Steve Brodie (1863 - 1901) was a Brooklyn bookmaker who claimed to have jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge and survived on July 23, 1886. The newspaper reports at the time gave Brodie lots of publicity, and the New York City tavern he opened shortly afterward was a success. It was subsequently determined that Brodie had probably not actually jumped, but instead used a dummy he had hidden in the area. In 1933, Brodie was portrayed by George Raft in Raoul Walsh's rollicking movie The Bowery, featuring Wallace Beery, Jackie Cooper, and Fay Wray. He also appears as a character in the June 4, 1949 Bugs Bunny cartoon Bowery Bugs, which presents a fictionalized account of why he wished to jump from the bridge in the first place.
Hoax or not, Brodie became famous, and his name for a time became slang; to "pull a Brodie" or "do a Steve Brodie" came to be understood to do something flamboyant and dangerous.
Years later, an actor used the Brooklyn man's name for his movie stage name; see Steve Brodie (actor).
The Bowery (1933)
