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For the creators of the Championship Manager series of computer games, see Collyer brothers (game designers). The Championship Manager series is a series of British Computer games the first of which was released in 1992 Paul and Oliver "Ov" Collyer are two English computer game designers and programmers
Langley Collyer (1885–1947), circa 1942–1943
Langley Collyer (1885–1947), circa 1942–1943

Homer Lusk Collyer (November 6, 1881 – March 21, 1947) and Langley Collyer (October 3, 1885 – March 1947) were two American brothers who became famous because of their snobbish nature, filth in their homes, and compulsive hoarding. Events 355 - Roman Emperor Constantius II promotes his cousin Julian to the rank of Caesar, entrusting him with Year 1881 ( MDCCCLXXXI) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Events 630 - Byzantine emperor Heraclius restores the True Cross to Jerusalem. Year 1947 ( MCMXLVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1947 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Events 42 BC - First Battle of Philippi: Triumvirs Mark Antony and Octavian fight an indecisive battle with Caesar's Year 1885 ( MDCCCLXXXV) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Year 1947 ( MCMXLVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1947 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Compulsive hoarding (or pathological hoarding) is the acquisition of and failure to use or discard such a large number of seemingly useless possessions that

The brothers are often cited as an example of compulsive hoarding associated with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), as well as disposophobia or 'Collyer brothers syndrome', a fear of throwing anything away. Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD is a Chronic Anxiety disorder most commonly characterized by obsessive Distressing Intrusive thoughts Compulsive hoarding (or pathological hoarding) is the acquisition of and failure to use or discard such a large number of seemingly useless possessions that For decades, neighborhood rumors swirled around the rarely-seen, unemployed men and their home at 2078 Fifth Avenue (at the corner of 128th Street), in Manhattan, where they obsessively collected newspapers, books, furniture, musical instruments, and many other items, with booby-traps set up in corridors and doorways to protect against intruders. Manhattan Island, in New York Harbor, is much the largest part of the Borough of Manhattan, one of the Five Boroughs which form the City of New York A booby trap is a device set up to be triggered by an unsuspecting victim

Both were eventually found dead in the Harlem brownstone where they had lived as hermits, surrounded by over 100 tons of rubbish that they had amassed over several decades. Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, long known as a major African American cultural and business center Brownstone is a brown Triassic Sandstone which was once a popular Building material. WASTE is a Peer-to-peer and Friend-to-friend protocol and software application developed by Justin Frankel at Nullsoft in 2003 that features

Contents

Family

View of Collyer Brothers' Brownstone on Fifth Avenue and 128th Street
View of Collyer Brothers' Brownstone on Fifth Avenue and 128th Street

The Collyer brothers were sons of Herman Livingston Collyer (1857–1923), a Manhattan gynecologist, and Susie Gage Frost (1856–1929); the Collyer family traced its roots to the Mayflower in the 17th century. Gynaecology or gynecology (see spelling differences) refers to the surgical specialty dealing with health of the female reproductive system ( Uterus The Mayflower was the famous Ship that transported the English Separatists better known as the Pilgrims, from Southampton, England They had a sister, Susan, who died as an infant in 1880. The family lived in a three-story townhouse at 2078 Fifth Avenue at the corner of 128th Street in Harlem, New York City, New York. Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, long known as a major African American cultural and business center The City of New York New York ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous The family was well educated and both sons attended Columbia University, which had just relocated to its present-day Morningside Heights campus, about a twenty-minute walk from the Collyer house. Columbia University is a private University in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. Morningside Heights is a neighborhood of the Borough of Manhattan in New York City and is chiefly known as the home of institutions such as Barnard Homer obtained a degree in engineering, while Langley became an Admiralty lawyer, although he preferred being an inventor. Engineering is the Discipline and Profession of applying technical and scientific Knowledge and Admiralty law (also referred to as maritime law) is a distinct body of Law which governs maritime questions and offenses A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law as an attorney, Counsel or Solicitor; a person Homer also played the piano and became a self-styled musician with long, flowing hair, which was a rarity in this era. Over the years, as both brothers' eccentricities intensified, Langley tinkered with various inventions, such as a device to vacuum the insides of pianos and a Model T Ford adapted to generate electricity. The Ford Model T (colloquially known as the Tin Lizzie and also the Flivver) was an Automobile produced by Henry Ford 's Ford

