From the S&S archives:
Henry Mancini: Success with a sense of humor

TOKYO — "If anything has helped me through the years, it's been the ability to not take myself seriously — a sense of humor."

Henry Mancini, perhaps the greatest living composer, used these words in describing his attitude toward himself and a brilliant career at a recent Tokyo press conference in the Hotel New Otani.

Mancini's interest in writing motion picture scores stems from childhood, when "I was always enthralled with screen music and dramatic music in general," he said. "I was amazed at the way the music went with the scenes and wondered how composers performed this magical feat."

One of Mancini's favorite movie score composers at that time was Victor Young.

"He was my idol. That's what I wanted to be, another Victor Young."

With two Oscars in 1962, one for best original score in the movie "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and the other for best song, "Moon River" (also from that movie), a third Oscar in 1963 for "Days of Wine and Roses," and 20 Grammy Awards, Mancini's success cannot be doubted.

Born in Cleveland and a graduate of the Juilliard School of Music, Mancini said he learned the basics of his profession during his six years in the music department at Universal. He said he learned the basics doing scores for "Ma and Pa Kettle," "The Creature from the Black Lagoon" and other programs.

"Those years were invaluable. They taught me all the musical cliches. That gives me more things not to do."

Then came "Peter Gunn" for the television series of that name, and Mancini's star was rising. He followed this with the very successful theme for TV's "Mr. Lucky" and then his two Oscar compositions.

Mancini is conducting concerts in Tokyo and Osaka on this, his third visit to Japan. With him are his wife, the former Ginny O'Connor, whom he met when they were both with the Glenn Miller-Tex Beneke Orchestra, and his son Chris. He also brought along three musicians, trumpet player Graham Young, drummer Jack Gilfoy and Abraham Laboriel playing bass.

The Mancini family is very musically inclined. Ginny sang lead when they met and has sung more recently with the Johnny Mann, Alan Copeland and Anita Kerr Singers.

Chris plays a variety of instruments and formed and led the "Day Trippers," featured in the motion picture "Me, Natalie." He also composed the music and wrote the lyrics for a song called "This Day, Today," which was the official U.S. entry in the International Song Festival in Rio De Janeiro.

One of the Mancini twins, Monica, presently sings lead with the Peter Marshall group, and the other, Felice, who will be married soon, wrote the lyrics for a song Henry composed, "Sometimes," which is included on a Karen and Richard Carpenter "million-seller" album and has been recorded by Johnny Mathis.

"From the first time I see it (a movie film), until the recording, is at most four weeks and at least three weeks," Mancini said. This makes many of his successes, including "The Pink Panther," "Casa Blanca," "Charade," "Romeo and Juliet," and "Love Story" even more impressive.

His pen also furnished the music for theme songs in such television series as "Ironsides," "Mission Impossible" and "Cade's County."

Mancini is versatile, composing jazz pieces, country and western themes and themes for soul albums. He pointed out that, "To be a professional in what I do, you have to be able to cope with everything."

Versatility isn't the most important aspect of his work, however.

"You have to be very careful that the picture comes first and maybe your personality comes second. Otherwise, sometimes the music is overbearing. If it is too much, it isn't good for the film.

"The main thing in writing music is knowing when to be quiet," Mancini said.

While he dislikes the techniques of some modern composers who in his opinion "put the cart before the horse" by writing the music more for the album than for the movie, Mancini feels there are several excellent composers around today. In fact there are "too many" he joked.

He listed two men as the best movie score composers. Victor Young is one, and the other is Alfred Newman.

He added that he likes the work of Alex North and Michelle LaGrande, among others, and also John T. Williams, composer for "Earthquake" and "The Towering Inferno," and the piano player for the original recording of "Peter Gunn."

Of all the work he's done for motion pictures, Mancini listed the three he likes best.

"The first one, I think, is 'Two For the Road' with Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney. Audrey Hepburn is my good luck charm. Another one I liked very much, is a very old one called 'Soldiers in the Rain' which was with Jackie Gleason and Steve McQueen. And third, all the others, I guess. I don't know."

The Mancini-Hepburn movies began with "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and ran through three more. Henry even said he wrote "Moon River" to her range after hearing her sing in an earlier movie.

"I insisted that she sing in the film and the song ("Moon River") was written for her range. I knew how wide her range was and I wrote the song accordingly. She did it, I think, better than anyone who has done it since," Mancini said.

This is quite a compliment to a great actress, considering the great singers who have recorded it, including Andy Williams with perhaps the song's most famous recording.

"Charade" was the next picture, featuring Hepburn as the leading lady. Mancini wrote the score. Later, he received a call from Audrey asking him to work on another of her films, "Two for the Road." He also composed music for one more picture starring this actress, "Wait Until Dark."

Mancini's description of Hepburn includes such words as magic and beautiful.

"She is magic. When I look at her, when I look at the screen and I see her looking back at me, when she's up there you have to write something beautiful.

"We're very good friends, our family and her family. She's just a lovely person, lovely lady," he exclaimed.

What's Henry Mancini been doing recently?

Well, he turned down the chance to do the score for "That's Entertainment II," after his success with the first of the series, "That's Entertainment," because of his trip to Japan.

"Just before I left I signed to do a film, a very interesting picture called 'W.C. Fields and Me,'" starring Rod Steiger, Mancini continued.

He's also completed the scores and albums of the soundtracks of two other movies.