Creepy dolls coming to life is a classic horror movie trope, but where did the idea originate? When you think "demon doll," Chucky from "Child's Play" springs to mind, but what was the ur-Chucky? Among other inspirations — My Buddy dolls, "The Twilight Zone" episode "Living Doll," Cabbage Patch Kids, etc. — many horror fans see an obvious link to the story of Robert the Doll, an allegedly haunted toy once owned by painter and author Robert Eugene Otto that is currently on display at the Martello Gallery-Key West Art and Historical Museum in Key West, Florida. This is the true story of the doll that inspired "Chucky."
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00:00The Chucky doll is a popular and memorable horror character, but you might not be aware
00:04of where the idea originally stemmed from. The roots can be traced back to a very creepy
00:08real-life toy. Here's the true story of Robert the Doll, who indirectly inspired Chucky.
00:13Robert the Doll, who has been the subject of several of his own movies and an episode
00:17of Amazon Prime's horror anthology series Lore, was the property of Robert Eugene Otto.
00:22Otto gave the doll his own name, though he himself actually went by Gene. Otto was the
00:26youngest of three sons of an affluent Key West family, and he studied fine arts in
00:30Chicago, New York, and Paris, ultimately becoming a notable and somewhat eccentric painter and
00:35author.
00:36It was in Paris that he met his wife Anne, a concert pianist, and the two lived in New
00:39York together for a while before moving back to Key West, and more specifically, to the
00:44home in which Otto had grown up in, which he had since inherited. They would name the
00:48colonial Queen Anne Manor the Artist House, where they would live until the end of their
00:51days. Gene passed away in 1974, and Anne followed two years later.
00:57The Artist House is now a hotel, and visitors have reported sighting an unsettling apparition
01:01strolling the turret room staircase. TV shows have visited the Artist House to see if they
01:05could lay eyes on the famous thing that haunts the building, which is said to be the ghost
01:09of Anne Otto wearing a wedding dress, patrolling her own home. Robert the Doll is elsewhere.
01:16Before you even learn about Robert's reputation for being haunted, just his look may be enough
01:20to unsettle you. He's got beady black eyes and a strange little face covered with the
01:24scars of over a century of aging. He wears a sailor suit and holds a doll of his own,
01:29a little stuffed lion with bug eyes and a wide-opened mouth.
01:33As it turns out, Robert is not just weird, but is in fact unique. Robert was not a mass-produced
01:38item meant to be a toy for children everywhere. Instead, Robert was a one-of-a-kind item meant
01:43as part of a window display of clowns and jesters for the Stipe Company, toy makers
01:48who made the original teddy bear to celebrate Theodore Roosevelt.
01:51Built around the turn of the 20th century, Robert is 40 inches tall, making him the size
01:55of a human child. The doll is stuffed with woodwool, also known as excelsior, made from
02:00wood shavings usually used for packing. Although Robert would have originally been dressed
02:04and painted up like a jester, the sailor suit he has worn for over a century would likely
02:08have been one of Gene Otto's own outfits, handed down to his new friend.
02:12Considering Otto gave the doll his own name and his own clothes, it almost makes you wonder
02:17if he didn't send a little piece of his soul into the doll, too — if you believe in that
02:21sort of thing, that is.
02:23Where does a doll like Robert come from? How does a simple child's toy end up causing mayhem
02:28and terror for those who disrespect him or his childhood friend? Well, officially, Robert
02:32was a gift to Gene Otto from his grandfather on his fourth birthday in 1904. His grandfather
02:37bought it for him on a trip to Germany, presumably from the window display at the Stipe Company.
02:43The legends surrounding Robert the Doll are something else entirely.
02:46He said he'd be a good friend to Gene.
02:49The Artist House website says the doll was a gift to Gene from a young Bahamian girl,
02:53either as a gift or as a retaliation for some wrong perpetrated by the Otto family. Meanwhile,
02:58Slate suggested that the doll was a gift from the family's Bahamian maid.
