Vic Mizzy
Encyclopedia
Vic Mizzy was an American
composer
for television
and movies whose best-known works are the themes to the 1960s television sitcoms Green Acres
and The Addams Family
. He also penned top-20 songs from the 1930s to 1940s.
. As a child, he played accordion and piano, and was largely self-taught as a composer. During World War II
, he served in the U.S. Navy, where he wrote some of his song hits.
Mizzy had two children with his first wife, Mary Small, who as a 1930s child singer had been known as "The Little Girl With The Big Voice", and who remained popular (especially on radio) through the 1950s. One of her daughters, Patty Keeler, a singer and songwriter, often worked with songwriter Doc Pomus
.
In the late 1930s, Mizzy, based in New York City
, began composing a string of popular songs. These would include Doris Day
's 1945 hit "My Dreams Are Getting Better All the Time
". Other Mizzy compositions included "There's a Faraway Look in Your Eye" and "Three Little Sisters", both co-written with lyricist Irving Taylor, the latter sung by The Andrews Sisters on Decca Records and in Universal's "Private Buckaroo," in which the sisters appeared with Harry James' big band (Dinah Shore also recorded "Three Little Sisters"); "Take It Easy" (also with lyricist Taylor), "Pretty Kitty Blue Eyes", "The Whole World Is Singing My Song", "Choo'n Gum" (recorded by The Andrews Sisters, as well as Teresa Brewer), "The Jones Boy" (a 1953 hit for The Mills Brothers), and "With a Hey and a Hi and a Ho-Ho-Ho".
Mizzy broke into television circa 1959, composing music for Shirley Temple
's Storybook and the themes for Moment of Fear, Klondike
and Kentucky Jones
. During the 1960s, he wrote themes and scores for the hit shows Green Acres
, The Addams Family
, as well as for other sitcoms including The Pruitts of Southampton
, The Double Life of Henry Phyfe, Captain Nice
, The Don Rickles
Show, and Temperature's Rising
. He also wrote the scores for five Don Knotts
films including The Ghost and Mr. Chicken
and The Reluctant Astronaut
, releasing those scores on a CD companion to the two films' DVD
releases. Other work includes scores for the William Castle
films The Night Walker and The Busy Body
, and underscores for the TV series The Richard Boone Show
and Quincy
. as well as for such TV movies as Terror on the 40th Floor. He also worked with Sam Raimi
for the outtake music of Spider-Man 2
and Spider-Man 3
.
Mizzy died at his home in Bel Air, Los Angeles, California on October 17, 2009, aged 93. He was predeceased by a daughter who died in 1995; another daughter survives him. His interment was located at Eden Memorial Park in Mission Hills, California
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
for television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
and movies whose best-known works are the themes to the 1960s television sitcoms Green Acres
Green Acres
Green Acres is an American television series starring Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor as a couple who move from New York City to a country farm...
and The Addams Family
The Addams Family (TV series)
The Addams Family is an American television series based on the characters in Charles Addams' New Yorker cartoons. The 30-minute series was shot in black-and-white and aired for two seasons in 64 installments on ABC from September 18, 1964, to April 8, 1966...
. He also penned top-20 songs from the 1930s to 1940s.
Biography
Vic Mizzy was born in Brooklyn, New York and attended New York UniversityNew York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
. As a child, he played accordion and piano, and was largely self-taught as a composer. During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, he served in the U.S. Navy, where he wrote some of his song hits.
Mizzy had two children with his first wife, Mary Small, who as a 1930s child singer had been known as "The Little Girl With The Big Voice", and who remained popular (especially on radio) through the 1950s. One of her daughters, Patty Keeler, a singer and songwriter, often worked with songwriter Doc Pomus
Doc Pomus
Jerome Solon Felder, better known as Doc Pomus , was a twentieth-century American blues singer and songwriter. He is best known as the lyricist of many rock and roll hits. Pomus was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the category of non-performer in 1992. He was also inducted into...
.
In the late 1930s, Mizzy, based in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, began composing a string of popular songs. These would include Doris Day
Doris Day
Doris Day is an American actress, singer and, since her retirement from show business, an animal rights activist. With an entertainment career that spanned through almost 50 years, Day started her career as a big band singer in 1939, but only began to be noticed after her first hit recording,...
