In 1912, following numerous failed attempts, at age 18, Busse successfully ran away from the family farm outside of Magdeburg, Germany, where he had been forced to play trumpet in his uncle's band.

Rousted by the police for sleeping in Grand Central Station, unable to speak English, he found a job on a boat heading to California.

1916 found Busse in Hollywood working as an extra in Keystone Cop films and playing trumpet in a movie theater pit band.

[citation needed] (The American Big Bands reference book says, "When Henry Busse was a teenager, his family immigrated to the United States from Germany and settled in Ohio.

[5] Busse was concertmaster for the Whiteman Band when it toured Europe in the 1920s, and there discovered a song written by a German doctor - Robert Katscher [de].

[5] He was survived by Henry Busse Jr.[10] Aside from his close relationship with Bing Crosby, he became friends with several notable people of that time, including Ray Bolger, Al Jolson, Ruby Keeler, Irving Berlin, George Raft, Ginger Rogers, and Edward G. Robinson.

Al Hirt and Herb Alpert have remarked they were inspired by the trumpet solo work of Busse, particularly his rendition of "Rhapsody in Blue".