Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 24

AC DETROIT FREE PRESSTHURSDAY. APRIL 8, 1982 iss Vicki tiptoes from the tulips into a quiet new life 4Tm finally doing what I wantto do which is not much." ft fxP 1 I FISHER'S 1, SWWmWffWffmU'WJIJtWWMMW'W'WTO i.u.i.ii.ii. )j i.iii.iii jii. mi i 'kil 0 a. mamem 'mil inn 8 Minutes from FAIRLANE TOWN CENTER 20 Minutes from NORTHLAND (Via Soutbfield Expressway) Minutes from SOUTHLAND 10 Minutes from DOWNTOWN 20 Minutes Photo by MICHAEL VIOLAPhiladelphia Inquirer Miss Vicki was 1 7 when she married Tiny Tim on the Johnny Carson show, right.

Now, at 30 she says she has what she wants a quiet life in New Jersey with her daughter Tulip and second husband, Steve Chadler. from MONROE 45 Minutes from TOLEDO via 1-75 By ANN KOLSON Knlght-Ridder Newspapers The search for Miss Vicki ends in Philadelphia, above a small Chinese takeout place, up one flight of grimy, narrow stairs, to the offices of Graphix Hot Line. Victoria Budinger Khaury Chadler. The dame reveals her transformation from an unknown 17-year-old New Jersey girl who wed a freaky celebrity on national TV, to a 30-year-old Collingswood, N.J., wife and mother. In between there was motherhood, fashion modeling in London, go-go dancing in New Jersey clubs, a spread in Oui magazine, notoriety, a divorce, remarriage.

There is no bitterness now and she says, with no trace of sarcasm, "I've had a wonderful life up to now." A beautiful photograph of her hangs on the wall of her husband Steve's office, a local graphic arts studio. In it, she is sexy in blue jeans and a casual top, nicely back-lit, in a model's pose. Steve Chadler, 48, is slender, with tight curls and a weathered face both sharp-looking and wary. "Please be fair to her," he cautions. SOON VICKI breezes in.

She is 5-foot-10, all long, skinny legs, wearing tight tan pants, a sweater and high heels. Her complexion is creamy and her long brown hair is carefully curled. She speaks in a high-pitched girlish voice.1 This is the first interview she has given in years, since the days at Minnie's Lounge in Camden, N.J., where she wound up as a go-go dancer. Over tea and a cheese Danish at a restaurant, the ex-wife of entertainer Tiny Tim talks about her life then and now. She was just "a country girl" from Toms River, N.J., working as an usher at the Camden County Music Fair.

She had just moved to Haddonfield, N.J., with her family when she met Herbert Khaury, stage name Tiny Tim, while he was signing autographs in Philadelphia. The romance was exhaustively reported until practically everyone alive knew that long-haired, falsetto-voiced Tiny Tim more than twice her age fell in love "at first sight" with 16-year-old Victoria Budinger. She married him on the Johnny Carson show, on Dec. 17, 1969. "I was still a child," Expressway went on the Sullivan show and played a medley of tunes from the '20s through the '60s.

Miss Vicki (as she was called then), dressed in the appropriate costume and, before millions of people, sang along. "I was really bad. I tried to be inaudible," she says. After all she's been through, she says that now, at 30, she finally has exactly what she wants. "I'm finally doing what I want to do which is not much," she says.

"I watch 'All My I have my girlfriends, I take care of my daughter." She lives in an apartment in Collingswood, goes to PTA meetings, models occasionally and rarely goes out at night. She doesn't see much of her ex-husband, who keeps in touch with their daughter by sending gifts and cards on holidays. Tulip, who was two when Vicki and Tiny Tim finally separated, doesn't remember life with her famous father. So much has happened to Vicki, too much perhaps. Now, she says, "I hope that things could stay the way they are." nothing of her past until after they had dated a while.

They married in a small church ceremony before family and friends in July 1979. After her marriage, she made what was to be her last stab at show business. Her agent who was also Tiny Tim's agent booked them into the same clubs as separate acts. At the start of the tour, she would go on and dance, then he would appear on stage and play. By the end, they went on together she would do her dance routines while he played ukelele and sang.

"It went over pretty well," she says. They were a curiosity because "people got the impression that we were back together." NOW HER show-business aspirations are over for good. She says the scene "is not for me. And besides, I don't have a lot of talent." When the five Budinger girls were children, putting on skits at home, Mrs. Budinger would laughingly tell Victoria, "You'll never make Ed Sullivan." "Well, I did," she says.

Not long after their marriage, Tiny Tim she says. "I was 17, but I was like a 13-year-old, really." They lived together on and off for four years, before she finally left. During those years together, they had a child, Tulip, now 11. With Tiny Tim she "traveled constantly," to Europe, Australia, Guam. They were always touring, and she says now, "I wanted a normal life." AND ALTHOUGH she took a rather circuitous route, by her own account a normal life is what she got.

After separating from Tiny Tim, Vicki danced in clubs for three years or so before being discovered by the media at Minnie's, where a sign outside proclaimed her appearances. She was trying to raise her young daughter, and had been earning $1.75 an hour, folding pants at a store, when the first offer to dance came her way. For $5 an hour, she found the offer hard to refuse. In 1976 or '77, she met Chadler in another Jersey club where she was dancing. He knew Jackets Suede and leather jackets in assorted colors and styles.

