Steve Brodie (December 25, 1861 – January 31, 1901) was an American from Manhattan, New York City, who on July 23, 1886, claimed to have jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge and survived. The supposed jump, of which the veracity was disputed, gave him publicity, a thriving saloon and a career as a performer. Prior to that, he was penniless, having lost significant sums of money on betting and race tracks.
His fame persisted long past his death, with he portrayed in films and with the slang term "Brodie", as in to "do a Brodie", entering American vernacular, meaning to take a chance or a leap, specifically a suicidal one.[1]
During the 1890s, he was compared to one of the best British champion divers and bridge jumpers of the era, Tommy Burns.
Early life
Steve Brodie was born on the east side of Bowery in New York City, just three days after his father was killed in a street brawl,[2] and grew up locally, selling newspapers and blacking shoes around the city. In his youth, he was credited with many rescues from the water, such as of two young women who fell from an excursion barge. He is also known to have rescued actress Jennie Rhett, who presented him with a gold locket for his bravery.[3]
Career
Alleged bridge jump
Odlum's fatal jump
The bridge, then known as the East River Bridge, had opened just three years before his claimed jump. A swimming instructor from Washington, D.C. named Robert Emmet Odlum, the brother of women's rights activist Charlotte Odlum Smith, was killed while attempting the same stunt in May 1885.[4]
By July 1886, he was penniless, having lost a fortune on race tracks and other betting games. With the consent of his wife,[2] the jump supposedly made by him on July 23, 1886, was from a height of 135 feet (41 m), the same as a 14-story building.[5] The contemporary New York Times account said the jump was from a height of about 120 feet (37 m).[4]
The New York Times backed his account of the jump and said that he practiced for the leap by making shorter jumps from other bridges and ships' masts, and that it was witnessed by two reporters. He leaped into the East River, feet first, and emerged uninjured, though with pain on his right side. He was jailed after the jump. The Times described him as a "newsboy and long-distance pedestrian" who jumped from the bridge to win a $200 bet, equal to $6,500 today. In other accounts he is described as a bookmaker and gambler.[4][5]
A Bowery storekeeper named Isaac Meyers claimed that he encouraged him to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge after Brodie said that he wanted to be famous.[6]
Steve Brodie's bar on the Bowery circa 1886
Another account holds that Moritz Herzber, a liquor dealer, offered to back a saloon for him if Brodie made the jump and lived.[5]
If true, he would have been the first person to have jumped off the bridge and survived,[4] but his claim was disputed. It was subsequently claimed that a dummy was thrown from the bridge and that he fell out of a row boat.[7]
Controversy
Doubt whether he actually made the claimed jump arose immediately and has lingered to this day.
He, who was unemployed and aware of the publicity generated by Odlum's fatal jump, bragged to his pals on the Bowery that he would take the jump. Wagers were made for and against, but he never announced when he would make the attempt.[8] The Brooklyn Eagle reported in 1930 that a retired police sergeant and friend of him, Thomas K. Hastings, said that Brodie had told him that he didn't make the leap and never said he did.
In his book The Great Bridge, historian David McCullough said that he probably did not make the jump. McCullough said that it was commonly believed by skeptics that a dummy was dropped from the bridge, and that he merely swam out from shore and surfaced beside a passing barge.[8]
The NYPD said in 1986, the 100th anniversary of the supposed jump, that two or three people jump from the bridge every year and some live.[8] Only one month after his jump, Larry Donovan jumped from an even higher point of the bridge, making him the first confirmed survivor of a Brooklyn Bridge leap.
