Tale of a Troubled Youth

Most of you know that my full-time job is working with boys who have been in trouble with the law.  They are sometimes termed “troubled youth.”

Often born into poverty, or from broken homes, or with families addicted to drugs or alcohol, troubled youth frequently struggle in school.  They may fall into crime or turn to drugs or alcohol to cope.  Many have emotional problems and have a hard-time dealing with things that average people don’t lose much sleep over.

Let me tell you about Jesse.

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First, I’ll point out that he was not one of the boys I’ve worked with in my 20-plus years with the Missouri Division of Youth Services, but, if his story were happening here and today, he might well be.

Jesse was born to a forty-year-old woman named Elsie who already had three much-older sons.  Jesse joined Willis, William, and Ralph.  Jesse’s father, William suffered from mental illness and, when faced with the prospect of raising another son from birth during the Great Depression, was overwhelmed.  He suffered hysterical blindness and a nervous collapse and rarely left the bed for the rest of his life.

More than that, Jesse’s father was diagnosed with schizophrenia and battled alcoholism.  He was institutionalized for his problems at times.  He was violent and abusive and was known to terrorize the boy and his mother with a knife.  The poor kid reacted by becoming quite introverted.  When you are quiet and keep to yourself, you draw less attention, and the less attention you attract, the less chance that you will be the target of abuse.

When Jesse was only 13-years-old his father died of pneumonia.  Elsie was now a single mother with four children to feed, as the nation struggled to recover from the Great Depression. 

It was a recipe for descent into the depths of poverty. 

Elsie managed a boarding house to provide the necessities for her little family, and she made sure the boy stayed in school.  She tried to be the best mother she could be.  But Jesse turned inward even more and felt at times that life didn’t hold much hope for him. 

The youngster knew something had to change if he ever wanted to achieve his dream of being an entertainer, standing before cheering throngs and bringing smiles and laughter to people everywhere.  The adulation would be a balm to his tortured ego, but it’s hard to be an entertainer when you are too nervous to stand in front of crowds.

Introverts sometimes prefer to be with others when exposed to attention, as a way of diverting the pressure of being the only one under scrutiny.  Jesse had an idea for such a partner while watching Edgar Bergen and his ventriloquist dummy, Charlie McCarthy.  Not the man, the dummy.  Jesse decided he would become a ventriloquist.

Jesse began practicing with sock puppets until he could save up enough money to buy a real ventriloquist dummy.  By the time he started high school he was performing as a ventriloquist and comedian at area parties as well as church and school functions.

After high school Jesse moved to New York City to try to hit it big as a comedian, but his career just didn’t take off and he returned home to live while he attended college.

His freshman year ended and the world was at war.  Jesse joined the United States Army.  The Army is known for putting men where they are needed and not necessarily where they are best suited, but Jesse soon found himself entertaining troops.  He toured the western Pacific Islands as a comedian in a G.I. variety show called “Stars and Gripes”.  He couldn’t completely conquer his stage fright so, in a stroke of genius, he incorporated his nervousness into his act, impersonating such tremulous characters as a novice TV weatherman and a tongue-tied sportscaster.

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The young soldier’s act included a ventriloquist dummy named Danny “Hooch” Matador.  Jesse would later say that he had gotten so tired of playing straight man for a hunk of wood that, as he was returning to the U.S. aboard a troop ship, he threw the dummy overboard and into the South Pacific. 

“I wanted to get the laughs,” he said. 

Jesse turned his attention to solo, straight comedy.  His ego was doing much better by that time.

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Back home in the states Jesse re-enrolled and finished college, earning a Bachelor’s degree in Education from West Virginia University.  He moved to New York where some friends he had made in the Army Special Services Branch were happy to help him try to break into show business.

He did some work in radio, mostly comedy, while doing standup at clubs.  His first major break came when he got a job, not as a comedian, but playing a serious role in a soap opera for three years.

Then it was back to doing comedy when he landed a recurring role in a variety show, where he played a shy, uptight, extremely nervous, “Man in the Street.”  He tackled Broadway, playing two roles, as a Corporal Manual Dexterity and a Preacher, in the play, No Time for Sergeants, which starred Andy Griffith.

The play was a hit and was made into a movie, also staring Andy Griffith.  Jesse played a high-strung Air Force test administrator whose routine was disrupted by the hijinks of a provincial new recruit.

Andy Griffith got enough attention for his part in the play that he was offered his own sitcom, The Andy Griffith Show.  Jesse was offered a part in the show and, for five seasons, Jesse Donald Knotts played the very nervous, overcompensating, Deputy Barney Fife.

Yes, you probably know Jesse as Don Knotts.

Andy Griffith was originally intended to be the show’s comedic lead, as he had in No Time for Sergeants, but it was quickly discovered that the show was funnier with his and Don’s roles reversed.  Griffith has been quoted as saying, “By the second episode, I knew that Don should be funny, and I should play straight.”

Good thinking.

Don Knotts’ bumbling deputy would go on to win five Emmy Awards for Best Supporting Actor in a Television Comedy.

Don spent the rest of his life as a successful actor, playing in several series and multiple family friendly movies, such as, The Reluctant Astronaut, The Shakiest Gun in the West, and, my personal favorite, The Ghost and Mr. Chicken.

Millions of people around the world know and love Don Knotts as Barney Fife, but few realize that he was once a troubled youth who saw the road ahead of him almost devoid of hope, and it was up to him to change it.

But I know it…and now you do too. 

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