Editing Tiny Tim (musician) (section)

==Life and career==
===Early years===
Tiny Tim was born Herbert Khaury in Manhattan, New York City, on April 12, 1932.<ref name="auto"/> His mother Tillie ({{née|Staff}}), a Polish-Jewish garment worker, was the daughter of a [[rabbi]]. She had immigrated from [[Brest, Belarus|Brest-Litovsk]], present-day Belarus, as a teen in 1914. His father, Butros Khaury, was a textile worker from [[Beirut]], present-day Lebanon, and the son of a  [[Maronites|Maronite Catholic]] priest.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tinytim.org/articles/parade.html |title=Tiny Tim on cover of Parade |publisher=Tinytim.org |access-date=September 27, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130703044818/http://www.tinytim.org/articles/parade.html |archive-date=July 3, 2013 |df=mdy-all }}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/article-1G2-2874700305/tiny-tim-herbert-butros.html |title=Tiny Tim (Herbert Butros Khaury) – The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia.com |access-date=September 27, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Tiny Tim: Tiptoe Through a Lifetime|author1=Tarling, Lowell|author2=Sharp, Martin|year=2013|page=15|isbn=978-1484138564}}</ref> Tiny Tim himself was a devout Catholic.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Devotional Life of Tiny Tim|url=https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/devotional-life-tiny-tim-ted-willi|access-date=2021-12-01|website=www.linkedin.com|language=en}}</ref>

Khaury displayed an interest in music at a very young age. At the age of five, his father gave him a vintage wind-up [[Phonograph|gramophone]] and a 78-RPM record of "[[Beautiful Ohio]]" by [[Henry Burr]]. Khaury has passionately praised Burr, telling [[Johnny Carson]] that "the wonderful Henry Burr's" circa-1915 records inspired his own singing style.<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4X3BBN7Hdp4 |title=Tiny Tim Makes a Very Odd First Appearance {{!}} Carson Tonight Show |date=2022-10-02 |last=Johnny Carson |access-date=2024-07-17 |via=YouTube}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book | last = Martell | first = Justin | title = Eternal Troubadour: The Improbable Life Of Tiny Tim | publisher = Jawbone Press | year = 2016 | isbn = 9781908279873}}</ref> He grew up in the [[Washington Heights, Manhattan|Washington Heights]] neighborhood in [[Manhattan]], where he attended [[George Washington Educational Campus|George Washington High School]].<ref name=NYTobit/>

In 1945, while recovering from appendix removal, 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. He dropped out of high school after continuously repeating his sophomore year, taking a series of menial jobs.<ref name=ehollywood>{{Cite episode |title=Tiny Tim |series=E! True Hollywood Story|series-link=E!_True_Hollywood_Story|network=E! |date=March 25, 2001 |season=5 |number=12}}</ref> Around this time, while listening to [[Rudy Vallée]], he discovered he could sing in a high register.  He taught himself to play [[ukulele]] using an [[Arthur Godfrey]] method book.<ref name="Ukulele Heroes: The Golden Age">{{cite book
| first= Ian
| last= Whitcomb
| year= 2012
| title= Ukulele Heroes: The Golden Age
| publisher= Hal Leonard Books
| location= Milwaukee, Wisconsin
| pages= 114–120
| isbn= 978-1-4584-1654-4}}</ref> He would later describe this period of his life as a "religious experience".<ref name=ehollywood />

===The Singing Canary===
By the early 1950s, Tiny Tim had landed a job as a messenger at the New York office of [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]] Studios, where he became ever more fascinated with the entertainment industry. He then entered a local talent show and sang "[[You Are My Sunshine]]" in his newly discovered falsetto. He started performing at dance club amateur nights under different names, such as "Texarkana Tex", "Judas K. Foxglove", "Vernon Castle", and "Emmett Swink." To stand out as a performer, he wore wild clothing, grew his hair long and wore pasty white face makeup, partly inspired by [[Rudolph Valentino]].<ref name="gettyimages/1371377379">{{cite web |last1=Keyes |first1=Donald Biddle |title=Rudolph Valentino, publicity portrait for the silent film, 'The Sheik' |url=https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/rudolph-valentino-publicity-portrait-for-the-silent-film-news-photo/1371377379 |website=[[Getty Images]] |publisher=[[Famous Players-Lasky]], [[Paramount Pictures]] |access-date=19 September 2023 |language=en-us |date=1921}}</ref> His mother did not understand Herbert's change in appearance and was intending to take her now-twentysomething son to see a psychiatrist at [[NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue|Bellevue Hospital]] until his father stepped in.<ref name="ehollywood" /> 
[[File:TinyTim.jpg|thumb|140px|Tiny Tim performing at an event in Tennessee in the late 1980s]]
In 1959, he performed as "Larry Love, the Singing Canary" at Hubert's Museum and Live Flea Circus in New York City's [[Times Square]]. While there, he signed with a manager who sent him on unpaid auditions throughout [[Greenwich Village]].<ref name=ehollywood /> At this stage he began performing the song that would later become his signature, "[[Tiptoe Through the Tulips]]". In 1963, he landed his first paid gig at Page 3, a lesbian-run club on the corner of Charles Street and Seventh Avenue,<ref name="hughryan/lesbian-for-mafia">{{cite web |last1=Ryan |first1=Hugh |author1-link=Hugh Ryan |title=Back in the Day, Lesbian Drag Kings Worked for the Mafia |url=https://www.hughryan.org/recent-work/2015/8/3/back-in-the-day-lesbian-drag-kings-worked-for-the-mafia |website=Hugh Ryan .org |access-date=19 September 2023 |date=3 August 2015}}</ref> playing six hours a night and six nights a week for $96 per month. For the next two years, he performed as "Dary Dover" and later "Sir Timothy Timms". After a show in which he was booked to follow a "midget" act, his manager George King decided to bill him as "Tiny Tim" - a name which stuck.<ref name=ehollywood /><ref>{{cite news |last1=Kennedy |first1=Helen |title=Tiny Tim Dies Singing His Hit |url=http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/tiny-tim-dies-singing-hit-article-1.737455 |access-date=December 25, 2015 |work=[[New York Daily News]] |date=December 2, 1996}}</ref>

