Imagine if Tiny Tim’s stage name was instead “Little Herbert” lol
Funnily enough, Tiny and I had some friends in common, and the six of us (me and my wife, him and his wife Miss Jan, and this couple who were our mutual friends) had a standing date for Mother's Day Brunch in Islamorada, FL for reasons that get to a whole bunch of other stories...but he called everyone Mister or Miss, so to him I was Mr. Tim, my wife was Miss Nora, etc. Most people called him Tiny, but that didn't feel right, but so I never actually addressed him by name.
But he did in fact have an astonishing list of stage names. He stuck with the one that he happened to be using when he got a break, but it could easily have been any number of others. A short list includes "Larry Love, the Singing Canary", Texarkana Tex, Judas K. Foxglove, Vernon Castle, Emmett Swink, Darry Dover, and Sir Timothy Tims. His manager wanted him to use an English accent with that one, but but Brooklyn's own Herbert Khaury couldn't come close to swinging it. LOL
He was a genuinely sweet guy with an unparalleled knowledge of The Great American Songbook from all the way back to right up to the minute (the last time I saw him in 1995, his setlist included Highway to Hell, for example LOL), a passionate knowledge of baseball (a Brooklyn Dodgers guy, he was okay with both the LA Dodgers and the Mets, but for sure NL), and you will not be shocked to hear that he could spin a yarn. We spent an hour or two each year, tucked away just yakking in a corner, and the memories still bring me enormous pleasure.
Not that that has anyting to do with this, but there ya go.
Let me know if we need to start a Tiny Tim thread, and I'll add some more stories. I'll bet plenty of you have 'em too!
