In a few weeks in 1970, Michael Brody became the world’s most beloved millionaire.
The 21-year-old heir to the Scarsdale margarine, New York, has vowed to give away his wealth – all people had to do was ask for it – and a whirlwind month has begun that has led to money pouring into the streets of Manhattan. Ed Sullivan and Brody try to land a helicopter on the lawn of the White House.
All this is recalled in the new documentary “Dear Mr. Brody”, available on request on Amazon Prime and Google Play.
It didn’t matter that Brody didn’t have, as he once claimed, $ 10 billion. Apparently he had a $ 1.25 million trust fund (worth $ 9 million today) from his grandfather, who was the first person to brand margarine and sell Good Luck Margarine in 1948.
Michael Brody’s condition comes from the fact that his grandfather was the first person to brand margarine. Batman
“I was told that at the age of 21, Michael received perhaps $ 250,000 in trust and a monthly allowance of $ 20,000 or $ 30,000,” Keith Maitland, the film’s director, told The Post.
Brody’s capers began when he met a girl named Renee in December 1969: She showed up at his house to deliver hashish to her boyfriend, a drug dealer, and did not leave. Three weeks later, Brody married the 19-year-old.
“Michael was on a beach in Jamaica on his honeymoon [in early] January 1970, “Maitland said. “His feeling was that there was love between them [he and Renee]blue skies above them and the world must experience what they are experiencing. ”
Spreading love, Brody apparently tipped about $ 50,000 during the trip. As a romantic gesture, he bought a Pan Am 707 flight back to New York so he and his bride could fly home alone. When they landed, an army of reporters was waiting for them at the airport.
“I think Pan Am found out about the plan and told the media to get publicity,” Melissa Glassman, the film’s producer, told The Post. The attention must have inspired Brody. “He spontaneously announced that he would give away all his money. He revealed his home address in Scarsdale and asked people to send requests by mail.
Brody married his wife Rene three weeks after she showed up to deliver drugs to his house. Michael Stroud
More than 200,000 letters were quickly poured out – sad stories and incredible dreams. He had a kid who wanted $ 5,000 so he could go to Japan and make a movie. The wife of a drug addict sent a photo of their child asking for finances to “keep a smile on his face.” People sent X-rays while looking for money to cover doctors’ bills.
Brody immediately began writing checks and handing out cash. People lined up in the front lawn of his luxury home. A woman named Bunny Jones received $ 60,000 to open a recording studio in Haarlem and allowed Brody to use his Broadway office as headquarters in Manhattan. He, too, was soon besieged by people who wanted a donation.
During the next week, Brody would walk the streets of Manhattan and hand out $ 100 bills to strangers. He and his team of hangers, often with joints in their hands, were renovating his father’s apartment in the east from the 1960s, which was reportedly out of town when it all fell apart. Soon the sidewalk in front of the building he was jammed with lucky seekers. Standing up, Brody tossed $ 20 bills out the window as he turned the bird over.
When Brody offered to give his money to people who needed it, he was flooded with mail. Greenwich Entertainment
Some of the letters are included in the documentary. Greenwich Entertainment
On January 11, the newly carved celebrity appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show, played a song by Bob Dylan on his acoustic guitar, while the host marveled at the “young man who gave away $ 25 million.” Audience members applauded.
A day later, he and Rene hire a helicopter with the intention of landing on the lawn of the White House. Brody told the press that he would offer North Vietnam $ 10 billion in mediation to end the Vietnam War. (Not that there were $ 10 billion.)
But when the helicopter arrived in the airspace over the presidential lawn, Secret Service agents were on high alert. “They kept telling the pilot that if he landed on the lawn, he would be taken down,” bodyguard Michael Aronin said in the documentary. Brody continued to toss $ 20 bills at the pilot, insisting he land.
For several weeks, Brody handed out money as he walked the streets of Manhattan. Batman
Eventually, however, the pilot cooled off and turned to the nearby airport. Brody and his crew – including Aronin – went to the White House, where they insisted on seeing Nixon so that the war could be stopped. Secret Service agents detained the group before expelling them and arresting a bodyguard who had an unfulfilled order.
