Short Stuff: Robert the Doll

Robert the Doll is decidedly creepy. So is his story. Listen in to this spooky tale right now!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
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,

(00:27):
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

(00:48):
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

(01:11):
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

(01:33):
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,

(01:53):
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

(02:13):
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

(02:35):
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,

(02:59):
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.

(03:19):
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.

(03:41):
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

(04:02):
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,

(04:25):
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

(04:45):
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,

(05:06):
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

(05:28):
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.

(06:08):
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.

(06:32):
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,

(06:55):
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

(07:17):
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

(07:40):
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

(08:03):
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

(08:28):
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,

(08:50):
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

(09:11):
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

(09:35):
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

(09:56):
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

(10:18):
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

(10:41):
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,

(11:02):
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

(11:23):
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.

(11:43):
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

(12:05):
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

(12:25):
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

(12:46):
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.

(13:08):
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,

(13:30):
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

(13:50):
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
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(14:12):
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