Re: Sleep-deprived? You decide...
Headfoot said:
One degree from Tiny Tim?
Hiya Headfoot --
I like your Zen sig! Yes, I and my first husband Mark were friends of Tiny (who did
not want to be called "Herbert") back in '80-'81. We met him when his career was on the decline and he was performing at a small nightclub in Brooklyn. To make a long story short, we got to talking with him backstage and exchanged addresses and phone numbers. We visited him several times at his apartment in the Olcott Hotel (right near the Dakota where John and Yoko had once lived), and met his very motley assortment of friends -- of which, I guess, we were members
I also remember us appearing in a couple of "indie" films -- more like boring, incomprehensible home movies -- with him; attending one of his recording sessions; going to a party given for him at the Bloomin' Pub on Manhattan's Upper East Side (at which we met Miss Vicki -- who attended though long divorced from him -- and his daughter Tulip Khaury who was nine years old at the time); and an especially enjoyable memory, my getting to accompany (on the guitar) Tiny singing "As Time Goes By" onstage at the same club where we met him.
Unfortunately, when Mark and I divorced, he got all our Tiny Tim memorabilia -- including an audiotape personally dedicated to us by him, of Tiny singing old-time songs accompanied by just his ukulele. And while Mark and I are still netfriends, he has so far failed to make me a copy of the tape as I often requested.
Anyway, I remember Tiny himself as being warm, gracious, outgoing to the point of being hammy, a fascinating conversationalist with an encyclopedic knowledge of vintage American vocal music, and nutty as a pecan pie. Like Michael Jackson he had a horror of germs, but unlike Jacko he didn't let it prevent him from being a very "huggy" type. Also unlike MJ, he
loved being recognized by fans in the street, and would always greet them heartily. With him, it was "what you see is what you get" -- his real personality was identical to his stage personality. He really did dye and pomade his long hair, and wear cosmetics (including foundation, powder, and blush). As he did onstage, in real life he often used the expressions "my dear friends" and "thanks be to God in Christ". (He also considered himself a devout though non-denominational Christian -- he was the only child of a Lebanese father and a Jewish mother.)
What many people didn't know about Tiny -- unless they listened to his entire albums -- was that his true voice (as opposed to the "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" falsetto) was a beautiful, rich baritone that captured the nuances of old-time crooners like Russ Columbo and early Bing Crosby, and was vastly superior to the rather weak voice of Rudy Vallee. When Tiny sang love songs from the 1930s, he could make you cry. Had he not presented such an oddball image -- which, of course, was his true self -- he could have been a fine nostalgia-pop singer. Tiny died like a trouper, just as he would have wanted to, but much too early. His death was a great loss to the music world, whether the music world acknowledged that or not.
Well, I don't know if there's any Octo tie-in here, though if you look at the "Immortalized Groaners" thread on the Cephalofun Forum, you'll find a Tiny Tim / Ceph joke that I inflicted on TONMO readers many moons ago.... 8)
Thinking Beautiful Thoughts,
Tiny Tani