Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm Josh, there's Chuck,
Speaker 1: There's Jerry. This is Short Stuff, the creeps Fill Halloween
Speaker 1: Week edition, that's right. And before people get started with
Speaker 1: this one, if you're in a place where you are
Speaker 1: not going to endanger the life of someone else because
Speaker 1: you're driving a car, just pull out the old phone
Speaker 1: or the old laptop or the old tablet, the old Newton,
Speaker 1: the old Newton, and just do a little image search
Speaker 1: for Robert the doll mhm, because I just think knowing
Speaker 1: what Robert looks like going into this is kind of nice, yeah,
Speaker 1: for sure. And you're gonna be presented with a couple
Speaker 1: of different images because they made a movie based on Robert.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah. One of them is like so overly
Speaker 1: stylized it's not at all scary creepy looking, sure, But
Speaker 1: the one that's like, holy cow, no one could ever
Speaker 1: come up with that, like like like it's just too
Speaker 1: scary and creepy on its own, that's the Robert, the
Speaker 1: one with just part of a face basically. Yeah. The
Speaker 1: modern one looks like a Ventriloquis dummy and is clearly
Speaker 1: more modern. The other one looks like an antique sort
Speaker 1: of faceless, uh death child. Yeah, And indeed he is
Speaker 1: not necessarily a death child, but he is an antique
Speaker 1: because um Robert was the toy and actually lifelong friend
Speaker 1: and companion of a boy named Robert Eugene Otto. And
Speaker 1: Robert Eugene Otto, who went by Jean, moved with his
Speaker 1: family right before the turn of the twentieth century to
Speaker 1: Key West, Florida, and he brought with him his doll,
Speaker 1: this three foot straw filled cork faced doll named Robert Um,
Speaker 1: which had been a gift from his grandfather. Right, that's right.
Speaker 1: His granddad thought it would be funny and fun I guess,
Speaker 1: much like the father in Gremlins to rek havoc on
Speaker 1: a family by bringing home a gift from some place
Speaker 1: far away. And I believe he went on a trip
Speaker 1: to Germany and got this doll that was manufactured by
Speaker 1: the Steve Company, who the maker of Teddy Bears. But
Speaker 1: this was not a toy that was ever sold, So
Speaker 1: the best they can reckon is that it might have
Speaker 1: been something that they made to like put in a
Speaker 1: window display or something. Um, maybe to help selt Teddy Bears.
Speaker 1: And the thing with Robert is he you know, he
Speaker 1: kind of looks kind of creepy in his little sailor's outfit.
Speaker 1: It's it's all about that that nothingness of the face though. Really. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they think that collection of dolls he was a part
Speaker 1: of where clowns and jesters, so they think he actually
Speaker 1: originally was a harlequin jester. And I read a nine
Speaker 1: nine Palm Beach Post article about him, and they made
Speaker 1: reference to a photograph from I guess the early nineteen
Speaker 1: hundreds and they describe him as dressed up as like
Speaker 1: a harlequin jester. So and they said, it's not a
Speaker 1: very pleasant photograph. Right. You mentioned he's wearing a sailor's suit,
Speaker 1: and he in, he definitely is, and he's been wearing
Speaker 1: that sailor's suit for over a hundred years now. But
Speaker 1: the sailor suit originally belonged to Jean. Jean said, here, Robert,
Speaker 1: this is a hamm me down. I'm not wearing this anymore.
Speaker 1: I want you to be sailor boy for the rest
Speaker 1: of our lives. Yeah. So, I mean, I think that
Speaker 1: demonstrates the kind of closeness that Jean had with Robert Um.
Speaker 1: Jean has all the hallmarks of an only child, but
Speaker 1: apparently did have siblings because Jean, like you know, I
Speaker 1: think a lot of times only only children have a
Speaker 1: can have a more rich imaginary life when they're little, um,
Speaker 1: making up imaginary friends and things like that. And in
Speaker 1: Jean's case, he it was kind of a combination of both.
Speaker 1: He made up an imaginary friend in a way, but
Speaker 1: it actually had a physical manner infestation in and Robert.
Speaker 1: But Robert, you know, he would apparently they would uh
Speaker 1: his family and then people that would that worked with
Speaker 1: them would hear them, well not them hear him in
Speaker 1: the room. Jean having both sides of a conversation as
Speaker 1: Gene and Robert quite often, or was it Jeane exactly? So, Yeah,
Speaker 1: And the reason why stuff like that started to be
Speaker 1: reported to the Auto family parents I also read like
Speaker 1: a plumber heard um, Robert giggle um. The people would
Speaker 1: say that he could make things move on his own
Speaker 1: and you never saw him doing it. It's just like, hey,
Speaker 1: that Robert was not sitting in that chair, you know
Speaker 1: this morning. The plumber heard Robert. Yes, that's what he said.
