Vic Mizzy, songwriter, dead at 93

VIC MIZZY, 93, the Brooklyn-born songwriter who wrote the catchy theme songs to The Addams Family and Green Acres, but also dozens of #1 pop hits like “My Dreams Are Getting Better All the Time,” “Pretty Kitty Blue Eyes” and “The Whole World Is Singing My Song,” as well as such novelty hits like “With a Hey and a Hi and a Ho-Ho-Ho,” “No Bout Adout It” and “Choo n” Gum,” passed away in Los Angeles Saturday night. His songs were performed by artists including Dean Martin, Doris Day, Perry Como, Billie Holiday and the Andrews Sisters. The always self-effacing Mizzy liked to joke about his popular TV themes, still heard to this at sports arenas and in TV spots.

“If people only remembered me for the themes to The Addams Family and Green Acres, I wouldn’t care,” he’d say. “Two snaps got me a Bel Air mansion.” A savvy businessman, Mizzy held on to his publishing copyrights, including those to his famed TV theme songs.

Vic learned how to play from the player piano his family bought for $200, becoming a professional at the age of 14, when he won a pair of radio contests and toured the vaudeville circuit on the east coast. In the early ‘40s into the ‘50s, he penned songs that were recorded by some of the biggest stars in show business. After the war, NBC head of programming David Levy had Mizzy write scores for several dramatic TV shows, including the Richard Boone Anthology, Dennis Weaver’s Kentucky Jones and Hank, then did his famed theme songs for The Addams Family and Green Acres, as well as contributing to the scores of Mr. Ed, F Troop and Petticoat Junction.

The studio opted not to pay for singers on The Addams Family theme, so Mizzy sang it while overdubbing himself three times to give the impression of multiple vocalists.

“They had no theme,” remembered Mizzy. “So I wrote the music, told them it was going to start with ‘da-da-da-dum, snap, snap’ and that I visualized each character would have a separate take. I laid the music down, and then ended up directing the title sequence. The first thing I said to the actors was, ‘When you snap your fingers, do it in a bored way.’”

He also helped direct the title sequence for Green Acres, having Eddie Albert pitching hay, then Eva Gabor opening up packages to the song. “I also suggested a helicopter to pan in on the roof, synchronized to when they start singing.”

Vic went on to score several Universal Pictures, including William Castle’s 1965 thriller The Night Walker, which led to his composing the music for the Don Knotts vehicles, The Ghost and Mr. Chicken, The Reluctant Astronaut, The Shakiest Gun in the West, The Love God and How to Frame a Figg.

In 2004, Mizzy released an album of his best-known compositions in Songs for the Jogging Crowd, starting his own Vicster Records label. Longtime fans director Sam Raimi and Columbia Pictures President of Worldwide Music Lia Vollack asked Vic to contribute a theme song for Spiderman 2, which ended up on the DVD version of the hit movie.

Vic is survived by his brother Sol, daughter Lynn Mizzy Jonas, husband Phil, grandson David and granddaughter Rachel. A memorial will be held at Eden Memorial Park (Sepulveda and Rinaldi) in Mission Hills, CA, at 11 a.m., followed by a nosh at Vic’s home, catered by Junior’s Deli, his favorite.