Henry Mancini

Trivia

• He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Recording at 6821 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.
• Henry inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1984.
• Was reassigned to the band unit shortly after he joined the U.S. Army in World War II. This actually saved his life, as the unit to which he'd originally been assigned was wiped out to a man in the Battle of the Bulge.
• Pictured on a 37¢ USA commemorative stamp issued in his honor, 13 April 2004. The titles of the following films and TV shows, for which Mancini wrote the score and/or songs, are listed on the stamp: Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961); Days of Wine and Roses (1962); Charade (1963); "Peter Gunn" (1958)'; The Pink Panther (1963); Two for the Road (1967); Touch of Evil (1958); Hatari! (1962); The Great Race (1965); Experiment in Terror (1962); _Victor/Victoria (1982)_; Dear Heart (1964); and "The Thorn B
• For Hatari! (1962), he wrote a brief piece of incidental music to accompany a scene where a baby elephant is taken for a walk. To Mancini's astonishment, it became an international hit as "Baby Elephant Walk," and was re-recorded by a large number of artists and in many styles.
• His best-known works are the jazz-idiom theme to The Pink Panther film series ("The Pink Panther Theme") and "Moon River".
• He is remembered particularly for being a composer of film and television scores.
• Henry Mancini was an Academy Award winning American composer, conductor and arranger.

Quotes

• “Jazz is capable of doing much more than depicting the dope fiend and the drunk and the slinky gal. In our show there are many very funny sequences where we were able to use jazz as it can be used-in a happy way.”
• “Strangely enough, in movie writing I've been more influenced by big bands than by any other film composer. The big bands of the 'forties and then the carry-over into the modern jazz field - Basie, Ellington, all the way up to Mulligan - these are my influences rather than, say, Franz Waxman or Tiomkin or anyone like that. I don't think in their terms.”
• “The Romeo-and-Juliet type of film writing is not so successful in TV because it is such a small medium You might record in the best studio in the world-but it still has to come out of that little three-inch speaker.”
• “Blues in the Night.”
• “Whistling Away in the Dark”
• “If it calls for a Madison or a Twist, I'll do it. And if it calls for a tone row or anything in surreal music I'll do that, too. But the dance band is what has given me the kind of little edge towards the jazz field.”