Dr. Herman Collyer abandoned his family in 1909, and the two brothers, still in their twenties, continued living in the house with their mother. When Herman died in 1923, his wife inherited all of his furniture, medical equipment and books and moved them to the Harlem house. Their mother died in 1929 and the brothers inherited everything. But over the previous fifteen years or so, Harlem had changed drastically. When Dr. Collyer moved into the house at 2078 Fifth Avenue, the neighborhood was a mixture of middle-class and well-to-do, whose townhouses had themselves gradually displaced much larger 19th-century estates owned by eminent figures such as James Roosevelt, father of Franklin D. Roosevelt. James Roosevelt Sr ( July 16 1828 &ndash December 8 1900) was a Businessman and father of the President of the United States Manhattan's African American community was displaced from its primary location in the late 19th century--the now nonexistent tenderloin and San Juan Hill--at the same time that real-estate overspeculation caused by over enthusiasm from the creation of the NYC subway left Harlem filled with vacant homes. Though African-Americans had lived in Harlem since its founding, the conjunction of these two events, along with increased migration from the southern United States led to a significant alteration in Harlem's racial makeup. During and after World War I, the black population of New York quickly increased; this in conjunction with white flight made central Harlem virtually all black by the 1920s. World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All White flight is a term for the demographic trend in which working and Middle-class White people move away from Suburbs By this time the Collyer brothers, though only in their forties, had long since ensconced themselves in their townhouse. As the neighborhood's character changed, the brothers became an anachronistic curiosity and withdrew from the world at large even further.

Recluses

Burglars tried to break into the house because of unfounded rumors of valuables, and neighborhood youths developed a fondness for throwing rocks at the windows. As the brothers' fears increased, so did their eccentricity. They boarded up the windows, and Langley set about using his engineering skills to set up booby traps. A booby trap is a device set up to be triggered by an unsuspecting victim Their gas, telephone, electricity and water having been turned off because of their failure to pay the bills, the brothers took to warming the large house using only a small kerosene heater. Kerosene, sometimes spelled kerosine in scientific and industrial usage is a Combustible Hydrocarbon liquid For a while, Langley attempted to generate his own energy by means of a car engine. Langley began to wander outside at night; he fetched their water from a post in a park four blocks to the south (presumably Mount Morris Park, renamed Marcus Garvey Park in 1973). Marcus Garvey Park, or Mount Morris Park as it is referred to by the people in the neighborhood is located in Harlem in the New York City borough Marcus Garvey Park, or Mount Morris Park as it is referred to by the people in the neighborhood is located in Harlem in the New York City borough He also dragged home countless pieces of abandoned junk that aroused his interest. In 1933, Homer, already crippled by rheumatism, went blind. Year 1933 ( MCMXXXIII) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Rheumatism or Rheumatic disorder is a non-specific term for medical problems affecting the Heart, Bones Joints Kidney, Skin Langley devised a remedy, a diet of one hundred oranges a week, along with black bread and peanut butter.

Public scrutiny

The Collyer brothers were first mentioned in the newspapers in 1938, when they rebuffed a real estate agent who was eyeing the house. The New York Times repeated neighborhood rumors that the brothers lived in some sort of "Orientalist splendor" and were sitting on vast piles of cash, afraid to deposit it in a bank. Orientalism refers to the imitation or depiction of aspects of Eastern cultures in the West by writers designers and artists and can also refer to a sympathetic stance Neither rumor was true; the brothers were certainly not broke, although eventually they would have been since neither of them had worked for decades. They drew media attention again in 1942 when they got in trouble with the bank after refusing to pay the mortgage on their house. A banker or bank is a Financial institution whose primary activity is to act as a payment agent for customers and to borrow and lend money In 1942, the New York Herald Tribune interviewed Langley. The New York Herald Tribune was a daily newspaper created in 1924 when the New York Tribune acquired the New York Herald. In response to a query about the bundles of newspapers, Langley replied, "I am saving newspapers for Homer, so that when he regains his sight he can catch up on the news. " The Bowery Savings Bank began eviction procedures and sent over a cleanup crew. The Bowery Savings Bank of New York City was chartered in May of 1834 and was changed in November 1985 to The State Bowery Savings Bank Eviction is the removal of a Tenant from rental property by the Landlord. At this time, Langley began ranting at the workers, prompting the neighbors to summon the police. When the police attempted to force their way by smashing down the front door, they were stymied by a sheer wall of junk piled from the floor to the ceiling. Without comment, Langley made out a check for $6,700 (equivalent to about $90,000 in 2006), paying off the mortgage in full in a single payment. He ordered everyone off the premises, and withdrew from outside scrutiny once more, emerging only at night and when he wanted to file criminal complaints against housebreakers.