Speaker 1: That's what the plumber claimed. Sure, that's why Robert giggle so. Um.
Speaker 1: The reason people were talking about Robert like this because
Speaker 1: he had already gained a reputation as being kind of
Speaker 1: playfully mischievous, right. Um. And part of the reason he
Speaker 1: got that reputation is because whatever Jean did wrong that
Speaker 1: he would get caught doing, he would blame Robert for. Yeah,
Speaker 1: which is it's also very cute too write. But then
Speaker 1: there were stories about how, you know, Jean's parents heard
Speaker 1: him screaming in the middle of the night one night
Speaker 1: and came running in to find the whole room trashed,
Speaker 1: and Jean curled up in a ball in the corner. Um,
Speaker 1: and he blamed Robert for trashing the room. Um, so
Speaker 1: quickly escalated as far as the legend goes, um from
Speaker 1: you know, hey, Robert wasn't sitting in that chair to
Speaker 1: Robert snow costing us mind because we're gonna have to
Speaker 1: replace that night's to all right, I think that's a
Speaker 1: good break, because we're gonna pick up with time passing
Speaker 1: an adult Gene who surely doesn't have the stall anymore
Speaker 1: after he grows up, Right, we're going to cover that
Speaker 1: right after this. Okay, we've gone forward in time now.
Speaker 1: I think that it seems to have because Jean looks
Speaker 1: way older and paunchier than he did when he was
Speaker 1: a boy. So yes, I think we're too somewhere in
Speaker 1: like maybe the nineteen fifties. And by this time Jean
Speaker 1: has super grown up. Um. He has gone off to
Speaker 1: Chicago and Europe Paris even to study becoming a painter.
Speaker 1: He's developed quite a name for himself and Key West
Speaker 1: where he's stuck around. And he also got married to
Speaker 1: a very understanding woman named Ann Parker. Well why was
Speaker 1: she understanding? She was understanding, Chuck, Because one of the
Speaker 1: things that was a constant in Jean's life is Robert.
Speaker 1: Jean's still hung out with Robert, Robert Jean's best friend,
Speaker 1: still hanging out with Robert gets married to Anne Parker,
Speaker 1: who was I think a jazz pianist, and you know,
Speaker 1: she's a creative sort. He was a painter. She's like
Speaker 1: a little eccentric, is my husband, And that's fine. I
Speaker 1: don't love Robert being around, but this is our lot
Speaker 1: in life. Uh. He inherited Jeane, I guess, and Robert
Speaker 1: inherited the house on Eton Street in Key West, and
Speaker 1: they called it, they renamed it the Artist House, and
Speaker 1: it was just it was sort of a well known
Speaker 1: and still is kind of a well known house in
Speaker 1: Key West, because, like you said, he did make a
Speaker 1: name for himself. Like if you if you look up
Speaker 1: Jane auto Art like it, you know, there's there's stuff
Speaker 1: out there. Yeah, I get the impression that Robert really
Speaker 1: helped push along the same gene though too. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure it was the other way around. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but you can tell, like Jeane clearly loved his childhood
Speaker 1: because he he stayed in his boyhood home. He kept
Speaker 1: his boyhood best friend Robert the doll um. But he
Speaker 1: managed to add a wife to the mix. Two and
Speaker 1: you know, yes, she was definitely she would put up
Speaker 1: with the fact that Robert was a part of their life.
Speaker 1: But there's a couple of stories. Um. One is that
Speaker 1: she was like, Okay, Robert can live here, but can
Speaker 1: we just like keep him in the attic, and Geene
Speaker 1: agreed to that, and they started keeping Robert in the attic. Okay,
Speaker 1: well then you're gonna like this alternative story. The other
Speaker 1: story is that um Geen built a room for Robert
Speaker 1: in the attic and furnished it with Robert sized toys
Speaker 1: and furniture, and it was Robert's room, like this attic
Speaker 1: was Robert. Now, technically those two stories are not mutually exclusive,
Speaker 1: and I'm guessing if you put them together you probably
Speaker 1: come close to the truth. Yeah, that makes a lot
Speaker 1: more sense, um, because I definitely don't see Jean just
Speaker 1: being like, sure, I'll just junk him in the attic. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but if I built him a very special place, that's
Speaker 1: a whole different story. So the and you know, a
Speaker 1: lot of this is obviously legend and or because some
Speaker 1: really spooky things that don't make sense continue to happen
Speaker 1: with Robert the Doll. Like people walk by and they
Speaker 1: see Robert the Doll sitting kindly in a rocking chair
Speaker 1: in the original bedroom window. Uh. And apparently Jean would
Speaker 1: come downstairs and be like, Robert, you're not supposed to
Speaker 1: be down here, and then would take Robert back up
Speaker 1: into the fashioned attic room. Yeah, and then again he'd
Speaker 1: find Robert sitting in the rocking chair in the window
Speaker 1: of his bedroom. Again. Yeah. So um, this is just
Speaker 1: kind of how life was in the Artist's house. And
Speaker 1: then Jean passed, and um, Anne continued living there um
Speaker 1: with Robert uh until a little before she died. She
Speaker 1: sold the house before she died in nineteen to a
Speaker 1: woman named Myrtle Reuter. And um, this is why I
Speaker 1: think Anne is actually a good person. As part of
Speaker 1: the sale, Jean's dead. As part of the sale, Uh,
Speaker 1: Myrtle was required to leave Robert and the attic room.
