Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soapbox
Poster for Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soapbox
Genius or madman? The late great Dr. Emanuel Bronner, a chemist and third-generation master soapmaker from an orthodox Jewish family in Germany, was likely a little bit of both. In 1947, after escaping from a Chicago mental institution to California, Bronner created the formula for “Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap,” a peppermint-infused, all-natural liquid soap with myriad applications—from lathering up in the shower to washing your floors to, according to one customer, self-administering enemas—that was quickly embraced by the flower children of the free-love generation.
Around the same time, the self-declared rabbi (and alleged nephew of Albert Einstein) developed an ever-evolving philosophy—or a trippy set of hectoring and often nonsensical-sounding rants, depending on how you saw them—known as “The Moral ABCs,” the text of which he inserted onto the label of each bottle of his soap, with the goal of “uniting Spaceship Earth.” Waking up people to the fact that we were children of the same divine source and that we were “All-One!” proved, however, more important than his children, who were shuttled through more than 15 orphanages and foster homes, while their father passionately barreled forth on an unending mission to preach his gospel of cleanliness and intergalactic love.
An entertaining and edifying film about the man behind one of the most environmentally friendly and socially responsible businesses in operation, Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soapbox leads us on a journey of perseverance, obsession, heartbreak, and faith. Seventy percent of the profits from Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps, made from organic and fair-trade ingredients, go toward humanitarian and environmental causes; the top executives of the firm, including Bronner’s son and grandsons, even capped their salaries to never exceed five times the earnings of their lowest-wage workers.
The hub and I—both fans of the good doctor’s lavender bar soap—caught Dr. Bronner’s by chance when we flipped over to Sundance Channel’s The Green, but the film is also screening in theaters nationwide. Check the movie’s Web site for listings. (You can also watch a clip here.)
Spaceship Earth is lifting off—and how.
Stephen said,
July 13, 2007 at 11:51 pm
That’s so cool, I’ve been a bronners fan for a while now, can’t wait to see this