's 1945 hit "My Dreams Are Getting Better All the Time
My Dreams Are Getting Better All the Time
"My Dreams Are Getting Better All the Time" is a popular song.The music was written by Vic Mizzy and the lyrics by Manny Curtis. The song was published in 1945....
". Other Mizzy compositions included "There's a Faraway Look in Your Eye" and "Three Little Sisters", both co-written with lyricist Irving Taylor, the latter sung by The Andrews Sisters on Decca Records and in Universal's "Private Buckaroo," in which the sisters appeared with Harry James' big band (Dinah Shore also recorded "Three Little Sisters"); "Take It Easy" (also with lyricist Taylor), "Pretty Kitty Blue Eyes", "The Whole World Is Singing My Song", "Choo'n Gum" (recorded by The Andrews Sisters, as well as Teresa Brewer), "The Jones Boy" (a 1953 hit for The Mills Brothers), and "With a Hey and a Hi and a Ho-Ho-Ho".
Mizzy broke into television circa 1959, composing music for Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple Black , born Shirley Jane Temple, is an American film and television actress, singer, dancer, autobiographer, and former U.S. Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia...
's Storybook and the themes for Moment of Fear, Klondike
Klondike (TV series)
Klondike is a 17-episode half-hour Western television series that aired on NBC. The series premiered on October 10, 1960 and ran until February 13, 1961. It faced stiff competition from The Danny Thomas Show on CBS and the second half of the first-season detective series Surfside 6 starring Troy...
and Kentucky Jones
Kentucky Jones
Kentucky Jones is a half-hour comedy/drama starring Dennis Weaver as Kenneth Yarborough "K.Y. or Kentucky" Jones, D.V.M., a recently widowed former horse trainer and active rancher, who becomes the guardian of Dwight Eisenhower "Ike" "Wong, a 10-year-old Chinese orphan, played by Ricky Der...
. During the 1960s, he wrote themes and scores for the hit shows Green Acres
Green Acres
Green Acres is an American television series starring Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor as a couple who move from New York City to a country farm...
, The Addams Family
The Addams Family (TV series)
The Addams Family is an American television series based on the characters in Charles Addams' New Yorker cartoons. The 30-minute series was shot in black-and-white and aired for two seasons in 64 installments on ABC from September 18, 1964, to April 8, 1966...
, as well as for other sitcoms including The Pruitts of Southampton
The Pruitts of Southampton
The Pruitts of Southampton was a situation comedy that aired during the 1966-67 season on the ABC network. The show was based on the novel House Party by Patrick Dennis....
, The Double Life of Henry Phyfe, Captain Nice
Captain Nice
Captain Nice was a comedy TV series that ran from January–May 1967 on NBC. Riding the tide of the camp superhero craze of the 1960s, the show's premise involved police chemist Carter Nash , a mild-mannered mama's boy who discovered a secret formula that, when taken, transformed him into Captain...
, The Don Rickles
Don Rickles
Donald Jay "Don" Rickles is an American stand-up comedian and actor. A frequent guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Rickles has acted in comedic and dramatic roles, but is best known as an insult comic....
Show, and Temperature's Rising
Temperature's Rising
Temperature's Rising was an album released in 1995 by the Canadian rock band Loverboy. The album was the third compilation by the band, but this particular compilation aimed at the more rarely heard songs by the band, and the minor hits that the previous compilations did not cover...
. He also wrote the scores for five Don Knotts
Don Knotts
Jesse Donald "Don" Knotts was an American comedic actor best known for his portrayal of Barney Fife on the 1960s television sitcom The Andy Griffith Show, a role which earned him five Emmy Awards...
films including The Ghost and Mr. Chicken
The Ghost and Mr. Chicken
The Ghost and Mr. Chicken is a 1966 American Universal Pictures feature film starring Don Knotts as Luther Heggs, a newspaper typesetter who spends a night in a haunted house, which is located in the fictitious community of Rachel, Kansas...
and The Reluctant Astronaut
The Reluctant Astronaut
The Reluctant Astronaut is a Universal Pictures feature film starring Don Knotts in a story about a kiddie-ride operator who is hired as a janitor at the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston and is eventually sent into space. The film was produced and directed by Edward J...