Homer Collyer found dead

View of interior
View of interior

On March 21, 1947, an anonymous tipster phoned the 122nd police precinct and insisted there was a dead body in the house. Events 630 - Byzantine emperor Heraclius restores the True Cross to Jerusalem. Year 1947 ( MCMXLVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1947 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. A patrol officer was dispatched, but had a very difficult time getting into the house at first. There was no doorbell or telephone and the doors were locked; and while the basement windows were broken, they were protected by iron grillwork. Grillwork is decorative Grating of Metal, Wood, stone, or other material used as a screen divider barrier or as a purely Eventually an emergency squad of seven men had no choice but to begin pulling out all the junk that was blocking their way and throw it out onto the street below. The brownstone's foyer was packed solid by a wall of old newspapers, folding beds and chairs, half a sewing machine, boxes, parts of a wine press and numerous other pieces of junk. A sewing machine is a textile machine used to stitch Fabric or other material together with Thread. A patrolman, William Baker, finally broke in through a window into a second-story bedroom. Behind this window lay, among other things, more packages and newspaper bundles, empty cardboard boxes lashed together with rope, the frame of a baby carriage, a rake, and old umbrellas tied together. After a two-hour crawl he found Homer Collyer dead, wearing just a tattered blue and white bathrobe. Homer's matted, grey hair reached down to his shoulders, and his head was resting on his knees.

Assistant Medical Examiner Dr. Arthur C. Allen confirmed Homer's identity and said that the elder brother had been dead for no more than ten hours; consequently, Homer could not have been the source of the stench wafting from the house. Foul play was ruled out: Homer had died from the combined effects of malnutrition, dehydration and cardiac arrest. Malnutrition is a general term for a medical condition caused by an improper or insufficient diet. Dehydration ( hypohydration) is the removal of Water ( hydro in ancient Greek) from an object A cardiac arrest, also known as cardiorespiratory arrest, cardiopulmonary arrest or circulatory arrest, is the abrupt cessation of normal circulation of By this time, the mystery had attracted a crowd of about 600 onlookers, curious about the junk and the smell. But Langley was nowhere to be found.

In their quest to find Langley, the police began searching the house, an arduous task that required them to remove the large quantity of junk amassed in the house. Most of it was deemed worthless and set out curbside for the sanitation department to haul away; a few items were put into storage. The ongoing search turned up a further assortment of guns and ammunition. For weeks there was no sign of Langley.

Manhunt

On Saturday, March 30, false rumors circulated that Langley had been seen aboard a bus heading for Atlantic City, but a manhunt along the New Jersey shore turned up nothing. Events 240 BC - 1st recorded Perihelion passage of Halley's Comet. Two days later, the police continued searching the house, removing 3,000 more books, several outdated phone books, a horse's jawbone, a Steinway piano, an early X-ray machine, and even more bundles of newspapers. An X-ray machine is a device used by Radiographers to acquire an X-ray image A newspaper is a written Publication containing News, information and Advertising, usually printed on low-cost paper called Newsprint. More than nineteen tons of junk were removed, just from the ground floor of the three-story brownstone. Still unable to find Langley, the police continued to clear away the brothers' stockpile for another week, removing another 84 tons of rubbish from the house. Although a good deal of the junk came from their father's medical practice, a considerable portion was discarded items, collected by Langley on his various forays over the years.

Langley Collyer found dead

On April 8, 1947, workman Artie Matthews found the dead body of Langley Collyer just ten feet from where Homer died. Events 217 - Roman Emperor Caracalla is Assassinated (and succeeded by his Praetorian Year 1947 ( MCMXLVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1947 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. His partially decomposed body was being eaten by rats. A suitcase and three huge bundles of newspapers had covered his body. Langley had been crawling through their newspaper tunnel to bring food to his paralyzed brother when one of his own booby traps fell down and crushed him. Homer, blind and paralyzed, starved to death several days later. The stench detected on the street had been emanating from Langley, the younger brother.

