Maestro "Skitch" Henderson

"Skitch" Henderson, the maestro with a trademark Vandyke beard who was the first "Tonight Show" bandleader and founder of the New York Pops, died Tuesday at his home in New Milford, Conn. No cause of death was disclosed. He was 87.

Mr. Henderson said his two crucial early influences were pop crooner Bing Crosby, who taught him a relaxed stage presence, and classical composer Arnold Schoenberg, who showed him the principles of musical harmony. The rest of his career straddled the popular and classical spheres, and he became one of the most versatile and instantly recognizable of musical personalities through six decades.

From 1954 to 1956, Mr. Henderson was musical director of "The Tonight Show," where host Steve Allen encouraged his work in skits. He played such characters as the slow-witted Sidney Ferguson in the man-on-the-street segment.

Starting in 1962, he spent four years under host Johnny Carson, sparring with him in comic routines and performing the "stump the band" routine.

The medium brought him a reputation as one of the most visible and adaptable conductors of his era. "I think I reached an epitome of some kind when in one hour, one night, I rehearsed Louis Armstrong and Van Cliburn," he once said, referring to the jazz trumpeter and classical pianist.

A devotee of the classics, Mr. Henderson grew his noted beard to honor English conductor Sir Thomas Beecham and began a long career conducting orchestras from Scranton, Pa., to London.

He received the Grammy Award for best classical performance for "Great Scenes From Gershwin's Porgy and Bess" (1963) featuring opera singer Leontyne Price.

In 1983, he revived an earlier attempt to create the New York Pops and led the orchestra until his death.

Lyle Russell Cedric Henderson was born in Birmingham, England, on Jan. 27, 1918. He was drawn to music by his organist mother. After her death, he was sent to live among relatives in the United States.

He was in Denver in 1937 when child film actors Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney toured the city in a vaudeville show to promote their films. When their pianist fell ill, Mr. Henderson was hired, and he was invited to work as a rehearsal pianist with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios.

In Hollywood, crooner Crosby gave Mr. Henderson his lifelong nickname — a variation on his ability to arrange musical "sketches" instantly.

After World War II service in the Army Air Forces, where he developed an infatuation with flying, he became a musical director at NBC Radio in New York. He was a music director for Frank Sinatra and led the NBC Symphony during two of conductor Arturo Toscanini's summer vacations.

He also fronted a jazz band and had a self-titled radio show. An able raconteur, he soon was a staple of other programs, including that of his first wife, actress Faye Emerson. He later called their eight-year marriage "a major train wreck."

A conviction in 1975 on charges of filing false income-tax statements seemingly did not diminish Mr. Henderson's career. He spent ample time guest conducting.

He lived on a 135-acre former dairy farm in western Connecticut once profiled on the television show "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous." In January, he received the James Smithson Bicentennial Medal from the Smithsonian Institution for his contributions to American culture.

Survivors include his wife, former fashion model Ruth Einsiedel Henderson, whom he married in 1958; two children from his second marriage; and four grandchildren.