... (Cindy) Williams remembered Mekka as “a world-class talent who could do it all.” Williams tweeted, “I love you dearly. I’ll miss you so much. But oh the marvelous memories …”
Mekka and Williams would work together again in the 2000s in a touring production of
Grease and a regional production of the play
It Had to Be You. He also worked with the other title star of
Laverne & Shirley, Penny Marshall, in a brief role in Marshall’s film
A League of Their Own as a guy Mae (Madonna) dances with at a bar.
“I got to do a great jitterbug number with Madonna in
A League of Their Own,” he recalled in a 2014 interview with The Boston Globe. “And on
Laverne & Shirley, because I love to sing Tony Bennett, we worked in a recurring bit where, whenever Laverne is mad at Carmine, all he has to do is sing the line from the Tony Bennett song, ‘You know I’d go from rags to riches …’ and she forgives him.” ...
Hollywood Reporter