Interview: Tiny Tim

“I’m sorry to say, in all fairness,you’ll never be anything.”
– Tiny Tim’s mother, talking to her son in 1965″

You’ll never get anywhere singing in that sissy voice.”
– Tiny Tim’s father, same conversation.

Last week Tiny Tim sat in a plush Beverly Hills office, remembering what it was like before he became a Super Star.

“My dear, dear mother said, ‘Honey, dear, you’ve had your hair long since 1954, now why don’t you cut it off and go out and get work?’ I said, ‘My dear mother, I’d love to work, but I can’t cut my hair because I feel success is just around the corner.'” Tiny turned to those who were gathered in the office and said, “My dear mother had heard me saying this since 1954, and here it was 1965.” It was then, he said, his mother told him he wasn’t going to make it, and his father so readily agreed.

As he heard his parents offer this prediction, he recalled the limited success he had experienced singing and playing his “dear, sweet” ukelele in the Fat Black Pussycat Cafe, the Alliance Club and the Page Three in Greenwich Village.

“I went to my room,” he said, “and I got down on my knees and said, ‘O blessed Lord Jesus, you’ve seen the situation here with my parents. You’ve heard the applause and you’ve seen the celebrities who have come up to me. Am I to cut my hair now, am I to go back to being a messenger boy again?”

Tiny Tim was in his middle 40s, and he often prayed for help. “I got off my knees and tried show business again,” he said. “I was not given a sign I should quit.”

Questions about Tiny Tim’s reality, and whether scenes like this one are put-on or truth, have been answered by his recent television appearances. With Rowan and Martin on the “Laugh In” show, and with Johnny Carson, it has become apparent that Tiny Tim is real, that he is, in a sense, a peculiar butterfly … like nothing you’ve ever experienced before, quite odd, but above all, gentle and beautiful.

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There is a story he tells about meeting Bob Dylan that contributes to understanding, when Tiny had been called to Woodstock.

“I said, ‘Oh, Mr. Dylan, oh what a thrill it is seeing you. You are a wonderful man and everyone thinks highly of you.'”

“Tell me, Mr. Tim,” said Dylan, according to Tiny, “tell me what they are saying about me.”

“I told him, ‘You are today what Rudy Vallee was in 1928,’ and Mr. Dylan asked me what I meant by that.”

The next fifteen minutes of the story are musical, as Tiny re-creates the original scene, with dialog, songs and history. He tells “Mr. Dylan” – everyone is addressed “Mister” or “Miss” – how popular “Mr. Vallee” was, how all the women swooned. Then, providing some historical background to Vallee, he introduces other singers from the past – Mr. (Henry) Burr, Mr. (Arthur) Fields, Mr. (Irving) Kaufman and Mr. (Gene) Austin – and accompanies each name with a song. The room is filled with the plinking of Tiny’s ukelele (pulled from a battered shopping bag) and a voice that ranges from a rich baritone to a pure falsetto, as the songs and singers demand.

“Some magic charm/Keeps me from harm …” he sings, from a Henry Burr hit of 1919. “I’ve banished all my fears/For I know God hears …”

The songs and praise of the creators go on and on, and it must have been a splendid sight to see all this happening in Dylan’s spacious home.

Tiny Tim then sings two of “Mr. Dylan’s” songs – “Don’t Think Twice” and “Like a Rolling Stone” – just as they would have sounded in the 30’s if Vallee had sung them, and finishes his song cycle and long, long answer to Dylan’s question by singing one of Vallee’s old hits, “My Time Is Your Time,” using Dylan’s voice. The performance is truly incredible.

“Then Mr. Dylan looked at me,” Tiny said, “and he said, ‘Do you want a banana.'”

Bob Dylan had met Tiny Tim. Tiny thinks Mr. Dylan is wonderful and this was his way of saying so. Tiny oohs and ahhs and laughs deeply when he tells this story. He thinks it amusing, even Dylan’s remark at the end.