American singer-songwriter Tiny Tim was BOTD in 1932. Born Herbert Butros Khaury in New York City to Belarusian and Lebanese immigrants, he developed an early interest in music, teaching himself to play the guitar when he was six. After dropping out of high school, he worked as a messenger at MGM Studios’ New York offices, becoming obsessed with show-business. He began performing in talent contests, singing in a falsetto register while playing the ukulele. Inspired by Rudolph Valentino, he grew his hair long and wore white facial make-up, concerning his mother sufficiently to refer him to a psychiatrist. In 1963, he booked his first professional job, performing nightly in a lesbian bar in Manhattan under various stage names. After one performance where he followed a midget act, his manager named him “Tiny Tim”, which he adopted for the remainder of his career. He made sporadic appearances on television throughout the 1960s, intriguing audiences with his eccentric appearance and sound. In 1968, his cover recording of Tiptoe Through the Tulips (taken from the 1929 musical film Gold Diggers of Broadway) became a surprise hit, reaching No 17 on the Billboard chart. Later that year, he married his fiancée Victoria Budinger on The Johnny Carson Show, attracting 40 million viewers. His popularity declined in the 1970s, and he performed mostly outside of America, including the Isle of Wight Festival in England and recurring appearances at the Luna Park amusement park in Sydney, Australia. Khaury had a daughter with Budinger before divorcing, and married two further times. He died in 1996, after suffering a heart attack while performing for the Women’s Club of Minneapolis. He was 64. A devoted Roman Catholic, Khaury spent much of his career denying rumours of his homosexuality. In the 2020 documentary Tiny Tim: King for a Day, Khaury’s third wife Susan Gardner and friends confirmed his bisexuality and discussed his sexual attraction to underage boys and girls.