Tiny Tim

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Herbert Butros Khaury (April 12, 1932 – November 30, 1996), known also as Herbert Buckingham Khaury and known professionally as Tiny Tim, was an American singer and ukulele player, and a musical archivist.

He is best remembered for his cover hits "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" and "Livin' in the Sunlight, Lovin' in the Moonlight", which he sang in a high falsetto voice.

Early life

Khaury was born in Manhattan, New York City, on April 12, 1932. His mother Tillie (née Staff), a Polish-Jewish garment worker, was the daughter of a rabbi. She had immigrated from Brest-Litovsk, present-day Belarus, as a teen in 1914. Khaury's father, Butros Khaury, was a textile worker from Beirut, present-day Lebanon, whose father was a Maronite Catholic priest.

Khaury displayed musical talent at a very young age. At the age of five, his father gave him a vintage wind-up Gramophone and a 78-RPM record of "Beautiful Ohio" by Henry Burr. He would sit for hours listening to the record. At the age of six, he began teaching himself guitar. By his pre-teen years, he developed a passion for records, specifically those from the 1900s through the 1930s. He began spending most of his free time at the New York Public Library, reading about the history of the phonograph industry and its first recording artists. He researched sheet music, often making photographic copies to take home to learn, a hobby he continued for his entire life. He attended George Washington High School in Washington Heights, Manhattan.

Khaury was a devout Catholic.

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Career

Khaury was 11 years old when he began playing the violin and loved performing at home for his parents' entertainment. He later picked up the mandolin and the ukulele, the latter of which became his signature instrument. During his recuperation from having his appendix removed in 1945, he read the Bible and listened to music on the radio; after his recovery, he rarely left his room except to go to school, where he was described as a mediocre student. After consistently repeating his sophomore year and starting a series of menial jobs, he dropped out of high school.

In a 1968 interview with The Tonight Show, he described his ability to perform in an upper register: "I was listening to the radio and singing along; while I was singing, I thought, 'Gee, it's strange.' "I can go up as well." He said in a 1969 interview that he was listening to Rudy Vallée sing in a falsetto, and "had something of a surprise" because he "had no idea that I had another top register," referring to it as a religious experience.

Khaury had landed a job as a messenger in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios' New York office, where he was ever more interested in the entertainment industry. In his recently discovered falsetto, he appeared in a local talent competition and sang "You Are My Sunshine." He began appearing at dance club amateur nights under various names, including Texarkana Tex, Judas K. Foxglove, Vernon Castle, and Emmett Swink. He wore crazy clothing and, after seeing an old photograph of a long-haired Rudolph Valentino's, grew his own hair to shoulder length and wore pasty white facial makeup, he stood out from the crowd of performers. Herbert did not understand his appearance and was planning to bring her son, now in his twenties, to see a psychiatrist at Bellevue Hospital before his father stepped in.

At Hubert's Museum and Live Flea Circus in New York City's Times Square in 1959, he dropped all his other stage names and performed as "Larry Love, the Singing Canary." When performing there, he met with a manager who sent him on auditions around New York's Greenwich Village section, where he played the ukulele and singing in his falsetto style, "The Tulips."

Film critic Roger Ebert wrote:

He landed his first paying gig at Page 3, a gay and lesbian club in Greenwich Village, a week, at 6 a night and 6 nights per week, costing $96 per month. He appeared as "Dary Dover" for two years, and then "Sir Timothy Timms" for a decade. Khaury's chairman, George King, billed the 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) Khaury after being booked to perform a "midget" act, which would later become his signature word.

Tiny Tim appeared in Jack Smith's Normal Love (1963), as well as the independent film "You Are What You Eat (1968), in which Tim sang the Ronettes' "Be My Baby" in his falsetto voice; also included was a recreation of Sonny and Cher's "I Got It Baby" in his falsetto range, as well as Eleanor Barooshian's singing Sonny Bono's Baritone part. These songs were recorded with musicians who later joined The Band. The "I Got You Babe" appearance resulted in a booking on Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, a common American television comedy-variety program. Dan Rowan, the co-host, announced that Laugh-In was interested in showcasing new talent, and so Tiny Tim was introduced. As an apparently dumbfounded co-host Dick Martin watched, he entered carrying a shopping bag, pulled his Martin soprano ukulele from it, and performed a medley of "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" and "On the Good Ship Lollipop." Tiny Tim sang "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" during his third appearance on Laugh-In (season 1, episode 14, aired 4/22/1968).

God Bless Tiny Tim's first album, which featured an orchestrated version of "Going Through the Tulips," was a success when first released as a solo. All My Little Friends (1969) was a compilation of children's songs and was given a Grammy Award nomination.

He was quoted as saying, "What a thrill!

Just being on the ice was great!"

Tiny Tim was married three times and had one daughter from his first marriage to Victoria Budinger, also known as "Miss Vicki" at the age of 37. Tiny Tim married Miss Vicki on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson debuted on December 17, 1969, with 40 million viewers on the show. Budinger gave birth to their daughter Tulip Victoria in 1971. Tiny Tim and Victoria Budinger divorced three years ago. Budinger had multiple marriages since being born in the United States.

Tiny Tim married Jan Alweiss ("Miss Jan") in 1984, and Susan Marie Gardner ("Miss Sue") in 1995. Gardner, a 39-year-old Harvard graduate and a Tim's fan since she was 12, was a fan of Tim's.

Many people incorrectly believed he was British when Tiny Tim first became well known to the American public. Many pundits and journalists disagreed over whether the appearance was either an orchestrated act or the true thing. "It soon became clear that he was genuine" and that "a lonely outcast intoxicated by fame" and "a romantic" who was always in search of his ultimate goal.

Tiny Tim's television appearances dwindled after he appeared in the late 1960s, and his fame began to wane. He went back to perform, making several Las Vegas appearances. He performed "There'll Always Be an England" to an estimated 600,000 people at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970. He had robbed the show "without a single electric gadget," the UK press reported. Vic Tim Records was born as a protest against the combination of his wife's name with that of his own, when his recording deal came to an end for Reprise. In 1986, he appeared with Camper Van Beethoven, an American alternative rock band. He appeared in the lead role in the 1987 horror film Blood Harvest, portraying Mervo in the role of Mervo. Rock (1993), I Love Me (1993), and Girl (1996) were among his many albums released in the 1990s.

Playboy Press first published Tiny Tim, a Harry Stein biography, in 1976. Khaury appeared in the WWE on July 19, 1993, as part of a skit with Jerry Lawler on "King's Court."

Tiny Tim played the ukulele left-handed, though he retained the traditional string order, and played the guitar right-handed. He played a vintage Martin, a Favilla, and a Johnston metal resonator. Tiny was a huge fan of Arthur Godfrey and learned how to play with a method book from the Godfrey-endorsed Maccaferri Islander plastic ukulele.

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