Other jumps
On November 9, 1888, he jumped from the Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge at a height of 222 feet into the Hudson River. He earned $500 for the stunt, and contemporary reports differ on whether he escaped serious injury or was seriously injured in the stunt. Shortly afterwards, he was quoted as saying that he was "not disposed to try bridge-jumping again".[9]
In 1889, Brodie was arrested when he dived off Horseshoe Falls. The magistrate in Canada said he would release him if Brodie denied making the jump. While Brodie unconvincingly denied this at first, he subsequently retracted this denial when told to swear to it, telling the magistrate, "No, I'd rather rot in jail than swear to a lie. I did go over the falls. Do with me as you please." His feat was questioned by some, which highly incensed him.[10]
Competition
During the 1890s, he was compared unfavourably to one of the best British champion divers and bridge jumpers of the era, Tommy Burns, with the Baltimore Express suggesting that Burns' dives put his and other bridge jumpers' efforts "in the shade",[11] while the Evening Tribune suggested Burns was "greater than Steve Brodie of bridge jumping".[12]
Acting
He became an actor capitalizing on his reputation, appearing in the vaudeville musicals Mad Money and On the Bowery, and opened a saloon in Buffalo, New York.[5]
Personal life
After the jump, he opened a saloon at 114 Bowery near Grand Street, which also became a museum for his bridge-jumping stunt. Among the decorations was an affidavit from the boat captain who claimed to have pulled him from the water.[5]
He was known to give to charity, such as during the difficult period of the 1890s when he would give away food including bread and sausages, as well as coffee from his cafe to the needy and homeless. Thousands of people benefited from his generosity.[3]
Death
He died in San Antonio, Texas, on 31 January 1901 with his family members by his bedside.[13] The cause of death has been variously described as diabetes and tuberculosis.[5][14] He left $100,000 (equivalent to $3,517,600 in 2022) in his will, with the bulk of his estate left to his eldest daughter, Irene Brodie, in trust until his other two children came of age, at which point it was distributed equally. His estate comprised around $75,000 (equivalent to $2,638,200 in 2022) in real estate and roughly $30,000 (equivalent to $1,055,300 in 2022) in cash.[15] He was survived by his wife, two daughters and a son.[3]
In popular culture
Lithograph promoting On the Bowery
He became a popular symbol of the Bowery and appeared personally in musical shows, and his character was used many times in film depictions of old New York. He starred in a three-act play titled On the Bowery by Robert Neilson Stephens, which opened in 1894. A facsimile of his saloon was the setting for the second act, and he sang a song, "My Poil Is a Bowery Goil". Valerie Bergere played Blanche Livingstone, the girl he rescues and then falls in love with. The play culminated with him jumping off the bridge.[16][17]
In 1949, Warner Brothers released the Merrie Melodies cartoon Bowery Bugs, in which Bugs Bunny tells an old man the story of the Steve Brodie jump, in typical Looney Tunes fashion, of course: in the episode Brodie's name is spelled "Brody" on a plaque on the bridge in the spot where he supposedly jumped from. It's never mentioned in the cartoon whether or not Bugs was trying to sell the old man the Brooklyn Bridge or simply the story of "Brody's" jump. At the end, Bugs says to the old man, "And that's why Steve Brody jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge. Anything more you want to know?" and the old man replies, "Nope. That's enough, son. I'll buy it". Bugs then breaks the fourth wall with a wink as the old man starts counting money into Bugs's hand.
The disastrous 1965 Broadway musical Kelly was inspired by him and climaxes with the lead character, Hop Kelly, completing the dive.
The phrase "taken a Brody" is used in Thomas Pynchon's 1963 novel V.: "And next day she would read in the paper where Esther Harvitz, twenty-two, honors graduate of CCNY, had taken a Brody off some bridge, overpass or high building."[19] Pynchon also used in The Crying of Lot 49: "...my best guide to the Trystero has taken a Brody."[20] It also appears in David Foster Wallace's 1996 novel Infinite Jest: "McDade bitched at the meeting that if he had to watch Nightmare on Elm Street XXII: The Senescence one more time he was going to take a brody off the House's roof."[21]
^Soden, Garrett (2005). Defying Gravity: Land Divers, Roller Coasters, Gravity Bums, and the Human Obsession With Falling, New York: W. W. Norton & Company; ISBN0-393-32656-X.
^Pynchon, Thomas. V. Harper, New York, 2005, p. 135.
^Pynchon, Thomas (1966). The Crying of Lot 49. New York: Bantam. p. 114. ISBN978-0553120653.
^Wallace, David Foster (1996). Infinite Jest. New York: Little, Brown. p. 825. ISBN0-316-92004-5.
