HENRY MANCINI BIOGRAPHY by CHRIS MICH

 

August 5,  2018 - That's me by the historical landmark sign for Henry Mancini's hometown.
Photo by Peter Mich.

Henry Mancini: Innovator

With 18 Oscar nominations and 4 Oscar Awards, 72 Grammy nominations and 20 Grammy Awards, and 90 albums, film composer Henry Mancini achieved “national prominence” unlike any other film composer (Scheurer, 1996). John Williams is the only film composer who even comes close with his success in the Star Wars film series (Scheurer, 1996). Mancini is credited as “the vanguard of jazz film scorers” (Brown, 1994) who infused cool jazz into film music at a time when only classically trained musicians were invited to participate in film scoring and recording (Scheurer 1996; LaserLight Digital, 1991). Mancini also created hit songs with his soundtrack work and, in the process, “single-handedly changed the philosophy of film and TV music” and, more than any other person in film history, “Americanized film scoring” (LaserLight Digital, 1991; Deutsch, 2004).

Henry Mancini was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on April 16, 1924, and was raised in the blue-collar town of Aliquippa, PA. Having been taught the flute by his Italian-immigrant father, Mancini would be inspired to pursue life as a film composer when at the age of 9, he saw Cecil B. Demille’s The Crusades (1935) on the big screen at a Pittsburgh movie house (Deutsch, 2004). He was a rebellious youth, occasionally involved in town and school vandalism but always with a playful, humorous intent (Wietzer, 2017). He went to Juilliard School of Music but never finished, as he was drafted into World War II. 

Post-war, he worked with the Glenn Miller/Tex Beneke orchestra as a pianist and arranger. It was there he met his future wife, Ginny O’Conner. In the early 1950s, he worked for Universal-International Studios, scoring over a hundred films and getting no screen credit for most of them due to the studio system/policies of the time (Deutsch, 2004). Universal demanded a lot of Mancini and he loved it – referring to his time at the studio as “graduate school” (Habib & McKuen, 1994). In 1958 he was jobless when he met Blake Edwards. Edwards asked if he would be interested in scoring a television crime drama called “Peter Gunn.” The partnership and experience launched both their careers into overdrive for decades. Mancini’s use of jazz added a “contemporary flavor” and resonated with audiences. The Peter Gunn soundtrack was nominated for an Emmy, became the first TV soundtrack to reach Number One on the Billboard Pop LP charts, sold over a million copies, and was voted Album of the Year by the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (McGee 2018; Deutsch 2004).

Time and time again, Mancini’s work would be challenged by studio executives. In the 1950s executives preferred classically trained musicians in the studio to record soundtracks. Mancini actively recruited local California jazz musicians to create more pleasant, engaging film scores. He wanted the soundtracks to be “listenable” not just a “memento of the film” (Scheurer, 1996). Indeed, the title card that read “Music – Henry Mancini” was said to “heighten the anticipation of a moviegoer” and do “wonders for the box office” (Marill, 1973). His belief carried over into the recording of the soundtrack album when he reorchestrated cues to keep “the listening experience enjoyable” without the benefit of the film’s visual component (Habib & McKuen, 1994; Deutsch 2004).

Mancini was also known for promoting a score that consisted of ‘source music’ – that is, music that is logically generated by something in the film: a radio, a nightclub next door, a character singing, and so on. He first experimented with this in Touch of Evil (1958), continued with it in Peter Gunn (1958-1961), and worked with it a great deal in Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961) and Victor/Victoria (1982) (Scheurer, 1996).

“In the end,” Scheurer (1996) writes, “Henry Mancini’s real legacy is probably his [movie] theme songs … including Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” For Blake Edwards’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Mancini wrote one of his most popular and beloved songs, “Moon River.” Ironically, a studio executive didn’t like the song and wanted it cut from the film. The film’s star, Audrey Hepburn, fought to keep it in. The song went on to garner Mancini his first of two Academy Awards. Mancini won a second Oscar for the film’s score (Darlington and Darlington, 2016; Habib and McKuen, 1994). The film’s soundtrack would also reach Number One on the 1962 Billboard Pop Album charts. The film, based on a book by Truman Capote, tells the urban adventures of Holly Golightly, a “wisp of a girl with childlike charm and an outsized sense of style” (Darlington and Darlington, 2016).

The only Oscars Mancini would receive would be on Blade Edwards productions. He won in 1963 for Best Song for the main theme of Days of Wine and Roses (1962). Mancini won his final Oscar for Best Score in 1983 for Victor/Victoria (1982). Victor/Victoria, a romp about a “down-on-her-luck English actress” surviving Depression-era Paris by performing in a “nightclub featuring transvestite entertainment” (Canby, 1982/2019), remained Mancini’s personal favorite achievement. “The picture that I did that put everything that I do together was, strangely enough, Victor/Victoria…it’s the one I’m the most proud of,” Mancini said in an interview with Royal S. Brown (1994).

In his later years, Mancini and his family would set up the Henry Mancini Institute to provide scholarships to professional young musicians and music education programs in Los Angeles area schools (Strad, 2007). Henry Mancini passed away on June 14, 1994. While Mancini’s 4 Oscars and 20 Grammys remain “the all-time record for a pop artist” (Deutsch, 2004), film enthusiasts and critics should not forget he “loved making music” (Habib & McKuen, 1994) and was always concerned “about the art of scoring and not just hit tunes” (Scheurer, 1993).

References

Brown, R.S. (1994). Overtones and Undertones : Reading Film Music. University of

    California Press.

Canby, V. (1982, March 19; 2019). Victor/Victoria. In Schoeder, W. (Ed.), The New York Times:

    Book of movies – The essential 1,000 films to see. (pp. 114-117). New York: Universe.

Darlington, T. & Darlington, A. (2016). Movie night menus – Dinner and drink recipes inspired

    by films we love. Philadelphia: Running Press.

Deutsch, D. (2004). [Liner notes]. In Midnight, Moonlight & Magic – The best of henry mancini

    [Album; CD]. New York: BMG Music.

Habib, E. & McKuen, R. (1994, August). [Liner notes]. In The rare mancini [Album; CD]. 

    Hollywood, CA: Stanyan Records.

LaserLight Digital. (1991). [Liner notes]. In Great american legends: Henry mancini – Peter

    gunn [Album; CD]. Los Angeles: Delta Music Inc.

Marill, A. H. (1973). [Liner notes]. In “Music – Henry mancini”. [Album; Vinyl].

McGee, K. (2018). Straight to baby: Scoring female jazz agency and new

    masculinity in henry mancini's peter gunn. In H.B. Pettey (Ed.), Cold war film genres (pp. 228-258).

    Edinburgh University Press. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctv7n0b1t.17

News: Henry mancini institute has closed. (2007). Strad, 118, 10-10.

Scheurer, T. E. (1996). Henry mancini: An appreciation and appraisal. Journal of Popular Film &        

    Television, 24(1), 34. Retrieved from https://ezproxy.regent.edu/login?      

    url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/henry-mancini-appreciation-      

    appraisal/docview/199384782/se-2?accountid=13479

Weitzel, J. & Himmel, L. (2019). My friend, Henry mancini – Stories of growing up together.

    WestBow Press.

We're not the only ones celebrating what would have been Hank's 100th birthday. CBS Sunday Morning briefly recaps Mancini's career, an upcoming special album and, believe it or not, the Star Wars connection.