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Brother Theodore

Brother Theodore

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Brother Theodore (11 November 1906 – 5 April 2001), born Theodore Gottlieb, was a German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...

-American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 monologuist
Monologue
A monologue is an extended uninterrupted speech by a character in a drama. The character may be speaking his or her thoughts aloud, directly addressing another character, or speaking to the audience, especially the former. Monologues are common across the range of dramatic media .Monologuing is...

 and comedian known for rambling, stream-of-consciousness dialogues which he called "stand up tragedy."

Early years


He was born into a wealthy Jew
Jew
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...

ish family in Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is the second most international and economically important centre of Germany, after Frankfurt, and is located in the center of the Rhein-Ruhr area, Europe's most populated metropolitan area...

, North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia is the westernmost and—in terms of population and economic output—the largest Federal State of Germany. North Rhine-Westphalia has over 18 million inhabitants, contributes about 22% of Germany's gross domestic product and comprises a land area of 34,083 km²...

, where his father was a magazine publisher. Theodore attended the University of Cologne
University of Cologne
The University of Cologne is one of the oldest universities in Europe and, with over 44,000 students, one of the largest universities in Germany. The university is part of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, an association of Germany's leading research universities...

. At age 32, under Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, known officially in German as National Socialism , is the totalitarian ideology and practices of the Nazi Party or National Socialist German Workers’ Party under Adolf Hitler, and the policies adopted by the dictatorial government of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945.Nazism is often considered...

 rule, he was imprisoned at the Dachau concentration camp
Dachau concentration camp
Dachau concentration camp was the first Nazi concentration camp opened in Germany, located on the grounds of an abandoned munitions factory near the medieval town of Dachau, about 16 km northwest of Munich in the state of Bavaria which is located in southern Germany.Opened in March 1933, it...

 until he signed over his family's fortune for one Reichsmark
German reichsmark
The Reichsmark was the currency in Germany from 1924 until June 20, 1948. The Reichsmark was subdivided into 100 Reichspfennig.-History:...

. After being deported for chess
Chess
Chess is a board game played between two players. The current form of the game emerged in Southern Europe during the second half of the 15th century after evolving from a similar, much older game of Indian origin...

 hustling
Hustling
Hustling is the deceptive act of disguising one's skill in a sport or game with the intent of luring someone of probably lesser skill into gambling with the hustler, as a form of confidence trick...

 from Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland , officially the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 states named cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities...

 he went to Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west...

 where Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a theoretical physicist. His many contributions to physics include the special and general theories of relativity, the founding of relativistic cosmology, the first post-Newtonian expansion, explaining the perihelion advance of Mercury, prediction of the deflection of...

, a family friend and alleged lover of his mother, helped him escape to the United States.

Comes to America


He worked as a janitor at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university located in Stanford, California, United States...

, where he demonstrated his prowess at chess by beating thirty professors simultaneously, and later became a dockworker in San Francisco. He played a bit part in Orson Welles
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles was an American film director, writer, actor and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television, and radio. Welles was also an accomplished magician, starring in troop variety spectacles in the war years...

's The Stranger. This was one of the several movie appearances he made beginning in the 1940s and continuing into the 1990s. These were mostly small parts in B-movies, although he did provide the voice of Gollum
Gollum
Gollum is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. He was first introduced in the author's fantasy novel The Hobbit, and later became an important supporting character in its sequel, The Lord of the Rings....

 in the 1977 made-for-television animated version of The Hobbit and the follow-up adaptation of The Return of the King
The Return of the King (1980 film)
The Return of the King is a 1980 animated musical television special created by Rakin/Bass. The film is an adaptation of the third volume in The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien and is largely viewed as the unoffical sequel to Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated adaptation of The Lord of the Rings...

.

Success


Theodore's career as a monologuist began in California in the late 1940s, with dramatic Poe
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the...

 recitals. He moved to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...

