BoomerCafé’s co-founder and publisher David Henderson launched his career in network television news in 1970 … well, actually it was on the day before his job was supposed to begin. It was a memorable and historic moment in time.
The date was Sunday, March 6, 1970, and I was in New York City, about to begin my career in network television news the next day.
Having just arrived in New York by train from Washington, DC, I was hanging out in the CBS News newsroom when an explosion shattered the afternoon in lower Manhattan and destroyed a Greenwich Village townhouse.
That moment in time came back to all of us recently when CBS Sunday Morning aired a retrospective report about accidental explosion by the radical Weather Underground group and featured my first ever report on the air at CBS News. Members of the Weather Underground were domestic terrorists – as we would call them today – and had been making a bomb in the basement of the townhouse when something went wrong. The place was leveled and three members of the group died.
As I write these words I think, gosh, that was a long time ago – and, it was – but I remember vividly.
David Henderson’s first of many reports during his career on CBS News.
Evening News producer Hal Haley – a tall, likable fellow – rushed up to me in the newsroom to ask if I’d cover the story. Of course I would but Hal thought I was too casually dressed to be on the air. I was wearing bluejeans and an old shirt. Back in those days, CBS News reporters had to be more presentable-looking on the air. So Hal loaned me his overcoat to wear for a stand-up at the scene.
I was across the street from the burning remains of the townhouse, asking people what happened when I noticed the fellow to my right was Dustin Hoffman. He had lived next door to the blasted-out townhouse, he told me, and was concerned about the safety of his own home. We struck up a conversation but I could not talk him into an interview on camera.
After CBS Sunday News aired that evening, leading with my report, Hal, anchorman Hughes Rudd, and a group of producers and writers took me to dinner. It was an experience of pure joy in my early career.
Here is the recent CBS Sunday report. I appear on camera at 1:04 into the piece.
Great piece of history, David, and really neat that you were part of it.
Thanks for sharing! Must admit that is one hell of a way to start a career! And a successful one at that!
Thanks Larry and Eric. My tenure at CBS Network News was the best job and some of the most gratifying work I’ve ever done … but for the unrelenting stress and fatigue that was taking its toll on me.
I also felt I lacked the showbiz panache to be successful.
David, you performed like an old pro that first day on the job, hardly lacking in panache. And what a way to start a career! Congrats on a life well lived.
Very nice. Saw this on TV Sunday morning, but had no idea that reporter was you. Thanks for letting us know. Great job by the way.
NYC in the late 1960s to mid 1970s was a fascinating place to live and to attend school. Nights at the Fillmore East which usually featured at least two, sometimes three rock bands for a $5 to $7 admission price. The Grateful Dead playing non-stop from 8p to 4a. The Allman Brothers band at the Fillmore’s closing night in 1971. The Schaefer beer summertime Central Park music series, Greenwich Village, Woodstock 1969, and hanging out on the steps of MOMA. All glorious memories of times, places, and a certain innocence, that can never recur in our world of non-stop communications, self-indulgence, and intolerance for each other. Peace
Cool.