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I hope the Collyers found some peace. After so long together, their last thoughts must have been of each other. Langley quickly realizing he couldn't free himself, and Homer slowly realizing that something had gone horribly wrong but he could do nothing about it. Incredibly poignant horror.
Fun fact a bunch of us in the fire service in NY still use the terms Collyer's Mansion and Collyer's Conditions when encountering hoarder houses when we respond to them.
This episode hits a little extra close to home. My grandfather is blind and my grandmother is a hoarder and it is a serious mental illness. My biggest fear is going to visit them and uncovering the same fate as the two brothers.
They're real-life dragons. Last of an ancient lineage and a bygone age, holed up in their lair surrounded by their hoard of precious belongings, refusing to engage with the changing world around them out of a sense of pride and arrogance, transforming their home into a deadly dungeon to keep out young adventurers seeking untold treasures... literal dragons.
@@goodgame3374you want a literal? Words literally mean what popular culture makes them mean, seeing as letters have no inherent meaning on their own. The more common use of literally is to mean figuratively and therefore literally, literally means figuratively
@nullpro7435 Righteo, so you're saying that you'd like to eat desert, loose an election, and walk down the isle, because it's too hard to use actual meanings? We can just any word and hope people work out what we mean! You really are the epidemy of genus 🧠
@@nullpro7435 Righteo, so you're saying that you'd like to eat desert, loose an election, and walk down the isle, because it's too hard to use actual meanings? We can just any word and hope people work out what we mean! You really are the epidemy of genus 🧠
@@nullpro7435 Righteo, so you're saying that you'd like to eat desert, loose your mind, and walk down the isle, because you find it too hard to use actual meanings? We can just any word and hope people work out what we mean! You really are the epidemy of genus
I think saying "they" is a bit of a disservice to poor Homer, who had been blind and paralyzed since the 30s. They probably were not the sanest individuals in the first place, but Langley really cracked, reportedly dude would walk from harlem to brooklyn at night to buy a loaf of bread.
Imagine Langley having been buried in trash but, not quite dead, call out to his brother for help, to no avail. And the calls growing silent and then nothing, resulting in Homer knowing that his time would end soon, too.
The brothers would be proud of the park. It's always locked up and fenced up. And the few times that it is open, a sign prohibits entry unless you are accompanied by a child.
I am so thankful my hoarding tendsncies were noticed early and I was able to get therapy for it as a kid. They're all but gone now and I don't want to think about where I'd be without that. Stories like these always hit home because that literally could have been me.
This reminds me of my upbringing. Grew up in a hoarders house, and was like that until I went to college and a fire broke out. Family was ok, but that rejection of people coming in and the sense that nothing could be thrown away rings true. This by an are better now, but learning about the brothers was very interesting!
The paralysis may have been due to a lack of vitamin B1. It causes Beriberr which causes paralysis and then death. Which is why eating oats and grains was so important.
@The360MlgNoscoper Japanese sailors got it in the early 1900's as enlisted sailors had to pay for all food but steamed rice. So steamed rice is all they ate, but it had no grains or oats in it. At one point half the enlisted men in the fleat were dead or dying. A brilliant doctor named Takaki Kanehiro discovered the diet to prevent beriberi. Lots of vitamin b1.
I saw this story before. Can you imagine the brother who was still alive and can't see or move. Like he most likely heard the stuff fall and after a while knew his brother was gone. That would be terrifying to sit there unable to do anything as your brother's corpse laid close enough for you to smell as you cannot reach him or even scream for help.
3:08 "Why were they living at home in their mid to late 20s, seems kinda odd AT THE TIME" Thank you for clarifying by saying at the time. I wish it was still odd and rare today, but its not. 😔
BTW, the Speedwell never made it to America. It did, however, carry the Pilgrims from Leyden to London on the first leg of their trip to Plymouth. I think you meant the Fortune which arrived in Plymouth the year after the Mayflower with 35 colonists.