Speaker 1: That alone, that was part of the real estate deal.
Speaker 1: And um, and what's even cooler is that Myrtle or
Speaker 1: Myrtle said all right, I can do that and actually
Speaker 1: abided by it. Yeah, and I think abided by it
Speaker 1: because you know, part of the legend we didn't really
Speaker 1: talk much about is that, um, Robert like if you like,
Speaker 1: if you cross Robert, bad things might come your way.
Speaker 1: And there aren't any like huge examples of you know,
Speaker 1: because he was more mischievous and supposedly not a truly
Speaker 1: evil doll. But for instance, in the mid nineties, Robert
Speaker 1: finally moved to a museum, the East Martello Museum. And
Speaker 1: you would, uh, as as you know, sort of the
Speaker 1: fund of visiting, you were supposed to ask permission to
Speaker 1: take a photograph of Robert before you did so, and
Speaker 1: then if you didn't, then bad things might happen. And uh,
Speaker 1: there was a who was that person was that just
Speaker 1: like a historian, the director of the the Artist's House,
Speaker 1: Bed and Breakfast. Okay, so this person went uh shrink
Speaker 1: and ghost not a bad name for this story, goes
Speaker 1: by and says basically like, Hey, I couldn't even ask
Speaker 1: the stall for permission because it was you know, I
Speaker 1: felt kind of silly, so I didn't do it. I
Speaker 1: took a picture with my digital camera and the pictures,
Speaker 1: uh did not come out, only a few pictures that
Speaker 1: I took her even on it, and then I was
Speaker 1: not able to say pictures anymore ever again on this camera? Yes,
Speaker 1: so was it Robert? Right, But that's one of the
Speaker 1: main reasons they tell you to ask his permission first
Speaker 1: or else he's gonna mes your camera. Right, So you,
Speaker 1: me and I actually did that. We've we've been there.
Speaker 1: We've met Robert befour years ago. No, I didn't went
Speaker 1: to Key West. Yeah, and we asked his picture. We
Speaker 1: asked his permission to take his picture, and good thing. Yeah. Um.
Speaker 1: But the one of the neat things I think is
Speaker 1: that that in the four East Martello Museum, where he's
Speaker 1: resided since and just getting more and more famous, the
Speaker 1: person who donated him was Myrtle Reuter, who even after
Speaker 1: she sold the Artist House, took Robert with her and
Speaker 1: then just took care of him for the next twenty
Speaker 1: years until she handed him off to the museum. You
Speaker 1: can definitely like, go see Robert at this museum. There's
Speaker 1: it's actually a really neat museum on your way into
Speaker 1: her out of Key West. Yeah. And as far as
Speaker 1: the movies go, uh, they're very low budge that was
Speaker 1: they started out. I say they because somehow there have
Speaker 1: been four sequels, but they start out with just Robert. Uh,
Speaker 1: and very seemingly loosely based on the story. I think
Speaker 1: the the autos are in the story, but it's not. Um.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's a period thing. And again they
Speaker 1: you know, it's a little it's way more like Chucky
Speaker 1: the Doll or something than this sort of antique looking guy,
Speaker 1: just not as charming as Chucky. Yeah, and then three
Speaker 1: more sequels to follow. I did watch and encourage anyone
Speaker 1: to watch the latest sequel trailer from just a few
Speaker 1: years ago called Robert Reborn, because it just goes the
Speaker 1: story goes in some crazy directions, is all I'll say. Um.
Speaker 1: So I saw on Culture Crypt their initial m review
Speaker 1: of the first movie Robert. They said that, um that
Speaker 1: the production company responsible has budgets barely bigger than the
Speaker 1: cost of a Chipotle burrito. So unkind but so true.
Speaker 1: It is very clearly low budget. But there. I mean,
Speaker 1: they made these sequels, so somebody's watching this stuff for sure,
Speaker 1: for sure, or at the very at least somebody's financing them. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess that's true. Uh, big ups to Alison Troutner
Speaker 1: and house works dot com for some help with this,
Speaker 1: along with other great things and Josh's own lived experience. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and if you ever get a chance, go down to
Speaker 1: the Fort East Martella Museum on your way in or
Speaker 1: out of Key West and go visit Robert. And since
Speaker 1: uh we talked everything we could about Robert or done
Speaker 1: and short stuff is that stuff you should know is
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