Word: griffith
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Died. Clark C. ("Old Fox") Griffith, 85, president and owner of the Washington Senators since 1919, one of the founders of the American League (1901), old-time Hall-of-Fame pitching star; in Washington. Griffith got into the game in 1887, remained on active playing rosters until 1914, was a famed 20-game winning pitcher for the oldtime Chicago Colts. He joined the league that he helped to form when he signed with the Chicago White Sox in 1901 as player-manager, won the youthful league's first pennant. Two years later he became the first manager...
...morning-fresh outrageousness. It has a kind of healthy, folkish madness: it makes the Air Force seem like something personally invented rather than anything ever experienced or observed; it makes sex-on the rare occasions it refers to it-seem rather like a good breakfast food. As Will, Andy Griffith has enormous lumpish charm; Roddy McDowall is just the right foil as his buddy, Myron McCormick an amusing, long-suffering sergeant. Peter Larkin's attractive sets are often amazing bits of engineering, and Director Morton Da Costa has polished the show to precisely the right roughness...
...star, of course, is Will, played by Andy Griffith. His genial "howdy" to privates and generals alike, disarms even the Air Force, yet not before he has reduced it nearly to shambles. To begin with, Will's sergeant appreciates his desire to be helpful. He "promotes" him to PLO (permanent latrine orderly). This arrangement backfires, however, and the plot of the comedy becomes a plot against Will--to get him through the classification tests. Confusion reigns, and the Air Force totters. Even the Reserve Officers Training Corps receives its share of jests...
...carefree, shuffling manner, both as narrator to the audience and participant in the comedy, Andy Griffith focuses the play excellently. As his harried sergeant, Myron McCormick stiffens with rage and groans in despair at just the right moments. Yet he also includes a touch of pathos which gives the comedy depth. Roddy McDowall has a smaller role as Will's whining and utterly realistic buddy, but he manages it neatly. Lastly, Howard Freeman and Royal Beal create convincing characters out of the two red-faced generals, who stomp and fume and titter falsely before exploding...
Surprising things happen in the name of God in Washington's Griffith Stadium when Elder Lightfoot Solomon ("Happy am I") Michaux holds "services...