03:02The added element to the Bahama seems to exist to bring in the idea of voodoo, and indeed,
03:07Florida Keys Treasures says Robert's toys included small voodoo dolls that he would
03:10hold in his lap and throw across the room when angered.
03:13The official Robert the Doll page entertains a possibility of voodoo being at the heart
03:17of Robert's antics, but seems to give more consideration to the idea that Gene imbued
03:22the doll with all sorts of potent emotional energy, by constantly blaming the doll for
03:26everything negative in his life. Whether the doll is laden with a voodoo curse filled with
03:31negative energy or sharing a piece of his human friend's soul, Robert's activities appear
03:35to have continued long after leaving the Artist House.
03:38Gene Otto and Robert the Doll were reportedly inseparable for much of Otto's life. In fact,
03:43Gene would apparently carry Robert everywhere with him, and at night, Gene's mother would
03:46hear him holding conversations with the doll, who spoke in his own voice. Though she originally
03:51assumed Gene was doing both voices, she would later come to question her assumption about
03:55this.
04:03Gene was never without Robert. The doll had his own chair at the dinner table and slept
04:07every night in Gene's bed. Even weirder, Gene talked about Robert exclusively as if he were
04:12a living entity. Later, Gene built Robert his own room in the attic, complete with furniture
04:17and other smaller toys meant for Robert, including the little animal that Robert can still be
04:22seen holding today.
04:24One habit of Gene's that a number of people found quite concerning was his tendency to
04:28blame his own bad behavior on Robert. Gene was known for frequent tantrums, which he
04:33would say were Robert's fault. Spills or overturned chairs would get blamed on the doll as well.
04:38At every turn, whenever chaos and disorder followed the young Gene throughout the Otto
04:41home, Robert did it would be the refrain.
04:45"...Robert is real. And he doesn't like it when you scold me."
04:54Perhaps surprising no one, Anne Otto did not care for her husband's strange friend, and
04:58so Robert found himself confined to the artist's house's turret room when the couple moved
05:02into Gene's family home. As it turns out, that wasn't enough to stop his antics.
05:07The adult Gene Otto would often go up to the turret room to work during the day, as he
05:11found the light there preferable for painting. His good pal Robert, exiled to the same room
05:15by Gene's wife, would be his constant companion, propped up against the southwest window.
05:20As the stories go, however, schoolchildren walking past the artist's house would see
05:24Robert the doll moving from one window to another, or even scowling at them through
05:28the glass. After Gene's death, Anne reportedly made sure Robert was locked in a cedar chest
05:33in the attic.
05:34Myrtle Reuter bought the house in the 1970s after Anne's death and found herself Robert's
05:39new handler. Visitors to the house claimed they would hear unexplained footsteps skittering
05:43around the attic room above them, as well as disconcerting giggling. According to the
05:47Robert the doll homepage, a plumber working in the house's attic once heard giggling and
05:52turned to discover the doll had moved across the room on his own.
05:55Additionally, Robert was alleged to change facial expressions when he could overhear
05:59conversations, especially if they were about him or Gene. One visitor apparently commented
06:04that Gene Otto must have been an old fool, only to see Robert's face twist into an angry
06:08scowl.
06:09It's the doll.
06:19Reuter continued to bear the burden of being Robert's companion even after moving out of
06:23house, only to discover that Robert would run room-to-room in her new house, too.
06:28After 20 years as Robert's caretaker, Myrtle Reuter apparently had enough of the doll's
06:32antics and finally donated him to the Fort East Martello Museum in Key West in 1994,
06:37where he has spent almost all of his time since. The choice of home was a fitting one,
06:41as Robert's pal Gene Otto had designed the museum's gallery.
06:45Robert was not initially put on display in the museum, but visitors soon showed great
06:49curiosity about the doll when they learned he was there. So Robert the Doll was put in
06:53a glass case, sitting in a little chair, much like fellow spooky doll Annabelle.
