Joyce Brothers facts for kids

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Quick facts for kids Joyce Brothers
Joyce Brothers in 1957
Born	Joyce Diane Bauer (1927-10-20)October 20, 1927 Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Died	May 13, 2013(2013-05-13) (aged 85) Fort Lee, New Jersey, U.S.
Resting place	Beth David Cemetery, Elmont, New York
Alma mater	Cornell University (BA) Columbia University (Ph.D)
Occupation	Psychologist, television personality, advice columnist, writer
Years active	1955–2013
Spouse(s)	Milton Brothers (m. 1949; died 1989)
Children	1

Joyce Diane Brothers (October 20, 1927 – May 13, 2013) was an American psychologist, a well-known TV personality, an advice columnist, and a writer.

She first became famous in 1955. This happened when she won the top prize on a popular American game show called The $64,000 Question. Her success on the show helped her get many opportunities. She began hosting advice columns and TV shows. This made her a leader in "pop psychology," which means making psychology easy for everyone to understand.

Joyce Brothers is often seen as the first person to bring psychological ideas to a wide audience in America. Her advice columns appeared in many newspapers and magazines. She wrote a monthly column for Good Housekeeping for almost 40 years. She became the "face of psychology" for many Americans. She often appeared on TV, usually playing herself. Later, she also took on acting roles that made fun of her image as a "woman psychologist." She worked steadily for five decades in many different types of media. Many groups honored Brothers for her strong leadership as a woman in psychology. They also praised her for helping to make the field of psychology more accepted.

Early Life and Family Connections

Joyce Diane Bauer was born to Morris K. Bauer and Estelle Rapport. Both of her parents were lawyers and worked together. She grew up in Far Rockaway, Queens, New York. She had a sister named Elaine Goldsmith, and they were very close.

Joyce shared that her father treated her like a son when she was growing up. He had even planned to name her "Joseph" before she was born. Because of this, she grew up in a home where being a girl did not change the family's high hopes for academic success. She was often described as a very studious person. She loved "hard work and academic achievement."

In 1949, she married Milton Brothers. He later became a doctor specializing in internal medicine. In 1989, Joyce Brothers' husband passed away from bladder cancer. Joyce and Milton Brothers had one daughter. They also had four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Education and Learning

Joyce Brothers finished Far Rockaway High School in January 1944. After high school, she went to Cornell University. She studied two main subjects: home economics and psychology. She earned a B.S. degree with honors in 1947. While at Cornell, Brothers was part of the Sigma Delta Tau sorority.

Next, she attended Columbia University. She earned an M.A. degree in 1949. She then received her Ph.D. in psychology in 1953. Her Ph.D. paper was about how anxiety affects muscle movement. While studying for her advanced degrees, she worked as a research assistant at Columbia. She also taught at Hunter College. From 1949 to 1959, she was a research fellow on a UNESCO project about leadership. In 1952, the American Association of University Women gave Brothers a special scholarship. This helped her finish her doctoral degree.

Career Highlights

Becoming a Psychologist

Joyce Brothers became a licensed psychologist in New York in 1958.

Television and Radio Appearances

The $64,000 Question (1955)

Joyce Brothers first appeared on television when she was 28 years old. At that time, her husband was earning only $50 a month as a medical intern. This was not enough to support them and their three-year-old daughter. Brothers wanted to escape their difficult living conditions in New York City. So, she decided to try out for the game show The $64,000 Question. This show was very popular and offered the largest prize money of any quiz show at the time.

To become a contestant, Brothers had to write a letter. In it, she described herself, her hobbies, and why she would be a good contestant. She also wrote what she would do with the prize money. Her letter led to an interview with Mert Koplin, the show's producer. In her letter, she talked about her knowledge in psychology and home economics. However, contestants were not allowed to be quizzed on their expert topics. So, Brothers had to choose a new subject for the show.