House contents

Books and newspaper bundles
Books and newspaper bundles

In total, police and workmen took 103 tons of garbage out of the house. What was salvageable from it fetched less than $2,000 at auction; the cumulative estate of the Collyer brothers was valued at $91,000, of which $20,000 worth was in the form of personal property (jewelry, cash, securities and the like).

Items removed from the house included rope, baby carriages, a doll carriage, rakes, umbrellas, rusted bicycles, old food, potato peelers, a collection of guns, glass chandeliers, bowling balls, camera equipment, the folding top of a horse-drawn carriage, a sawhorse, three dressmaking dummies, painted portraits, pinup girl photos, plaster busts, Mrs. "Parasol" redirects here For other uses see Umbrella (disambiguation, Umbrella (song or Parasol (disambiguation The bicycle, cycle, or bike is a pedal-driven, human-powered vehicle with two wheels attached to a frame, one behind A peeler ( potato peeler and/or apple peeler) is a metal blade attached to a wooden metal or plastic handle that is used for peeling certain Vegetables A chandelier is a branched decorative ceiling-mounted light fixture with two or more arms bearing lights A bowling ball is a round ball made from Urethane, Plastic, Reactive resin or a combination of these materials which is used in the Sport of A camera is a device used to capture images either as still Photographs or as sequences of moving images ( Movies or Videos. A sawhorse is a Beam with four legs used to support a Board or Plank for Sawing A pair of sawhorses can support a plank forming a A portrait is a painting, photograph, Sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person in which the face and its expression is predominant A pin-up girl or pin-up model is a model whose mass-produced pictures see wide appeal as Pop culture. The term plaster can refer to plaster of Paris Lime plaster, or Cement plaster. Collyer's hope chests, rusty bed springs, the kerosene stove, a checkerboard, a child's chair (the brothers were lifelong bachelors and childless), more than 25,000 books (including thousands of books about medicine and engineering and more than 2,500 on law), human organs pickled in jars, eight live cats, a beaded lampshade, the chassis of the old Model T Langley had been tinkering with, one British and six American flags, tapestries, hundreds of yards of unused silks and fabric, clocks, fourteen pianos (both grand and upright), a clavichord, two organs, banjos, violins, bugles, accordions, a gramophone and records, and, of course, countless bundles of newspapers and magazines, some of them decades old. A hope chest, dowry chest, or glory box is a chest used to collect items of clothing or household linen by unmarried young women in anticipation of married life A spring is a flexible elastic object used to store mechanical Energy. Kerosene, sometimes spelled kerosine in scientific and industrial usage is a Combustible Hydrocarbon liquid A checkerboard (or chequerboard) is a board on which American checkers is played A Book is a set or collection of written printed illustrated or blank sheets made of Paper, Parchment, or other material usually fastened together Medicine is the art and science of healing It encompasses a range of Health care practices evolved to maintain and restore Human Health by the Engineering is the Discipline and Profession of applying technical and scientific Knowledge and Law is a system of rules enforced through a set of Institutions used as an instrument to underpin civil obedience politics economics and society WikipediaManual of Style (spelling, articles should conform to one overall spelling style of English typically the one most linked to the article topic (if it is geographic A bead is a small decorative object that is pierced for threading or stringing A lampshade is a fixture that covers the Lightbulb on a lamp to diffuse the light it emits A chassis (plural "chassis" (ˈʃæːsiː ˈtʃæːsiː consists of a framework that supports an inanimate object analogous to an Animal 's The Ford Model T (colloquially known as the Tin Lizzie and also the Flivver) was an Automobile produced by Henry Ford 's Ford The Union Flag, also known as the Union Jack, is the national flag of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Flags of the United States The Flag of the United States of America consists of 13 equal horizontal stripes of Red (top and bottom alternating Silk is a natural Protein Fiber, some forms of which can be woven into Textiles The best-known type of silk is obtained from cocoons A textile is a flexible material comprised of a network of natural or artificial Fibres often referred to as thread or Yarn. Circadian Locomotor Output Cycles Kaput, or Clock is a gene which encodes proteins regulating Circadian rhythm. The piano is a Musical instrument played by means of a keyboard that produces sound by striking steel strings with Felt covered hammers The piano is a Musical instrument played by means of a keyboard that produces sound by striking steel strings with Felt covered hammers The piano is a Musical instrument played by means of a keyboard that produces sound by striking steel strings with Felt covered hammers The clavichord is a European stringed Keyboard instrument known from the late Medieval, through the Renaissance, Baroque and Classical The banjo is a Stringed instrument developed by enslaved Africans in the United States, adapted from several African instruments The violin is a bowed String instrument with four strings usually tuned in Perfect fifths It is the smallest and highest-pitched member "Bugler" redirects here For the tobacco brand see Bugler (tobacco. A newspaper is a written Publication containing News, information and Advertising, usually printed on low-cost paper called Newsprint. Magazines, periodicals or serials are Publications generally published on a regular schedule containing a variety of articles, generally Near the spot where Homer died, police also found 34 bank account passbooks with a total of $3,007. A passbook or bankbook is a paper book used to record bank transactions on a Deposit account. 18.

