Billy Barty was an American actor and activist. In adult life, he stood 3 ft 9 in (1.14 m) tall, due to cartilage–hair hypoplasia dwarfism. Because of his short stature, he was often cast in films opposite taller performers for comic effect. He specialized in outspoken or wisecracking characters. During the 1950s, he became a television actor, appearing regularly in the Spike Jones ensemble. In the early 1970s he was a staple in a variety of roles in children's TV programs produced by Sid and Marty Krofft. Also an activist for people with dwarfism, he founded the Little People of America organization in 1957.

Lindley Armstrong "Spike" Jones was an American musician, bandleader and conductor specializing in spoof arrangements of popular songs and classical music. Ballads receiving the Jones treatment were punctuated with gunshots, whistles, cowbells, hiccups, burps, and outlandish and comedic vocals. Jones and his band recorded under the title Spike Jones and His City Slickers from the early 1940s to the mid-1950s, and they toured the United States and Canada as "The Musical Depreciation Revue".