The Mystery Of Mister Six - Solved?

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Okay now that I've got that out of the way, let's get down to cases. You may remember the character Mister Six. He was the elderly gent who danced in those Six Flags Amusement Park ads to that song by the Venga Boys. (Okay I admit, I wouldn't know the Venga Boys from a rock - the music I usually listen to tends to be more along the lines of Mozart and Sibelius - but people tell me it's the Venga Boys so I believe them.) The commercial campaign debuted in March 2004 and ended on November 30, 2005 when the new owner of Six Flags, Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder decided that the campaign "skewed too young" and stated that the character was "pointless". From the beginning Mr. Six was annoying to many but you had to admit the character was incredible noticeable and people talked about him ... a lot.

The mystery of course was "Who is Mr. Six?" Eliminating Patrick McGoohan - he was Number Six and never addressed by the title "Mister" - we are left with resemblances.





There are those who say that Mr. Six resembles actor and singer Dominic Chianese, aka Uncle Corrado "Junior" Soprano. Of course Uncle June has more hair and fewer liver spots.




Personally I've always thought that he bore a stunning resemblance to legendary Hollywood super-agent Irving "Swifty" Lazar, whose post Oscar parties were legendary events - one went straight from the Oscars to Swifty's parties. Well at least you did before he died. Ruined a great party that did.




However it appears that the secret is now out. On February 1, in his blog , Los Angeles based writer and blogger Paul Davidson revealed that Mr. Six was British choreographer and dancer Danny Teeson, probably best known to many as one of the "gal-pals" on Queer Eye For The Straight Girl. Paul Davidson offered no proof, but today (February 3) Mark Evanier provided what may be the smoking gun in his blog News From Me. It is a 2003 credit list from a firm called Professional Vision Care Associates. On the current version on their website they list a credit for "Mr. Six" for Six Flags but Mark found a Google cached version of the page which clearly has Danny Teeson's name in place of "Mr. Six".

Well that's one mystery apparently solved. Now for the big one. How on Earth can a campaign for an amusement park chain skew too young? You're supposed to want young people in your amusement parks, the same way you want young people watching your TV shows and for the same bloody reason - they spend money. Even the pointless comment is ridiculous; the idea behind "Mr. Six" was that going to Six Flags made you feel young even if you weren't, that the parks were places for everyone to have fun. Of course given so many of Mr. Snyder's decisions regarding the Redskins over the years that he's owned them, this boneheaded move should come as no real surprise.