The Art of Noise featuring Duane Eddy - Peter Gunn (Official Video)

Hollywood Structured with Henry Mancini 1991
Hollywood Structured with Lilyan Chauvin is a series of interviews with working professionals in the entertainment field. It is a guide to show business careers. This episode with Henry Mancini.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAVpi7cvV-A

Images:
1. Mancini family in 1988 Henry & Ginny with twin daughters singer Monica Mancini, Felice Mancini and son Chris Mancini
2. Ginny Mancini, Henry Mancini (Composer), Anne Jeffreys (Actress Singer)
3. Ginny and Henry Mancini.
4. Terence Young, Henry Mancini, with Audrey Hepburn and on the set of WAIT UNTIL DARK (1967)

Background from {[https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/music-popular-and-jazz-biographies/henry-mancini]}
Henry Mancini Composer
Henry Mancini composed some of the most popular songs ever to be showcased in film, among them “Moon River,” “Days of Wine and Roses,” and his theme for the Pink Panther movies. His music was heard in nearly 250 films during his long career and was nominated for 70 Grammy Awards, winning 20. He also recorded 85 record albums, whose combined sales topped 30 million copies.
Richard Severo of the New York Times called Mancini “a pioneer in a new approach to film scores,” adding that his music “moved away from the heavy symphonic treatments that had been produced by composers like Alfred Newman, Max Steiner and Milos Rozsa and instead exploited jazz motifs, using smaller ensembles.” Known for his use of unorthodox instrumentation and his “cool jazz” sound, Mancini employed everything from bass flutes and calliopes to untuned pianos and African instruments in order to achieve innovative musical effects. His versatility enabled him to create appropriate scores for films ranging from Orson Welles’s ominous Touch of Evil im 1958 to Blake Edwards’ sophisticated comedy Breakfast at Tiffany’s in 1961. “He [Mancini] is able to move from a light, popular idiom to a heavier, dramatic style to accommodate the demands of a particular film,” noted The New Grove Dictionary of American Music.

Working Class Musical Roots
Mancini was born on April 16, 1924 in Cleveland, Ohio. His family later relocated to Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, a factory town. His father, a steelworker, was a musician who played flute in the Sons of Italy Band. He encouraged young Mancini to take up music as a way to rise above the options of working for a factory. As a child, Mancini was exposed to such composers as Puccini and Rossini; he played and took lessons in flute and piano. He also studied with a theater conductor and began arranging music in his teen years. Mancini discovered early on that he had a knack for arranging music. He took a job arranging for Benny Goodman, but later remarked that "it didn't take long for both Benny and me to find out I wasn't ready for such an ambitious assignment."
Mancini attended college and studied composition and theory at Julliard, but dropped out to serve in the military during World War II. After the war, he moved into the musical arena again, working as a pianist and arranger for the Glenn Miller-Tex Beneke orchestra. He married Ginny O'Connnor, the vocalist for the Mel-Tones band, in 1947. They had three children together.


Early Fascination With Film Music
A sickly child, Mancini was afflicted by a number of childhood diseases, including rheumatic fever when he was a young teenager. Music became an important focus for him at an early age while he was growing up in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, largely because his father played with a local Sons of Italy band and also played flute at home. He began playing the piccolo at age eight, then took up the piano four years later. Although Mancini was more interested in sports than music, his father was adamant that he practice regularly. His fascination with film music was sparked after he heard Rudolph Kopp’s majestic score for The Crusades, which he went to see with his father in the mid 1930s. By age 12 Mancini was spending a lot of time listening to big bands in Pittsburgh’s movie theaters, and it was around then that he decided to abandon plans for a teaching career and pursue one as a film composer.
Mancini’s musical talent was confirmed by his becoming first flutist in the Pennsylvania All-State Band in 1937 at the age of 13. His growing reputation resulted in him playing in the Aliquippa High School Band before he had even entered the school. While initially showing an interest in classical music in high school, he then fell in