The producer, Koplin, wanted to attract many viewers. He thought it would be interesting to show a woman who seemed delicate but knew a lot about a "masculine" topic. He suggested she pick something like "football or horse racing or boxing."

Brothers' husband loved boxing, so she chose that as her topic. To get ready, she studied many boxing encyclopedias and old issues of Ring magazine. She also worked with boxing writer Nat Fleischer and former Olympic boxing champion Edward P.F Eagan. She did very well on the show for several weeks. The producers tried to trick her with questions about referees instead of boxers. But she surprised everyone and won the top prize.

Brothers used her amazing memory and focus to learn everything she could about boxing. She quickly became known as an expert in the sport. Her success on The $64,000 Question led to another chance. She became a color commentator for CBS during a boxing match. This made her one of the first female boxing commentators.

Two years later, Brothers appeared on a spin-off show called The $64,000 Challenge. This show brought back winners from The $64,000 Question. They competed against experts in their fields. Again, Brothers won the maximum prize, beating seven other competitors. Her total winnings from both shows were $128,000. This would be worth over $1.3 million today.

Later, some contestants on these quiz shows were found to have cheated. However, Joyce Brothers was one of the contestants who was cleared of any cheating claims.

Sports Showcase (1956)

After her quiz show success, Brothers co-hosted Sports Showcase with journalist Max Kase. This made her one of the first women to comment on sports.

Local Afternoon Show on NBC

Joyce Brothers wanted to use her fame to practice psychology. She got this chance by reading letters from people on NBC's WRCA-TV. This show lasted for four weeks.

Talk Show Appearances

Brothers appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson many times. This helped the public get to know her beyond her advice columns. She appeared over ninety times on the show. She shared detailed psychological insights about the social issues of the time. She also appeared on daytime TV shows like Good Morning America, Today, Entertainment Tonight, and CNN. She was also on late-night shows with Merv Griffin, Mike Douglas, and Conan O’Brien, among others.

Living Easy with Dr. Joyce Brothers (1973)

In 1973, Joyce Brothers got her own TV show. A German chemical company, Hoechst, sponsored it to promote their new fabric, Trevira polyester. While Brothers hosted her own show, its main goal was to promote Trevira and the company's latest fashions. This was clear throughout the show. Brothers would often talk about fashion, and even the set was decorated with Trevira fabric.

The show was first in New York's Broadway Theatre District. Later, it moved to Studio 6B at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. The show was called Living Easy with Dr. Joyce Brothers. It featured guest interviews, music, how-to demonstrations, and a weekly segment on psychology. Two hundred episodes were made, and they aired on 150 stations for three years. Some people felt the show did not focus enough on psychology. They thought Brothers was not using her psychology skills enough.

Dr. Joyce Brothers Show (1985)

Brothers in 1988

Ten years after her first show, Brothers started a new one. It had 16 one-hour episodes on the Disney Channel. This was her first time on cable television. The show focused on family topics. Each episode featured a comedian, a special guest, and calls from viewers. Brothers gave psychological and educational advice to callers.

By August 1985, Brothers had another TV show in New York about relationships. She answered questions from the audience. Sponsors were unsure if a TV psychologist would be successful. But viewers thanked her for the show. They told her she was giving them information they could not find elsewhere.

Brothers talked about many different topics. These included the future of American football, the psychology of football, women's changing clothing styles, HIV and AIDS, and school shootings. She truly brought psychology into everyday media.

Brothers hosted advice shows on both TV and radio for over four decades. Her shows changed names many times. Some names included The Dr. Joyce Brothers Show, Consult Dr. Brothers, Tell Me, Dr. Brothers, and Ask Dr. Brothers. In 1964, she met and took photos with the Beatles during their first visit to the United States.

Guest Appearances

Brothers made guest appearances as herself in many TV shows and movies. She was in the comedy series Police Squad! and its movie The Naked Gun. In The Naked Gun, she played a sports announcer for baseball. Dr. Brothers also appeared as herself in Mama’s Family, Taxi, and The Nanny. She even voiced an animated version of herself in The Simpsons and Frasier. She also appeared in Entourage and Married with Children.

