November 22, 2009
UTNE READER

The Doctor Is Far Out

(Page 2 of 2)

November / December 2007
by Peter Schilling 
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James has since died, and Ralph now runs the company with two of James’ sons and keeps his father’s legacy alive. He hasn’t changed the company much, though the labels have reined in some of their far-flung rhetoric and have stopped suggesting that Vaseline, lemon juice, and Bronner’s peppermint soap are an effective birth control method. The company’s website claims that “while we disagree with Dr. Bronner on some idiosyncrasies in his philosophy, we revere him for his efforts to unite humanity.”

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It is easy to make the life of a crackpot entertaining; it is much more difficult to make a story like this one ring with honest emotion. But Lamm is up to the task, following Ralph around as he spreads his father’s gospel and extols the myriad joys of their soaps. He’s revealed as part Spalding Gray performance artist (he tells his father’s story in front of a giant label, to off-off-Broadway crowds), part pitchman, and part evangelist. Soft-spoken and empathetic, he emerges as a deeper and more sympathetic character than his father.

At one point, Lamm captures Ralph at his Milwaukee hotel, befriending a tattooed punk who says he loves the soap’s tingle, accepts some free soap, and later plays a tune on his electric piano, a dirgelike melody for his dying girlfriend. Watching Ralph comfort him, and later speak on a New York stage, it is obvious that he has taken his father’s teachings to heart.

“We’ll work-sing-dance-love, marching on! Marching on!” the Bronner’s label exhorts. While Emanuel tried to save the entire world, Ralph walks the streets of Times Square, downtown Milwaukee, and Southern California with a bottle of soap, a song, or simply a hug, spreading the Moral ABC and marching on, marching on.

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