For the Record…
Born April 16, 1924, in Cleveland, OH; died June 14, 1994, in Los Angeles, CA; son of Quinto and Anna Mancini; married Virginia O’Connor, 1947; children: Christopher, Monica, Felice. Education: Carnegie Institute of Technology School of Music, Pittsburgh, PA; Juilliard School of Music, New York, NY.
Learned to play flute and piano as child; became first flutist in Pennsylvania All-State Band, 1937; arranged for Max Adkins, late 1930s; played piano and arranged for Glenn Miller’s band, late 1940s; studied with Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Ernst Krenek, and Alfred Sendry; scored music for radio shows, late 1940s; began long partnership with Blake Edwards and scored music for Peter Gunn mystery series, 1958; wrote concert suite Beaver Valley, ’37, 1978; recorded 85 LPs, and won 20 Grammy Awards and four Academy Awards during career. love with jazz, and was especially fond of Glenn Miller’s music. He began playing in local dance bands and memorized all of Miller’s arrangements. Mancini learned a great deal about arranging from Max Adkins, the conductor of the Stanley Theater house orchestra in Pittsburgh. Adkins eventually had Mancini make arrangements for his own band. “Max Adkins was to be the most important influence of my life,” wrote Mancini in Did They Mention the Music?, his autobiography.

Military service: U.S. Army Air Corps and Infantry, 1943–45. l
Awards: Grammy Awards: Album of the Year (The Music from Peter Gunn), 1958; Best Arrangement (“Mr. Lucky”), 1960; Record of the Year (“Moon River”), 1961; Best Soundtrack Album, (Breakfast at Tiffany’s) 1961; Record of the Year (“Days of Wine and Roses”), 1963; Best Instrumental Composition (Other Than Jazz) (“The Pink Panther Theme”), 1964; Academy Awards: Best Song (“Moon River”), 1961; Best Song (“Days of Wine and Roses”), 1962; Best Original Song Score (Victor/Victoria), 1982; Golden Globe Award, Best Original Song for a Motion Picture (“Whistling Away the Dark”), 1971;Golden SoundtrackAward, ASCAP, 1988; Golden Score Award, American Society of Music Arrangers, 1989.

Before long Mancini was sending his own arrangements to Benny Goodman, who reacted favorably to them and gave the young musician more encouragement. After high school he continued his musical education at the Music School of Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh. In 1942 he moved on to the Juilliard School of Music in New York City. While serving in the U.S. Army Air Corps and Infantry during World War II, Mancini met musicians who played in Glenn Miller’s Army Air Corps Band. These connections helped him after the war to become part of the Glenn Miller band, which was then led by Tex Beneke. Around this time Mancini was studying music with the composers Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Ernst Krenek, and Alfred Sendry.
By the late 1940s Mancini was composing music for shows such as “The F.B.I, in Peace and War” on radio. He also wrote arrangements for the Skylarks, a group that formerly had sung for Harry James’s band. Before long he was putting together arrangements for film studios, which led him to sign a contract with the Universal-International studio in 1952. That year he made his debut as a film composer with the score for Abbott and Costello’s Lost in Alaska. For a while Mancini’s composing efforts were relegated to low-budget science-fiction thrillers such as Creature from the Black Lagoon and It Came from Outer Space. He also scored the early rock musical, Rock, Pretty Baby. In 1954 he raised his profile as composer significantly with his Oscar-nominated score for The Glenn Miller Story. John Beaufort wrote in the Christian Science Monitor that the songs adapted by Mancini in that film were “as admirably played as they are generous.”

Hollywood Start
Mancini broke into Hollywood in 1952 when he was given a small two week job at Universal Studios to arrange the music for the Abbott and Costello comedy Lost in Alaska. He continued to work at Universal for the next six years where he arranged or part-scored music for over 100 films. Notable during this period was the popular score that he created to The Glenn Miller Story (1954), which incorporated his background in jazz. One of his first outstanding scores was for the Orson Welles film Touch of Evil (1958). Touch of Evil was unique in that it was one of the first films to use source music, or music that didn't just play in the background but actually came from a visible source in the film story, such as a radio or a nightclub. In the film Mancini used jazz, Latin, and rock tunes. The Glass Menagerie (1987) was another example of a Mancini scored film that uses both source and regular music.
At this point in Mancini's career, he caught the attention of movie producer Blake Edwards, who asked Mancini to score the music for the television series Peter Gunn (1958). The Edwards/Mancini collaboration was to extend into a partnership that spanned the rest of Mancini's life and included 28 films. Some of their work together included: The Great Race, The Days of Wine and Roses, 10, S.O.B, and several of the Pink Panther comedies.

