The following is an excerpt from the Wikipedia entry for the film A Face in the Crowd, a 1957 film starring Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal and Walter Matthau, directed by Elia Kazan.

“Most of the film’s interiors were shot in New York at the Biograph Studios in the Bronx. The most involved location shoot was in Piggott, Arkansas (the fair and baton-twirling competition scenes). Five thousand extras were sought, to be fed and paid $1 hourly for a mid-August day’s work. Sixty baton twirlers were rounded up from NE Arkansas and SE Missouri, and musicians from six different high school bands were assembled. Remick reported spending two weeks in Piggott living with teen twirler Amanda Robinson and her family, working on her twirling and local accent. Some of her baton twirling scenes used a double. At the Piggott location shoot some 380 dogs were assembled from Missouri and Arkansas for the scene following Rhodes’ first mass-action call on his audience: to take their dogs to the home of a local sheriff who was running for higher office – Rhodes opining that people should first find out if a candidate is worthy of the office of ‘dog catcher’.”

I was nine years old in 1957 and not much interested the movies. But it sounds like the location shooting in Piggott was a pretty big deal. I struggled to identify the twirler and finally concluded it was Sandra Wirth, even though she isn’t listed in the cast on iMDB. Now I’m wondering if it might be Amanda Robinson.

UPDATE January 17, 2021: Thanks to John Carpenter for some much needed research on this photo.

“That photo, taken mid-August 1956 in Piggott, is indeed “Miss Florida 1955” and actress Sandra “Sandy” Wirth. She is also noted on the AFI page for “A Face In The Crowd.”

“Hollywood Reporter news items add the following actors to the cast: Sandra Wirth, Lloyd Bergen, Jay Sidney, Eva Vaughn, John McGovern, Kitty Dolan, Sandee Preston, Gus Thorner, Beverly Boatwright, Jane Baier and Gloria Mosolino.”

“I also looked up Amanda Robinson. There’s a brief article (New York Daily News – Thursday, September 20, 1956) on her and the two other local girls who made it into the film, and were even flown to New York to film a few scenes. All of them (despite the fuzzy photo) are brunettes:”

Here for a Twirl in the Movies. Three baton-carrying, 16-year-old Southern belles arriving at LaGuardia Field yesterday are (I. to r.), Suzanne Ballard, Amanda Robinson and Bunny McCollum. The gals, all from Piggott, Ark., will be in town for two weeks during the filming of new movie. They will play the parts of drum majorettes in the picture.