I think EH, DTRH, and other videos about this were saying that it was something that Herman, Homer and Langley Collyer were repeatedly telling people when letting them "know" how great their family/heritage were. What the family were saying wasn't true, but it was true they were saying it.
Absolutley sad, started hoarding due to mental callapse and just grasping for straws, anything he can have control over, that community failed them to die alone in their own filth
That whole story really feels like a Twilight Zone or Tales from the Crypt episode, especially the bit about Homer going blind, literally becoming unable to see the rest of the world and Langley being crushed to death by the very house he had set up to be safe from yhe outside world.
Imagine the horror of the last days of Homer, blind and partially paralyzed, just lying there for almost two weeks starving with the smell of your dead brother permeating the room.
their elitism is offputting but i cant help and feel great sadness imagining their final moments, homer being alone and isolated, trapped and helpless, while his brother who cared deeply of him killed in a gruesome and violent way, even at his own fault. nobody deserves a death like that.
I used to pass this park every day for a few years when I lived in Harlem. I looked up the Collyer Brothers shortly after I saw it. Very interesting history.
I know ive seen a number of shows that randomly has an episode with a pair of horder brothers. Never considered there might be a real world genesis to that
At last, another episode guest-wrote by Duncan Fyfe! I've been an avid follower of his work since listening to the Something True podcast. And honestly, pretty much all the history episodes he has worked on with EH could double as episodes of the podcast, just with less swearing and with EH's trappings walking with it. Finally, I can add a new video to my playlist of his work written for this channel.
It did inspire a book, Homer and Langley by EL Doctorow but he took quite a few liberties and extends their lives into the 70s and switches their birth order. And iirc they weren't quite as reclusive at first.
I just noticed the sign in the back of the "cafe" at the end whe he starts doing the ad read. And I gotta say I'm curious about and "Extra Breakfast" series.
"In a twisted sense of irony, they actually died how they fought so fervently to live... left alone." Man, even with this channel's relatively ight-hearted presentation, that's always the aspect of this story that just makes me want to sit down and just stare at a wall for a bit.
History really does work like that. It's like meaning changes from year to year. When I looked up what happened after the 300 fight, I found it seems like the war never really was won, but the world changed and the war was no longer necessary. (I could be wrong about that lol_)
"...do you really want some stranger doing a cannonball into the gene pool?" Well I think we can all tell that answer to that question really should have been YES! YES WE DO! Just ask the Habsburgs and the Saxe-Coburg-Gothas etc of the Europran royal dynasties.
Bring one of our favorite games Doomlings straight to your door at bit.ly/DoomlingsHistory just use code “Extra20” and you'll get 20% off your entire order! Thanks for Watching!
Helloooooo. I’ve watch your videos for so long.
Woohoo! Extra History time is the BEST time of the week. You guys are really close to 4 million subscribers, I hope y'all are as excited as I am! :D
This is amazing
This is wonderful
This is cool
I hope the Collyers found some peace. After so long together, their last thoughts must have been of each other. Langley quickly realizing he couldn't free himself, and Homer slowly realizing that something had gone horribly wrong but he could do nothing about it. Incredibly poignant horror.
Very sad
I feel bad for Homer, slowly starving to death must have been torture for him
Fun fact a bunch of us in the fire service in NY still use the terms Collyer's Mansion and Collyer's Conditions when encountering hoarder houses when we respond to them.
I was told that New Yorkers still call hoarding Collyer Syndrome.
Quite understandable, when one stops to consider that your forefathers encountered it before it had name.
This feels like an episode of hoarders that went horribly wrong
Does hoarders end well ?
Basically every episode
@ sometimes I think-
That was exactly what we were thinking.
Itvwas a Beavis and Butthead episode
This episode hits a little extra close to home. My grandfather is blind and my grandmother is a hoarder and it is a serious mental illness. My biggest fear is going to visit them and uncovering the same fate as the two brothers.
Thankfully the presumed lack of improvised traps makes that a fair deal less likely ...though you may want to consider calling in outside help?
My dad and grandma on the other side are also hoarders. It is just straight up mental illness.