Throughout the 1960s, Tiny Tim made numerous appearances in film and television. He had a cameo in [[Jack Smith (film director)|Jack Smith]]'s ''[[Normal Love]]'' from 1963. He also featured in 1968's ''[[You Are What You Eat (film)|You Are What You Eat]]'', singing [[the Ronettes]]' "[[Be My Baby]]" and [[Sonny and Cher]]'s "[[I Got You Babe]]" as a duet with [[Eleanor Barooshian]], in which Tiny took the Cher part.  This led to a booking on the comedy variety show ''[[Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In]]''. Co-host [[Dan Rowan]] announced that ''Laugh-In'' "(believed) in showcasing new talent" before introducing Tiny Tim, who arrived on stage with a ukulele in a shopping bag and sang "[[A-Tisket, A-Tasket]]" and "[[On the Good Ship Lollipop]]" while an apparently genuinely dumbfounded [[Dick Martin (comedian)|Dick Martin]] watched.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_bljefIsBc| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140627102122/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_bljefIsBc&feature=related| archive-date=2014-06-27 | url-status=dead|title=Video of Tiny Tim's debut on ''Laugh-In''|via=YouTube|access-date=September 28, 2012}}</ref> He sang "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" on both his second and third appearances on the show.<ref>{{cite web|title=Video of Tiny Tim's third appearance on ''Laugh-In'' (complete)|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5MQbFAGHRE&NR=1| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140627102303/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5MQbFAGHRE&NR=1| archive-date=2014-06-27 | url-status=dead|via=YouTube|access-date=September 28, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skU-jBFzXl0| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060614093342/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skU-jBFzXl0| archive-date=2006-06-14 | url-status=dead|title=Video of Tiny Tim's third appearance on ''Laugh-In'' (song only)|publisher=YouTube|access-date=September 28, 2012}}</ref>

===''God Bless Tiny Tim'' and peak of popularity===
[[File:John Wayne Tiny Tim Laugh In 1971.JPG|thumb|left|[[John Wayne]] and Tiny Tim help celebrate the 100th episode of ''[[Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In|Laugh-In]]'', 1971]]
His debut ''[[God Bless Tiny Tim]]'' was released by [[Reprise Records]] in 1968. "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" was released as a single and reached No. 17 on the [[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]] chart. ''[[Tiny Tim's 2nd Album]]'' followed in 1968, featuring a portrait of Tiny Tim and his parents on the cover. This was followed by 1969's ''[[For All My Little Friends]]'', a collection of children's songs that received a 1970 [[Grammy Award for Best Children's Music Album|Grammy Award]] nomination.<ref>{{cite web|website=Grammy.com|title=Tiny Tim|url=https://www.grammy.com/artists/tiny-tim/14128|access-date=December 27, 2022}}</ref>  Charting singles from this era included "Bring Back Those Rockabye Baby Days" at No. 95 and "Great Balls of Fire" at No. 85 in 1968 and 1969.<ref name="Whitburn Pop">{{cite book| last = Whitburn| first = Joel| title = Top Pop Singles 1955-1993| publisher = Record Research| location = [[Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin]] |year = 1994| isbn = 0-89820-104-7}}</ref>

During this era of Tiny's mass popularity, many pundits and journalists debated whether the "character" that Tiny Tim presented was just an orchestrated act or the real thing.<ref name="bio" />

On December 17, 1969, Tiny Tim married Miss Vicki on ''[[The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson]]'' with 40 million people watching.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-item-tiny-tim-weds-on-televisi/149043210/|work=The Daily Item|location=Sunbury, Pennsylvania|date=December 18, 1969|title=Tiny Tim weds on television}}</ref> At the time, this was one of the most watched television events ever.