Sizes 8-14 ranging from $195.00 to $230.00. OPEN SAT. NITES-" TILL 9 1716 Fort near Southfield, Lincoln Park 383-8050 We feature il sizes include half sizes, Irs. and Talis. Two-way talking is a relative matter MURRAY BLUEOCTOPUSQBPS I VENTILATED PLASTIC SADDLE PADDED TOPBAr PADDED V-B AR TOVSf I REAR CALIPER BRAKES V4A-v fRr7L Win Feeling incorrect? Address your etiquette questions (in black or blue-black ink on white writing, paper) to Miss Manners, Box 828, Detroit 48231.

as an audience. Recommend your favorite records, and then play them for him. Ask him if he can figure out why you are having trouble with your automatic garage door opener, and show him the problem. Complain that your grass isn't growing properly, and get him to watch it in hopes of detecting that problem. By JUDITH MARTIN Dear Miss Manners: How true it is that one can pick one's friends, but not one's relatives.

Recently, we spent a holiday entertaining out-of-town relatives whose entourage included a terminally dull uncle. One-word answers are not our style, and the horror of one-way conversation soon grew to desperate proportions. After exhausting our creative resources, we found ourselves unable to develop a two-way conversation with this docile man. Please offer some advice on how to either stimulate this lopsided exchange, or bring about its welcome end. 1' You could redefine your terminally dull uncle as a good listener, and then unload on him all the stories you have wanted to tell without interruption, making him the object of all the rambling thoughts and reminiscences that livelier people have refuseJ to sit still for.

However, Miss Manners is perfectly aware that that will not solve your problem for long. That docile look of enduring whatever happens without reaction is pretty wearing. Miss Manners presumes you have tried questions about politics, the weather and other such standard conversational stimulants. If you have not tried bombarding the man with questions about his own past, by all means do so. Few people can resist such curiosity, and boring as his tales may be socially, they should be of some interest to you as family history.

Failing that, you must fill the airspace yourself. To make the task easier, Miss Manners will relieve you of some of the strictures usually observed by society for the protection of guests. Tell him the plot of the movie you saw last week. Get the children to practice for their recitals with him WMMimmM 'Mi IU4t Ml VV HELP US KELP BLACK PUMWALL TIRES AIIB Haster vrun i mi iiuictcHDi cn i-iK mm PRICE ASSEMBLY AVAILABLE AT EXTRA CHARGE OtdU I Tr lUlialn mm tfonalt i ol th pu.cft ALL MURRAY AT BIO DISCOUNTS 6l8octty HUFFY WES' 20 INCH BOYS 20 INCH BOYS GIRLS 20 INCH THUNDER TRAIL BOYS 20 INCH THUNDER "SttiETTHUBINHr 7997: 821 KSW 114'2 BIKE WW BIKE f07 MQTOCitOSS EKE OVouS rnlbC PRICE Coaster brake. Padded topbar, stem, crossbar.

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Racing saddle. Blue knobby tires. ALL KENT AT BIO DISCOUNTS MURRAY BOYS 16 INCH MENSOR LADIES MENS OR LADIES "MM CUMBER" GIRLS 18 INCH XST From now till Easter BMC WITH VFUftW ft097 fefecr eft96 26 INCH 10 SPEED RACER 97 dress up your children 89' OUR PRICE "FORMULA 10 AAM 10 SPEED ff97 RACER 1IUPX 10 speed derallleur. Front and rear caliper hand brakes. ALL COLUMBIA AT BIO DISCOUNTS BICYCLE price Coaster brake.

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ALL KENT AT BIQ DISCOUNTS Front and rear sidepull caliper brakes. Stem mounted shifters. ALL MURRAY AT BIQ DISCOUNTS ir.B 3 JMORf TOWER $Q00 CYCLE CASH rebate Ceszssm at Richard Boys and Girls and Save 20 Boys, Girls, Infants, Toddlers dress up clothes at 2 OFF EVERY EASTER DRESS EVERY COAT EVERY ENSEMBLE EVERY BOY'S 3-PC. SUIT VEST SET EVERY FARAH DRESS COORDINATE EVERY PIERRE CARDIN SUIT 33 13 OFF a on tour b-pacKs ouuice Send In pintl lltlad "Nulrllionil Information" Irom any 4 I anoNO vjy register lapa and Btech Nut will aand you your 12.00 cah nbatt Mail to: Nul 12.00 Caah Rebate 0 Box 548 Dept 41 Canajohatie 13317 1 THE DUKES Of HAZZARP POWER CYCLE Name. I I I I Two-Ems and Sandy Stevens join hands to bring you this cool pencil line stripe melody of spring.

With buttons accenting the sleeves and shoulder. Two tone belt. Navy and white. In Misses and Women's Dresses at all stores SALE ENDS APRIL 10, 1982 Address. Z'P.

City. I I Ha $42. Tint otter may not ba mechanically rapraducod and mutt accompany your request. Oner expires May 1982. Limit 1 recall per tamtty.

Otter yoid wliere prohibited. AHow 4 to 6 weeks ter delivery Valid in USA only. in imIlIIonhht HQ RAPIDS ie SAGINAW S0UTHGATE 32070 Gratiot Ave. BOYS and GIRLS WEAR 3445 28th. St.

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