Steve Brodie (bridge jumper)

Brodie was born on the east side of Bowery in New York City, just three days after his father was killed in a street brawl, and grew up locally, selling newspapers and blacking shoes around the city. In his youth, he was credited with many rescues from the water, such as of two young women who fell from an excursion barge. He is also known to have rescued actress Jennie Rhett, who presented him with a gold locket for his bravery. ==Career==

Alleged bridge jump 's fatal jump The bridge, then known as the East River Bridge, had opened just three years before Brodie's claimed jump. A swimming instructor from Washington, D.C. named Robert Emmet Odlum, the brother of women's rights activist Charlotte Odlum Smith, was killed while attempting the same stunt in May 1885. The contemporary New York Times account said the jump was from a height of about . Another account holds that Moritz Herzber, a liquor dealer, offered to back a saloon for Brodie if he made the jump and lived. Controversy Doubt whether Brodie actually made the claimed jump arose immediately and has lingered to this day. Brodie, who was unemployed and aware of the publicity generated by Odlum's fatal jump, bragged to his pals on the Bowery that he would take the jump. Wagers were made for and against, but Brodie never announced when he would make the attempt. The New York Police Department said in 1986, the 100th anniversary of the supposed jump, that two or three people jump from the bridge every year and some live. In 1889, Brodie was arrested when he dived off Horseshoe Falls. The magistrate in Canada said he would release him if Brodie denied making the jump. While Brodie unconvincingly denied this at first, he subsequently retracted this denial when told to swear to it, telling the magistrate, "No, I'd rather rot in jail than swear to a lie. I did go over the falls. Do with me as you please." His feat was questioned by some, which highly incensed him. Competition During the 1890s, Brodie was compared unfavourably to one of the best British champion divers and bridge jumpers of the era, Tommy Burns, with the Baltimore Express suggesting that Burns' dives put Brodie's and other bridge jumpers' efforts "in the shade", while the Evening Tribune suggested Burns was "greater than Steve Brodie of bridge jumping". Acting Capitalizing on his reputation, Brodie became an actor, appearing in the vaudeville musicals Mad Money and On the Bowery, and opened a saloon in Buffalo, New York. ==Personal life==

After the jump, Brodie opened a saloon at 114 Bowery near Grand Street, which also became a museum for his bridge-jumping stunt. Among the decorations was an affidavit from the boat captain who claimed to have pulled him from the water. Brodie was known to give to charity, such as during the difficult period of the 1890s when he would give away food including bread and sausages, as well as coffee from his cafe to the needy and homeless. Thousands of people benefited from his generosity. ==Death==

Brodie died in San Antonio, Texas, on January 31, 1901 with his family members by his bedside. The cause of death has been variously described as diabetes and tuberculosis. He left $100,000 () in his will, with the bulk of his estate left to his eldest daughter, Irene Brodie, in trust until his other two children came of age, at which point it was distributed equally. His estate comprised around $75,000 () in real estate and roughly $30,000 () in cash. He was survived by his wife, two daughters and a son. ==In popular culture==

Brodie became a popular symbol of the Bowery and appeared personally in musical shows, and his character was used many times in film depictions of old New York. He starred in a three-act play titled On the Bowery by Robert Neilson Stephens, which opened in 1894. A facsimile of Brodie's saloon was the setting for the second act, and Brodie sang a song, "My Poil Is a Bowery Goil". Valerie Bergere played Blanche Livingstone, the girl he rescues and then falls in love with. The play culminated with Brodie jumping off the bridge. George Raft portrayed Brodie in the 1933 movie The Bowery which presents a fictional account of Brodie's dive. Years later, an actor named John Stevenson used Brodie's name for his movie stage name. In the 1946 noir film The Dark Corner (starring Lucille Ball and Mark Stevens), a taxi driver, when asked about William Bendix's gangster character falling to his death, said he "[n]ever saw anyone ever pull a Brodie and bounce." Brodie is also referenced in the 1947 Preston Sturges film, The Sin of Harold Diddlebock. In Samuel Fuller's 1952 film, Park Row, Brodie is portrayed by George O'Hanlon. In 1949, Warner Brothers released the Merrie Melodies cartoon Bowery Bugs, in which Bugs Bunny tells an old man the story of the Steve Brodie jump (Brodie's name is spelled "BRODY" on a plaque on the bridge in the spot where "Brody" supposedly jumped from). At the end, Bugs says to the old man, "And that's why Steve Brody jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge. Anything more you want to know?" and the old man replies, "Nope. That's enough, son. I'll buy it" - the implication being that Bugs is selling him the bridge. Bugs then breaks the fourth wall with a wink as the old man starts counting money into Bugs's hand. The flop 1965 Broadway musical Kelly was inspired by Brodie and climaxes with the lead character, Hop Kelly, completing the dive. The phrase "taken a Brody" is used in Thomas Pynchon's 1963 novel V.: "And next day she would read in the paper where Esther Harvitz, twenty-two, honors graduate of CCNY, had taken a Brody off some bridge, overpass or high building." Pynchon also used in The Crying of Lot 49: "...my best guide to the Trystero has taken a Brody." It also appears in David Foster Wallace's 1996 novel Infinite Jest: "McDade bitched at the meeting that if he had to watch Nightmare on Elm Street XXII: The Senescence one more time he was going to take a brody off the House's roof." Automobile steering wheel spinner knobs are sometimes called Brodie knobs, after Brodie. ==References==