Eternal troubadour : the improbable life of Tiny Tim /cJustin Martell with Alanna Wray McDonald

As Bing Crosby once put it, Tiny Tim represents 'one of the most phenomenal success stories in show business'. In 1968, after years of playing dive bars and lesbian cabarets on the Greenwich Village scene, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Bob Dylan and Lenny Bruce, the forty-something falsetto-voiced, ukulele-playing Tiny Tim landed a recording contract with Sinatra's Reprise label and an appearance on NBC's Laugh-In. The resulting album, God Bless Tiny Tim, and its single, 'Tip-toe Thru' The Tulips With Me', catapulted him to the highest levels of fame. Soon, Tiny was playing to huge audiences in the USA and Europe, while his marriage to the seventeen-year-old 'Miss' Vicki was broadcast on The Tonight Show in front of an audience of fifty million. Before long, however, his star began to fade. Miss Vicki left him, his earnings evaporated, and the mainstream turned its back on him. He would spend the rest of his life trying to revive his career, with many of those attempts taking a turn toward the absurd. But while he is often characterized as an oddball curio, Tiny Tim was a master interpreter and student of early American popular song, and his story is one of Shakespearean tragedy framed around a bizarre yet loveable public persona. Here, drawing on dozens of new interviews, never-before-seen diaries, and years of original research, author Justin Martell brings that story to life with the first serious biography of one of the most fascinating yet misunderstood figures in popular music. As Bing Crosby once put it, the rise of Tiny Tim represents ‘one of the most phenomenal success stories in show business.'In 1968, after years of playing dive bars and lesbian cabarets on the Greenwich Village scene, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Bob Dylan and Lenny Bruce, the falsetto-voiced, ukulele-playing Tiny Tim landed a recording contract with Frank Sinatra's Reprise label and an appearance on NBC's Laugh-In. The resulting album, God Bless Tiny Tim, and its single, ‘Tip-Toe Thru'The Tulips With Me,'catapulted him to the highest levels of fame.Soon, Tiny was playing to huge audiences in the USA and Europe, while his marriage to the seventeen-year-old ‘Miss'Vicki was broadcast on The Tonight Show in front of an audience of fifty million. Before long, however, his star began to fade. Miss Vicki left him, his earnings evaporated, and the mainstream turned its back on him. He would spend the rest of his life trying to revive his career, with many of his attempts taking a turn toward the absurd.While he is often characterized as an oddball curio, Tiny Tim was a master interpreter of early American popular song, and his story is one of Shakespearean tragedy framed around a bizarre yet loveable public persona. Drawing on more than a hundred interviews with family, friends, and associates, plus access to Tiny's diaries, which have never before been made public, Eternal Troubadour tells the incredible true story of one of the most fascinating yet misunderstood figures in the history of popular music. As Bing Crosby once put it, the rise of Tiny Tim represents one of the most phenomenal success stories in show business. In 1968, after years of playing dive bars and lesbian cabarets on the Greenwich Village scene, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Bob Dylan and Lenny Bruce, the falsetto-voiced, ukulele-playing Tiny Tim landed a recording contract with Frank Sinatras Reprise label and an appearance on NBCs Laugh-In. The resulting album, God Bless Tiny Tim , and its single, Tip-Toe Thru The Tulips With Me, catapulted him to the highest levels of fame. Soon, Tiny was playing to huge audiences in the USA and Europe, while his marriage to the seventeen-year-old Miss Vicki was broadcast on The Tonight Show in front of an audience of fifty million. Before long, however, his star began to fade. Miss Vicki left him, his earnings evaporated, and the mainstream turned its back on him. He would spend the rest of his life trying to revive his career, with many of his attempts taking a turn toward the absurd. While he is often characterized as an oddball curio, Tiny Tim was a master interpreter of early American popular song, and his story is one of Shakespearean tragedy framed around a bizarre yet loveable public persona. Drawing on more than a hundred interviews with family, friends, and associates, plus access to Tinys diaries, which have never before been made public, Eternal Troubadour tells the incredible true story of one of the most fascinating yet misunderstood figures in the history of popular music. Introduction by Harry Stein One Neighborhood Children Two The Human Canary Three America’s Answer To The Beatles Four You Are What You Eat Five Welcome To My Dream Six The Holy Freak Seven My Community Eight Beautiful Thoughts Nine Miss Vicki Ten ‘Being Of Sound Mind ...’ Eleven Don’t Bite The Hand That’s Feeding You Twelve The Blessed Event Thirteen ‘This Thing Kills Me To The Bone’ Fourteen Fears Of Failure Fifteen Can’t Help But Wonder Where I’m Bound Sixteen The Eternal Troubadour Seventeen Do You Think I’m Sexy? Eighteen Forever Miss Dixie Nineteen Miss Jan Twenty The Great American Circus Twenty-one Marvelous Mervo Twenty-two Tiny Saw Elvis! Twenty-three Hide Away In I-O-Way Twenty-four Sweet Sue, Just You Twenty-five Some Sort Of Bad Alice Cooper Video Twenty-six I Know God Still Loves Me Twenty-seven This Is Not Madness Or Acting Twenty-eight ‘Tiny Tim Is Signing Off!’ Twenty-nine Tiptoe To Eternity Acknowledgments A Note On Sources Illustrations 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 While often characterized as an oddball curio, Tiny Tim was a master interpreter and student of early American popular song, and his story is one of Shakespearean tragedy framed around a bizarre yet loveable public persona. Drawing on more than one hundred interviews with family, friends, and associates, plus access to Tiny's never-before-seen diaries, and years of original research, author Justin Martell brings that story to life with the first serious biography of one of the most fascinating yet misunderstood figures in popular music."--Adapted from page [4] of cover While often characterized as an oddball curiosity, Tiny Tim was a master interpreter and student of early American popular song, and his story is one of Shakespearean tragedy framed around a bizarre yet loveable public persona. Drawing on more than one hundred interviews with family, friends, and associates, plus access to Tiny's never-before-seen diaries, and years of original research, author Justin Martell brings that story to life.