Tiny Whitt: Cam ero n’s for got ten sup ers tar Before "American Idol," there was "Star Search." Before that came Arthur Godfrey’s "Talent Scouts" and "Ted Mack and the Original Amateur Hour." But before them, there was the granddaddy of them all … radio’s Major Bowes Amateur Hour." With so many chances to find fame, it was inevitable that an Aggie would find the spotlight. One did.
When the family eventually left Oklahoma for Noel, Missouri, Wayne instead went the other direction. No one knows why he chose Cameron, but in the spring of 1934, the 21-year-old wound up on campus. Back then, CSAC was well on its way to becoming Oklahoma’s largest junior college. It was known statewide for football and its agriculture program … but it also offered nearly a dozen music and drama programs.
His name was Wayne Calvin Whitt, but most folks knew him as “Tiny.” His talent took him from the campus of Cameron State Agricultural College during the Great Depression and landed him in Tinseltown, where he acted alongside Bob Hope, Lana Turner, Henry Fonda and Tyrone Power.
With its vast array of trios, quartets, octets, choral groups, bands – even a dance orchestra – the college was constantly sending out students to perform for civic groups and society functions. Whether by accident or by intent, Wayne had found himself right where he needed to be.
For a brief, shining instant, he was Lawton’s superstar.
To say that Wayne was a “big man on campus” would be an understatement. At 6-foot-4, you could spot him a mile away. He sang for young men at a Civilian Conservation Corps work relief camp at Binger. He pledged the “Black Maskers” drama club and directed fellow students in one-act plays. He joined the Cameron Quartet, and emceed school functions. He was elected vice president of CSAC’s sophomore class.
Born in 1913, Wayne was the youngest of Louis and Mittie Whitt’s five kids. Louis was a brakeman for a Kentucky railroad before he relocated his family to a farm outside Stroud around statehood. The Whitts lived in Lincoln County for several years, but decided to head northeast to Miami by the time Wayne was in high school. 24
CAMERON UNIVERSITY
