H'w'd Bowl recalls Mancini's masterpieces

GOOD MORNING: One of the most difficult columns for me to write was the one for March 29, 1994, when Henry Mancini called to tell me he had cancer. "It was not easy talking to my friend Hank Mancini," I wrote. "I knew he had cancer and he knew that I knew." "We need the love and support of everybody," his wife Ginny volunteered. The love for Hank was evident again Sunday as the Hollywood Bowl celebrated the start of its 75th season with an evening dedicated to "The Magic of Mancini." Back on April 21, 1994, Hank accepted the love and admiration from 3,000 fans at his 70th birthday party at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion. At that time, Hank hid his pain and frailty with his ever-present sense of humor and he told the emotional audience that his ambition was to reach "the millennium. Let's get to the year 2000 and we'll worry from there," he said. It was the last time he would face an audience. He died June 14, 1994 ... At Sunday's finale, Ginny was called on stage; unable to hold back the tears, she turned her back to the audience, facing the musicians whom Hank loved -- and who loved him. It had been a unique night: a "blue moon beamed from above" (so-called "blue" because it was the rare second full moon within one month). The Hollywood Bowl looked especially spectacular -- and I've seen many of them -- as a teenager I lived atop Whitley Heights and I often towed (with my heavy 1937 Packard 120) cars unable to make the steep incline of streets near the Bowl! For Sunday's diamond jubilee the committee (headed by Ginny and Jennifer Diener and producer Pierre Cossette) had decked the Bowl entrances, walls, boxes with thousands of flowers as the elite who made up the $300,000 contribution to the Bowl fund, dined and drank in the balmy evening pre-concert.

MANCINI'S LAST SONG, "King's Dilemma" from "Victor/ Victoria," was sung by the show's Michael Nouri, who winged out from B'way. (He returns Wednesday, by which time Julie Andrews should have also returned, after a weekend's absence due to a trachea infection.) Nouri also duetted with Monica Mancini on that show's "Almost a Love Song." The evening was hosted by Mancini's dear friend Andy Williams, who closed the show with "Days of Wine and Roses" and, of course, "Moon River." Conductors who admired Mancini took turns at the podium praising the man and his music: Peter Nero, Bill Conti, Mark Watters, Jack Elliott, Scott Lavender, Ian Fraser, Quincy Jones. The evening's artists included Sid Paige, Trisha Yearwood, Johnny Mathis, 18-year-old flutist Gregory Lawrence Jefferson (discovered by Mancini when he was 12) and saxophonist Don Menza. A giant screen above the Bowl's shell beamed clips from movies which boasted Mancini music: "The Pink Panther," "Hatari!" "The Great Race," "10" and the "Peter Gunn" TV series. In the audience were the music world's Jay Livingston and Ray Evans, who lyricked "Dear Heart" and "Dreamsville" for Hank -- Yearwood sang them Sunday night. "Dreamsville" was the first Mancini tune Williams recorded. Also there, Alan Livingston who, as then-head of NBC programming, hired Mancini for his first TV scoring, "Peter Gunn." Mancini thanked him for starting his successful career ... Others in the musical audience included Felice Mancini, Natalie Cole, Corky Hale and Mike Stoller -- he brings "Smokey Joe's Cafe" to London Oct. 10. Others there: Bea Wain, Gene and Neil Norman, Tony Martin & Cyd Charisse, Bob & Dolores Hope, Nancy (Reed) & Joe Kanter, Jane Withers, Allan Carr and Asa Maynor, Felisa Vanoff, Red Buttons, Jack Carter, John Byner, the Tony Danzas, Angie Dickinson, Arthur Hillers, newlywed Betty and Fred Hayman, the Richard Crennas, Connie Stevens, David Fosters, Fess Parkers, Jack Haley Jr. and Lee Minnelli. Next week, Ginny takes the Mancini family (9) on African safari and Oct. 12, Monica marries ESPN's Digger Phelps in Napa Valley, where David Wolper gives the wedding: the couple met during his invitational golf tourney ... Like the lyrics in "Dear Heart," Hank, --"wish you were here to warm this night." But your music will always be.

KIEFER SUTHERLAND AND KELLY WINN, non-pro, were married Saturday in Ontario, Canada, with his father Donald and his mother Shirley Douglas on hand. After a brief honeymoon, Kiefer returns to post-production on "Truth or Consequences, N.M.," his first feature directorial outing ... We were saddened to learn of Pamela Mason's death; she always had such great joie de vivre. Daughter Portland said her mom wanted no services -- a"cheerful" memorial is planned after her son Morgan returns from France ... Candy and Aaron Spelling receive the Galaxy Award at the "Courage to Dream Dinner" of the Fulfillment Fund. Sumner Redstone chairs and presents the award at the BevHilton Sept. 29. The Fund aids promising disadvantaged students. The award is for "a lifetime devoted to humanitarian activities."