This is an I-Heart podcast.

And we return to our American stories.

And up next a story from the late Virginia Mancini, the wife of Henry

Mancini, one of America's greatest film composers. If you don't know his name, you certainly

know his compositions, which include the Pink Panther theme and Moon River from Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Here's our own Monte Montgomery.

They get us started with the story.

American composer Henry Mancini was born in Cleveland, Ohio on April 16, 1924.

But that's not where he grew up. Here's his wife, Virginia, or Ginny, with the rest of the story.

Henry grew up in West Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, outside of Pittsburgh, in a steel steel town and his father worked at the

Jones and Loughlin steel mill and Henry had a very modest childhood West Alequip you

have to understand is on the wrong side of the tracks and many Europeans settled

there especially Italians there were a very poor Italian family and they were very close

and it was a very small town so his life was fairly. And once his father realized that he didn't want his son to go to work in the steel mill,

he turned him on to the flute because his father played the flute.

And when his father came down with the mumps in his frustration, he handed Henry the flute and taught him to play.

And they both played in the Sons of Italy band in West D'Alaquipa.

So that was Henry's introduction to music, and he loved it.

And there's a part in his history that talks about his

father taking him into Pittsburgh to see the movie and the stage show at the I

forget the name of the theater but one of the most popular theaters in in

Pittsburgh the drama captured Henry in ways that he never realized

...