‘Arthur Fiedler of Orange County’ : Conductor Henry Brandon Dies at 71

Conductor, arranger and musician Henry Brandon, sometimes called the “Arthur Fiedler of Orange County,” died at his Corona del Mar home after a nearly yearlong illness. He was 71.

Brandon attracted thousands of people of all ages to free outdoor concerts he conducted for more than 15 years at the Fashion Island mall in Newport Beach. He has been credited with originating the idea of shopping center “pops” concerts in 1962 with his Chicago Pops Orchestra in the Old Orchard shopping mall near Chicago.

Brandon was born in Chicago on Dec. 25, 1915. His formal musical education consisted primarily of piano lessons he received from an opera accompanist when he was 10 years old. He played clarinet in his high school band. After graduating from high school in 1933, he joined friends who formed a traveling band called the Campus Owls.

At first, Brandon was torn between careers in music and commercial art, and for a while he worked as a commercial art director for Montgomery Ward in Chicago. But he returned to music and eventually conducted an orchestra at the Chez Paree and Pump Room nightclubs in Chicago.

In a 1980 interview, Brandon said he thought of concerts in shopping malls “when the performance of live music was at a very low ebb in this country and shopping centers were just coming on the scene.”

Brandon moved his family to Orange County in 1968, about the time that Fashion Island opened. Over the years, guest performers at the mall concerts included Helen O’Connell, Connie Haines and Frank Sinatra Jr.

The concerts grew from an audience of 650 to 15,000, said mall general manager Barbara Roppolo. The last summer Brandon conducted the concert series was in 1983, Roppolo said.

Although Brandon had composed a few musical scores, he admitted once to being most famous for writing the commercial jingle “I Wish I Were an Oscar Mayer Wiener.”

Brandon, who died Saturday, is survived by his wife, Lydia Hanck (Brandon was his stage name), daughter Star Bellei and son Terry Hanck.

A memorial service is scheduled for 2 p.m. Friday at the Pacific View Chapel, 3500 Pacific View Drive in Newport Beach.