After his career highlights in the late 1960s, Tiny Tim's television appearances dwindled, and his popularity began to wane. He continued to play concerts, making several lucrative appearances in [[Las Vegas Valley|Las Vegas]]. In August 1970, he performed "[[There'll Always Be an England]]" to an estimated 600,000 people at the [[Isle of Wight Festival 1970]]. The UK press announced that he had stolen the show "without a single electric instrument".<ref>{{cite news |title=How Tiny Tim blew my mind: The story of an obsession |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/23lXVV4B9rfL2WgFKfLJ6gy/how-tiny-tim-blew-my-mind-the-story-of-an-obsession |access-date=January 6, 2020 |agency=BBC Arts}}</ref>

In 1973, at the beginning of a tour, a driver who suffered a heart attack crashed into Tiny Tim's van, severely injuring Tim and leaving him with a collapsed lung and several broken ribs. Tim would spend four months in the hospital and the lack of funds from Tim's lack of touring resulted in Tim's then manager parting ways with Tim.<ref>{{cite web |title=Tiny Tim |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0320630/ |website=E! True Hollywood Story |date=25 March 2001}}</ref>

When his recording contract ended with [[Reprise Records|Reprise]], he founded his own record label and named it Vic Tim Records, as a pun on the combination of his wife's name with that of his own. ''Tiny Tim'', a biography by [[Harry Stein (author)|Harry Stein]], was published in 1976 by Playboy Press.

===Martin Sharp collaborations===
[[Image:Luna_Park_Sydney_circa_1982.jpg|thumb|right|Luna Park Sydney in the 1980s, the setting for Tiny Tim's record-setting singing marathon]]
In January 1979, Australian artist [[Martin Sharp]] brought Tiny Tim to [[Luna Park Sydney|Luna Park in Sydney, Australia]] to set the world record for the longest non-stop professional singing marathon. This was the culmination of a longstanding collaboration between Tiny Tim and Sharp, who had been openly obsessed with him for years, bringing him to Australia several times, producing his recordings and painting his portrait over and over in different styles. The marathon performance was filmed by Sharp's camera crew and ran for over two hours and seventeen minutes, successfully setting a world record.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Tarling |first1=Lowell |title=Sharper 1980-2013: A Biography of Martin Sharp |date=2020 |publisher=ETT IMPRINT}}</ref>

When the [[1979 Sydney Ghost Train fire|1979 Ghost Train fire]] occurred at Luna Park five months later, Sharp became convinced that the fire was in some way theologically linked to Tiny Tim's performance and also set out to prove it was deliberately lit as an [[arson]] attempt. All of this became the basis for the film ''[[Street of Dreams (Martin Sharp film)|Street of Dreams]]'', which serves as both a biography of Tiny Tim and an exploration of Luna Park and the fire. Sharp never finished editing ''Street of Dreams'' in his lifetime and the film remains incomplete, though a rough cut was released for film festival screenings in 1988 and that version continues to circulate online.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Portus |first1=Martin |title=Tiny Tim's Big Comeback |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-sydney-morning-herald-tiny-timmarti/138565943/ |access-date=12 January 2024 |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=21 May 1988}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The Street of Dreams |url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/512060/the-street-of-dreams/ |website=TCM |access-date=12 January 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Falconer |first1=Delia |title=Sydney, updated paperback edition |date=2020 |publisher=Simon & Schuster}}</ref>

Sharp went on to produce many of Tiny Tim's later records including ''Rock'', ''Chameleon'' and ''Keeping My Troubles to Myself'', and also brought Tiny Tim to perform in Australia several more times throughout the 1980s and 1990s. His all-consuming fixation on Tiny Tim, Luna Park and the fire continued until his death in 2013.

In 2014, standalone footage of the complete marathon performance was released on streaming services as ''The Non-Stop Luna Park Marathon'' by Planet Blue Pictures.<ref>{{cite web |title=Press release, 2014 |url=https://www.bluepierecords.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/PBP-Tiny-Tim-PR-300514-RC.pdf |website=Planet Blue Pictures |access-date=14 January 2024}}</ref> As of 2023, it can be viewed for free on Vimeo.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Non-Stop Luna Park Marathon |url=https://vimeo.com/761655403 |website=Vimeo |date=October 18, 2022 |publisher=Planet Blue Pictures |access-date=14 January 2024}}</ref>

A large mural of Tiny Tim with tulip themes painted by Sharp hangs in the [[Macquarie University Campus Experience|Macquarie University Student Council]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Exhibition highlights 50 years of artistic engagement|url=https://www.mq.edu.au/newsroom/2014/10/02/exhibition-highlights-50-years-of-artistic-engagement/|access-date=2020-07-21|language=en}}</ref>