T.V. Theme Accelerated Career
A major boost to Mancini’s reputation occurred in 1958 after his contract at Universal expired, when he happened to run into Blake Edwards while heading for the barbershop at the Universal lot. During the meeting Edwards asked Mancini to score a new television mystery series he was producing. It was the beginning of a long and successful relationship between the two men, spanning over 30 years and more than 25 films. The result of their first meeting was Mancini’s hard-hitting yet restrained jazz theme for Peter Gunn, which earned him two Grammy awards, sold over a million copies, and ushered in a new style for television themes. Mancini received much fan mail, and Blake Edwards gave the theme a lot of credit for the success of the series, according to Richard Severo in the New York Times. “It was the score I wrote for the Peter Gunn TV series that was a big break for me,” he told the New York Sunday News in 1964. “That use of the jazz idiom, applied dramatically to the story, put music on everybody’s mind as far as TV is concerned.”
Mancini followed up his Peter Gunn success with a popular theme in 1959 for Mr. Lucky, another Edwards private-eye series. This theme featured the lush sounds of strings and organ, and earned him two more Grammy Awards for Best Arrangement and Best Performance by an Orchestra. From that point he ventured back to the big screen and had major breakthroughs with scores for such films as Breakfast at Tiffany’s in 1961, Days of Wine and Roses and Charade in 1963, and The Pink Panther in 1964. He also scored a trio of films directed by Stanley Donen in the 1960s: Charade, Arabesque, and Two for the Road. His peak may have been Breakfast at Tiffany’s, which won him five Grammy awards in its recorded version. Featured in the score was the legendary “Moon River,” which was especially written for the limited vocal range of Audrey Hepburn, who sang it in the film. The Penguin Encyclopedia of Popular Music said that “Moon River,” which made it to number eleven on the pop charts and won an Academy Award, was “surely one of the best-loved songs of the decade.”

Music Made a Difference
The popular music for Peter Gunn was another breakthrough that served to get Mancini more widely recognized and stood apart as an example of a television show where the music really had an impact. The music was notable in its jazzy sparseness, a style that record companies had caught onto but was in its infancy in movie studios. Mancini remarked that "It was the score I wrote for the Peter Gunn TV series that was the big break for me. That use of the jazz idiom, applied dramatically to the story, put music on everybody's mind as far as TV is concerned." Mancini's work for Peter Gunn won him a number of awards, including two Grammys and Best Jazz Record of the Year (in a Down Beat poll).
Mancini continued to produced creative and award winning film music. The score and a theme song (Moon River) to the Edwards film Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) earned Oscars for Mancini, even though Moon River was almost cut out of the film during production.

In 1970 Mancini wrote Beaver Valley 37Suite, a piece that offered his impressions of the area where he grew up in Pennsylvania. As musical tastes veered away from the middle-of-the-road songs that were a Mancini specialty in the 1970s, he still managed to stay busy scoring films. He also made numerous appearances as a conductor and appeared on television specials. He joined forces with Blake Edwards in 1982 with his score for Victor/Victoria, which earned Mancini a fourth Oscar, this time for Best Original Song Score. He ventured back to television when he scored the music for the much-publicized miniseries, The Thorn Birds, in 1983.

