show, and Clint Howard, Ron's younger
brother, who had the recurring role of Leon (the kid offering the ice
cream cone or peanut butter sandwich) on TAGS.
Singing
and recording career
Griffith sang as part of some of his acting roles,
most notably in A Face In The Crowd and in many episodes of both The
Andy Griffith Show and Matlock. In addition to his recordings of
comic monologues in the 1950s, he made an album of upbeat country and gospel
tunes during the run of The Andy Griffith Show, which included a version
of the show's theme sung by Griffith under the title "The Fishin'
Hole". In recent years, he has recorded successful albums of classic Christian hymns for Sparrow Records. His most
successful was the 1996 release I Love to Tell the Story: 25 Timeless Hymns, which was certified platinum by the RIAA.
June
5, 1956
Elvis rocks The Milton Berle Show
By the end of 1955, Elvis
Presley had nearly 18 months of nonstop touring behind him and two dozen
singles already under his belt, though his only hits were on the Country and
Western charts. He was a hardworking and hard-to-categorize up-and-comer, but
the next six months would make him a superstar. It was his debut single on
RCA/Victor, his new label, which propelled Elvis to the top of the pop charts.
But if "Heartbreak Hotel" is what made him the king of the radio and
record stores during the spring of 1956, it was television that truly made him
the King of Rock and Roll. And if any one moment might be called his
coronation, it was his appearance on The Milton Berle Show on
this day in 1956, when he set his guitar aside and put every part of his being
into a blistering, scandalous performance of "Hound Dog."
This was not Presley's first
television appearance, nor even his first appearance onMilton Berle.
Between January and March 1956, Elvis made six appearances on Tommy and Jimmy
Dorsey's Stage Show, and on April 3, he appeared for the first time
with Uncle Miltie. But every one of those appearances featured Elvis either in
close-up singing a slow ballad, or full body but with his movements somewhat
restricted by the acoustic guitar he was playing. It was on his second Milton
Berle Show appearance that he put the guitar aside and America
witnessed, for the very first time, the 21-year-old Elvis Presley from head to
toe, gyrating his soon-to-be-famous (or infamous) pelvis.
Reaction to Elvis'
performance in the mainstream media was almost uniformly negative. "Mr.
Presley has no discernible singing ability....For the ear, he is an unutterable
bore," wrote critic Jack Gould in the next day's New York Times.
"His one specialty is an accented movement of the body that heretofore has
been primarily identified with the repertoire of the blonde bombshells of the
burlesque runway. The gyration never had anything to do with the world of
popular music and still doesn't." In the New York Daily News,
Ben Gross described Presley's performance as "tinged with the kind of
animalism that should be confined to dives and bordellos," while the New
York Journal-American's Jack O'Brien said that Elvis "makes up for
vocal shortcomings with the weirdest and plainly suggestive animation short of
an aborigine's mating dance." Meanwhile, the Catholic weekly America got
right to the point in its headline: "Beware of Elvis Presley."
To quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was".
No comments:
Post a Comment