They're real-life dragons. Last of an ancient lineage and a bygone age, holed up in their lair surrounded by their hoard of precious belongings, refusing to engage with the changing world around them out of a sense of pride and arrogance, transforming their home into a deadly dungeon to keep out young adventurers seeking untold treasures... literal dragons.
A very clever insight 😺 Although I have to ban you from using literal if you're going to use it to mean the opposite 🤐
@@goodgame3374you want a literal? Words literally mean what popular culture makes them mean, seeing as letters have no inherent meaning on their own. The more common use of literally is to mean figuratively and therefore literally, literally means figuratively
@nullpro7435 Righteo, so you're saying that you'd like to eat desert, loose an election, and walk down the isle, because it's too hard to use actual meanings? We can just any word and hope people work out what we mean! You really are the epidemy of genus 🧠
@@nullpro7435 Righteo, so you're saying that you'd like to eat desert, loose an election, and walk down the isle, because it's too hard to use actual meanings? We can just any word and hope people work out what we mean! You really are the epidemy of genus 🧠
@@nullpro7435 Righteo, so you're saying that you'd like to eat desert, loose your mind, and walk down the isle, because you find it too hard to use actual meanings? We can just any word and hope people work out what we mean! You really are the epidemy of genus
Making booby traps inside their own house?
Those guys were the grandfather and great uncle of Kevin, from Home Alone!
😂 For real!
I think saying "they" is a bit of a disservice to poor Homer, who had been blind and paralyzed since the 30s. They probably were not the sanest individuals in the first place, but Langley really cracked, reportedly dude would walk from harlem to brooklyn at night to buy a loaf of bread.
it could be a possibility, there are certain similarities
Imagine Langley having been buried in trash but, not quite dead, call out to his brother for help, to no avail. And the calls growing silent and then nothing, resulting in Homer knowing that his time would end soon, too.
Wait...how did they get a carriage inside their house?!
By putting it there
My personal theory is that they took the carriage to bits, put the bits in the house and then reassembled the thing inside.
Very carefully
First, you put the elephant outside, to make room for the carriage…
Magic
And I thought my late grandfather was a hoarder. These two make his pile look like an anthill.
Thank you for covering something I knew about. It's silly, but it makes me feel smart.
Keep up the good work Extra Historian!
Truly *extra* history
You take it apart and then build it back inside?
"Eccentric gynecologist" is perhaps the least comforting phrase ever
This story is both amusing and tragic at the same time.
It’s incredibly sad
Ah yes, boobytraps, the best thing to put with your, blind brother, truly a brilliant move.
He was almost completely paralyzed. Not like he was at much risk when he could barely move.
That is genuinely horrific. Mad kudos to David for these illustrations, his style was perfect for it
The brothers would be proud of the park. It's always locked up and fenced up. And the few times that it is open, a sign prohibits entry unless you are accompanied by a child.
So basically an H.P Lovecraft story in real life, even the racism's included!
Don't overuse that word. I see no racism here, but I know some of you people see it absolutely everywhere.
Or just H.P. Lovecraft's life story with extra hoarding.
They’re more like Dickens characters.
@@hessuh2380it’s called subtext and yes people like the Collyer’s were racists.
I am so thankful my hoarding tendsncies were noticed early and I was able to get therapy for it as a kid. They're all but gone now and I don't want to think about where I'd be without that. Stories like these always hit home because that literally could have been me.
This reminds me of my upbringing. Grew up in a hoarders house, and was like that until I went to college and a fire broke out. Family was ok, but that rejection of people coming in and the sense that nothing could be thrown away rings true. This by an are better now, but learning about the brothers was very interesting!
The paralysis may have been due to a lack of vitamin B1. It causes Beriberr which causes paralysis and then death. Which is why eating oats and grains was so important.
Sailors may have gotten Scurvy. But at least not that!
@The360MlgNoscoper Japanese sailors got it in the early 1900's as enlisted sailors had to pay for all food but steamed rice. So steamed rice is all they ate, but it had no grains or oats in it. At one point half the enlisted men in the fleat were dead or dying. A brilliant doctor named Takaki Kanehiro discovered the diet to prevent beriberi. Lots of vitamin b1.
