Mancini concert draws huge crowd
by Don A. Metivier, The Post-Star, August 18, 1980
The largest crowd of the orchestra season turned out Saturday evening to hear Henry Mancini conduct the Philadelphia Orchestra in the season’s annual “pops” concert.
The amphitheater had every seat filled, including extras usually added only for special events, and the lawn crowd was one of the biggest ever for a Philadelphia concert as 7,666 showed up to hear the movie music of Mancini.
“Most of the time the stuff I write for the movies never gets heard,” Mancini said. “The best music is in the chase scenes, and everyone is watching the movie and not listening to the music, so I like to bring it to the orchestra concerts.”
Mancini is no stranger to Saratoga or the Philadelphia Orchestra, having made several albums with the Philadelphians and become an annual visitor to Saratoga.
Taking note that the colt Jaklin Klugman had won the seventh race Saturday afternoon at the racetrack for its owner, TV star Jack Klugman, Mancini opened the concert by noting, “If Jack Klugman is in the house, congratulations. He’s on strike, and he has to make some money somehow.” That set the pace for his relaxed, good-humored commentary of the evening’s music.
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