Contributed To Musical Trends
Mancini's contribution to film music occurred during a time when changes were shaping the film industry and American culture. In the early 1950s and 1960s, in part due to Mancini's influence, studios began to move away from the traditional symphonic sounds that had served as the backdrop for films. Mancini contributed to this trend by offering jazzy and popular alternatives that were more sparsely scored instrumentally. By the early 1960s, studios were facing increased competition from television and the musical scene in America was hugely impacted by the evolution of rock and roll. Mancini responded well to the changes and took advantages of opportunities to compose for new media, as in his work for television series such as Peter Gunn and Mr. Lucky.
In his studio work, Mancini made an effort to break down pre-existing barriers and to introduce and jazz and contemporary influences to film music that had in the past been predominantly influenced and served by classical musicians. Mancini made a point to bring young musicians of varying backgrounds and interests to film scoring sessions. Mancini was able to see the bigger picture in film production, caring not only about the music but about the quality of the rest of the film making process. Due to his foresight and efforts, his music worked not only for films, but as soundtracks that were sold separately and successfully. He recorded music for the soundtrack so that for listeners, the music stood by itself even without the film. Mancini had the foresight to collaborate with talented lyricists such as Johnny Mercer, which added to the popularity of music such as Moon River.
During his time at Universal, Mancini had opportunities to compose music for a diversity of films. Some of these included: Man Afraid (1957), Summer Love (1958), Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), and It Came from Outer Space (1953). In 1961 he scored the film Breakfast at Tiffany's, another musical breakthrough in his career which resulted in an Academy Award for the song Moon River from the film. The song used folk influences and was easy to sing. Mancini continued to receive recognition and fame for his film theme songs such as music from the film Days of Wine and Roses (1962) and the well known Pink Panther theme song. No other film composer received as much recognition for theme song composition until Star Wars was released in the 1970s.
Mancini had an appreciation of the art of scoring music to films. A reviewer from the Journal of Popular Film and Television claimed that Mancini's music for the films Touch of Evil (1958) and White Dawn (1974) showed a side of Mancini that many had not seen; the music, in this reviewer's opinion was well composed even though it hadn't been a hit commercially. In later life, Mancini remained busy with the scoring for Victor/Victoria (1982), as well as scores for television shows such as The Thorn Birds (1983), Hotel, Newhart, and Remington Steele.

Personal Traits
As a professional musician, Mancini was known to be modest and unpretentious. He made no time for musical elitism, claiming that he had written Moon River in a half hour and that his Italian background helped him musically. Mancini had strong feelings about the role of music in film; he saw the film score as something which facilitated the film rather than standing on its own. Less was more, in his opinion. He hoped that he could "paint pictures with his music." Mancini also felt that his success with such popular compositions as The Pink Panther theme song overshadowed some of his better work; which included the score for Experiment in Terror (1962), Wait Until Dark (1967), and White Dawn (1974



Even during the height of his fame, Mancini was known for not taking his achievements for granted. “I have never trusted this thing called success; I have always been skeptical about it,” he wrote in his autobiography. For many years after striking it rich he still composed on a rented piano. During his career he also took up the cause of aspiring musicians by setting up scholarships for music students at Juilliard, UCLA, and the University of Southern California. He was also very active in SHARE, an organization that helps the mentally retarded. Mancini died on June 14, 1994 of complications from pancreatic cancer in Beverly Hills, California. By that time he had written 25 new songs for the Broadway production of Victor/Victoria that was to open that fall.

Selected Discography
Compositions
“Moon River,” 1961.
“Days of Wine and Roses,” 1963.
“Charade,” 1963.
“Dear Heart,” 1964.
Film scores
Touch of Evil, 1958.
Breakfast at Tiffany’s, 1961
Days of Wine and Roses, 1963.
Charade, 1964.
The Pink Panther, 1964.
Two for the Road, 1967.
Darling Lili, 1970.
Silver Streak, 1976.
Victor/Victoria, 1982
Television scores
Peter Gunn, 1958.
Mr. Lucky, 1959.
The Thorn Birds, 1983.

Writings
Sounds and Scores: A Practical Guide to Professional Orchestration, Northridge Music Corporation, 1962.
Did They Mention the Music?, (with Gene Lees), Contemporary Books, 1989.
Sources
Books
Clarke, Donald, editor, The Penguin Encyclopedia of Popular Music, Viking, 1989, p. 759.
Gammond, Peer, The Oxford Companion to Popular Music, Oxford University Press, 1991, pp. 367–368.
Hitchcock, H. Wiley, and Stanley Sadie, editors, The New Grove Dictionary of American Music, Volume 3, Macmillan, 1986, p. 166.
Katz, Ephraim, The Film Encyclopedia, Harper & Row, 1979.
Larkin, Colin, editor, The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music, Volume 4, Guinness Publishing, 1995.
Mancini, Henry, with Gene Lees, Did They Mention the Music?, Contemporary Books, 1989.