And in addition to the bundles of paper, there was a great deal of garbage. WASTE is a Peer-to-peer and Friend-to-friend protocol and software application developed by Justin Frankel at Nullsoft in 2003 that features The house itself, having never been maintained, was also decaying: the roof was leaking and some walls had already caved in, showering bricks and mortar on the rooms below. A brick is a block of Ceramic material used in Masonry construction laid using mortar. Mortar is a workable paste formed by mixture of Cement, Water and fine aggregate Masonry to bind construction blocks together and fill the gaps between Eventually the house was deemed a fire hazard and razed.

A gathering of some of the stranger materials pulled from the Collyer Mansion were taken to be exhibited at Hubert's Dime Museum, where they were featured alongside Human Marvels and sideshow performers. The morbid center piece of this display was the chair in which Homer Collyer died. Upon being removed from public exhibit in 1956, the Collyer chair entered the private collector's market. As events progressed, the chair earned the reputation of being cursed due to the misfortunes of the series of collectors who had come into possession of it. Today the Collyer Death Chair is maintained in the holdings of a collector of oddities named Babette Bombshell, of Orlando, Florida.

Burial

Both brothers were buried with their parents at Cypress Hills Cemetery, Brooklyn. Cypress Hills Cemetery was the first nonsectarian cemetery corporation organized in the Brooklyn / Queens area of New York City.

Legacy

The New York Times on March 26, 1947 wrote:

There is, admittedly, something unattractive about the avidity with which society now pores over every detail the Collyer brothers vigorously withheld from public scrutiny. Events 1026 - Pope John XIX crowns Conrad II as Holy Roman Emperor. Year 1947 ( MCMXLVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1947 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. . . It is almost as though society were taking revenge upon the brothers for daring to cut the thread that binds man to his fellows.

The Collyer brothers were first fictionalized by Marcia Davenport in her novel, My Brother's Keeper (Scribners, 1954), also published as a Popular Library paperback. Marcia Davenport ( 9 June 1903 &mdash 16 January 1996) was an American Author and music critic My Brother's Keeper is a novel by Marcia Davenport based on the true story of the Collyer brothers. In his novel 'Salem's Lot (1975), Stephen King made use of the Collyer brothers' story in his description of the bundles of magazines and newspapers that were found in the Marsten House, including using said bundled newspapers rigged to fall as a booby trap to guard against burglars. Despite motion picture options spanning decades, the Davenport novel has never been filmed. More recently, the Collyer brothers appeared as characters in Hirohiko Araki's 2004 comic The Lives of Eccentrics, and in Kevin Baker's 2006 novel, Striver's Row. born June 7 1960 in Sendai, Japan is a Manga artist He left school before graduation from Miyagi University of Education. Kevin Baker (born 1958 is an American novelist and Journalist.

The Collyer Brothers at Home is a 1980 play by Mark St. Germain, and the brothers have also been the subjects of two other English-language plays: The Dazzle, by Richard Greenberg, loosely based on their lives, and Clutter: The True Story of the Collyer Brothers Who Never Threw Anything Out by Mark Saltzman. Richard Greenberg (1958- is a Tony Award winning American Playwright. A native of Yonkers NY, Mark Saltzman began his career in New York City as a script writer and songwriter for Sesame Street, where he earned There is also a Swedish play called Samlarna (The Hoarders), by Lotta Lotass, which has not been translated to English.

The site of the former Collyer house is now a park.

See also

References

External links

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