The film "A Face in the Crowd" by Elia Kazan, written by Budd Schulberg and staring Andy Griffith & Patricia Neal was released this day in 1957.

"A Face in the Crowd" chronicles the rise and fall of Larry “Lonesome” Rhodes (Andy Griffith), a boisterous entertainer discovered in an Arkansas drunk tank by Marcia Jeffries (Patricia Neal), a local radio producer with ambitions of her own. His charisma and cunning soon shoot him to the heights of television stardom and political demagoguery, forcing Marcia to grapple with the manipulative, reactionary monster she has created. Directed by Elia Kazan from a screenplay by Budd Schulberg, this incisive satire features an extraordinary debut screen performance by Griffith, who brandishes his charm in an uncharacteristically sinister role. Though the film was a flop on its initial release, subsequent generations have marveled at its eerily prescient diagnosis of the toxic intimacy between media and politics in American life.

#AFaceInTheCrowd #EliaKazan #BuddSchulberg #AndyGriffith #PatriciaNeal

On November 14, 1953, the Colonial label in Chapel Hill released Andy Griffith’s monologue “What It Was, Was Football.” Colonial was owned by Chapel Hill newspaper publisher Orville B. Campbell, who had heard Griffith perform the comedy bit at a luncheon earlier that year.

The narrator of the story is a young man who happens upon a football game – something he had never experienced before. His retelling of the game included a description of the football, “It was that both bunches full of them wanted this funny looking little pumpkin to play with. They did. And I know, friends, that they couldn’t eat it because they kicked it the whole evening and it never busted.”

“What it Was, Was Football” helped launch Griffith’s career, which ultimately took him from North Carolina to Broadway. He went on to star in movies and television shows, and to become a Grammy Award-winning singer. After many years in front of the camera, Griffith returned to North Carolina, and settled in Manteo, where he remained until his death on July 3, 2012.

#AndyGriffith #WhatItWasWasFootball

A Face in the Crowd (Elia Kazan, 1957)

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