Periodicals
Christian Science Monitor, February 9, 1954.
New York Sunday News, April 5, 1964.
New York Times, June 15, 1994, p. D21.
—Ed Decker
Contemporary Musicians Decker, Ed
Mancini, Henry
Views 1,571,247Updated May 14 2018
MANCINI, Henry
________________________________________
Composer and music director. Nationality: American. Born: Enrico Nicola Mancini in Cleveland, Ohio, 16 April 1924. Education: Studied flute and piano as a child; attended Juilliard School, New York; also studied with Knek, Castelnuovo-Tedesco, and Senrey. Military Service: During World War II. Family: Married Virginia O'Connor, 1947, one son and twin daughters. Career: Arranger and pianist with Glenn Miller Orchestra and other bands; 1952–58—arranger, orchestrator, and composer for Universal; also song composer, and composer for TV, including the mini-series Arthur Hailey's The Moneychangers, 1976, The Best Place to Be, 1979, and The Thorn Birds, 1983. Awards: Academy Award, for Breakfast at Tiffany's and song "Moon River," 1961, the song "Days of Wine and Roses," Day of Wine and Roses, 1962, and Victor/Victoria, 1982. Died: Of liver and pancreatic cancer, in Los Angeles, 14 June 1994.

Films As Composer:
1954 Creature from the Black Lagoon (Arnold); Six Bridges to Cross (Pevney) (song); Four Guns to the Border (Carlson)
1955
The Private War of Major Benson (Hopper); Tarantula (Arnold); This Island Earth (J. Newman)
1956 The Creature Walks among Us (Sherwood); Congo Crossing (Pevney); Rock, Pretty Baby (Bartlett)
1957 Man Afraid (Keller); The Big Beat (Cowan)
1958 Damn Citizen (Gordon); Flood Tide (Biberman); Summer Love (Haas); Touch of Evil (Welles); Voice in the Mirror (Keller)
1960 High Time (Edwards)
1961 The Second Time Around (Sherman) (song); The Great Imposter (Burks); Bachelor in Paradise (Arnold); Breakfast at Tiffany's (Edwards); Hatari! (Hawks)
1962 Experiment in Terror (The Grip of Fear) (Edwards); Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation (Koster); Days of Wine and Roses (Edwards)
1963 Charade (Donen); Soldier in the Rain (Nelson)
1964 Man's Favorite Sport? (Hawks); The Pink Panther (Edwards); A Shot in the Dark (Edwards); The Killers (Siegel)
1965 Dear Heart (Delbert Mann); The Great Race (Edwards)
1966 Moment to Moment (LeRoy); Arabesque (Donen); What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? (Edwards); Two for the Road (Donen)
1967 Gunn (Edwards); Wait until Dark (Young)
1968 The Party (Edwards)
1969 Me, Natalie (Coe); Gaily, Gaily (Chicago, Chicago) (Jewison)
1970 The Molly Maguires (Ritt); Darling Lili (Edwards); The Hawaiians (Gries); I girasoli (Sunflower) (De Sica)
1971 Sometimes a Great Notion (Never Give an Inch) (P. Newman); The Night Visitor (Salem Came to Supper) (Benedek)
1973 Oklahoma Crude (Kramer); Visions of Eight (Lelouch and others); The Thief Who Came to Dinner (Yorkin)
1974 That's Entertainment! (Haley) (additional music); 99 and 44/100% Dead (Call Harry Crown) (Frankenheimer); The White Dawn (Kaufman); The Girl from Petrovka (Miller); Once Is Not Enough (Green)
1975 The Return of the Pink Panther (Edwards); The Blue Knight (Lee Thompson—for TV); The Great Waldo Pepper (Hill)
1976 W. C. Fields and Me (Hiller); Alex and the Gypsy (Korty); Silver Streak (Hiller); The Pink Panther Strikes Again (Edwards)
1978 House Calls (Zieff); Revenge of the Pink Panther (Edwards); Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? (Too Many Chefs) (Kotcheff); A Family Upside Down (Rich)
1979 Nightwing (Hiller); The Great Event (Zieff); The Prisoner of Zenda (Quine); 10 (Edwards)
1980 Little Miss Marker (Bernstein)
1981 S.O.B. (Edwards); Condorman (Jarrott); The Shadow Box (P. Newman); Back Roads (Ritt); Mommie Dearest (Perry)
1982 Trail of the Pink Panther (Edwards); Victor/Victoria (Edwards)
1983 Curse of the Pink Panther (Edwards); Second Thoughts (Turman); Better Late than Never (Forbes); The Man Who Loved Women (Edwards)
1984 Angela (Sagal); Harry & Son (P. Newman)
1985 That's Dancing! (Haley); Lifeforce (Hooper); Santa Claus: The Movie (Szwarc)
1986 The Great Mouse Detective (Musker and others); A Fine Mess (Edwards); That's Life! (Edwards)
1987 Blind Date (Edwards); The Glass Menagerie (P. Newman); Heaven (D. Keaton) (songs); No Man's Land (Werner) (song)
1988 Heavy Petting (Benz); Permanent Record (M. Silver) (song); Physical Evidence (M. Crichton); The Presidio (Hyams) (song); Sunset (Edwards); Without a Clue (Eberhardt)
1989 Fear (O'Bannon—for TV); Born on the Fourth of July (O. Stone) (song); Mother, Mother (short) (song); Welcome Home (Schaffner); Days of Thunder (T. Scott)
1990 Tom and Jerry: The Movie (Roman) (co); Ghost Dad (Poitier)
1991 Switch (Edwards); Never Forget (Sargent—for TV)
1993 Married to It (Hiller); Son of the Pink Panther (Edwards)


