And now a page from our “Sunday Morning” Almanac: December 17, 1969, 48 years ago today — a wedding day like no other.
For that was the day the singer known as Tiny Tim married Vicki Budinger on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.”
Victoria May “Miss Vicki” Budinger and Tiny Tim appear on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson,” after being married on air, December 17 1969.
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Born Herbert Khaury in New York City in 1932, Tiny Tim took his stage name from the Charles Dickens character, and performed for years in small Greenwich Village clubs.
His falsetto vocals and ukulele dexterity eventually won him notice. And, in 1968, his version of “Tip Toe Through The Tulips” became an unlikely hit song.
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Ballyhooed to the max, Tiny Tim’s wedding to Miss Vicki, as he called her, was a huge television event, viewed in more than 21 million households — a “Tonight Show” record at the time.
Their marriage, however, didn’t last. Tiny Tim and Miss Vicki largely lived apart. They divorced after eight years.
He carried on with his musical career, to mixed success, and died of a heart attack following a performance in Minneapolis in 1996.
Tiny Tim was 64 years old.
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