Composer Vic Mizzy who scored the finger snapping theme to The Addams Family and Green Acres is gone at 93.
Born in Brooklyn Mizzy taught himself to play the piano before teaming up with Irving Taylor and composing several hit songs – even when serving in the Navy during WWII.
Mizzy wrote songs for such 1950s stalwarts as Doris Day, Perry Como, Dean Martin and Billie Holiday but his enduring legacy is for a 1960s TV show The Addams Family.
Mizzy not only sang the song himself and overdubbed it to create the impression of multiple vocalists. He also directed the musical title sequence where cast members including John Astin and Carolyn Jones snap their fingers in a tres bored style.
"He was smart enough to demand to own the song, which was unheard of at the time," Mizzy’s manager Jonathan Wolfson said.
Mizzy use to joke that those two finger snaps bought him a mansion.
He also contributed scores for Don Knotts films and William Castle‘s The Night Walker.
"They’re creepy and they’re kooky, mysterious and spooky, they’re altogether ooky . . The Addams Family…" SNAP! SNAP!
POP FYI: The Addams Family were created by New Yorker cartoonist Chas. Addams in a series of unnamed single panel gag cartoons with a decidedly macabre twist.
