Tiny Tim (born Herbert Khaury; April 12, 1932 – November 30, 1996) is best known for his appearances on "Laugh In" and "The Tonight Show". However he recorded in many styles and was known as an historian and archivist of music.
See video clips below
"People Are Strange"
"The Other Side"
"Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?"
"Stayin' Alive"
"Highway To Hell MTV Clip"
"I'm Gonna Be A Country Queen"
Removed
Tiny Tim in "Ironside" Pilot
Tiny Tim on Morton Downey Jr (ca. 1994) Two old performers drop their personas in this sad but real clip. {Warning -- I have not been able to view Mr. Tim in the same way since I heard him admit he hit Miss Vicki in the name of God}
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Downey also was a manufactured personality. Not really political but liberal he copped Joe Pyne's shtick, and the zombie metastasis was on, culminating in a fascist court jester being installed as Leader of the Free World. Pyne started off the real thing, a charismatic proletarian Marine with extensive combat experience. ¡His! impatience and loss of courtesy probably stemmed from PTSD followed by chronic pain and loss of self image after losing his leg "to a rare form of cancer." It's disturbing to see in YouTube clips that the archetypical shock jock was usually more gracious and intelligent than the industry standard interviewer today. When it became obvious that his bad boy routine brought in the ratings his producers would provide him with effete or ineffectual liberal academics ["kooks"] who would wilt under his bullying. It was a loss of dignity and intellectual honesty, lazy & cynical, but it paid the rent. Toward the end it was obviously phony, like professional wrestling. It would be easy to blame our current Bosch nightmare on Pyne, but he, and all the feeble imitations to follow [e.g. Glenn Beck] were all pushed along by the locomotive of history, like dandelion fluff in the wind. His NY Times obit is short, light, and a good read.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9m69lCF6R4
https://www.nytimes.com/1970/03/25/archives/joe-pyne-44-dies-abrasive-tv-host-his-talk-show-was-devoted-to.html