Other Films:
1954 The Glenn Miller Story (A. Mann) (mus d)
1956 The Benny Goodman Story (Davies) (arranger)
1974 The Sex Symbol (Rich) (mus d)

Publications
By MANCINI: books—
Sounds and Scores, Northridge Music, 1962.
Did They Mention the Music?, New York, 1989.
The New Henry Mancini Songbook, Totowa, 1994.

By MANCINI: articles—
Cinema (Los Angeles), July 1966.
Action (Los Angeles), November/December 1971.
Dialogue on Film (Beverly Hills, California), January 1974.
Photoplay (London), October 1974.
Soundtrack! (Hollywood), May 1977.
Interview with Elmer Bernstein, in Film Music Notebook (Calabasas, California), vol. 4, no. 1, 1978.
In Film Score, edited by Tony Thomas, South Brunswick, New Jersey, 1979.
Millimeter (New York), June 1979.
Photoplay (London), May 1983.
Soundtrack! (Hollywood), vol. 7, no. 26, 1988.
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Henry Mancini Interview | Cinema Showcase (1978)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqJbgZeKEnQ

Images
1. Henry Mancini in the Army
2. Ginny & Henry Mancini with his three Grammy Awards
3. 2004 37 Cent Henry Mancini [with pink panther logo] postage stamp released on April 13, 2004 Scott #3839
4. Henry Mancini