She also played a crime scene pathologist in the movie National Lampoon's: Loaded Weapon.

Newspaper Columns and Books

Brothers wrote a monthly column for Good Housekeeping for almost 40 years. She also had a newspaper column that started in the 1970s. At its most popular, it was printed in over 300 newspapers.

She also wrote several books. These included What Every Woman Should Know About Men (1981) and Widowed (1991). She wrote Widowed after her husband passed away. Her advice was also used for some questions on the game show Hollywood Squares from 1998 to 2004.

Joyce Brothers was good at promoting herself. She was skilled at working in the media industry, which was mostly run by men. Besides her TV and radio work, Brothers wrote popular books. These books gave advice on how to have a successful marriage and career.

Her Impact on Society

Public Conversations

She was seen as a public crisis counselor. People asked her to comment on big events like the death of Princess Diana and the explosion of the Challenger space shuttle.

Joyce Brothers talked about homosexuality in 1972 and the transgender community in 1959. She helped her viewers understand these topics in a new way. After the 1999 Columbine school shooting, she often appeared on CNN to support gun control laws.

Some of her most memorable advice show episodes involved helping people in crisis. In one episode, she helped a man who called in thinking about ending his life. He was blind in one eye and almost blind in the other. Brothers kept him on the air for 30 minutes. This was long enough for a help organization to contact him. In another episode in 1971, a woman called in. The show stayed on air for three more hours without interruption. This allowed Brothers to get the woman's phone number and send an ambulance to her.

Facing Challenges as a Woman

When Joyce Brothers was accepted into Columbia University for her Ph.D., the dean of her department told her something unfair. He said her qualifications were perfect, but she was taking a spot from a man who would use the degree. He suggested she drop out. However, Brothers did not give up and kept her place.

Despite this, she was also a product of her time. For example, she believed her husband should be the main provider for the family. So, she gave up the idea of having her own psychology career. She thought it might make her compete with her husband. Early in her career, when women asked her for advice about their husbands being interested in other women, Brothers would tell them to look at themselves. She asked what they could do to be more like the women their husbands seemed to like.

Later, Brothers became more involved in women's rights. In 1972, she spoke before a committee about women's issues. She also helped lead a U.S. group for the 16th meeting of the Inter-American Commission of Women. In 1979, she made suggestions at a hearing about "problems of mid-life women." She spoke about jobs, retirement money, and fighting against ageism in TV characters.

Positive Contributions and Awards

Making Psychology More Accepted

Despite some criticism, Joyce Brothers worked hard to make psychology understandable. She spent 15 hours preparing for each TV show. She talked with other experts and simplified complex psychology ideas into everyday language. During her shows, she often mentioned scientific research. She clearly stated that psychology was a helpful service, not just entertainment. These shows helped make psychology a respected profession and removed some of the negative ideas about it.

Mental health was often seen negatively and not talked about much in the media. But Joyce Brothers worked hard to change this view. Her show helped people see psychologists as real people who could help.

She received many letters from people asking for advice on topics like marriage, parenting, work, money, and other subjects that were not usually discussed openly. By talking about these topics, she helped make them more normal in the media. She also stressed the importance of therapy for everyday life, not just for people with mental illness.

Honors and Awards

Brothers received several honors and awards:

Women of Achievement Award, Federation of Jewish Women (1964)
Professional Woman of the Year, Business and Professional Women's Club (1968)
Award of the Parkinson Disease Foundation

She also received an honorary degree, the L.H.D., from Franklin Pierce College in 1969.

Death

Joyce Brothers passed away on May 13, 2013. She died at her home in Fort Lee, New Jersey. Her daughter, Lisa Brothers Arbisser, said that respiratory failure was the cause of her death.