Way back in yesteryear, we briefly talked about Robert the Doll in a Something Spooky segment — and if you can’t tell, we’re back at it again! Much like the famous Annabelle doll, Robert has captured the attention of paranormal enthusiasts for decades. And luckily for us, he resides in the Fort East Martello Museum in Key West, Florida, making him a fair game topic for our southern podcast! Take that, Annabelle!
Like any famous haunted doll, Robert has an oft-told origin story. He was given to Robert Eugene (Gene) Otto in the early 1900s, and according to lore, things swiftly took a turn for the worse. Robert’s known for switching facial expressions, moving furniture, creepily giggling, and escaping a locked attic to stare at the neighbors as they walk past the house. In this episode, we talk all about Robert’s story, his time at the museum, and the supposed curse he places on those who disrespect him. Robin also discusses whether or not she believes haunted dolls are truly paranormal, and goes into a terrifying moment she experienced driving back from watching the movie Annabelle in theaters.
But first, Zoey has a couple Georgia roadside attractions for her Something Southern, including Decatur’s Waffle House Museum and Ashburn’s World’s Largest Peanut.
Ah, Robert the Doll. If memory serves correctly, this is the first topic I’ve researched for the main story of a paranormal episode that I ended up thinking was not haunted. I knew it had to happen sometime, and to be honest, I was always a little nervous about how that would go.
I established from our very first episode that, while not the traditional definition of a skeptic, I’m certainly a skeptical person. I don’t believe everything that’s put on the internet by any means — in fact, I’ve been thinking of putting together an episode or segment on some of the clearly false ghost stories people have posted online. I also don’t necessarily believe that when people are talking about their experiences, they’re telling the objective truth. People can only share what they see and hear (and all the other senses), so what’s true to one person might not actually be what happened. This is the nebulous difference between lying and telling the objective truth; this gray area can stretch longer than you might think.
All this to say, I knew there would be a day when I’d spend hours researching something and come out on the other side not really believing in it. I wondered, what should I do then? Should I scrap that topic all together, do away with hours of research just to start over? Should I not comment on what I personally think during the episode, and just focus on sharing what information I could find?
I didn’t do either of those things with Robert the Doll, and I’m glad. For one, as much as I love researching for this podcast, I’m not too keen on redoing hours’ worth of work last minute. Secondly, Zoey and I have never really held back our opinion too much on this show. And I don’t want us to!
We’re not just relaying information to our listeners, we’re interpreting it. And I don’t want listeners to finish an episode thinking I was telling them to believe something I didn’t believe myself.
I hope I stroke the right balance of telling the story of Robert while also giving my personal opinions on the matter of haunted dolls. This really ended up being an unintended whole episode of hot takes.
Image by Cayobo on Flickr. License: CC BY-SA 2.0.
Something Southern source: https://www.southernliving.com/travel/roadside-attractions?
Sources:
https://www.ghostsandgravestones.com/key-west/robert-the-doll
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_(doll)
hilarious Tweet: https://twitter.com/snarggg/status/1479216043449110531
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/24778775/robert-eugene-otto
http://robertthedoll.org/a-boy-his-doll/
https://ghostfort.com/robert-the-doll
https://www.artisthousekeywest.com/
“The World’s Most Terrifying Toy: Robert The Doll” by Maggie Miller, Travel Channel, Aug. 10, 2021.
Haunted Hospitality Podcast 