Unlike the slick production numbers currently presented at Disneyland, entertainment was a lot looser during the park’s early years. Management was just trying to figure out what type of acts played best in a Frontierland or an Adventureland or a Tomorrowland.
Every performer pulled double—or triple—duty, playing in multiple bands or acting in small skits or even running around the park wearing one of the primitive character costumes.
Perhaps no performers better epitomized that let’s-put-on-a-show, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants spirit than versatile musical comedians Bill Skiles and Pete Henderson, who would go on to star in concerts, at Vegas casino showrooms, on comedy albums, and on television, most memorably as regulars on Hollywood Squares.
The duo first teamed up as part of a dance band not long after graduating from Harbor High School in Newport Beach. Even then, their broad senses of humor and quick banter suggested their fame would not come in straight music. They were experimenting with unusual homemade instruments crafted by Skiles’ father, when they decided to devise an act for Disneyland, which had opened two years earlier and was garnering national attention.
The boys figured that they’d need something memorable and appropriately themed to make it at Disneyland. So, in 1957, Skiles and Henderson pitched entertainment director Tommy Walker with the idea of playing Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. They would lead a donkey pulling a cart filled with all their homemade instruments, such as tuned skillets, tuned tin cans, a tire pump, and a saw. They would then gather a group of children on Tom Sawyer Island, play a little, and teach the kids how to play the instruments.
Tommy Walker agreed to give them a one-performance audition, on the old bandstand at Magnolia Park. The gazebo was tucked around the back corner of the park, near the Frontierland Train Station. Few guests noticed their act, and Tommy didn’t like the cart idea. Instead, Walker mentioned that Disneyland was building an 84-foot-tall sailing ship, the Columbia, to add to the Rivers of America. How would Skiles and Henderson like to climb up the riggings and perform as “singing pirates”? Not crazy about heights, they declined. Sorry, they were told, Disneyland did not have a place for them.
Henderson did hook up at the park the following year, playing bass in one of the bands. Early one week, Skiles dropped in to visit Henderson backstage. They were cutting up in the back room, when Walker poked his head in and inquired, “Is that Skiles and Henderson?” (“A musical comedy team was born,” Henderson remembers.)
“I think we have a place for you,” Walker said. “Can you come and audition tomorrow?”
The duo, having retired their homemade musical instruments to dusty attics, begged, “Can you make it Friday?”
This time, Tommy had them audition at Plaza Gardens, but with no microphones. So they started their act with a piano duo to get some attention. They alternated between the homemade instruments and comic asides, including imitating the rocket ships, steam trains, and other sounds of the park. Soon people were filling up Plaza Gardens. They were a hit.
Tommy offered the duo a one-week contract with options. They would do nine 20-minute shows a day, separated by 20-minute breaks.
“We had to punch time cards,” Henderson recalls. “At the end of the week, we asked Tommy, ‘Are we still working?’ He said, ‘Are your time cards still there?’ We lasted 18 months, working week to week.”
“We were called the Disneyland Doodlers,” Skiles adds. “We started out nine shows a day and ended up about three, because we were so good and also because we hid well. The best place to hide was Adventureland; there were fun little places to peer out.”
The Tommy Walker-named Disneyland Doodlers appeared at the Golden Horseshoe Saloon all summer of 1959. Left to right are pianist Jack Hampton. baritone horn player George “The Devil,” saxophonist Jay Migliori (a Woody Herman alum), bass player/pistol-bearer Pete Henderson, and drummer Bill Skiles.
Unlike the Golden Horseshoe Revue, the Disneyland Band, and the Gonzales Trio, Skiles and Henderson’s show times were not posted on any signs. “Everyone had signs except us,” Skiles gripes. “So we started performing wherever we wanted, at the gazebo in Frontierland, at Wurlitzer, at Coke Corner. Or, when we finally got a dressing room, we’d go there and take naps.”
