The San Francisco Examiner from San Francisco, California • 19

j'w mil -T" ACM CJ S.F. EXAMINER Wed, July 4 0 she's befriended during her aspiring '1; I 'H -4 4l Jti 1 Examiner Tammy do Treaux with her autograph book, a record of the people small in Making Pago 19 18. 1979 photos by Nicole Bengivenp little person on the show. I know It' sounds callous, but when you have two, they detract from each other, I think." Mostly, she sighs, "I want to play V-person who is foremost a person, but just happens to be short I know a lot of tall people feel the same way." Her. dream is to portray Fanny Brice, "but I dont think they'd ever let me do it but maybe something like a Fanny Brice.

character." Or, she says, green eyes glinting, Td love to play an ax murderess." At the moment, she'd just like to find some roles. "I guess they're afraid if they put me In a very averagetype role, that people would not accept it, I really want to play a person who is involved withsomeone of average stature, because I have always been involved with people who are of average size which people find real bizarre. They cant handle it, for some reason." i A woman who apparently handles her unique size better than many people handle too many freckles, she harbors no fantasies about being tall and, in fact, loves midget jokes. A confirmed optimist, she figures If she were any taller, "I wouldn't have the advantages I have. I wouldnt know half the people I know.

As for her theatrical aspirations, she assumes, "Jfs all going to happen. Why put me here on earth if not to do something? I want to be famous. You know, fame is equal to love these days. And I'll know I'm famous when Rona Barrett wants to do an interview and Til have a guest host spot on Johnny Carson." When that moment comes, she expects she'll be ready. "So far, Tve been on the Evening Show, twice." Inside Re-enlisting for the Peace Corps at 76 Page 20 Food: Shopping at the Farmers' Market Page '22 Stv- if show business career Stephen Hardisty show With her 'itsy bitsy little dog' Pappy, a 21a-pound Yorkshire terrier.

5 the family who is an actor got her a job in "Dont Be Afraid of the Dark," a movie made for television In which she played a fur-covered monster, something "between a mole and a bear." Following that, she cavorted as a megavitamin pill in a promotional film made for a local channel. She's also appeared at the Dickens Faire as a Chinese empress, and at the Renaissance Faire, where, playing the baker's wife, she sits in a wheelbarrow heaped with bread More recently, she was a stand-in for a child during production of "Little Mjss Marker." Reflecting on her desire for fame, de Treaux says it's simply an extension of all the attention she already gets. "It's not like I can walk into a room and melt," she observes. "I've lived with an 'almost being famous' kind of atmosphere all my life. I'm noticed.

I'm looked at I'm asked who I am. I'm stared at "I heard Dean Martin say during a television Interview that what he hated most about being famous was having people stare at him hile he ate. I go through that all the time. It's just second nature to me." De Treaux Is not altogether displeased by the attention. "I dont think I would like it if I werent noticed," she remarks.

She also delights in the looks she gets when she walks her "very itsy bitsy little dog," a 2-pound Yorkshire terrier. However, living at a kneecap level has its obvious drawbacks, although in the San Leandro home she shares with her mother is also her manager), there have been few concessions made 'It's not like I can walk into a room and melt I'm stared at' The kitchen counter is a stretch 4 '-hit I ByBeaPixa LMOST. ENGULFED by At 1 I .1 1 fi VI which she sits, Tamara (Tammy) de Treaux ex- claims, "It takes people a khttle while to get used to me, for some reason." That observation undoubtedly true might have something to do with the fact that she stands but 31 inches tall. Although bent on making it big in show business, de Treaux bears the distinction of being possibly the smallest woman in the world or as she puts it, "the petite of the petites." The diminutive performer a singer and actress whose speaking voice brings to mind the 1950s records by The Chipmunks, did a summer study sessionv' with ACT, has had voice training, and checks In regularly with a drama coach to groom herself for what she feels is imminent stardom. She's also a psychology student at Chabot College, because she feels that major will help add breadth and depth to her dramatic skills.

As might be expected, she finds suitable roles hard to come by, and even work as an extra is out of the question because she obviously can't melt Into a crowd To whip up interest in her talents, the lyear-old de Treaux religiously makes the rounds of writers', producers' and directors' offices. "1 have to go out and say to them, 'Hi there. You want me. You don't know it yet, but you want me." She bad an agent, briefly, but de Treaux observes sarcastically that he seemed to spend his time waiting for someone to call and ask for a performer who was 2-f eet-six, green-eyed, red-haired and weighed between 35 and 40 pounds. She pushes against obstacles that are much bigger than she Is, but her size coupled with her "chutzpah" have propelled her through doors that might otherwise have remained firmly shut "I'm a real barger," she says cheerfully of her tenacity and ability to demand, and get, an Interview.

To meet celebrities who perform locally, she spends a lot of time at the Boarding House, and usually sends a note after performances, explaining that she's both an actress and the smallest woman in the world More often than not, the already famous are just as Interested in making her acquaintance as she is in making theirs. As a result of her enterprise, she counts comedians Lily Tomlin and Robin Williams as special friends, and considers Walter Matthau "the nicest man In the world." On the other hand, Barry Manilow gets lowest marks for his indifference to a meeting, consequently, "I cant wait to refuse him." Although she's persisted, becoming famous remains a tall order. Her show business earnings thus far would allow her to support herself, she joshes, "if I didnt have to pay rent or buy food" De Treaux's interest in a performing career began six years ago, at age 13, with the realization that she couldnt get work babysitting during the summer, as her schoolmates were doing, because most babies were bigger than she was Instead, a friend of H. A 1 1 want to be famou JS fame is equal to love these days' 1 to her size. "I've just adapted.

But my mother gets upset because I have a tendency to stand on the toaster to reach things. I love to cook." A redwood cedar chest serves as her dressing table, but that, she says, Is the only low piece of furniture. For turning on lights, she finds a backscratcher useful. Elevator buttons are way out of reach. Getting onto a chair is a bit of a climb, and buying clothes is a catch-asatch-can effort De Treaux makes many of the things she wears, "even though 1 hate sewing more than anything in the entire world." The dress she wore the day of the interview, however, was a store-bought blouse that seemed to adapt very well.

A recent tour of the King Tut exhibit with her sister proved awkward, but not impossible. "I got a wheelchair and stood up in it, because the exhibits are very high. We just plowed through but we may have run over a couple of people." Another time, she and her mother were making their way to movie seats while holding aloft boxes of popcorn. "It was hard to manage getting the seat down, and me on top of it, with the popcorn in my hand. The seat flipped up, and the popcorn shot up in the air." The whole row of moviegoers, she chuckles, exploded with laughter.

De Treaux has an older sLster and brother, both average size. Technically, she's classified somewhere between a midget and a dwarf. "I've been told I'm really well-adjusted," says the tiny whirlwind, who nonetheless recalls having had a little trouble around age 16 but then, that's a real earthquake time for yourself." She finished her last year and a half of high school with a private tutor. As far as her show business competition goes, she's almost in a class by herself, although she knows quite a few aspiring male actors who are "little people." Even so, she complains, when there is a role for a "little person," it usually goes to a male. She's met Herve Villechaize, the midget co-star of "Fantasy Island," and comments, "If I were in his place, I would not have another i i klri 21h" Hf i I De Treaux Jokes with her brother,.