Back in Episode 152, we talked with music historian Jon Burlingame about his new book, Dreamsville: Henry Mancini, Peter Gunn and music for TV Noir. Jon said he wrote the book in part because 2024 marks the 100th anniversary of Mancini's birth.
Coincidentally, PBS has released a biography of Peter Gunn's creator - and Mancini's collaborator - Blake Edwards, who had a long and distinguished career as a writer and director, using Mancini as a composer on many of his movies and TV shows. The biography dwells a bit on their collaboration and presents a bit of what we talked about with Jon (including "Moon River," which Henry wrote for Breakfast at Tiffany's, and one of Jon's favorite tunes, "Whistling in the Dark," which opens Blake's movie Darling Lili). Of course, our discussion with Jon went into much more depth about the collaboration.
If you'd like to check out the Edwards biography, go here, or watch for it on American Masters on your local PBS station, or find it on PBS Passport.
The Musical Innertube, once again one step ahead of the rest of mass media!