“When they were in the park, they’d go bananas,” recalls former Adventureland manager Bill Hoelscher. “At times, they would go through the park playing with Vesey Walker and the Disneyland Band. They’d come to the jungle and sit on a boat and play ‘Down in Jungle Town.’ They’d go to Frontierland and play some Frontierland songs. It was all freeform. They were the only kind of guys who could just run around the park and do nutty crap.”
During their off-moments, they’d participate in skits around the park, particularly gunfights in Frontierland. They also became Disneyland’s first tour guides. (Link to previous story: “First Tour“)
Both point to August 14, 1958, as the worst day of their lives, the grand opening of Disneyland’s Alice in Wonderland dark ride. The ceremony was hosted by Walt himself with Mouseketeer Karen Pendleton dressed as Alice. They also recruited someone in an old Easter Bunny costume to play the White Rabbit, but the cast still didn’t seem large enough. So Tommy Walker had Skiles and Henderson put on the Chip and Dale outfits that had been purchased from the Ice Capades. The costumes were so hideous, Walt didn’t even recognize them. While posing for photos, Walt motioned over to the boys and said, “Let’s get some bunnies in the picture.”
“He’d forgotten who it was he’d drawn!” Skiles jokes. “And he was fresh when he got up to the podium! Disney came down in that little horsedrawn carriage, with his daughters out front, and we were skipping merrily in the character costumes. We were exhausted, stumbling. I almost collapsed.”
“We were told to ‘dance and cavort,'” Henderson recalls. “The costumes were made of wool. It was about 100 degrees outside and 150 to 160 inside the costumes. Sweat was coming down into our eyes, stinging. Our tongues were hanging out. When we got to go on the ride, we immediately took our heads off. But we didn’t know how long the ride was, so we had to hurry and put the helmets back on.”
Skiles and Henderson continued performing their two-man act during the day and playing as part of the larger Disneyland Doodlers band during the evening. All seemed well in the world until one morning when Walker called the boys into his office. “We have a problem,” Tommy announced.
Skiles and Henderson looked at each other, clueless.
“Well,” Walker continued, “you’re making too much money.”
The pair was making a nice sum—$300 apiece—but earning every cent by performing from park opening to close. So why was $300 a week “too much” for their 12-hour days? Because they were making more than Tommy’s father, Vesey Walker, the obstinate conductor of the Disneyland Band.
“The result was,” says Henderson, “we didn’t work as much so our pay could be scaled down. Another result was that we realized immediately that we had no future with Disney!”
The duo did perform as mouse-eared hosts of a proposed New International Mickey Mouse Club television series for foreign markets, but the show never took off. Skiles will only say their starring roles as hosts “Hub and Bub” ended abruptly during an elevator ride with Walt. (According to Hoelscher’s version of the story, Walt stepped on to the elevator. Skiles said, “Hi, I’m Hub.” Henderson said, “Hi, I’m Bub.” And Walt said, “No, you’re not.”)
Skiles and Henderson would occasionally return to Disney to host special events, such as park New Year’s Eve parties and Walt Disney World’s 10th Anniversary celebration.
Today, Skiles is in Central Florida, and Henderson in Branson, Missouri. They can also be found at SkilesandHenderson.com (link), or performing at corporate functions. Now 50 years after their start at the park, it sure would be great to see that Disneyland act again.
Free Special Event
Speaking of 50 years ago, next week author David Koenig (that’s me, incidentally) will be delivering his “Disneyland: Back to 1955” multimedia presentation for free in Downey, California.
Sponsored by the Friends of the Downey City Library in celebration of National Library Week, the event includes a colorful look back at the park as it was in its first year, audience Q & A, book signing, and light refreshments. Copies of his books, including the snazzy Golden Anniversary Special Limited Edition of Mouse Tales: A Behind-the-Ears Look at Disneyland, will be offered for sale.
- Date: Wednesday, April 18, 2007
- Time: 7:00-8:45 p.m.
- Location: Barbara J. Riley Community Center, 7810 Quill Dr. (at Rives), Downey, CA 90241
For reservations, call the Downey City Library (562) 904-7360, ext. 32.
