For more than a 100 , people have considered the Ripley ’s conceive It or Not ! franchise synonymous with facts , figure , and people too bizarre to be dead on target . But the steel — which was conceived by cartoonist Robert Ripley in 1918 and in the beginning took the form of a paper comic strip before being accommodate into other mass medium — prided itself on presenting prominent stories of the Earth ’s hide wonderment that sustain up to examination . At one level , 80 million peoplereadRipley ’s landing strip , which was syndicate to 360 newspapers around the world . The franchise has since grown to include TV series and specials , museums , books , and evenaquariums .
To commemorate the new Ripley’sBelieve It or Not!television serial hosted byBruce CampbellcurrentlyairingSundays at 9 p.m. on the Travel Channel , we ’ve rounded up some of the more intriguing trivium behind the original fun fact gatherer of the 20thcentury .
1.Ripley’s Believe It or Not!was originally titledChamps and Chumps.
From the sentence he was a fry turn up in Santa Rosa , California , Robert Ripley — who was born 1890 — wantedto be an creative person . He contributed cartoons to his schooling newsprint and yearbook before making his first professional sale toLifemagazine in 1908 . The following year , he moved to San Francisco , where he ensure a task as a sportsman cartoonist for local newspaper . urge on by sports writer like Jack London ( Call of the Wild ) , Ripley decide to head to New York and take a line of work at theNew York Globe , where his sports cartoons obtain both local and national attention in syndication .
During one dumb sports intelligence Clarence Day , Ripley decided to smash off an illustration detailing unusual human feats he had show about , include a man who had held his breath for over six min ; he called itChamps and Chumps . He revisited the approximation again in 1919 and once more in 1920 with a novel name : Believe It or Not . TheGlobealso sent him on trips to the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp as well as around the world , the latter resulting in a strip he dubbedRipley ’s Rambles ‘ round off the human race . In 1926 , he was working at theNew York Evening Postwhen he decided to resurrect the strip . This time , it stick around . Readers became overzealous about Ripley ’s odd compendium of arcane facts and both the syndicate striptease and its author grew into worldwide sensations .
2. Most of Robert Ripley’s facts were discovered by one man in New York.
Although Ripley lived up to hisreputationas a globetrotter , traveling everywhere from Tripoli to India to Africa , many of the facts presented inRipley ’s Believe It or Not!were not the result of his military expedition but of one man combing through Book in the New York Public Library . In 1923 , Ripley satisfy Norbert Pearlroth whilesearchingfor someone who could read articles and journals in extraneous languages . Eventually , Pearlroth — who was fluent in 14 languages — spent up of seven days a week at the depository library excavating details for Ripley to use in his strip or information he could take with him during a fact - finding mission . He was so unforgiving that depository library official sometimes had to ask him to leave at closing prison term . Pearlroth work for the Ripley ’s blade as its solitary researcher for an astonishing 52 days before retiring in 1975 . He give-up the ghost in 1983 at the age of 89 .
3. Ripley discovered “the Star-Spangled Banner” wasn’t actually the national anthem.
Always invested in semantics , in 1929 Ripleydiscoveredthat " The Star - Spangled Banner ” had never actually been formally adopted as the country ’s national anthem . That fact had merely been assumed , never confirm . The ensuing scandal led to 5 million mass signing a prayer that was send on to Congress , who at long last recognized the song in an prescribed mental ability by insert a bill President Herbert Hooversignedinto law in 1931 .
4. Ripley became one of the most successful cartoonists of his era.
5. Ripley was a rather unusual man.
suit his curious nature , Ripley himself was a bit of an anomaly . While researching a 1940 visibility of Ripley forThe New Yorker , author Geoffrey T. Hellman jot down variousobservationsin his notebook . Among them : Ripley was found of working in only his bathrobe and wear his bushed mother ’s wedding party halo ; he have a Pisces who could only swim backward , a shrunken oral sex from Tibet , and a whale penis ; he could not drive ; and he seemingly amassed a phone number of adult female from around the world to survive with him in what might be trace as a hareem . At one decimal point , Ripley ’s housekeeper observed that of everything in Ripley ’s Mamaroneck , New York mansion , “ The most unusual matter in the house is Mr. Ripley . ”
6.Peanutscreator Charles Schulz had his first published work in the Ripley’s strip.
Before Charles Schulz found acclaim in paper Page for hisPeanutsstrip , he catch his start in Ripley ’s strip . In 1937 , when Schulz was 15 years quondam , hesubmittedartwork featuring his andiron , Spike , claimingthat the canine tooth could eat unappetizing fare like thole and tacks . The flight strip credited Schulz as “ Sparky , ” his nickname . Spike also carry a passing resemblance to another , more well - sleep together pet : Charlie Brown ’s pet Snoopy .
7. You can visit a number of Ripley’s Odditoriums across the globe.
In 1933 , Ripleydisplayedsome of his more stunning artifact for crowds at the Century of Progress World ’s Fair in Chicago . Though the display of human wonder — including a live presentment of a gentleman’s gentleman who could blow bullet out of his middle and another who could bend his head 180 degrees — was temporary , a permanent locationdebutedin New York in 1939 . Since then , a number of Ripley Odditoriums have open in San Francisco , Ontario , and Baltimore . There are currently over 30 locations in 10 country worldwide .
8. Ripley died a somewhat ironic death.
Many mass recognize the Ripley ’s brand from a serial publication of tv set shows , including versions hosted by Jack Palance , Dean Cain , and now Bruce Campbell . But Ripley himself was thehostof the first iteration , which debuted in 1949 to great success . While record his 13thshow , the cartoonist suddenly fell over on his desk , dead of an unmistakable heart attack . The show ’s topic ? The history of the military funeral anthem “ Taps . ” consider it or not .
