Groomed for Spotlight by Her Mother, 4-Year-Old Tries for a Shot at Stardom

Broadway Baby,

Learning how to sing and dance

Waiting for that one big chance

To be in a show . . .

--Stephen Sondheim

She can pose on cue and hold a fixed smile until the last camera flash pops. With a little prompting, she will belt out a Broadway tune, whether she’s in a parking lot or charming judges at a beauty pageant.

But after frequent sessions with her voice coach, the two-hour ride to her personal dressmaker three times a week and the regular evening auditions for commercials and television series roles, Tina Elizabeth Brosius is tired.

It’s the price a princess must pay if she expects one day to be crowned queen. Even if, like Tina, she is only 4 years old.

Tina is being bred for stardom. But unlike thousands of other children in Los Angeles who have been groomed for the spotlight, Tina may actually be cast into it.

Her life is filled with agents, managers and producers. When other girls are watching the “Smurfs,” she is singing “Broadway Baby” in the back of her mother’s car. She often works longer days than career-climbing adults, and she must be ready to smile, sneeze or stomp her feet for strangers.

The marketing of Tina Brosius began in earnest two years ago, but it started to peak in December, when she received a full-page feature in the National Enquirer. Since then, her life has been a non-stop series of photo opportunities, most of them arranged by her mother--Beverly Hill of Beverly Hills.

“It’s a lot of pressure to put on a little girl, but I’d really like for her to follow in Shirley Temple’s footsteps,” says Hill, who serves as Tina’s publicist, coach and constant companion. “Of course, I’d like for her to have a television series and I’d love to have her on the cover of People magazine.

“But I also want her to be a normal little girl in an abnormal situation. I’d just also like to see her as a normal little girl in a limousine.”

Last month, Tina made her national television debut on the “Late Night Show With David Letterman.” She also was featured in a two-page ad in the trade sheet Variety, touting her role as the model and voice for a future animated movie feature called “Larr!Bear,” as well as the movie sound track and the new line of Larr!Bear clothes.

She also could be seen on the “Will Shriner Show,” as well as on the box for a new Mattel toy called Smoby. She’s not quite famous at 4, but she’s trying.

Tina began competing in beauty pageants at the age of 2. It was a continuation of a family tradition started by her mother, who claims that she grew up on the beauty pageant circuit in Memphis, Tenn., yet was never able to climb to the heights already scaled by Tina.

But the baton hasn’t been passed so much as gripped in tandem. In August, when Tina won the Miss National Ideal Beauty Contest in her age group at the pageant finals in Las Vegas, her mother entered in the Mrs. division and won the talent contest. And at Tina’s coronation, as she walked the long runway with her crown and her roses, there was mom, tears in her eyes, belting out “Maybe This Time” as if she was auditioning for a role in “Cabaret.”

More Than 300 Awards

Tina has won more than 300 awards at beauty pageants during the past two years, and holds several national crowns for her age group. Her mother said Tina has entered more than 100 pageants in the past two years.

Her success at the pageants is somewhat surprising, since Tina looks like hundreds of other little girls. But when compared to her peers, she’s like a girl among toddlers, exhibiting poise, intelligence and presence far beyond her years.

In other ways, however, Tina is a normal 4-year-old. She doesn’t really understand the lyrics to the songs she sings. She would rather play with her food than eat it. She can sit spellbound for hours in front of a television watching cartoons. Her room looks like a testing laboratory for Disneyland.

But something changes when Tina puts on one of her pageant dresses or picks up a microphone. Then she becomes a girl who revels in attention. Then she becomes a little Miss America. Then she becomes the girl who would be queen.

“I have never seen anyone this young with that much talent,” said Tina’s voice coach Elisabeth Howard, co-director of the Vocal Power Institute in Van Nuys. “The attention span on a 4-year-old is usually about 15 minutes, but in my performance class, she sits riveted for two hours. I’ve taught thousands of kids, and I’ve never seen one with a stronger voice or one who wanted to be on stage more. It’s like she needs it.”

As Howard praised Tina after the voice lesson, Beverly Hill sat in the studio, crying. The more Howard talked about Tina, the more Beverly cried.

“My little Tina,” Hill said, wiping her tears. “My little queen. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you.”

Tina stood in her mother’s room, sorting out the dozens of outfits and shoes she would take on the trip to New York. She was wearing a black shirt with a giant gold star, a black and gold-trimmed bow in her hair, black shoes and gold lame pants.

