Singer's Manager Quits, Saying ...
I'm Tired Of Playing Nursemaid to Tiny Tim

Tiny Tim's personal manager, claiming he's "fed up with playing nursemaid" to the long-haired, squeaky- voiced singer, said he has dropped Tim as a client because he missed shows and disappointed waiting audiences.
    "I could not take his unprofessional attitude any more," added Ron DeBlasio, whose unusual move - the manager firing the star - will cost his firm $100,000 annual income from Tiny Tim.
    DeBlasio told The ENQUIRER the final straw was Tiny Tim's failure to show up for the opening of the Southern California Festival of Flowers, at Los Angeles on April 10.
    "This was the last of a long line of upsets Tiny Tim had caused by skipping appearances and meetings when he wanted to," DeBlasio said.
    "We have always had to make excuses for him and look after him like a child. I'm fed up with playing nurse-maid.
    "Thousands of people - children and their parents - turned up to see him at the Flower Festival and he let them all down without a word.
    "He did not have the decency to offer any explanation at all.
    "If an artist makes arrangements he should stick to them, not just cancel them on a whim, causing everybody a lot of trouble."
    DeBlasio said the 46-year-old singer, who had the nation humming "Tip-toe Through the Tulips," had agreed to come to the Flower Festival from his appearance at the Fremont Hotel in Las Vegas.
    He said Tiny Tim was supposed to crown the festival queen but failed to show "without any warning at all."
    Joe Cappy, who was Tim's eastern manager, said the falsetto-voiced singer couldn't make it "because he was ill - suffering from sciatica in his leg."
    But DeBlasio apparently didn't buy that, explaining: "I had a meeting with my partners (in DeBlasio, Wald & Day, Inc., of Hollywood) and flew up to Las Vegas to tell him (Tim) we were letting him go. He didn't say a word."
    Tiny Tim's press agent, Gary Stronberg, voiced similar feelings, telling The ENQUIRER: "Tiny is very bad-mannered and I can only agree with what Mr. DeBlasio says about him. We are going to drop him as well.
    "He lets people down, misses engagements, then when you try to talk to him, he locks himself away.
    "I don't think it's his marriage that has made him like this. He's always been impossible to deal with," Stronberg said.
    Tiny Tim, formerly known as Herbert Buckingham Kauhry, his real name, also is known as Larry Love. He took a 17-year-old girl as his bride last December 18. Tim and the former Vicki Budinger were married before a nationwide television audience on the Johnny Carson "Tonight" show.
    Vickie, who suffered a miscarriage May 15, was pregnant while with her husband for his $35,000-a-week Las Vegas appearance.
    She apparently developed the unusual food cravings that go with being an expectant mother.
    He joined her on the eating binge. According to DeBlasio's partner, Jeff Wald, Tiny Tim asked room service at the Fremont to send up to his hotel suite, their first day there, a wild concoction of treats.
    The order included 35 chocolate malteds, 16 banana splits, 24 ice cream sodas, 27 sundaes and several dozen French pastries, Wald said.
    He added that the singer tipped the room service waiters $40 and $50, and that he, Wald, then told the hotel to quit sending further sweets to the suite. Tiny Tim later refused to finish his appearance at the Fremont, locking himself in his room.
    The hotel management also had been reported unhappy because Tiny Tim had become so sluggish from desserts, he was barely able to sing. And his telling his audience not to foolishly gamble away their money at Las Vegas casinos, including the Fremont's, didn't help matters either.
    Tiny Tim, in answer to all this, said: "I didn't mean to miss the Flower Festival and let those nice people down, but I could not help it.
    "I could not do part of my act at the Las Vegas hotel because my megaphone was not working and this really messed things up for me."
    Of DeBlasio's bowing out as his personal manager, Tim said: "I'll get a new manager, one who understands me more."

HUNGRY COUPLE: DeBlasio says that Vickie, who was pregnant, had food cravings and was joined by hubby Tiny Tim in a food-eating binge that ended with the singer's refusla to appear at his Las Vegas engagement.

Unidentified
Source: ROBERT E.JOHNSON
Reproduced according to "Fair Use"