Charles E. Henderson

Charles Edward Henderson (1907 - 1970) was a songwriter, conductor, pianist, arranger, vocal coach, lyricist and author. Henderson was a member of, and wrote much material for The Hasty Pudding Club. His first hit song was Deep Night with lyrics by Rudy Vallee.

Early life

Henderson was born in Massachusetts in 1907, and began giving Bach recitals on piano at seven years of age and began studying music theory at eight. His formal education included the Roxbury Latin School and Harvard University where he was a student of Walter Piston, Ernst Toch, and Victor Bay.

Career

After graduating from Harvard (cum laude) in 1928, he became the featured pianist and arranger for The Fred Waring Orchestra, joining ASCAP in 1931. While with Fred he began his vocal music career by writing arrangements for Fred's trio, The Three Girlfriends (later known as The Three Waring Girls.) He married one of those girls, Ida Pearson, and together they had two children, Sally and Peter. He left Waring in the early 30's to freelance around New York working with various bands and appearing as an accompanist and arranger on frequent radio broadcasts. Maestro Andre Kostelanetz hired him to do his radio programs' vocal arranging and coaching and this eventually established him as the premier vocal master in the country.

Moving to California, he began a ten year stint in pictures, mostly under Alfred Newman at 20th Century Fox where he did the vocal direction on Fox musicals of the forties, The Dolly Sisters, the original State Fair, and many others. His first big picture was with Irving Berlin and the production of Alexander's Ragtime Band. He also did the vocal arrangements that were used in Disneys, Bambi, and Fantasia.

Charlie was also Betty Grables personal vocal coach and toured with her during WWII as her conductor and accompanist. During these years he participated in more than 300 movies, conducting and writing theme songs, background music and transitions. Somehow during this plethora of movie work he, along with co-author Charles Palmer, found the time to write a book considered essential for aspiring vocalists, How to Sing For Money.

In the late 40's Henderson went to work in television, producing the show Stop The Music out of New York. After a couple of years of this Charlie was called back to Hollywood for more movie chores and did the vocal direction on The Helen Morgan Story (Paramount), April Love (Fox) and The Music Man (Warner Brothers) among others. He had remarried while at Fox Studios, having been divorced by Ida after fourteen years. He met his new wife while working on a Fox movie Four Jills In A Jeep in the early forties. She was a young starlet and dancer, Mitzi Mayfair, and that union lasted another fourteen years.

After returning to Hollywood, Charlie turned his music and lyric writing talents to creating special material and Las Vegas nightclub acts for various clients such as Jayne Mansfield, Anne Blythe, Nat Coles widow, Maria and other notables. During this period he also wrote and conducted a UPA cartoon musical about chess (his lifetime hobby; he was a Postal Master) called The King and Joe

Charles Henderson was semi-retired and living in Laguna Beach, California with his third wife, the former Bliss Jones when he passed away in March of 1970. In addition to Bliss, his survivors were his two children and six grandchildren. His hit songs included Deep Night, Carefree (the Kostelanetz radio theme), So Beats My Heart For You (lyrics), This Is The Chance Of A Lifetime and others. But his work for Disney was arguably his finest.