I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the mirror this morning, and for some strange reason I thought of the super-sized human dummy on display at London’s “Ripley’s Believe It or Not” exhibition. The outrageous image which stared directly back at me, rewarded me the title of “the heaviest man in Cyprus.” Despite the urgency to return to a monitored eating programme, I was drawn to the souvenir brochure, brought back from London as a memento of my Ripley’s experience.
Anyone who is fascinated by trivia and likes to find out weird and wonderful things about the fascinating world we live in, should be familiar and perhaps also quite fond of one of the most internationally famous sources of the strange but true, Ripley’s Believe It or Not.
Described as a franchise which deals in bizarre events and items so strange and unusual that readers often challenge the claim, the contemporary Ripley collection includes twenty thousand photographs, twenty thousand artefacts and more than one hundred and thirty thousand cartoon panels. All these and more interesting things are viewed and enjoyed by more than twelve million people every year across the various Ripley’s Believe it or Not Museums around the world.
If you like finding out about things like the fact that in 2009, Chinese police rescued more than two thousand kidnapped children and that in early May this year, a fifty seven year old man from California was hit by a train twice over a few weeks and survived and that a certain kind of leaf native to Australia is sensitive to touch, light and wind and furls and unfurls itself accordingly then you should definitely be a fan of Ripley’s Believe It or Not.
Right now, the name of the unusual fact-and event-finding emporium is a registered trade mark of Ripley Entertainment Incorporated, which itself belongs to another massive global company, but the name first originated in its premier in December 1981 in the New York Globe as a cartoon feature portraying adventurous sports feats.
Written and illustrated by one of the most famous factual entertainers of the earlier and middle twentieth century, Leroy Ripley, the cartoon strip soon evolved into something which was read and enjoyed by more than eighty million fans a week, eventually evolving into a radio and then television series.
Leroy Ripley was born in 1890 in Santa Rosa in California and from a young age it has been said that he displayed exceptional talent as both an artist and an athlete, playing semi-professional baseball at the tender age of thirteen (apparently he even produced the posters for the games) and selling his first cartoon to LIFE Magazine for the rather impressive amount at the time, of eight dollars.
By fifteen Ripley was working at the San Francisco Bulletin, moving on to the San Francisco Chronicle before leaving the east coast and going on to New York. By 1913, after changing his name to Robert Ripley, he was at the New York Globe newspaper, sketching sports cartoons and it was during this time that he was having a particularly slow day and so decided to draw up nine unusual sports events in small sketches, originally calling it “Champs and Chumps.” He realised the title wasn’t quite right though and so “Ripley’s Believe it or Not!” was born.
The cartoon proved to be extremely popular, with Ripley expanding his subject matter to include more than just sporting feats; facts, figures and achievements from around the world were included, which spurred Ripley on to embark on one of the greatest passions of his life, which was travelling to discover and unearth things for his cartoons.
In a time when travel was not a usual occurrence and most people, especially Americans hardly ventured further than their home towns, Ripley turned out to be a compulsive traveller, exploring places and continents that most Americans, it should be said, had never even heard about. In fact, one of Ripley’s favourite destinations was the Orient and especially China, even signing his name “Rip Li” after first visiting the country and picking up the many strange and unbelievable souvenirs which have formed the basis of an extensive collection still fascinating people today.
As a person, it could be said the Ripley himself was considered rather eccentric. He owned over a hundred cars but couldn’t drive, bought a Chinese Junk boat, even though he couldn’t swim and kept a twenty eight foot boa constrictor and squirrels and chipmunks as pets. He also thought smoking and playing cards were evil but seemed to have no problem with heavy drinking, especially at social events and was not averse to the ladies, even keeping five or more live-in lovers at the same time (kind of like Playboy’s Hugh Hefner).
Even his death was almost unbelievable, as he died at the age of fifty eight, while taping the thirteenth episode of his television series, the subject of which was rather unbelievably, death and death rituals from around the world. He passed out during the show, was rushed to hospital and was soon pronounced dead, apparently from a heart attack.
He may have died at a relatively young age, but he was definitely not forgotten. His name’s daily cartoon is carried across two hundred newspapers across forty two countries and in seventeen languages, while the objects and exhibits found in all of the thirty one Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Museums around the world are mostly based on the collections he obtained himself while he travelled the world.
Other than reading the cartoons, one of the best ways to see for yourself just how many amazing things Ripley had collected and exposed for the “western world” to see would be to visit one of the museums. The first exhibition was actually at the famous Chicago World Fair in 1933, which was rather humorously called “Ripley’s Odditorium” and which attracted over two million visitors. The success of the odditorium led to Ripley arranging for his collection to be taken across the country in a series of trailer shows.
In 1950, a year after Ripley died, the first permanent odditorium was opened in St. Augustine in Florida and since 2009, there are now thirty five of the Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Odditorium’s around the world some of which are rather basic and simple, displaying a few oddities, including a special bed in case someone faints.
There are rumours that a movie based on the life of Leroy (Robert) Ripley is being made, which should hopefully show us the amazing and rather eccentric life of the man who challenged the world to believe it. Or Not.
If only he could have lived to see me.
Weight for me tomorrow. Paul
Paul Lambis is the author of “Where is Home?” – A journey of hilarious contrasts.
For more information on Paul Lambis, and to order his book online,
visit www.paul-lambis.com
No comments:
Post a Comment