, and by the 1950s his monologues, now darkly humorous, had attracted a cult following. He reached a wider audience through television, with 36 appearances on The Merv Griffin Show
The Merv Griffin Show
The Merv Griffin Show was an American television talk show, starring Merv Griffin. The series ran from October 1, 1962 to March 29, 1963 on NBC, September 20, 1965 to September 26, 1969 in first-run syndication, from August 18, 1969 to February 11, 1972 at 11:30 PM ET weeknights on CBS and again in...

in the 1960s and '70s, and was also a guest on The Tonight Show
The Tonight Show
The Tonight Show is an American late-night talk and variety show airing on NBC since 1954. Tonight is the third longest-running entertainment program in U.S...

with Johnny Carson
Johnny Carson
John William “Johnny” Carson was an American television host and comedian, known as host of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson for 30 years . Carson received six Emmy Awards including the Governor Award and a 1985 Peabody Award; he was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1987...

, The Dick Cavett Show
The Dick Cavett Show
The Dick Cavett Show has been the title of several talk shows hosted by Dick Cavett on various television networks, including:* ABC daytime ...

, and The Joey Bishop Show
Joey Bishop
Joey Bishop was an American entertainer who was perhaps best known for being a member of the "Rat Pack" with Frank Sinatra, Peter Lawford, Sammy Davis Jr., and Dean Martin...

. As his nightclub and TV appearances in the 1950s and '60s waned, he was forgotten, and he retired in the mid 1970s.

Comeback


He was pulled out of retirement and booked by magician Dorothy Dietrich
Dorothy Dietrich
Dorothy Dietrich is an American stage magician and escapologist, and one of the few women to have performed the bullet catch trick. She was also the first woman to perform a straitjacket escape while suspended hundreds of feet in the air from a burning rope Dorothy Dietrich is an American stage...

 and Dick Brooks
Dick Brooks (entertainer)
Dick Brooks, considered a magician of renown has been a professional performer since leaving school, was born in New York City, USA. As a teenager he joined a Department of Parks magic club headed up by the official magician of New York City, Abe Hurwitz , who was also the father of the soon to be...

 in the Magic Towne House
Magic Towne House
The Magic Towne House was a well known magic show spot on three floors at 1026 Third Avenue, north of 60th Street, New York City, in the 1970s and 1980s. It was in the posh area of the Upper East Side of Manhattan on Third Avenue and 61st Street next to Bloomingdale's Department Store...

 on New York's upper East side for special weekend midnight performances. Brooks had remembered seeing Brother Theodore in the village years prior, when Theodore was packing them in and sought him out for his new club. This resulted in a resurgence of interest in Brother Theodore that brought him success in his later years starting with Tom Snyder's Tomorrow Show in 1977 followed by more TV appearances and movies. According to Brooks, it took multiple calls to Theodore to convince him to make a comeback. Theodore's attitude was very bleak, and felt his career was over. Brooks wanted to charge ten or more dollars, but Theodore insisted on four dollars, so as not to scare people away. The show was a success and ran for several seasons. A picture of the Magic Towne House ad that appeared in local New York newspapers such as the Village Voice and The New York post can be found at http://www.shockcinemamagazine.com/brother.html

Talk-show viewers probably remember Theodore for his 16 appearances on NBC's Late Night with David Letterman
Late Night with David Letterman
Late Night with David Letterman is a nightly hour-long comedy talk show on NBC hosted by David Letterman. It premiered in 1982 and went off the air in 1993, after Letterman left NBC and moved to The Late Show on CBS. Late Night with Conan O'Brien then filled the time slot...

in the 1980s. In the early 1980s, he was a regular on the Billy Crystal Show
Billy Crystal
William Edward "Billy" Crystal is an American actor, writer, producer, comedian, and film director. He gained prominence in the 1970s for playing Jodie Dallas on the ABC sitcom Soap and became a Hollywood film star during the late 1980s and 1990s, appearing in the box office successes When Harry...

. Up until the late 1990s, he was a guest actor in several episodes of Joe Frank: Work in Progress
Joe Frank
Joe Frank is an American radio personality, known best for his often philosophical, humorous and sometimes absurd monologues and radio dramas. -Early life:...

 radio show on NPR. An article on Theodore appeared in RAVE magazine (with color photos) and segments from it are in the book Who's Who in Comedy. Just prior to his death from pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory illness of the lung. Frequently, it is described as lung parenchyma/alveolar inflammation and abnormal alveolar filling with fluid ....

