All Work and No Play Makes Girl a Bright Little Light in Showbiz

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, a two-hour ride to her personal dressmaker three times a week and 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.

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.

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.

Hill, who serves as Tina’s publicist, coach and constant companion, said: “Of course, I’d like for her to have a television series. . . . 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.”

TV Debut

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 “Wil 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 says she grew up on the beauty pageant circuit in Memphis, Tenn., yet was never able to climb to the heights that Tina has already scaled.

Tina has won more than 300 awards at beauty pageants during the last 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.

She looks like hundreds of other little girls. But, contrasted with 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 television, watching cartoons.

But something changes when Tina puts on one of her pageant dresses or picks up a microphone.

“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.

Her mother worked the telephone. Hill acknowledges that she’s “totally into publicity,” and by 8 a.m. she has 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.

Hill, 40, who once served as a coach for pageant queens in Nebraska, quit her job with the Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce last year to work full time for Tina. As she drove her daughter to one of her regular dress fittings in Costa Mesa, Hill said: “Pageants have a terrible reputation, but I think it will make her a better woman in the future.

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

Hill was instrumental in getting 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 has been hard for them to save anything. Hill said Tina’s wardrobe cost them more than $10,000. She owns seven hand-made dresses that cost $500 apiece.

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.

“Success hasn’t changed her,” Hill said. “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.

But as a photographer circled, she 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, Hill said. 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 a Variety ad, 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, and 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.

“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 until 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 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 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!

Training Shows

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.

“Would you like to be Miss America?” Letterman asked at one point.

“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.”

A few minutes later, Tina said one of her favorite hobbies is playing with her cat, and Letterman thanked her for being on the show. “Have a good trip back to California,” he said. “It was nice meeting you and good luck to you.”

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

Letterman was embarrassed. Apparently nobody had 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. “When you come back next time you can sing, all right?” he asked.

Tina nodded, but clearly was crushed.

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

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