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“TINY TIM AND MR. PLYM: Life As We Knew It”
EXCERPTS
The one thing we all had in common in that small venue in Waterloo, Iowa, on that night in 1971 was the sense that we had never seen anything quite like Tiny Tim...
After the shock of him wore off, I started to really listen to his voice. I couldn’t tell you whether he was singing “Great Balls of Fire,” an Elvis Presley song, or one of the many tribute medleys he did, but the fact was that he could sing! He could really sing. And I had brought him there…
What you got with Tiny Tim was a hell of a show and a hell of a voice -- warm, rich, deep, and filled with vibrato and emotion. After a rousing string of songs, sung passionately and without self-consciousness, he closed with his hit single, “Tiptoe Through the Tulips.”
I wasn’t the only one hypnotized by him. By the time he was done, sure everyone was still laughing, but they were also cheering and hooting and hollering. As he closed out the night, his eyes were twinkling and he met our gaze, knowing full well we had been making fun of him. Striking the full height of the falsetto he saved for his signature song, he looked out into the audience, winked, and grinned.
Ahh, I thought. Now I get it.
It was ninety degrees outside and Tiny Tim was wearing a tuxedo. With Mickey Mouse faces all over it. I mean actually wearing it on the playing Field, center field to be exact. It was quite a sight. Hot enough to roast a pig on home base and he’s got the full tails on and, of course, a tie.
I had my finger on the phone ready to call the paramedics during the entire game. Between all the clothes he was wearing and the fact that he absolutely refused to drink from any cup that might have been filled from the Gatorade thermos because--horror of all horrors--it might contain a germ or two, we were taking bets as to whether he would have an all-out heart attack, a stroke, or just pass out dead from heat exhaustion.
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