Background from {[https://musicianguide.com/biographies/ [login to see] /Henry-Mancini.htm]}
Henry Mancini Biography
Born April 16, 1924, in Cleveland, OH; died June 14, 1994, in Los Angeles, CA; son of Quinto and Anna Mancini; married Virginia O'Connor, 1947; children: Christopher, Monica, Felice; three grandchildren. Education: Carnegie Institute of Technology School of Music, Pittsburgh, PA; Juilliard School of Music, New York, NY. Military/Wartime Service: U.S. Army Air Corps and Infantry, 1943~45. Memberships: U.S. Army Air Corps and Infantry, 1943~45.
Henry Mancini composed some of the most popular songs ever to be showcased in film, among them "Moon River," "Days of Wine and Roses," and his theme for the Pink Panther movies. His music was heard in nearly 250 films during his long career and was nominated for 70 Grammy Awards, winning 20. He also recorded 85 record albums, whose combined sales topped 30 million copies.
Richard Severo of the New York Times called Mancini "a pioneer in a new approach to film scores," adding that his music "moved away from the heavy symphonic treatments that had been produced by composers like Alfred Newman, Max Steiner and Milos Rozsa and instead exploited jazz motifs, using smaller ensembles." Known for his use of unorthodox instrumentation and his "cool jazz" sound, Mancini employed everything from bass flutes and calliopes to untuned pianos and African instruments in order to achieve innovative musical effects. His versatility enabled him to create appropriate scores for films ranging from Orson Welles' ominous Touch of Evil in 1958 to Blake Edwards' sophisticated comedy Breakfast at Tiffany's in 1961. "He [Mancini] is able to move from a light, popular idiom to a heavier, dramatic style to accommodate the demands of a particular film," noted The New Grove Dictionary of American Music.
A sickly child, Mancini was afflicted by a number of childhood diseases, including rheumatic fever when he was a young teenager. Music became an important focus for him at an early age while he was growing up in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, largely because his father played with a local Sons of Italy band and also played flute at home. He began playing the piccolo at age eight, then took up the piano four years later. Although Mancini was more interested in sports than music, his father was adamant that he practice regularly. His fascination with film music was sparked after he heard Rudolph Kopp's majestic score for The Crusades, which he went to see with his father in the mid 1930s. By age 12 Mancini was spending a lot of time listening to big bands in Pittsburgh's movie theaters, and it was around then that he decided to abandon plans for a teaching career and pursue one as a film composer.
Mancini's musical talent was confirmed by his becoming first flutist in the Pennsylvania All-State Band in 1937 at the age of 13. His growing reputation resulted in him playing in the Aliquippa High School Band before he had even entered the school. While initially showing an interest in classical music in high school, he then fell in love with jazz, and was especially fond of Glenn Miller's music. He began playing in local dance bands and memorized all of Miller's arrangements. Mancini learned a great deal about arranging from Max Adkins, the conductor of the Stanley Theater house orchestra in Pittsburgh. Adkins eventually had Mancini make arrangements for his own band. "Max Adkins was to be the most important influence of my life," wrote Mancini in Did They Mention the Music?, his autobiography.
Before long Mancini was sending his own arrangements to Benny Goodman, who reacted favorably to them and gave the young musician more encouragement. After high school he continued his musical education at the Music School of Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh. In 1942 he moved on to the Juilliard School of Music in New York City. While serving in the U.S. Army Air Corps and Infantry during World War II, Mancini met musicians who played in Glenn Miller's Army Air Corps Band. These connections helped him after the war to become part of the Glenn Miller band, which was then led by Tex Beneke. Around this time Mancini was studying music with the composers Mario Catelnuovo-Tedesco, Ernst Krenek, and Alfred Sendry.
By the late 1940s Mancini was composing music for shows such as "The F.B.I. in Peace and War" on radio. He also wrote arrangements for the Skylarks, a group that formerly had sung for Harry James' band. Before long he was putting together arrangements for film studios, which led him to sign a contract with the Universal- International studio in 1952. That year he made his debut as a film composer with the score for Abbott and Costello's Lost in Alaska. For a while Mancini's composing efforts were relegated to low- budget science-fiction thrillers such as Creature from the Black Lagoon and It Came from Outer Space. He also scored the early rock musical, Rock, Pretty Baby. In 1954 he raised his profile as composer significantly with his Oscar-nominated score for The Glenn Miller Story . John Beaufort wrote in the Christian Science Monitor that the songs adapted by Mancini in that film were "as admirably played as they are generous."
A major boost to Mancini's reputation occurred in 1958 after his contract at Universal expired, when he happened to run into Blake Edwards while heading for the barbershop at the Universal lot. During the meeting Edwards asked Mancini to score a new television mystery series he was producing. It was the beginning of a long and successful relationship between the two men, spanning over 30 years and more than 25 films. The result of their first meeting was Mancini's hard-hitting yet restrained jazz theme for Peter Gunn, which earned him two Grammy awards, sold over a million copies, and ushered in a new style for television themes. Mancini received much fan mail, and Blake Edwards gave the theme a lot of credit for the success of the series, according to Richard Severo in the New York Times. "It was the score I wrote for the Peter Gunn TV series that was a big break for me," he told the New York Sunday News in 1964. "That use of the jazz idiom, applied dramatically to the story, put music on everybody's mind as far as TV is concerned."
Mancini followed up his Peter Gunn success with a popular theme in 1959 for Mr. Lucky, another Edwards private-eye series. This theme featured the lush sounds of strings and organ, and earned him two more Grammy Awards for Best Arrangement and Best Performance by an Orchestra. From that point he ventured back to the big screen and had major breakthroughs with scores for such films as Breakfast at Tiffany's in 1961, Days of Wine and Roses and Charade in 1963, and The Pink Panther in 1964. He also scored a trio of films directed by Stanley Donen in the 1960s: Charade, Arabesque, and Two for the Road. His peak may have been Breakfast at Tiffany's, which won him five Grammy awards in its recorded version. Featured in the score was the legendary "Moon River," which was especially written for the limited vocal range of Audrey Hepburn, who sang it in the film. The Penguin Encyclopedia of Popular Music said that "Moon River," which made it to number eleven on the pop charts and won an Academy Award, was "surely one of the best-loved songs of the decade."
In 1970 Mancini wrote Beaver Valley '37 Suite, a piece that offered his impressions of the area where he grew up in Pennsylvania. As musical tastes veered away from the middle-of-the-road songs that were a Mancini specialty in the 1970s, he still managed to stay busy scoring films. He also made numerous appearances as a conductor and appeared on television specials. He joined forces with Blake Edwards in 1982 with his score for Victor/Victoria, which earned Mancini a fourth Oscar, this time for Best Original Song Score. He ventured back to television when he scored the music for the much-publicized miniseries, The Thorn Birds, in 1983.
Even during the height of his fame, Mancini was known for not taking his achievements for granted. "I have never trusted this thing called success; I have always been skeptical about it," he wrote in his autobiography. For many years after striking it rich he still composed on a rented piano. During his career he also took up the cause of aspiring musicians by setting up scholarships for music students at Juilliard, UCLA, and the University of Southern California. He was also very active in SHARE, an organization that helps the mentally retarded.
Mancini died on June 14, 1994, of complications from pancreatic cancer in Beverly Hills, California. By that time he had written 25 new songs for the Broadway production of Victor/Victoria that was to open that fall.
by Ed Decker

