Vic Mizzy - Biography

Biography

Vic Mizzy was born in Brooklyn, New York and attended New York University. 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, M.E.. 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.