Tina couldn’t figure out which of her crowns to take on the Letterman show. There were so many to choose from. She tried one on. Too small. She picked up another. Too big. She decided to take them all.

While Tina sorted through her wardrobe, her mother worked the telephone. Hill admits that she’s “totally into publicity,” and by 8 a.m. she’s already been in contact with the Letterman show in New York, juggled appointments and set up a meeting with the co-producer of the “Larr!Bear” film, Larry Hart, a Grammy award winner who is the creator of the Larr!Bear products line.

Convinced of Benefit

Hill, 40, is a veteran of the beauty pageant circuit, first as a contestant in Tennessee and later as a coach for pageant queens in Nebraska. She said the pageants were one of the best things to happen to her, and now she is convinced that they will benefit her daughter. She quit her job with the Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce last year to work full time for Tina.

“The pageants ruin a lot of kids, but it won’t ruin Tina,” she said as she drove Tina to one of her regular dress fittings in Costa Mesa. “Pageants have a terrible reputation, but I think it will make her a better woman in the future. She’s learning how to deal with people, how to handle herself in different situations.

“Right now it may be tough for her, especially since she doesn’t get to play very much. But if it weren’t for the pageants, we wouldn’t be here today. I guess I really am a stage mother. This is the toughest job I’ve ever had. But we’re going to make it.”

It was Hill who got Tina featured in the National Enquirer in December. That triggered Tina’s current hot streak and caught the attention of producers for the Letterman show.

The hundreds of trophies pictured with Tina in the full-page Enquirer spread stand out in the living room of their Beverly Hills apartment. Some are taller than Wilt Chamberlain. Hill and her husband, John Brosius, manage the apartment building, trying to save money to buy a house.

$10,000 Wardrobe

It’s been hard for them to save anything. Hill said that Tina’s wardrobe cost them more than $10,000. She owns seven hand-made dresses that cost $500 apiece. Hill boasts that Tina has the best wardrobe of any 4-year-old in the world.

Tina has two agents, one for print and one for theatrics. But Hill is the guiding force, the chauffeur, the booking secretary and, unabashedly, her biggest fan.

“One big break and it’s going to happen for Tina,” Hill says. “We’re just waiting for that first big commercial. Success hasn’t changed her. The minute she becomes like a statue, I’ll just stop. But she loves it. She loves all of it.”

At the house, Tina wasn’t loving anything except her new Mattel toy. She was cranky. She wanted to play shopping with her mom, but there wasn’t enough time. After Tina pouted, they compromised. She could take the plastic fruit, but the shopping cart had to stay behind.

As a photographer circled Tina at the house, Tina suddenly forgot that she was tired. She placed a crown on her head and put on her best smile for the camera.

“Make sure you don’t run out of film,” Tina said.

The trip to New York for the Letterman show was a nightmare. As Tina and her mother rushed around town to make all of their appointments and auditions, the producers for the show decided to move up Tina’s appearance by one night.

That meant that the family had to pack and get to the airport in about three hours. It also meant that the Variety ad on Friday, inviting industry people to watch Tina on the Letterman show that night, would contain a major error. It was panic time.

They made the 10 p.m flight, but the frantic pace of the past three weeks finally took its toll. Hill, a diabetic, nearly passed out as the plane taxied down the runway. She was suffering from an insulin reaction. The pilot was forced to turn around. Hill was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance.

“They just gave me orange juice and candy bars to get my blood sugar back up,” she said. “I got an insulin injection from the doctor and I had to get a note saying that I was OK to fly.

Mother ‘Felt Awful’

“I felt awful, but Tina was upset. She said, ‘Oh no, I won’t be on the David Letterman show.’ She was concerned about me, but she’s seen me have other insulin reactions. At that point, I had to make a decision. I didn’t really want to get on another airplane, but I didn’t want to break Tina’s heart.”

The family caught the next flight to New York. The rescheduling meant that they didn’t arrive at their hotel room almost 2 p.m. the next day. A limousine greeted them at the airport. Hill said Tina was so excited about being in the Big Apple that she sang “New York, New York,” with the windows rolled down all the way through Manhattan. Except for a couple of quick naps, she hadn’t slept at all.

“Children are wonderful,” Hill said, “but when they get tired and haven’t had any sleep, they’re not so wonderful.”

