Last Monday, as I explained here, I drove a rental car to Mt. Airy, North Carolina to see my friend (more like my unofficial aunt) Betty Lynn. When I was a year and a half old, my parents bought and moved into a house next door to the home where Betty and her folks lived. My mother lived in that home the rest of her life. Betty lived in her home until a few years before my mother passed. That was when she moved to Mt. Airy where she is the biggest celebrity in the city.
Mr. Griffith spent his childhood in Mr. Airy and so they worship The Andy Griffith Show there. Other worshipers come from all across the U.S. — and other countries, I imagine — to get a little closer to their favorite program. Years ago, someone told me that fans of the original Star Trek not only loved the series but often applied the morals of its episodes to their own lives. I dunno how true that is of Star Trek but it's certainly true of fans of The Andy Griffith Show. To many of them, it's a lot more than a situation comedy.
Betty, as you know, played Thelma Lou (girl friend of Barney Fife) on the series. I said in my earlier post that apart from occasional visits from Ron Howard, she's the only cast member you'll ever see there. I was wrong. Several Mt. Airy residents, including folks involved in their tourism department, informed me Ron has never been there. A few others visited before they passed away and a few living actors who were in one or two episodes — like Jackie Joseph and Ronnie Schell — have visited and may again. But Betty is the only actual cast member around and as I witnessed, meeting her is a big thrill for many people.
While I was there, she took me over to The Andy Griffith Museum for a private tour. I'll tell you about it but first, let's all watch this video about Mt. Airy and the museum. You'll see Betty in it along with a charming lady named Abigail Linville who works at the museum and showed me around the place last Monday…
As you can see, a nice place to visit. Intermittent rain in the "deluge" category prevented me from seeing as much of Mayberry Mt. Airy as I might have liked…but then, I was really there to see Betty more than the town. We spent some time at the museum, which is very pleasant and very well arranged and maintained. It's not as large as I was expecting but I doubt any fan of the TV show wouldn't love seeing the memorabilia they have there. You just saw some of this in the video but here are some photos I took, starting with one of Sheriff Andy Taylor's shirts…
At right in the picture, you also see a mock-up of the doors to the Mayberry Courthouse where Sheriff Taylor and Deputy Fife worked. There's one other replica of that sacred place in Mt. Airy but I didn't get to it. Here are two of Barney's famous "salt-and-pepper" suits…
And as you can see, they're surrounded by still photos. One of the other folks touring the museum at the moment overheard Betty say, "You worked with Don, didn't you, Mark?" and they reacted like she'd said, "You used to hang out with the Easter Bunny, didn't you?" Or some other mythological creature. This man really seemed amazed…and then I think he and his family recognized the redheaded lady I was pushing around in the wheelchair and couldn't believe they were in the same room with Thelma Lou.
Here's an outfit worn by Hal Smith in his role as Otis Campbell, the town drunk. It's funny that Hal is probably best remembered for that role because he did so many in his long, busy career. He worked all the time, both on-camera and as a voiceover artist. For a time, he was the voice of Elmer Fudd for Warner Brothers and re-created many other actors' voices for Disney.
Lastly, here's a photo that should be of interest to comic book fans. Andy's whole career is covered in the museum and there's a section on No Time for Sergeants, which was a vital part of his life. The novel by Mac Hyman was adapted into a television play in 1955, a hit Broadway play later that year, and a movie in 1958. Griffith starred in all three and it was in the movie that he first worked with Don Knotts. An adaptation of the movie as a one-shot Dell comic book also put him into a fourth medium and they have a copy on display in the museum…
In case you can't read the card, it says "This comic book, issued by Dell, features artwork by the legendary comic book artist, Alex Toth." A few display cases away, there's a copy of the Dell comic book of The Andy Griffith Show and the accompanying card acknowledges the artwork by Henry Scarpelli. I doubt either artist ever imagined that work (or anything they did) would get them into a museum.
There's also a very nice section of the museum devoted to Betty with posters and stills from her many movies, including Sitting Pretty (with Robert Young, Maureen O'Hara and Clifton Webb), June Bride (with Bette Davis and Robert Montgomery), Father Was a Fullback (Fred MacMurray, Maureen O'Hara and Natalie Wood), the 1950 film of Cheaper by the Dozen (Clifton Webb and Myrna Loy) and Meet Me in Las Vegas (Dan Dailey, Cyd Charisse and Jim Backus). Betty appears at the museum to meet her fans and sign autographs every third Friday…and occasionally when someone she's known all his life comes to town to see her.
The museum is lovely…heck, the whole town is lovely. It rained a lot while I was there but it was a courteous rain. It poured while Betty and I were inside the museum. Then it stopped when we left and I drove her to a restaurant for dinner. Then it started up again while we ate and stopped just as we were ready to leave. I got Betty back to her home, hugged her a lot, then headed for the hotel where I was staying for the night. About two minutes after I got back to my room, it poured and the hotel parking lot and street outside looked like The Mighty Mississippi. And it accommodated me by ending before I had to head for the airport the next morning, resuming only again after my flight home took off. Thank you, rain.
By the way: If you ever visit Mt. Airy, this is a very nice place to stay. Betty recommended it to me and I now recommend it to you. It's about a five-minute drive from the museum.
This whole trip was a mess with the airlines screwing up and it was hot with ghastly humidity and I hated the idea of (but fortunately avoided) driving a strange rental car through a monsoon…but Heroes Con, which I attended as part of the trip, turned out to be a well-run convention. It was worth all the humidity and hassle to see my lovely ex-neighbor again. Certain people are important to our lives and we shouldn't let a little thing like being 2,461 miles apart stop us from hugging them and telling them how much they matter to us. I should have made this expedition years ago and I shouldn't let that much time pass before I do it again.
And the museum was a lot of fun, too…though now that I think of it, I don't think they had Barney's bullet on display. Maybe it was there and I missed it.