Brothers, Joyce
BROTHERS, JOYCE
BROTHERS, JOYCE (1927– ), U.S. psychologist and television and radio personality. Born Joyce Diane Bauer, Brothers grew up in Queens, New York City, and studied at Cornell and Columbia University, receiving her Ph.D. in 1953. She served as a research fellow on a United Nations leadership project and as an instructor at Hunter College, New York City.
In 1955 she tried out for The $64,000 Question quiz show. She chose boxing as her subject and became the only woman ever to win the top prize of $64,000. She was equally successful in the same category on the $64,000 Challenge.
A co-host of nbc'sSports Showcase, Brothers was offered a tv counseling show on nbc in 1958. Her sympathetic approach and straightforward advice made the program a great success, pioneering the discussion of intimate emotional and sexual matters on daytime television. She continued to host radio phone-in programs, write a daily column syndicated in some 350 newspapers nationwide, contributed a monthly column to Good Housekeeping, and was a special feature writer for United Press International. A upi poll named her one of the 10 Most Admired Women in America, and for six years she was on the Gallup poll's list of Most Admired Women.
A motivational speaker and a consultant to the business world, Brothers created and performed in films and seminars designed for corporate personnel training programs. She appeared on numerous tv talk shows and in more than 50 television acting roles, often as herself as the consummate advice-giver. She made cameo appearances in this capacity in dozens of films as well, including Oh God! Book ii (1980); The King of Comedy (1983); The Lonely Guy (1984); Troop Beverly Hills (1989); The Misery Brothers (1995); Dear God (1996); and Analyze That (2002).
Brothers' books have been translated into 26 languages. They include Ten Days to a Successful Memory (1959); Woman (1961); What You Probably Don't Know about Sex Relations (1968); The Brothers System for Liberated Love and Marriage (1972); Better Than Ever (1975); How to Get Everything You Want Out of Life (1978); What Every Woman Should Know about Men (1983); The Successful Woman: How You Can Have a Career, a Husband, and a Family – and Not Feel Guilty about It (1988); What Every Woman Ought to Know about Love and Marriage (1985); Widowed (1990); and Positive Plus: The Practical Plan for Liking Yourself Better (1994).
[Rohan Saxena and
Ruth Beloff (2nd ed.)]