The Former Home of Pink Panther's Henry Mancini in Northridge
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| Image courtesy Wikipedia |
During Mancini's rise to fame in the 50's and early 60's, he raised his family in a modest Northridge home or what is now called Sherwood Forest. The address was 17947 Osborne Street which was located just one block south of CSUN which was called San Fernando Valley State and barely consisted of a few buildings. The neighborhood consisted of the standard ranch style home with long front yards and curved driveways which can still be seen today. Some of the nearby areas were empty and wide open as the SFV was just starting to explode.
The Mancini family left in 1964 and never returned. In 1994, the original home was destroyed (its possible the pool was saved) and the new owner built a 4 Bed/4 Bath - 3,680 sqft home on 0.37 acres which last sold on March 9, 1998 for $457,000. Mancini named his music company, Northridge Music, Inc and it seems that the Northridge area had an influential effect on Mancini. I would like to think that living in the Northridge area was a contributor to one of Mancini's biggest hit and his early success but thats probably me being biased towards SFV supremacy and its more related to the fact that Mancini was a living legend.
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| Image courtesy Google Maps |
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| Mancini's home in the red shaded area with CSUN Orange Groves at the top. Image courtesy Historicaerials.com. |
I was able to obtain the address by reaching out to Mancini's daughter, Felice, who also kindly shared a brief story about growing up in Northridge:
My dad had a workroom off the garage where he wrote but he never had a studio in the house, just a piano. We used to ride our bikes through the orange groves where CSUN now stands and went to school at Our Lady of Lourdes. I now live in Sherman Oaks and my sister lives in Studio City - back to our roots. I love the Valley.
By the time, Mancini passed away at the age of 70 on June 14, 1994, he won four Academy Awards (18 nominations), a Golden Globe, twenty Grammy Awards (72 nominations), nominated for two Emmys, and a posthumous Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995. Mancini is regarded as one of the greatest composers in the history of film.
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| Possibly the living room in Mancini's Northridge home. Image courtesy Henrymancini.com |
The love of music in Henry Mancini's kids can easily be seen today as Felice works for The Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation and also began singing at age 15. Monica is a Concord Records recording artist and double Grammy nominee who completed her fifth album in June 2010. Lastly, Chris wrote songs for television films and has contributed to several multi-platinum award-winning albums.
You can view more information about Mancini including a cool interactive history of his albums here. Also check out a youtube video of Mancini's Pink Panther performance with Don Menza on sax live in 1987:
You can view more SFV History here.
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Marty Mcfly
Anything and everything about the San Fernando Valley. This blog will take you back in time when the valley was covered with dirt and orange groves to a leader in the space race to its current status as America's suburb. Come along and join me on this adventure, I guarantee you have been influenced/impacted by the San Fernando Valley in one form or another even if you have never visited or heard of the SFV.
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