Little People Big Strides
Born almost 9½ pounds, Bob Schauer had a head start on becoming a linebacker. Then life stopped going the way it's drawn up."At 6 months, my head started growing faster than my body," he said.Bones grew at different rates. By junior high or so, Schauer stopped growing altogether. Now he's 39, and the Racine resident stands 4-foot-3.He's a dwarf or, preferably, little person. Just don't call him a midget."Little guy, I don't mind," he said. "It's the `M' word I don't like."We talked Wednesday, near the end of the annual conference for a group called Little People of America. It was held in Milwaukee for the first time.Signs throughout the Hilton asked attendees not to remove stools, assuring everyone there were enough to reach bathroom sinks, elevator buttons and other things built for us "averages.""We invest a lot of our money in stepstools," said Schauer, who's got about 10 in varying sizes.He came to the conference to get a better idea from a legion of doctors how to deal with the bulging discs in his back. The rest of the year, it's tough to bounce between specialists who know much about his condition.During my visit, talk began to shift from the white doctors' robes to the dresses. Like most, Schauer and his fiancee, Pat Massett of suburban Chicago, had plans to snazz up for the big banquet.Schauer's so hooked on the scene that he plans his vacation around the conference. Still, his average-sized parents made sure he became self-sufficient in the big world."I've been very thankful that they did that," he said. "I wasn't sheltered from anything."With linebacker off the board, Schauer talked himself into wrestling. Later, he used his size to his advantage in rec softball leagues in Racine and Kenosha."I had the strike zone like this," he said, holding his fingers a smidge apart. "They would always throw me in whenever they needed the go-ahead run, because I was a sure bet."Two strikes on him? He'd just "lean even farther down."Schauer takes help-desk calls at Jockey International. Computers are one career field where little people can face a level playing field.The more people I chatted with, the more I noticed the balance they're striking. They have to have feet in two worlds.You could see them on both ends of the same hotel floor. On one end, the guy who played the Lollipop Kid in "The Wizard of Oz" signed copies of his book while performers tried out for the "Radio City Christmas Spectacular." At the other end were auditions for an independent flick called "Mismatched," featuring a well-rounded little person in the lead role.I had lunch with Kacie Borrowman and a couple of her friends. She's an accomplished actress, with a three-month stint on the soap "Passions" on her résumé.She auditioned for both shows at the conference. She's a veteran of "Radio City," in which little people complement the Rockettes dressed alternately as snowmen, elves and bears."Mismatched" is much less of a sure thing. Bob Busch admits the idea has drawn little attention in Hollywood, with its formula-driven hits. Busch categorizes it as a "teenage romantic comedy, a la `Napoleon Dynamite.' " So Borrowman will count on the gigs that pay, for now. She doesn't see them as demeaning."Yeah, I'm an elf, but I really enjoy performing," she said.Work is scarce for actors of any size. There are some extra hurdles for little people."We can't play little roles, 'cause we're too distracting," Borrowman said.Among little people, she's got the advantage of having a proportional body - advantage in the sense she can stand in for child actors, which she does regularly.Still, at 27, isn't she ready for a calendar full of deep, non-stereotypical, adult characters to play? "Everyone wants that," she said. "But it's just the way it is."
