Bill Skiles, a Newport Beach-raised entertainer who for more than 50 years worked clubs, casinos and coliseums as part of the comedy duo Skiles and Henderson, died Monday after a battle with cancer. He was 79.
Though their heyday came in the 1960s and '70s with frequent appearances on TV shows from "Dean Martin's Golddiggers," "The Ed Sullivan Show" and "Hollywood Squares," the duo performed steadily from their first shows at Disneyland in 1958 until last year.
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Bill Skiles, left, and Pete Henderson performed for more than 50 years as the comedy team of Skiles & Henderson, from shows at Disneyland in the late '50s to Vegas lounges, Newport Beach bars and a long-running spot as the opening act for the Carpenters. Skiles died of cancer on Monday.
"He had cancer for a couple of years, although he didn't really know it until about a year ago," said Pete Henderson in a phone call from his home in Branson, Mo. "He retired in March 2010, after we played a long run of shows in Arizona, and has just been sort of rusticating in Florida and trying to take care of the cancer. And he was just getting weaker and weaker."
Both Skiles and Henderson moved to Orange County as young boys. The future comedy team first met at Newport Harbor High School in 1953 when Skiles, who graduated in 1949, came back after serving in the Air Force to visit drama teacher Bob Wentz, Henderson said.
"I was walking down the hall one afternoon whistling, and Wentz heard my whistle and called me in," Henderson said. "The first thing we did was sit down at the piano – it was a musical act in the beginning. Bill was a really good double-piano guy – he'd imitate Lionel Hampton who'd play the upper piano like a vibraphone – and so I said, 'Well, I can play the bass line.'"
Skiles, then a student at Orange Coast College, and Henderson, still in high school, formed a band and soon found that they were naturally funny on stage, too.
"He was always just funny, and I started giving it back to him," Henderson said. "We just knew right away that we had an intrinsic comedy timing. We were a good team."
In 1956, the duo tried to get hired at Disneyland, pitching themselves as a roving act for Frontierland, in which they'd travel with a cart filled with homemade instruments, performing and teaching kids how to play. A Disneyland executive liked them but didn't have a spot for them then, Henderson said.
Two years later, Henderson landed a spot as the bass player in the Disneyland "Date Night" band, and brought Skiles along with him when he went to the theme park to sign his employment papers.
"Bill started clowning around in the office with the secretaries, which he'd always do, and Tommy Walker stuck his head out of his office and said, 'Is that Skiles and Henderson?' He remembered us, and that was the first time anybody called us that."
That landed them a job at the Plaza Gardens in Disneyland, performing nine comedy shows a day and earning $150 a week each. From there they moved into nightclubs, and then Las Vegas, playing at the Golden Nugget when it was still a rough-and-tumble Western bar.
"Cowboys would come in and put their boots with manure on them on the tables, and we were up on stage in our little skinny ties and suits," Henderson said.
Skiles was the clown, a master of vocal sound effects. Henderson played the straight man, did his own share of vocal effects and egged on his partner, sometimes with mock exasperation, other times trying not to crack up at the goofy antics Skiles pulled.
Orange County remained their home base through much of the '60s, with a long residency at the Rueben E. Lee faux-riverboat restaurant in Newport Beach intermittently from 1966 to 1970, Henderson said.
"That was when we got really well-known in Orange County," he said. "We had people standing in line, waiting for our show."
They also had people from Hollywood coming down to check them out, and that led to gigs on popular TV shows such as "The Dean Martin Show" and a summer tour with future "Laugh-In" hosts Dan Rowan and Dick Martin.
At a broadcast of "The Ed Sullivan Show" from Walter Reed Army Hospital in 1970, Skiles and Henderson met the Carpenters. After Richard Carpenter learned that Henderson was also a singer, he hired the comedy team to serve as the Carpenters' opening act, with Henderson also performing an oldies medley each night.
"We'd do 45 minutes to open, then there'd be an hour set of (the Carpenters), and then the last 20 minutes was the medley," Henderson said.
"It was fun, it was terrific," he said. "Richard was very reserved. Even after five years I didn't really know Richard. But Karen was very gregarious, so friendly."
Skiles and Henderson also joined the New Christy Minstrels folk ensemble for a few years in the mid-'60s, and in recent years, Henderson, who moved to Branson, Mo. in the mid-'90s after he and Skiles started performing there, rejoined the latest incarnation of that group.
He says that though he hadn't seen Skiles since their final run of shows in March 2010, it feels like he's lost a part of his family with Skiles' passing.
"I think Bill was so original," Henderson said. "He's just so naturally funny, and our timing was just perfect. It was nothing we worked on, it just happened.
"It was just a charisma that we had."
For more on Skiles and Henderson, visit Skilesandhenderson.com
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This truly saddens me, as I grew up with him and Henderson stopping by to say hello to my dad, who Skiles went to school with at Newport Harbor High School, in Newport Beach, CA, when they were in town to do a couple of shows. My mom sent me this announcement this evening, needless to say, I am still in shock. There was something unique between these two, as you may have read in this article, with Henderson talking about the two of them together on and off stage.
I send my thoughts and prayers to his family, who I know are also reeling from the shock of his passing, but he left behind a legacy that will live on in their hearts and minds. When I can see better later on today, I will find a clip of one of their shows and post it here in this thread, so you all can also experience what I was so lucky to growing up.
Rest in Peace Bill! You will always be alive in my memories and will pass them on to the future generations, so they too will get to experience Skiles & Henderson just as I did. I will never forget you, just wish I had kept in touch with you better, but now it's time for you to rest and entertain those in Heaven. ~brings my index and middle fingers to my lips and places a kiss on them. Then lifts them up and reaches for the night sky, then lightly blowing on my fingers to send the kiss up to you that I hope reaches you in Heaven. Turns and walks away, trying not to cry anymore, as I knew you wouldn't be happy with me, as you would like me to remember you with laughter instead~
