BEST MUSIC FROM EVERYWHERE
Skitch Henderson's New York Pops
By DAVID HINCKLEY

In much the same way British-born Bob Hope made America laugh, British-born Skitch Henderson made New York sing.
He did this, to casual appearances, simply by waving a baton in front of the New York Pops Orchestra, a musical group he founded around his 65th birthday.

The impeccably attired Henderson waved, and the orchestra launched into "Stardust" or "Lady Be Good" or "The Sound of Music" or perhaps, if the season was right, "O Tannenbaum" or "Parade of the Wooden Soldiers."

This didn't get people singing the way Mitch Miller once did, but millions of listeners have silently sung along with the New York Pops nonetheless, because this is an orchestra whose currency is familiarity.

"There's so much wonderful popular music out there," says Henderson. "The Pops keeps it alive for those who remember it and introduces it to those who do not."

As missions go, this one has been well-fulfilled in the more than two decades that Henderson has been conducting the New York Pops, which grew into America's largest independent pops orchestra.

It fills Carnegie Hall with fall and winter shows, and since 1995 the musicians have trooped outdoors in the summertime to fill bandstands around Manhattan.

"You know that old joke about how you get to Carnegie Hall?" remarked Henderson a few years ago. "Our joke was how you get out of Carnegie Hall. For more than 10 years we tried to play in other places. Finally we did."

Henderson personally got to Carnegie Hall the long way.

He was born in the steel town of Birmingham, England, on Jan. 27, 1918. Lyle Russell Cedric Henderson they called him, and by some combination of those names he would be known until Harry Lillis (Bing) Crosby, a good friend, told him that audiences never remember birth names, so if Lyle Russell Cedric were serious about a show biz career, he better stick with a good nickname.

As Bing admired the way Henderson could quickly "sketch" a tune in a new key, he suggested "Skitch."

It was years earlier, though, that young Henderson started playing classical music. As a teenager he attended Juilliard and UCLA, but unlike many classical musicians, who regard popular music as vulgar or at least uninteresting, Henderson enjoyed it.

He also saw it as potentially a much more lucrative career choice. So he hit the road, playing joints in the Midwest and the West before moving up to theater and radio orchestras.

Then in 1937, Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney were heading for Denver to launch a promotional tour for "Andy Hardy" and one of their accompanists fell ill. Henderson was available on short notice as a substitute, and suddenly he was working not only with Judy and Mickey, but with Rooney's vaudeville father, Joe Yule.

When the tour ended, the manager asked Henderson if he had any plans. He said no. The manager said he had an extra plane ticket to Hollywood. He said yes.

Steady work came pretty quickly. He accompanied a young vocalist named Dolores Reed who would soon marry Bob Hope, which led to a gig on Hope's radio "Pepsodent Show." He accompanied a young Frank Sinatra on his early recordings. After the war, Sinatra hired him as musical director, and he played Sinatra's "Light Up Time" radio show each night, then trotted to the Copa to do three live shows of his own.

He was also musical director for Crosby's "Philco Hour," and all that radio work eventually caught the eye of NBC executives plotting their entry into television.

Henderson was hired as NBC's musical director, with hands-on gigs as guest conductor for Arturo Toscanini's famed NBC Symphony. But his real breakthrough as a personality came in 1954 when he became the bandleader for Steve Allen's "Tonight" show. Allen's improvisational style left plenty of room to incorporate his elegant music man.

Henderson lost the gig when Jack Paar took over the show in 1957, but got it back in 1962 when Johnny Carson came in.

Carson was all preparation with little improv, but he made a point of frequently noting Henderson's dapper style.

Henderson's musical style also complemented Carson's. He was impeccably prepared and always in control, and if he wasn't a particularly flamboyant player himself, he hired some of the best musicians in New York, including Doc Severinsen - who would make his own reputation as Carson's bandleader after Henderson left in 1966.

Henderson spent the next few years reimmersing himself in classical music, which he had never stopped playing or enjoying. Gustav Mahler was his favorite, and he conducted that sort of music with orchestras from London to Tulsa.

But as he approached the age when most folks think retirement, he thought instead if there was anything else he really wanted to do.

And he realized he wanted to lead a New York orchestra whose repertoire was the best music from everywhere.

So he assembled the Pops, which played Mahler and Berlin. And tunes from "Miss Saigon" and "West Side Story." And Gershwin. And "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head."

And at 86, Skitch Henderson is still in front of the musicians, waving his baton.

Looks easy enough.

Originally published on September 7, 2004