American Folk Figure. A Bowery bookie, he won instant celebrity on July 23, 1886, when he allegedly jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge into the East River, and survived. He claimed he did it for a $200 bet. Some months earlier a daredevil named Robert Odlum was killed attempting the same dive, so Brodie's accomplishment made front page headlines in New York City and eventually acquired mythic status. Like most urban legends, this incident was probably a hoax because the odds of anyone surviving the 135-foot plunge are practically nil. Skeptics claimed that Brodie had a friend toss a dummy off the bridge while he hid under a nearby pier, then swam out when rescue boats approached the scene. It should also be noted that Brodie repeated the stunt at Poughkeepsie's Railroad Bridge in 1888; news of that dubious event didn't make it past the local paper. But Brodie was a shrewd self-promoter who managed to milk his 15 minutes of fame into lasting notoriety. He went on to star in the vaudeville musicals "Mad Money" (1891) and "On the Bowery" (1894), in which he recreated his fabled leap on stage, and he operated a Bowery saloon-museum that became a popular tourist attraction. Its exhibits included a mural of his jump, the clothes he wore, and a signed affidavit from the barge captain who fished him out of the river. He died at 39 from complications of diabetes. George Raft played Brodie in the 1933 film "The Bowery", and the Warner Bros. cartoon "Bowery Bugs" (1949) shows Brodie being driven into jumping off the bridge by Bugs Bunny.
American Folk Figure. A Bowery bookie, he won instant celebrity on July 23, 1886, when he allegedly jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge into the East River, and survived. He claimed he did it for a $200 bet. Some months earlier a daredevil named Robert Odlum was killed attempting the same dive, so Brodie's accomplishment made front page headlines in New York City and eventually acquired mythic status. Like most urban legends, this incident was probably a hoax because the odds of anyone surviving the 135-foot plunge are practically nil. Skeptics claimed that Brodie had a friend toss a dummy off the bridge while he hid under a nearby pier, then swam out when rescue boats approached the scene. It should also be noted that Brodie repeated the stunt at Poughkeepsie's Railroad Bridge in 1888; news of that dubious event didn't make it past the local paper. But Brodie was a shrewd self-promoter who managed to milk his 15 minutes of fame into lasting notoriety. He went on to star in the vaudeville musicals "Mad Money" (1891) and "On the Bowery" (1894), in which he recreated his fabled leap on stage, and he operated a Bowery saloon-museum that became a popular tourist attraction. Its exhibits included a mural of his jump, the clothes he wore, and a signed affidavit from the barge captain who fished him out of the river. He died at 39 from complications of diabetes. George Raft played Brodie in the 1933 film "The Bowery", and the Warner Bros. cartoon "Bowery Bugs" (1949) shows Brodie being driven into jumping off the bridge by Bugs Bunny.
Bio by: Bobb Edwards
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