The Rimshaw House: Fun Facts From The Andy Griffith Show

The Rimshaw House

One of the most beloved and humorous episodes of The Andy Griffith Show is 'The Haunted House,' which aired in October 1963. The saga of The Rimshaw House is the second episode of season 4 of the popular series and is often shown on retro channels near Halloween.

In this episode, Opie Taylor's (Ron Howard) baseball accidentally goes through the window of an abandoned home that is known as the Rimshaw House.

The property belonged to a local man, now deceased, who is referred to as "Old Man Rimshaw." Legend indicates that he chained up his 'hired man" and hacked him with an ax.

It is implied that this house sits on the outskirts of town, but the Rimshaw home actually is located to the right of the Taylor home. Shrubbery and foliage were applied to the exterior of the home to disguise it.

When you look at the image below, you can see Andy's garage to the left of this house, which was also used as the home of Mrs. Wiley and Mayor Roy Stoner.

The Haunted House

In "The Haunted House," a moonshiner named Big Jack Anderson (Nester Pavia) has secretly set up his bootlegging operation in the basement of the Rimshaw home. He, along with town drunk Otis Campbell (Hal Smith), uses the legend of the house being "haunted" to their advantage to keep their still a secret.

When Opie and his friend try to retrieve the baseball, they hear ghostly sounds coming from the house and run to the sheriff's office. Otis, who is just about to be released from jail, perpetuates the legend of the haunted house with a floating ax to Andy Taylor (Andy Griffith) and Barney Fife (Don Knotts).

The exterior of the Rimshaw home was featured as belonging to Aunt Pittypat in Atlanta in the 1939 classic movie Gone With the Wind. A number of the buildings and scenery that make up the community of 'Mayberry' were first used in GWTW. Both were filmed on the RKO 40 Acres lot in Culver City, California, where the props were used as the exterior for a number of films.

Lots of laughs

In 'The Haunted House," Andy, Barney, and Gomer Pyle (Jim Nighbors) go to the Rimshaw place and, after initially being frightened, figure out that moonshiners were using the place and that there were no ghosts. There is a photo of old man Rimshaw where the moonshiners place their own eyes in the slots, and it looks like people are being followed.

Andy scares Otis and Big Jack, who believe the home really is haunted and run for their lives. This is because Andy placed his eyes in the slots in the portrait, and the drunks think Rimshaw is watching.

The sheriff also rigged an ax to appear to be floating and frightened the two men, and later did the same to Barney. This particular episode of The Andy Griffith Show and the events that took place inside the alleged haunted house led to Don Knotts (Barney Fife) starring in his first film.

He portrayed Luther in the movie The Ghost and Mr. Chicken. Thirteen actors who had roles on The Andy Griffith Show were also in the film. Some of them did not appear on the show until after the movie.

Famous actors in The Ghost and Mr. Chicken

Here is a listing of the actors who should be most recognizable to Mayberry fans. Hal Smith, who portrayed town drunk Otis, played a similar char,acter Calver Weems, in the movie.

Hope Summers (Clara Edwards) was Susanna Blush, Burt Mustin (Judd/ Jubal) was Mr. Deligondo, and Rita Shaw (Eleanora Poultice) was in an uncredited role.

Cliff Norton, who appeared once as Wally, the garage owner in Mayberry, was the Balif in the movie. Ellen Corby (Grandma from The Waltons was one of the townspeople. On The Andy Griffith Show, she was the woman who sold Barney the clunker car.

Luther's lawyer in The Ghost and Mr. Chicken was Robert Corntwaite, who portrayed Mr. Somerset, the state investigator, in Mayberry in the episode "Dogs, Dogs, Dogs."

Charles Lane was another lawyer in the film who portrayed Mr. Frisby, a Mayberry farmer who had a still in his henhouse. One of the funniest movies of all time gave roles to many character actors of the day, and it all came about because of The Andy Griffith Show and the Rimshaw house.