![]() I needed for Aunt Bee to be of an age I could look up to, not back at. Most of the 44-year-olds I know don’t even cook. Most of the 44-yearolds I know can still see their feet, aren’t very cuddly and don’t get flustered if dinner doesn’t turn out quite right. They wear short skirts and short pants and blue jeans and wouldn’t be caught dead in costume jewelry. Most of the 44-yearolds I know don’t own a suit and aren’t sure of their original hair color. They do not have big, black purses and they certainly do not have sensible shoes. Most of the 44-yearolds I know do not make their own pickles, hang their laundry on the line or sit on the porch after supper and discuss the day with their families. Shoot, they do not even own an apron and if you gave them one, they would try to tie it around a chair. They do not wear wool suits and pop beads and have a lilting little voice that reminds one of a 1950’s Sunday teacher. Most of the 44-yearolds I know do not have hair the color of chicken dookie. ![]() Maybe 44 then required a certain maturity in dress and behavior, which thankfully has passed with the years. Maybe at the time Andy Griffith was in its prime, 44 was different than 44 today. I always figured Aunt Bee was past 60, pushing 70 and blessed with exceptionally good skin. I figured Aunt Bee, the cross between a grandmother and an aunt and a mama, to be of undetermined age. But, what caught my attention was the mention of Aunt Bee’s age. Warren was deputy and it was filmed in color. I can remember seeing the Andy Griffith episode where Aunt Bee won all the neat prizes on a game show - fancy kitchen appliances and a full-length mink coat. Every time I see her in something else, I say out loud “there’s Aunt Bee.” She always wore the same hairstyle. It stars Frances Bavier who was also Aunt Bee on Andy Griffith. I learned a lot from the Beverly Hillbillies. I know who Mary Pickford is because of Granny Clampett. Last night I watched part of “Poor Little Rich Girl,” a silent movie filmed in 1917 and starring Mary Pickford. In 2014 he produced and directed the smash-hit "I’ll Say She Is", the first ever revival of the Marx Brothers hit 1924 Broadway show in the NY International Fringe Festival.I like watching old movies. He has directed his own plays, revues and solo pieces at such venues as Joe’s Pub, La Mama, HERE, Dixon Place, Theater for the New City, the Ohio Theatre, the Brick, and 6 separate shows in the NY International Fringe Festival. Trav has been in the vanguard of New York’s vaudeville and burlesque scenes since 1995 when he launched his company Mountebanks, presenting hundreds of acts ranging from Todd Robbins to Dirty Martini to Tammy Faye Starlite to the Flying Karamazov Brothers. He has written for the NY Times, the Village Voice, American Theatre, Time Out NY, Reason, the Villager and numerous other publications. (is best known for his books "No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous" (2005) and "Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube" (2013). And I’m sure the role didn’t make her any poorer. ![]() But she seemed to bear it with a good grace. The structure of this interview - especially the closing slug which seems to disregard everything the woman just said - gives a pretty good picture of her situation. ![]() An educated and sophisticated woman with many past roles to her credit, she didn’t like being exclusively identified with a fussy but loving elder, given to putting up jars of jam and dispensing folksy wisdom. You’ll be interested to discover that the creator of this iconic, idyllic role rankled at the part. She returned to her native North Carolina in retirement, and gave this interview at the time. The Aunt Bee gig began in 1960 with The Andy Griffith Show, which ran through 1968, then continued with the ever increasingly anachronistic Mayberry R.F.D. Bavier played numerous roles on screens big and small over the years. Other notable stage productions included On Borrowed Time (1938), and Orson Welles’ production of Richard Wright’s Native Son (1941-1943).īy the time of her film debut in 1951’s The Day the Earth Stood Still, her physique and personality had changed into something more resembling the one we associate with Aunt Bee. Her first (of a dozen) Broadway shows was The Black Pit in 1935. She attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, then broke into vaudeville in the 1920s. Today is the birthday of Frances Bavier (1902-1989) best known to audiences today as Aunt Bee from T he Andy Griffith Show.īavier attended Columbia University with the original intention of being a schoolteacher. ![]()
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