A less-than-wonderful Tina had about three hours to get ready for the Letterman show.

Hill, always the publicity hound, arranged for Tina to carry a copy of the National Enquirer feature and present Letterman with one of the products she promotes. But right before Tina got her cue, the producers took away all of the items except her stuffed bear.

Not an ordinary teddy bear. A Larr!Bear. The ones featured with Tina in the two-page Variety plug. The Larr!Bear that she will do the voice for and will pitch and promote until there are Larr!Bears everywhere.

Letterman didn’t have a clue. Hill was ecstatic. There was Tina and a Larr!Bear in front of millions of viewers.

If Tina was exhausted, she didn’t show it. There was no mistaking her resemblance to Shirley Temple, in her pink pageant dress, and she was as cute as a 4-year-old can be.

Favorite Prize

At one point, Letterman pointed to one of Tina’s eight-foot pageant trophies behind him.

“Now this is either a trophy or where you’re now living,” he said. However, Tina disclosed that it wasn’t her favorite prize. That distinction belongs to Big Bird, one of the “Sesame Street” gang.

“Would you like to be Miss America,?” Letterman asked.

“Yes, I’d like to be Miss America,” Tina replied, nodding her head and Larr!Bear at the same time.

“That would really be like a fairy tale, wouldn’t it,” Letterman said. “You know, it’s everyone’s dream.”

After a few more questions, in which Tina announced that one of her favorite hobbies is playing with her cat, Letterman thanked her for being on the show and was about to move on to his next guest.

“Have a good trip back to California,” he said. “It was nice meeting you and good luck to you.”

Embarrassed Letterman

But as the crowd applauded, Tina leaned over to Letterman and asked, “Can I sing a song?”

Letterman was embarrassed. Apparently nobody told him told him that the “Broadway Baby” baby was supposed to sing on national television.

“I don’t think we have time to sing a song,” he said. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know you wanted to sing for us.”

The crowd began to boo. Letterman seemed flustered. A few hecklers shouted over the boos to let Tina sing. Letterman glanced sharply at the audience.

“OK, you get a show and let her sing, all right,” he said. The audience laughed and he turned to Tina. “When you come back next time you can sing, all right?”

Tina nodded, but clearly was crushed. It didn’t go unnoticed by Letterman.

“I think I’ve broken her heart,” he said.

A trouper till the end, however, Tina managed to hold her smile until they cut to a commercial.

Tina’s agents expect she will star in a television series within a few years.

“I think she’s dynamite,” said children’s agent Jim McCauley, of Joseph, Heldfond & Rix in Hollywood. “She can walk into a room full of strangers and just charm everyone. And that kid really has an urge to be a star.”

Although most agents and producers have discouraged Hill from keeping Tina on the beauty pageant circuit, McCauley believes it has helped Tina. He said most directors don’t like to work with children because they tend to fidget and lose their focus. But not Tina.

“Tina is very directable,” he said. “She knows how to act. She’s worked in front of cameras and knows how to make eye contact. Sometimes you forget that she’s only 4. But she’s still just a kid at heart and that comes through. She really is amazing.”

Tina got down to the final cut for a new show, but didn’t make it. She’s had three “call-backs” for a McDonald’s commercial, but so far that’s still up in the air.

Little Peer Contact

Her parents say the biggest problem with Tina’s schedule is that she rarely is able to get enough play time. And her contact with other children has been reduced almost solely to the beauty pageants and auditions.

They took Tina out of preschool last year so they could have more time for auditions and pageants. Although Tina is scheduled to start kindergarten in September, her mother said she’s not concerned about Tina’s education should they land a television series contract before then.

“Her managers and agents tell me not to worry about that stuff because it’s all taken care of by the rules of the Screen Actor’s Guild,” she said. “She’ll have a tutor and she’ll get a lot of private instruction. They’re very strict about it. She’s just going to be a normal child.”

But not many children her age sing “New York, New York,” and become agitated when they forget a line. Not many children are expected to follow in the footsteps of Shirley Temple. In 50 years, no one has.

Tina starts singing “Ma (He’s Making Eyes At Me)” in the back seat of their Nissan. The microphone amplifier is turned up. Her eyes are closed. She’s giving it her Broadway Baby best.

“Oh my little queen,” Hill says as they drive to another appointment. “I don’t want you to ever grow up.”