@@Highice007 Alright then. Classic imperial Japan.
I saw this story before. Can you imagine the brother who was still alive and can't see or move. Like he most likely heard the stuff fall and after a while knew his brother was gone. That would be terrifying to sit there unable to do anything as your brother's corpse laid close enough for you to smell as you cannot reach him or even scream for help.
Last time I was this early the police still hadn’t got through the door
Holy firk I had NO IDEA there was so much history behind these folks!
A Collyer always pays his debts.
3:08
"Why were they living at home in their mid to late 20s, seems kinda odd AT THE TIME"
Thank you for clarifying by saying at the time.
I wish it was still odd and rare today, but its not. 😔
and its about to get so much worse.
Thank you for making a episode on this I’ve been waiting for a video that goes more in detail about this
Try the TH-cam show "Down the Rabbit Hole" as they did an episode on the brothers as well.
BTW, the Speedwell never made it to America. It did, however, carry the Pilgrims from Leyden to London on the first leg of their trip to Plymouth. I think you meant the Fortune which arrived in Plymouth the year after the Mayflower with 35 colonists.
I think EH, DTRH, and other videos about this were saying that it was something that Herman, Homer and Langley Collyer were repeatedly telling people when letting them "know" how great their family/heritage were. What the family were saying wasn't true, but it was true they were saying it.
Absolutley sad, started hoarding due to mental callapse and just grasping for straws, anything he can have control over, that community failed them to die alone in their own filth
A valuable cautionary tale in a time when many are likely to start drawing inward.
Man that's depressing
love you guys. I got my kids into history by showing them your videos.
I was pretty sure that something like that had happened to Langley the moment I heard Homer had died of starvation.
Quick, someone call Dr. Zasio and the Hoarders team. We found a new hell for them.
That whole story really feels like a Twilight Zone or Tales from the Crypt episode, especially the bit about Homer going blind, literally becoming unable to see the rest of the world and Langley being crushed to death by the very house he had set up to be safe from yhe outside world.
As somebody with OCD who hoards, this episode hurts pretty bad. Thankfully it's never been THIS bad but it's still scary.
7:25 I really do hope that date for his funeral was only because that was the only date they could schedule it.
There was a scizophrenic in my own town who was trying to create booby traps for his percieved enemies and it ended up killing him instead.
Proverbs 26:27
I'd heard of their deaths, but it's depressingly fascinating to learn more about how their lives got to that point.
Imagine the horror of the last days of Homer, blind and partially paralyzed, just lying there for almost two weeks starving with the smell of your dead brother permeating the room.
As a long time history fan, your channel rocks! I also like your videos on literature and mythology!
Thanks so much for watching all of our content super fan!
Everytime I watch something like this, it makes me do a sweep through my house to declutter it of things I don't need.
EH history is the best channel! You never dissapoint 😊😊😊❤❤❤
Awww. Thanks so much for Watching!
@extrahistory Always
their elitism is offputting but i cant help and feel great sadness imagining their final moments, homer being alone and isolated, trapped and helpless, while his brother who cared deeply of him killed in a gruesome and violent way, even at his own fault. nobody deserves a death like that.
at least the brothers were there for each other
This makes me feel very sad. What a horrible way to live and then die for both of them.
I used to pass this park every day for a few years when I lived in Harlem. I looked up the Collyer Brothers shortly after I saw it. Very interesting history.
That is just a really sad story about some folks who seem to have been disabled.
If you want the story all in one, Watch Frederick Knudsens episode.
My mom and I were just talking about this a couple days ago.
I never visited Harlem in my life and now when this video came out i really want to go see Harlem one day
I might be a little late, but this was an amazing video Extra History! BTW, I love David's art!
I wonder about their mental state. Little was known about the human mind at the time. Could this be part of the autism spectrum or bipolarism?
