In the 1980s, I was doing quite a bit of freelance travel writing for newspapers and magazines. One day in 1985, I received a phone call from a public relations person for Litchfield County, Conn. It’s a very wealthy county in the western part of the state, and they wanted to know if I’d write an article.
“We have lots of celebrities living here,” the PR rep said. “Maybe you’d like to interview one. Meryl Streep, for example, or Kevin Bacon.”
I said yes, of course, but the day before we were to head up north, the PR person called again. “I am so sorry,” she said, “but I’m afraid Meryl Streep had to leave to work on a movie, and Kevin Bacon [a native of Center City Philadelphia who graduated from Masterman High School] also had to go to the West Coast to work on a project. But I can get you an interview with Skitch Henderson in his beautiful farmhouse. He can tell you great stories because of all the famous people he met on ‘The Tonight Show.’”
Chance encounter
I would bet almost no one under the age of 45 today has heard of Skitch Henderson, but to folks of my generation, he was a household name. In his career at NBC, Henderson was conductor of bands for “The Today Show,” “The Tonight Show Starring Steve Allen,” and “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.”
Henderson was a pianist, conductor, and composer. His nickname “Skitch” came from his ability to “re-sketch” a song in a different key. “Bing Crosby suggested that I use the name,” he told me.
Lyle Russel “Skitch” Henderson and his charming wife, Ruth, talked to us in The Silo, a store, art gallery, and cooking school they owned and operated in New Milford, Conn., from 1972 until Skitch died of natural causes on Nov. 1, 2005, at age 87. The walls of Henderson’s house were studded with framed photos of him with almost every movie star from the 1950s and ‘60s, not to mention presidents, senators, and corporate CEOs.
Of course, many stories accompanied the photos, but by far the most interesting (to me) involved his connection to Bing Crosby and World War II. A native of a small town in northwest Minnesota, Henderson began his career as a roadhouse musician in the 1930s. The high point, he said, was playing on a 1937 MGM promotional tour with Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney.
But like millions of other young American men, Henderson was drafted into the Army in the early 1940s and shipped off to Europe. Henderson said he was shot and badly wounded and recuperated in a hospital in southern England. At that time, the USO (United Service Organizations) — a nonprofit organization that provides entertainment and other programs and services to active duty military members — sent movie stars and other celebrities to visit wounded service members and help lift their spirits.
“Bing Crosby came into our hospital,” Henderson said, “and went to every bed to comfort every service member. He’d ask each guy where he was from and usually say he had performed in or near that town. It made the guys feel great, because Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra were the biggest singing stars in the country at the time. It was like having the pope stop at your bed and chat with you.
“When Bing came to my bed, I told him I was a musician and that I would do anything to be part of the band he traveled with to entertain the troops. To be honest, I would have done anything to get out of combat because I did not want to go back and be killed by the Germans. I begged Crosby to let me be in his band. About 10 days later, an officer told me Crosby wanted me to try out for his band when I was fully recovered from my wounds. I thought I had died and gone to heaven.”
Skitch did have a successful audition, and for the rest of the war was a member of Bing Crosby’s traveling band, entertaining troops. “If it was not for Bing Crosby,” he said, “I might have come home in a box.” Skitch said he and Crosby stayed in touch after the war and Crosby (According to Henderson, “a great guy, no matter what you may read to the contrary”) continued to help him get work.
Television years
Skitch began his NBC employment in 1951 and left in 1957 when Allen, host of the first late-night TV-talk-and-entertainment show, was replaced by Jack Paar.
Henderson then returned to “The Tonight Show” when Carson took over and led the band from 1962 to 1966 during Carson’s early years as host. He said he left “The Tonight Show” voluntarily because he wanted to perform “more serious” classical music. He was replaced by Milton Delugg, who was succeeded by trumpeter Doc Severinsen, who led the NBC Orchestra until Johnny Carson’s retirement in 1992.
In 1975, Henderson was convicted on two counts of filing false tax returns, was sentenced to six months in prison and fined $10,000. He was released after four months on Aug. 4, 1975. I asked him about this part of his life, but he declined to answer.
In 2003, Ruth and Skitch Henderson co-founded the Hunt Hill Farm Trust, an effort to preserve their farm’s land and buildings and to celebrate Americana in music, art, and literature through the creation of a living museum. Today, it’s run as a store, art gallery, and cooking school.
Len Lear can be reached at LenLear@chestnuthilllocal.com.