At a news conference immediately after the incident, Brody said: “I have a secure peace plan … President Nixon has shown how much he cares by arresting the man I came with. I [wanted] to give 10 billion dollars and a lot of love and what did he give me? “
Reporters and hippies who hated the restaurant ate it. RCA Records offered Brody a contract. And in the middle of it all, Grateful Dead recruited him to open a show in Hawaii.
Brody appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show after announcing his big hand. John Lent
“They paid him $ 300 for the concert, asked for the money for a single and threw everything in the crowd,” Maitland said. “He was also accidentally dosed with LSD from Grateful Dead’s roads.”
Back in Manhattan, Brody he kept writing checks as if he were pulling from a bottomless pit. But by January 19, those checks had bounced. His fans began to turn against him, shouting from the street. An upset Brody was asked by a reporter what his goal was.
“To bring peace to the world,” he said. “The world will know that they commit suicide because of paper. I am the most false thing that has ever happened. I’m a big fake. I’m not real. If I die, the whole world dies with me. ”
People looking for Brody’s money showed up at his family’s various homes. Batman
In fact, Brody was not well prepared to deal with such wild turmoil and the scrutiny it caused. His mother had died when he was 3, and as a friend of the boys in the film recalls, he was raised by babysitters and housekeepers, while his father, a notorious playboy, disappeared from the picture.
Brody was so desperate for friends that he invited local kids to poker nights and then happily lost to get them back.
“Michael was trying to find connections,” Maitland said. “I think giving him the money was to find connections. But that went off the rails. “
There was something else in the game. According to Ed Dwyer, a journalist who wrote for Brody for High Times magazine, the joints he smoked in the chain contained more than just marijuana.
He was crowded in front of his father’s apartment on the Upper East Side. Ron Fram
“If Michael Brody was just a puzzle, I don’t think any of that would have happened,” Dwyer said in the document. “Do you know anything about PCP?” I would not recommend it to anyone at any time. It makes you feel like you have all this power and energy, but you really don’t. ”
As Maitland told The Post, “PCP was the fuel that kept the engine running.”
Rumor has it that things are going badly and that the money is not as much as Brody advertised. An article in the New York Times quotes him as saying he was “drug addicted” when he decided to ruin his legacy.
“What a joke I made in the world,” he added. “They think I’m Jesus Christ.” On January 19, 1970, the front page of The Post read: “Millions of Brody – More Questions.”
Bodie and Rene broke up after he was admitted to a psychiatric hospital. New York Post
Given the whirlwind of it all, Aronin wondered, “This is Andy Warhol’s 15 Minutes of Glory.”
In an attempt to escape the madness and crowds of critics, Brody tried to maintain a low profile until the 1970s ended. He and Renee moved into a home in Woodstock. But the fall from everything – maybe drugs, definitely fame – was brutal. After giving approximately $ 350,000, he became increasingly depressed.
He was admitted to a psychiatric institution. Renee, as she explains in the document, “went to California on a VW bus with [the couple’s baby son] Jamie. ”
He was arrested on arson charge after a fire destroyed this $ 100,000 rented residence in Norwalk, Connecticut Batman
Brody and Renee had one child, a son named Jamie. Batman
Brody was released in 1971 or 72, only to be arrested at his home in Norfolk, Connecticut, for making threatening calls to the White House. Speaking to Nixon’s receptionist, he threatened to set himself on fire and vowed to assassinate the president.
He was released on bail, then arrested again and charged with arson when his $ 100,000 rental home burned to the ground. Brody is temporarily in a psychiatric hospital again. After his release, he drank a can of beer a day.
On January 26, 1973, he went to Rene’s father’s home and shot himself with a shotgun.
Looking back on all this after going through more than 12,000 of the letters sent to Brody, Maitland said: “The obstacles and problems that kept people going in the 1970s – finding money for college, paying medical expenses, dealing with tragic drug addiction the problems are the same as today. I think we could use Michael Brody right now, just without the unraveling he endured.