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Don Knotts grew up getting free haircuts in his uncle's barber shop
Like Floyd's Barber Shop in Mayberry, Knotts spent many hours there.
One of the most cherished episodes to take place in Floyd’s Barber Shop is "The Bookie Barber," which came in the second season of The Andy Griffith Show.
In the episode, Floyd hires a second barber, who it turns out is actually a bookie.
This prompts Deputy Barney Fife to go undercover, appearing at the barber shop not in his police uniform but disguised as a woman.
For Don Knotts, who played Barney Fife, hanging out in a barber shop wasn’t a new activity when he arrived in Mayberry.
In the book Andy and Don: The Making of a Friendship and a Classic TV Show, author Daniel de Visé wrote that as a young boy, Knotts would scurry off from his childhood home frequently to hang out for hours on end at his uncle’s barber shop.
Knotts’ uncle was not called Floyd, but at Uncle Lawrence’s barber shop, Knotts found a community to nestle into just like Mayberry had in Floyd’s.
It was possibly while there that Knotts learned how to hold an audience rapt.
"Uncle Lawrence, in some ways an antecedent to Mayberry’s Floyd, would keep the customers laughing for hours with jokes and tall tales, while Don sat and soaked it up," de Visé wrote in his book.
It was also at Uncle Lawrence’s where Knotts, who rose to fame in part because of his striking appearance with protruding ears and wide eyes, would get his famous ears lowered.
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According to de Visé, if Knotts hung around long enough, once the last paying customer had left Uncle Lawrence’s chair, young Don would be invited to hop up at last, don a cape, and enjoy a free haircut.
You might think that maybe Uncle Lawrence helped inspire the character of Floyd the Barber, being so close to Knotts’ heart growing up, but there’s long been a mild controversy over who exactly inspired the beloved Mayberry barber.
It might be best to avoid the trouble and say all barbers did.
The controversy started when a barber in the real world named Russell Hiatt, who has a shop in Andy Griffith’s hometown Mt. Airy, famously claimed that he cut Griffith’s hair as a boy when The Andy Griffith Show first became popular.
He renamed his shop Floyd’s Barber Shop, and since then, his connection to the character has been stamped into history under the feet of tourists, as many fans of The Andy Griffith Show consider Hiatt’s shop part of TV history.
Griffith has disputed that Hiatt ever cut his hair, though, and all we really know for sure is that the barbers who cut Andy’s hair when he was growing up served as inspiration for Floyd, whoever they were.
It’s possible that having that shared experience as a boy who spent all his time in a barber shop meant that when Knotts looked at Howard McNear, he saw a little of his Uncle Lawrence.
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25 Comments
Wonderful Actors and I miss both of them and I miss other actors I liked also. As long as film and tapes exist
Andy Griffith and Andy Taylor and
Don Knotts will LIVE FOREVER ON
FILM. The good thing about movies and video tapes is that actors like
John Wayne ETC and other actors is
that all of these actors can entertain
Us decades after they pass away.
As long as film and tapes exist
these actors like Andy Griffith and
Don Knotts will always be with us.
These actors and actresses will also
Live in our hearts and minds and
Memories Forever.
Andy Taylor and Barney Fife will
ALWAYS be a part of our TV and
Movies History.
RIP
Andy Griffith
Don Knotts
Farewell to two wonderful actors!!
What does Mr. Schump from The
Andy Griffith Show have in common
With Moose on Happy Days?
I wonder if Svengoolie got his name
From the similar name of SVENGALI
Which was a 1931 movie with John Barrymore as SVENGALI and actress
MARIAN MARSH as TRILBY .
I wish that Svengoolie would show
the 1931 movie SVENGALI.
Didn't know about his radio career. But that's the thing with these character actors, who used their voices and nuances and didn't depend on their looks! By the time we got to see them in wonderful television episodes they had developed their character-personalities. And usually played them throughout their career. Which is how the classes of "supporting" and "featuring" came to be regarding billing. In the long run they probably got more screen time than major players!!
characters.