, he taped several monologues for the controversial documentary series, Disinfo
Disinfo
The Disinformation Company is a privately held American publishing company that specializes in current affairs titles that seek to expose disinformation. It is headquartered in New York City, New York...

rmation
. He appeared in Billy Crystal's "Don't Get Me Started" mockumentary, and voiced the character of an ointment expert on NPR's Weekend Edition
Weekend Edition
Weekend Edition is the name given to a set of American radio news magazines produced and distributed by National Public Radio . It is the weekend counterpart to Morning Edition. It consists of Weekend Edition Saturday and Weekend Edition Sunday , each of which airs for two hours, from 8 a.m. to 10...

 Saturday audio version of Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer
Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer
Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer is a weekly comic strip written and drawn by Ben Katchor since 1988. It is published in The Forward and various alternative weekly newspapers....

 in 1995.

Death


Theodore died in New York City on April 5, 2001, in Mount Sinai Hospital, and is buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York
Hawthorne, New York
Hawthorne is an unincorporated hamlet and census-designated place located in the town of Mount Pleasant in Westchester County, New York. The population was 5,083 at the 2000 census.-History:...

.

His headstone reads: Known as Brother Theodore / Solo Performer, Comedian, Metaphysician / "As Long As There is Death, There Is Hope"

Television appearances

  • The Joey Bishop Show: 10/31/1967, 11/8/1967 [dates needed]
  • The Merv Griffin Show: [dates needed]
  • The Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder
    Tom Snyder
    Thomas James "Tom" Snyder was an American television personality, news anchor and radio personality best known for his late night talk shows The Tomorrow Show, on the NBC television network in the 1970s and 1980s, and The Late Late Show, on the CBS Television Network in the 1990s.Snyder was also...

    : 10/31/1977
  • Late Night with David Letterman
    Late Night with David Letterman
    Late Night with David Letterman is a nightly hour-long comedy talk show on NBC hosted by David Letterman. It premiered in 1982 and went off the air in 1993, after Letterman left NBC and moved to The Late Show on CBS. Late Night with Conan O'Brien then filled the time slot...

    (NBC
    NBC
    The National Broadcasting Company is an American television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices in Burbank,California...

    ): 9/10/1982, 10/20/1982, 2/3/1983, 5/19/1983, 7/8/1983, 9/7/1983, 2/21/1984, 5/16/1984, 9/17/1984, 12/19/1984, 7/8/1985, 10/31/1985, 9/17/1986, 7/24/1987, 1/13/1988, 2/17/1989

Radio appearances

  • Joe Frank's
    Joe Frank
    Joe Frank is an American radio personality, known best for his often philosophical, humorous and sometimes absurd monologues and radio dramas. -Early life:...

     radio shows. Episodes: The Decline of Spengler, The End, A Tour of the City, Black Light

  • Steve Post's The Outside radio show on WBAI
    WBAI
    WBAI, a part of the Pacifica Radio Network, is a non-commercial, listener-supported radio station, broadcasting at 99.5 FM in New York City.Its programming is leftist/progressive, and a mixture of leftist political advocacy tinged with aspects of its complex and varied history, such as Freeform...

     in New York during the 1960s and 70s.
  • Bob Claster's Funny Stuff on KCRW
    KCRW
    KCRW is a public radio station broadcasting from the campus of Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, California, carrying a mix of National Public Radio news, talk radio and freeform music format. A network of repeaters and broadcast translators allows the station to serve the Los Angeles...

     in Santa Monica, September 24, 1989.
  • The Ointment Expert: Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer

Further reading

  • Martin, Douglas (April 6, 2001). "Theodore Gottlieb, Dark Comedian, Dies at 94". The New York Times. Retrieved on 2008-08-01.
  • Adams, Kathleen; August, Melissa; Hartwell, Randy; Martens, Ellin; Pierro, Joseph; Song, Sora (April 16, 2001). "Milestones". Time Magazine. Retrieved on 2008-08-01.

External links