Weirdly enough, the Collyer Brothers came up twice in casual conversation today. First, my coworker Brenda said that her packrat husband “was turning into a Collyer Brother,” then five minutes ago a friend e’d me that a new book about them is being published.
Has anyone else heard of them, or are they just New York lore?
At first I thought of Bud. But were they the guys whi saved all those newspapers and other stuff? Did one of them starve after getting trapped behind some junk?
Erm … is it safe to assume you don’t mean these Collyer Brothers, known in football and the gaming industry?
I’ve heard of them, because my parents and grandparents used to mention them (usually in reference to the state of my room when I was a teenager). But I’m a New Yorker (born 1951).
How old are your coworker and your friend? I would think the Collyer brothers would be a pretty faded memory by now.
Brenda is only 30-ish, and the friend who e’d me about the book is, maybe, mid-40s. Even little Thea, all of 24, says she’s heard of them but was fuzzy on the details.
I checked out the link to the book and saw enough there to confirm that they were the ones I had read about some years ago. I can’t recall where the article was, possibly in the Sunday supplement to the paper, possibly in some magazine like New Yorker, but surely something that was available locally (Tennessee). So it’s a story that has been told outside NYNY.
Odd that our house has a marked resemblance in that there are only a few places where you can see the floors and walls. We did get rid of the old newspapers, though.
Ooooh! I’ve heard of them! I feel sooo cool.
Nutty packrats that died in their own diaster of a NY townhouse.
I read about them in Smithsonian Magazine about three years ago and I was transfixed by the level of absolute crap they had managed to stuff inside their place.
Sounds like a must read for those who are fascinated by a warped mind. which would pretty much be everyone on these boards
Sidebar:
Collyer Brothers would be a great name for a Junk Yard or moving company or one of those closet organizing businesses.
/sidebar
I’ve put this book on my list. Thanks Eve!
I remember reading about the Collyer Brothers in a “Big Book Of Eccentrics” (no, I don’t remember the real title) that also contained one of my favorite photo captions of all time:
Relating to the Daddy Browning affair:
Daddy Browning: “Woof, Woof! Don’t Be A Goof!”
Mallard: “Honk, Honk! It’s The Bonk!”
(Yes, Bernhard MacFadden was responsible for this.)
Ahhhh, Peaches and Daddy–now, they need a book written about them!
Yes, indeed, but then, I can’t seem to find a book about MacFadden anywhere, and I’ve looked hard for one.
Eve, what you need is to write a book about loonies or disasters.
Combine the two of them…think of the fun!
I’d actually love to do a book on Peaches and Daddy—but someone else has been working on one for years. I suspect that one will never get published, but it’s not kosher to step on another writer’s toes like that.
I just read something about them recently - I’m sure it was at the nytimes.com site, perhaps as recently as this Sunday.
I was so excited that I knew who they were in the thread title that I had to post!
By the way, I have a vague recollection of from when I was quite small, of being taken to a penny arcade at Times Square where one of the sideshows was junk from the Collyer mansion. This was the same penny arcade that used to have the Flea Circus, I think.
Oh—that would have been Huber’s Flea Circus, on 42nd between B’way and 8th! That building was torn down a few years ago, and Tussaud’s Wax Museum is now on that site, appropriately enough.
Thanks for reminding me of the name! Googling a bit, I see that it was actually Professor Leroy Heckler who ran the Flea Circus, which was based at Hubert’s Dime Museum. The Flea Circus had recently closed (1957) when I visited the place. It’s a lasting regret of mine that I never got to see it. (I do have an account of the Professor’s rigorous training regime in Wild Tigers and Tame Fleas).
I just recently picked up Einstein’s Refrigerator, but I was OK since i lifted with my back to save my knees. Ha! No, the book by Steve Silverman. There was a chapter about Langley and Homer. Odd stuff.
There was also a chapter on Mike the Headless Chicken. That was worth the price of the paperback right there.
I heard about the Collyers right here on the SDMB. Fascinating story. Freaking scary, but fascinating. And extremely sad.
But who the hell are Peaches and Daddy? (currently googling this)
The Collyer Bros. and Mike the headless chicken; I need not say more to define exactly why I love this board. My home, and before that, the home of my parents, was lovingly refered to as the Collyer Brother’s place by us all. I have never come into contact with anyone outside of my immediate family and their close friends who were familiar with these dear men. If you ever saw my home, you would know why I feel such an affinity for them. Eve, “thanks for the memories”.