Anyone ever heard of "Dirty Murray?"

June 6, 2010 4:24 PM

My grandfather told me a story about a famously filthy and wealthy hoarder that lived in his neighborhood in Staten Island. He said there was a documentary made about the guy but I can't find anything about it on the internet. Anyone know the name? Other information: his name was Murray and he owned a bicycle shop possibly called "Murrita's."
posted by pynchonesque to Media & Arts (4 answers total)

Could it have been the infamous Collyer Brothers? Not Staten Island and no Murray, but. a famous NYC hoarder-duo.
posted by GilloD at 4:25 PM on June 6, 2010

Best answer: It is called "Murita Cycles" directed by Barry Braverman and was a short film from 1978. It is an extra feature on the Bottle Rocket DVD
posted by fixedthefernback at 4:58 PM on June 6, 2010

There's a documentary called Murita Cycles about a Staten Island bike shop. Haven't seen it, don't know if hoarding is involved.
posted by IndigoJones at 4:59 PM on June 6, 2010

Filmmakers magazine called it "an unusually frank and unsentimental — even humorous — portrait of an eccentric bicycle repairman".

A book on aging adults blurbs it as "Eccentric, junk-collecting widower rationalizes his unorthodox lifestyle to his conventional film-maker son."

And that's the most information Google could turn up.
posted by dhartung at 10:12 PM on June 6, 2010