Tiny People Participate in Tom Thumb Weddings

The tiny boy strode solemnly to the stage, using his walking cane as a proper Southern gentleman would...until he sat down. He discovered the cane was handy for hiking up girls' dresses.

Then there was the time that one of the guests was dressed as Captain Hook, and some children got hooked right off the stage. In a recent year a boy in traditional Chinese clothing yanked off his hat, which had a long black pigtail attached, and swung it around like a lasso.

Such misadventures are expected with 5- and 6-year-olds, and are part of the fun and charm of Tom Thumb weddings. It's a decades-old tradition in the Conway, S.C., community with roots in the 19th century.

The real "General" Tom Thumb was a midget named Charles Stratton, born in 1838 in Connecticut. At age four, he became an entertainer with the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus, and in 1863 married a dwarf named Lavinia Warren. It was a highly publicized and lavish wedding.

Americans adored the spectacle, and a humorous play based on the wedding titled "The Marriage of the Midgets," or "Tom Thumb Wedding," was performed by community troupes throughout the country. The play used small children in the roles of Mr. and Mrs. Tom Thumb.

The play evolved into scripted mock weddings featuring children, called Tom Thumb weddings, which were fund-raisers for schools and churches.

That tradition came to Conway, which is in the northeast corner of South Carolina, 15 miles east of the coastal Myrtle Beach. It was originally a Parent-Teacher Association fund-raiser, and there is photographic evidence of a local Tom Thumb wedding as early as 1931. Conway High School sponsored the event into the 1950s, but in 1952 discontinued them. That was the year the Conway Fine Arts Club took over the project.

The Fine Arts Club held its first meeting in 1922, and according to club member Dot Sanders, was founded for teachers new to the area, so they could have a social outlet and make friends. Its main fund-raiser is the Tom Thumb Wedding.

"When we started, we had four singers, about 10 bridesmaids, 10 groomsmen, and...always a few little guests," said Mary Roddey "Rod" McCown, who was the wedding's musical director since the Fine Arts Club took it over. The 2004 wedding was her last; she retired from the job after 52 years.

Through the decades, McCown witnessed many changes.

For several years, club members chose Kindergarteners who played the various parts. Girls considered the prettiest were picked as brides and bridesmaids, and boys deemed the most handsome played groom and groomsmen. The wedding party wore elaborate dresses and suits.

Children who wore glasses were almost surely destined to play the parents and grandparents of the brides and grooms. The role of guest was the least coveted part, because in the early days they didn't wear special costumes.

As time passed more singers, who were first-graders, were added.

Emma Lou Johnson was the club's wedding director in the 1960s and early 70s, and during that time, the manner in which parts were assigned was changed. Instead of picking kids for the parts, each role was written on a slip of paper and put in a box. The children played whatever part they pulled out.

Inevitably, kids who withdrew slips that said "guest" were disappointed, because it was an unglamorous role. To fix that problem, club members decided to give the weddings themes.

"Doing themes helped us decorate the stage and gave the wedding more excitement," Johnson said.

One of the prettiest weddings, Johnson said, had a circus theme. The stage was decorated with bright balloons, and guests included a tightrope walker, clown, ringmaster and lion tamer.

In recent decades, the weddings have featured Mother Goose and Disney characters, literary figures, the Wild West, patriotism, aristocracy and Hollywood. For the 50th anniversary wedding, the theme was the 1950s, and in 1981 the club had a "Royal Wedding" in honor of the marriage of Prince Charles and Princess Diana.

At the weddings' peak several years ago, McCown says were as many as 12 bridesmaids and 40 singers. That number has gone down in recent years, but in 2004, club member Jean Burden says, 43 children participated.

Incredibly, the show is performed with only two rehearsals. The children always do a good job, organizers say, and any mishaps that occur only add to the fun.

Like the time a ring was dropped, and four little behinds were pointed at the audience as the children dropped to their knees to find it. Or when the bride froze and never came to the front of the stage.

But what the Tom Thumb Wedding mostly represents for Conway residents is a sense of continuity. Grandchildren now play the roles their grandparents held.

Emma Lou Johnson likes to tell the story of her grandson, who had been a Tom Thumb groom. A few years later, as their family ate at Wayne's Restaurant, the boy noticed the girl who had been his bride sitting at a nearby table.

"Is that that girl I married?" the boy asked.

Hilarious vows

The preacher had humorous dialogue in a script used for several years in the Conway Fine Arts Club's presentation of a Tom Thumb Wedding:

Dearly Beloved, we are gathered together in this place with these dear friends and relations to join together this young man and this very beautiful young lady in the bonds of friendship. If there is one who objects to this joining of this boy and girl, let him now remember - "MUMS" the word!

Will you, Tom Thumb, take this girl, Jennie June to be your playmate? Will you give her first place in line, and the biggest half of your apple, and promise to help her up is she falls off of her bicycle?

Jennie June, will you have Tom Thumb to be your playmate? Will you let him be your best pardner in all the games? Will you let him run faster than you on the playground? And will you give him the biggest half of your apple?

I now pronounce that you are playmates forever and what I say goes! May you be happy ever after!