Nice to listen to this on my Birthday
You need to watch the "Down the Rabbit Hole" episode on this
I know ive seen a number of shows that randomly has an episode with a pair of horder brothers. Never considered there might be a real world genesis to that
At last, another episode guest-wrote by Duncan Fyfe! I've been an avid follower of his work since listening to the Something True podcast. And honestly, pretty much all the history episodes he has worked on with EH could double as episodes of the podcast, just with less swearing and with EH's trappings walking with it. Finally, I can add a new video to my playlist of his work written for this channel.
Okay, universe, I hear you. I'll clean my room after work.
You are honestly the best channel i watch on yt now, thank you for making videos that make my day. ❤
Aww thank you!
That's a really strong door lol.
I’ve been to the actual site where the house once stood. It’s now a small park!
2:04 doing a cannonball into your gene pool LOLL i should reference that next time
This story feels like We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson but on steroids
That last remark leaves a bitter taste. Unfortunately I think there are far better works on TH-cam about the Collyer brothers.
Down the rabbit hole again
So many fictional stories based on these twins. Not the least of which was "Dead Ringers".
Three years behind? How is that possible.
It's just a matter of time before this bit of history inspires a game or film.
It did inspire a book, Homer and Langley by EL Doctorow but he took quite a few liberties and extends their lives into the 70s and switches their birth order. And iirc they weren't quite as reclusive at first.
I’m doing history homework as I am watching this.
Yes!
It didn't help that they're parents were eccentric folks.
Worse, tve brothers let fear rule them into seclusion.
Oh I know this story. Pretty tragic and messed up.
What a tragic, and weird historical event…
Beyond the tragic history, I must ask… Isn’t this the plot of Wes Craven’s “People Under the Stairs” turned on its head (more or less)?
This would make for an interesting movie.
I just noticed the sign in the back of the "cafe" at the end whe he starts doing the ad read. And I gotta say I'm curious about and "Extra Breakfast" series.
"In a twisted sense of irony, they actually died how they fought so fervently to live... left alone."
Man, even with this channel's relatively ight-hearted presentation, that's always the aspect of this story that just makes me want to sit down and just stare at a wall for a bit.
Thank you for the video.
Can extra credits do an episode on Floyd Collin’s? It’ll be 100 years to the day he got trapped in that Kentucky Cave in January.
Yeah, I know FDR died in 1945, but I wonder if his kids were ever told about their distant relation to these dudes.
Haven’t thought about the Collyer brothers since Fredrik Knudsen took us Down the Rabbit Hole. 🐇🕳️
History really does work like that. It's like meaning changes from year to year. When I looked up what happened after the 300 fight, I found it seems like the war never really was won, but the world changed and the war was no longer necessary. (I could be wrong about that lol_)
This needs to be known every where
Even back then, hoarding is a problem.
Hey Extra History, when the new extra mythology video
"They were first cousins"
"No cuz you have your COUSINS and then your FIRST COUSINS..."
BRAVO! THIS WAS GREAT!😊😊😊😊😊😊
Stories like these are nice to hear about due to them being relatively small, but still interesting.
5:19 that's an UPRIGHT piano not a GRAND PIANO ARRRGH
"Eccentric gynecologist" are two words that should not be used together.
Fredrik Knudsen made a really good video about them
I've heard of this. Very sad story.
Sorry but what is wrong with staying with your parents at the age of 24?
Nothing, especially these days.
However it was very unusual and strange in the early 20th century.
I'd think you stayed with your parents until you married in that age.
Pressure on teens might be a bad angle to phrase it🤔🤔
You always make My day! Huge fan! Hearth please ❤❤❤❤❤
Thats really sad I hope my country wont become a something like harlem
You always make My day ❤❤❤❤
This is such a sad episode
The video parents should make their sons watch to show the importance of getting a girlfriend
This is wildly depressing
The title makes it sound like a Halloween story.
"...do you really want some stranger doing a cannonball into the gene pool?"
Well I think we can all tell that answer to that question really should have been YES! YES WE DO!
Just ask the Habsburgs and the Saxe-Coburg-Gothas etc of the Europran royal dynasties.