, releasing those scores on a CD companion to the two films' DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
releases. Other work includes scores for the William Castle
William Castle
William Castle was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. Castle was known for directing films with many gimmicks which were ambitiously promoted, despite being reasonably low budget B-movies....
films The Night Walker and The Busy Body
The Busy Body
The Busy Body is a 1967 comedy film starring Sid Caesar as a member of a crime ring and Robert Ryan as his boss. It was directed and produced by William Castle and was the first film appearance for Richard Pryor....
, and underscores for the TV series The Richard Boone Show
The Richard Boone Show
The Richard Boone Show is a short-lived, award-winning anthology television series. It aired on NBC during the 1963-64 season.-Synopsis:Richard Boone hosted the series and starred in about half of the episodes, garnering an Emmy nomination for himself and a Golden Globe award for the show...
and Quincy
Quincy
-People:*Saer de Quincy, 1st Earl of Winchester, Norman nobleman*Roger de Quincy, 2nd Earl of Winchester, Norman nobleman*Quincy Jones , American record producer and musician-Places:France*Quincy, Cher, a commune in the Cher département in France...
. as well as for such TV movies as Terror on the 40th Floor. He also worked with Sam Raimi
Sam Raimi
Samuel Marshall "Sam" Raimi is an American film director, producer, actor and writer. He is best known for directing cult horror films like the Evil Dead series, Darkman and Drag Me to Hell, as well as the blockbuster Spider-Man films and the producer of the successful TV series Hercules: The...
for the outtake music of Spider-Man 2
Spider-Man 2
Spider-Man 2 is a 2004 American superhero film directed by Sam Raimi, written by Alvin Sargent and developed by Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, and Michael Chabon. It is the second film in the Spider-Man film franchise based on the fictional Marvel Comics character Spider-Man...
and Spider-Man 3
Spider-Man 3
Spider-Man 3 is a 2007 American superhero film written and directed by Sam Raimi, with a screenplay by Ivan Raimi and Alvin Sargent. It is the third film in the Sam Raimi Spider-Man trilogy based on the fictional Marvel Comics character Spider-Man...
.
Mizzy died at his home in Bel Air, Los Angeles, California on October 17, 2009, aged 93. He was predeceased by a daughter who died in 1995; another daughter survives him. His interment was located at Eden Memorial Park in Mission Hills, California
Mission Hills, Los Angeles, California
Mission Hills is a suburban community in the San Fernando Valley region of the city of Los Angeles, California.It is located near the northern junction of the Golden State Freeway and the San Diego Freeway . The Ronald Reagan Freeway bisects the neighborhood. Mission Hills is the northern...
.
Songs include
- "Three Little Sisters" (1942) with Irving TaylorIrving Taylor (songwriter)Irving Taylor , was a Jewish-American composer, lyricist, and screenwriter. He enlisted in the US Navy the day after Pearl Harbor...
- "Take It Easy" (1943) with Albert De Bru and Irving Taylor
- "I Had a Little Talk with the Lord" (1943) with Manny Curtis (WWII song)
- "Pretty Kitty Blue Eyes" (1944) with Manny CurtisManny CurtisManny Curtis was an American songwriter. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, United States, and wrote the lyrics for over 250 songs. Most notable song lyrics were for "In a Sentimental Mood" and "Let It Be Me" .He also used the pseudonyms Mann Curtis, and Manny Kurtz.-External links:* at...
- "My Dreams Are Getting Better All the TimeMy Dreams Are Getting Better All the Time"My Dreams Are Getting Better All the Time" is a popular song.The music was written by Vic Mizzy and the lyrics by Manny Curtis. The song was published in 1945....
" (1945) with Manny Curtis - "With a Hey and a Hi and a Ho-Ho-Ho" (1947) with Manny Curtis
- "In the Middle, In the Middle, In the Middle" (early 1960s anti-jaywalkingJaywalkingJaywalking is an informal term commonly used in North America to refer to illegal or reckless pedestrian crossing of a roadway. Examples include a pedestrian crossing between intersections without yielding to drivers and starting to cross a crosswalk at a signalized intersection without waiting...
song for New York CityNew York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
)
Audio/video
- Real-Audio clip of the Green Acres theme