Later Career
The TV exposure enabled the duo to make the leap from lounges to showrooms in Vegas and Tahoe/Reno as a supporting act to such headliners as Trini Lopez, Andy Williams, Eddy Arnold, Roger Miller, Loretta Lynn, Don Ho and many others, working the big showrooms in Vegas at The Flamingo, Sahara, Caesar's Palace, Riviera and in Reno and Lake Tahoe at Harrah's. In addition the boys were still being offered TV spots on all the major variety shows of the day and a number of talk shows with hosts Merv Griffin, Johnny Carson, Steve Allen, Della Reese, Dinah Shore and just about everyone else who had a talk show in the 70's. They even co-hosted for a week with Mike Douglas.
In 1972, the duo started touring with The Carpenters, doing the first half of the singers' concerts and Pete singing in the Carpenter's "Oldies Medley" at the end of each concert. At this time they made a brief return to Disneyland as guests on the "Music" episode of the children's TV show The Mouse Factory, where they incorporated pie-in-the-face gags into a few of their comic acts.
Around 1977, when the Carpenters changed managers, Bill and Pete went on to other endeavors and even more TV exposure including more than 80 Hollywood Squares and The Bob Hope Show.
The Skiles and Henderson itinerary began including charity functions. They participated in many golf tournaments hosted by Andy Williams, Dinah Shore, Bob Hope and others. They hosted their own celebrity tennis tourney for several years in the 70's.
In the 80's, the team continued on TV, personal appearances at corporate events and showrooms. By the 90's they were being featured on cruise ships, mainly Royal Caribbean, for four years and over 160 cruises, and in 1995 began several engagements in Branson, MO theaters. By 2009 they were still at it, doing comedy concerts from time to time all over the U.S.A. The team's last concert series was a 27-show marathon in March 2010 in Southern Arizona.
Skiles died at the age of 79 in St. Cloud, Florida in 2011. Pete Henderson is now performing with the revived New Christy Minstrels again, playing bass, piano and singing. He also contributes the occasional joke or funny routine.
Read more about this topic: Skiles And Henderson
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