Henry Mancini's Career
Learned to play flute and piano as child; became first flutist in Pennsylvania All-State Band, 1937; arranged for Max Adkins, late 1930s; played piano and arranged for Glenn Miller's band, late 1940s; studied with Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Ernst Krenek, and Alfred Sendry; scored music for radio shows, late 1940s; joined Universal-International, 1952; began long partnership with Blake Edwards and scored music for Peter Gunn mystery series, 1958; wrote concert suite Beaver Valley, '37, 1978; recorded 85 LPS, and won 20 Grammy Awards and four Academy Awards during career.

Henry Mancini's Awards
Grammy Awards: Album of the Year (The Music from Peter Gunn), 1958; Best Arrangement ("Mr. Lucky"), 1960; Record of the Year ("Moon River"), 1961; Best Sound Track Album or Recording of Score from a Motion Picture or Television Show (Breakfast at Tiffany's) 1961; Record of the Year ("Days of Wine and Roses"), 1963; Best Instrumental Composition (Other Than Jazz) ("The Pink Panther Theme"), 1964; Academy Awards: Best Song ("Moon River"), 1961; Best Song ("Days of Wine and Roses"), 1962; Best Original Song Score (Victor/Victoria), 1982; Golden Globe Award, Best Original Song for a Motion Picture ("Whistling Away the Dark"), 1971; Golden Soundtrack Award, ASCAP, 1988; Golden Score Award, American Society of Music Arrangers, 1989.

Famous Works
• Writings
• Sounds and Scores: A Practical Guide to Professional Orchestration, Northridge Music Corporation, 1962.
• Did They Mention the Music?, (with Gene Lees), Contemporary Books, 1989.
• Compositions
• "Moon River," 1961.
• "Days of Wine and Roses," 1963.
• "Charade," 1963.
• "Dear Heart," 1964.
• Selected film scores Touch of Evil, 1958.
• Breakfast at Tiffany's, 1961 Days of Wine and Roses, 1963.
• Charade, 1964.
• The Pink Panther, 1964.
• Two for the Road, 1967.
• Darling Lili, 1970.
• Silver Streak, 1976.
• Victor/Victoria, 1982 Selected television scores Peter Gunn, 1958.
• Mr. Lucky, 1959.
• The Thorn Birds, 1983.
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