I was nine years old in 1957 and wouldn’t be much interested in Andy Griffith until he became Sheriff Andy Tayler a few years later. But people who were following the excitement in nearby Piggott, Arkansas, said it was big deal. The photos below are of KBOA News Director John Reeder interviewing the director and cast.

(Wikipedia) “A Face in the Crowd is a 1957 film starring Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal and Walter Matthau, directed by Elia Kazan. Most of the film’s interiors were shot in New York at the Biograph Studios in the Bronx. The most involved location shoot was in Piggott, Arkansas (the fair and baton-twirling competition scenes). Five thousand extras were sought, to be fed and paid $1 hourly for a mid-August day’s work. Sixty baton twirlers were rounded up from NE Arkansas and SE Missouri, and musicians from six different high school bands were assembled. Remick reported spending two weeks in Piggott living with teen twirler Amanda Robinson and her family, working on her twirling and local accent. Some of her baton twirling scenes used a double. At the Piggott location shoot some 380 dogs were assembled from Missouri and Arkansas for the scene following Rhodes’ first mass-action call on his audience: to take their dogs to the home of a local sheriff who was running for higher office – Rhodes opining that people should first find out if a candidate is worthy of the office of “dog catcher”.”

I had a difficult time identifying the twirler (bottom/right above) and finally concluded it was Sandra Wirth. I found at least one source showing she was in the film. But based on the Wikipedia excerpt above, I’m wondering if the twirler is Amanda Robinson.