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