06:58According to the Robert the Doll homepage, staff started noticing a shift of energies
07:02at the museum once Robert arrived. After Robert had been put out for display, visitors and
07:06museum employees noticed that cameras and electronic equipment would malfunction in
07:10the doll's presence, with photos coming out smeared or out of focus, for example.
07:15Mishaps at the museum are often attributed to the doll, with the common refrain being
07:19the same as the one in the Otto's house, with people claiming Robert did it.
07:23In addition to any mischief Robert might make by running around the museum or gumming up
07:28the works and electronic devices, the creepy little doll is reportedly most famous for
07:32placing curses on visitors who disrespect him, specifically by taking his picture without
07:37permission.
07:38Past visitors to the museum have attributed any number of misfortunes to encounters with
07:41Robert, including incidents such as car accidents, job losses, divorce, and physical ailments.
07:47According to the curator of the museum, Robert receives one to three letters a day, and while
07:52some are fan letters, the vast majority are apologies from visitors who have disrespected
07:56Robert during their visit, and subsequently suffered some catastrophe in their lives.
08:00In fact, the Robert homepage contains scans of a few letters sent to Robert, including
08:05one from a child who wants to be pen pals with Robert for some reason, and somewhat
08:09disconcertingly asks if he has a girlfriend.
08:13Another is a desperate letter of apology for taking Robert's picture without permission
08:16from someone who had subsequently received a speeding ticket and continuous car trouble.
08:21The best, though, is the kid who writes to cheer on Robert for destroying those who disrespect
08:25him.
08:26Many of the numerous letters of apology to Robert are pinned up to the walls around his
08:30display as a warning to visitors.
08:32Other pieces of Robert's fan mail ask for advice or to curse their enemies with his
08:36doll power.
08:37Perhaps, needless to say, there is also a gift shop where you can buy your own replica
08:42Robert doll, among other creepy things.
08:45While Robert has inspired no shortage of popular horror films about possessed, enchanted,
08:49or otherwise maleficent dolls, Robert himself has made something of an impact on popular
08:54culture all on his own.
08:55Notably, Robert left Florida for the first time when he was taken to Las Vegas to appear
08:59on Zach Bagan's Mystery Mansion on the Travel Channel in 2015.
09:03He later appeared on an episode of Ozzie and Jack's World Detour, where the Osbourne boys
09:07visited Key West's Spookiest Boy and bought one of the replicas available in the gift
09:11shop.
09:12Additionally, Robert's life story was featured on both the podcast and TV versions of Aaron
09:17Mainkey's Lore.
09:18But perhaps most interesting is the Robert the Doll film franchise.
09:22Since 2015, writer and director Andrew Jones has produced movies about Robert at a staggering
09:26rate, starting with 2015's Roberts and continuing through The Curse of Robert the Doll in 2016,
09:33Roberts and the Toymaker in 2017, The Revenge of Robert the Doll in 2018, and Robert Reborn
09:39in 2019.
09:40Apart from using the autos' names in the first film, very little of Robert's real story is
09:44preserved, as the setting is moved from Key West in 1904 to Wales in 2015, and it features
09:50a doll that is somehow even uglier than the real Robert.
09:54The later films set Robert's origins during World War II, decades after his actual manufacture.
10:00While Robert is among the most infamous haunted dolls in history, he is far from the only
10:04one.
10:05His fame at this point is far outstripped by Annabelle, the demon-possessed Raggedy
10:09Ann doll imprisoned by Ed and Lorraine Warren, the real paranormal investigators whose lives
10:14are the basis for the conjuring franchise of films, which includes three movies focusing
10:18on Annabelle so far.
10:20Of course, if quantity over quality is what you value when it comes to nightmare dolls,
10:24Mexico City's Isla de las Muñeques is the place for you.
10:28This horrifying island full of hundreds of rotting dolls is a mind-bending tribute to
10:32a drowned girl who may or may not have existed.
10:35And of course, the Chucky franchise continues to expand most recently, hitting our TV screens
10:40in SyFy's Chucky.
10:42As a result, it's undeniable that Robert the doll's legacy far outweighs his own appearances
10:47in pop culture.