Today we are talking to an iconic Tony Award-winning star who made her name as a teenager singing on TV variety shows - The Lawrence Welk Show and Sing Along With Mitch included - and then went on to a multimedia career in film and theatre, conquering Broadway with her Tony-winning turn in the Jule StyneArthur Laurents musical Hallelujah, Baby in 1967 and returning to the stage in the subsequent decades in a host of Broadway productions, such as Blues In The Night, Jerrys Girls, Anything Goes, August Wilsons King Hedley II and her celebrated Muzzy in Thoroughly Modern Millie - a role she reprises in the new Muny production of the Tony Award-winning Best Musical beginning this week - the one and only Leslie Uggams. Taking a thorough look back at her career thus far, Uggams opens up about her many successes and how she has endured for fifty years...
- 6/21/2012
- by Pat Cerasaro
- BroadwayWorld.com
Mitch Miller immortalized in a painting by Norman Rockwell
By Lee Pfeiffer
Mitch Miller, who became a pop culture icon in the 1960s, has died at age 99. Miller was a record producer whose 1960s weekly TV show Sing Along With Mitch made him instantly recognizable throughout the world. The thin man with the Don Quixote look would conduct in a virtually immobile style as his all-male choir sang popular standards. A key novelty of the show was a bouncing ball that allowed audience members to sing along. The concept actually began with a series of records that included lyrics sheets. When transformed to TV, the show proved to be a hit, despite the fact that Miller was on the air when rock 'n roll was booming. Miller had some career mishaps including a notorious flop novelty record he produced for Frank Sinatra, one of the few embarrassments of the great singer's career.
By Lee Pfeiffer
Mitch Miller, who became a pop culture icon in the 1960s, has died at age 99. Miller was a record producer whose 1960s weekly TV show Sing Along With Mitch made him instantly recognizable throughout the world. The thin man with the Don Quixote look would conduct in a virtually immobile style as his all-male choir sang popular standards. A key novelty of the show was a bouncing ball that allowed audience members to sing along. The concept actually began with a series of records that included lyrics sheets. When transformed to TV, the show proved to be a hit, despite the fact that Miller was on the air when rock 'n roll was booming. Miller had some career mishaps including a notorious flop novelty record he produced for Frank Sinatra, one of the few embarrassments of the great singer's career.
- 8/3/2010
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Mitch Miller, the musical maven of middle-of-the-road pop who died in Manhattan Saturday at 99, became a household name via his early-'60s TV show Sing Along With Mitch. Long before that, he -- along with Frank Sinatra and a guy named Al Cernick -- provided my dad, songwriter Carl Sigman, with the flukiest hit of his career. in 1950, Carl and composer/orchestra leader Percy Faith -- perhaps most famous for his1960 recording of Theme From a Summer Place -- were good friends and often went to the racetrack ("the trotters") at Long Island's Roosevelt Field to blow off some steam. An old French tune that played repeatedly on the track's Pa haunted Percy. One day, he jokingly asked Carl if he thought they could write a hit song in 10 minutes using that melodic phrase. They did just that, and...
- 8/3/2010
- by Michael Sigman
- Huffington Post
Grammy-winning composer, singer and music producer Mitch Miller has died, aged 99. He passed away in New York City's Lenox Hill Hospital on Saturday, July 31 after a short illness. A record executive at Columbia Records, Miller made hits with singers including Rosemary Clooney, Patti Page, Johnny Mathis and Tony Bennett.
He was also the star of popular 1960s U.S. TV program "Sing Along With Mitch". As an oboist, Miller played in numerous orchestras, including one put together in 1934 by George Gershwin. In 2000, he was lauded with a special Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award. Miller is survived by two daughters, a son, two brothers, two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Miller made a career switch from playing to producing in the late 1940s by becoming A&R (artists and repertoire) director at Mercury Records, a small label that he turned into a major force in the industry.
He was also the star of popular 1960s U.S. TV program "Sing Along With Mitch". As an oboist, Miller played in numerous orchestras, including one put together in 1934 by George Gershwin. In 2000, he was lauded with a special Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award. Miller is survived by two daughters, a son, two brothers, two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Miller made a career switch from playing to producing in the late 1940s by becoming A&R (artists and repertoire) director at Mercury Records, a small label that he turned into a major force in the industry.
- 8/3/2010
- by AceShowbiz.com
- Aceshowbiz
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