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The Real Mayberry: Mount Airy, NC

WUNC | By Laura Lee,
Frank Stasio
Published December 1, 2016 at 12:25 PM EST
Image from The Andy Griffith Show
Wikimedia
Image from The Andy Griffith Show
Image from The Andy Griffith Show
Credit Wikimedia
Image from The Andy Griffith Show

Many know Mayberry as the idyllic town that was home to the fictional Andy Griffith show.

A new film highlights the characters of the true Mayberry: Mount Airy, North Carolina. Filmmaker Bill Hayes, a Mount Airy native, captured the characters and places that make Mount Airy a representation of “Hometown USA.” Host Frank Stasio talks with filmmaker Bill Hayes about his new film, "The Real Mayberry".

Despite economic struggles caused by the decline of textile manufacturing, The Real Mayberry continues to thrive and retain its unique character.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtHI5MbaLbU

Host Frank Stasio talks with Hayes, founder of Figure 8 Films, about the ways Mount Airy’s evolution mirrors that of many other small towns across the country. The Real Mayberry screens Saturday at the historic Earle Theatre in Mount Airy and is available online at http://therealmayberry.com.

Copyright 2016 North Carolina Public Radio
Laura Lee
Laura Lee began her journalism career as a producer and booker at NPR. She returned to her native North Carolina to manage The State of Things, a live daily statewide show on WUNC. After working as a managing editor of an education journalism start-up, she became a writer and editor at a national education publication, Edutopia. She then served as the news editor at Carolina Public Press, a statewide investigative newsroom. In 2022, she worked to build collaborative coverage of elections administration and democracy in North Carolina.

Laura received her master’s in journalism from the University of Maryland and her bachelor’s degree in political science and J.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
See stories by Laura Lee
Frank Stasio
Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.
See stories by Frank Stasio