Passages: Orchestra leader Mitch Miller, Ty-D-Bol man Dan Resin

Published 10:07 pm Monday, August 2, 2010

Mitch Miller, the goateed orchestra leader who asked Americans to “Sing Along With Mitch” on television and records and produced hits for Tony Bennett, Patti Page and other performers, died Saturday at age 99 at a New York hospital after a short illness.

Miller was a key record executive at Columbia Records in the pre-rock ‘n’ roll era, making hits with singers Bennett, Page, Rosemary Clooney and Johnny Mathis. As a producer and arranger, Miller had misses, too, famously striking out on projects with Frank Sinatra and a young Aretha Franklin and in general scorning the rise of rock.

Miller became known for his distinctive arrangements, such as the use of a harpsichord on Clooney’s megahit version of “Come On-a My House.” He used dubbing of vocal tracks back when that was considered exotic.

Miller and a chorus had a No. 1 hit in 1955 with “The Yellow Rose of Texas,” and that led to his singalong records a few years later.

“Sing Along With Mitch” started as a series of records, then became a popular NBC show starting in early 1961. Miller’s stiff-armed conducting style and signature goatee became famous. The TV show ranked in the top 20 for the 1961-62 season, and soon children everywhere were parodying Miller’s stiff-armed conducting. An all-male chorus sang old standards, joined by a few female singers, most prominently Leslie Uggams. Viewers were invited to join in with lyrics superimposed on the screen and followed with a bouncing ball.

In 2000, he won a special Grammy Award for lifetime achievement.

Dan Resin, the stage and screen actor who portrayed the dapper Ty-D-Bol man in television commercials for the toilet bowl cleaner, died Saturday of complications from Parkinson’s disease in New Jersey at age 79.

Resin also played Dr. Beeper, the snobbish physician and country club member in the classic comedy film “Caddyshack.”

As the Ty-D-Bol man, Resin wore a captain’s uniform and sailed off in a motorboat across the sparkling blue waters of a toilet tank after his product pitch: “Helps clean and deodorize your bowl automatically every time you flush.”

He had Broadway roles in such hits as “My Fair Lady,” “Once Upon a Mattress” and “Don’t Drink the Water.”

Tom Mankiewicz, 68, the screenwriter of such James Bond films as “Diamonds Are Forever” and “Live and Let Die” and the first two “Superman” movies, died in Los Angeles on Saturday after battling cancer.

He was a member of Hollywood’s legendary Mankiewicz family: his father was Joseph L. Mankiewicz, director of classics including “All About Eve” and “A Letter to Three Wives.”

He was also the nephew of “Citizen Kane” co-writer Herman J. Mankiewicz.

Tom Mankiewicz directed the 1987 movie “Dragnet” and several episodes of the TV series “Hart to Hart.”