Citizendia
Your Ad Here

Robert LeRoy Ripley (December 25, 1890 - May 27, 1949)[1] was a cartoonist, entrepreneur, and amateur anthropologist who created the world famous Ripley's Believe It or Not! newspaper panel series, featuring odd but true facts from around the world. Events 274 - Roman Emperor Aurelian Year 1890 ( MDCCCXC) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Events 927 - Simeon the Great, Tsar of Bulgaria, dies 1120 - Richard III of Capua is anointed Year 1949 ( MCMXLIX) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing Cartoons Traditionally much of this work was and still is humorous and is intended primarily for entertainment purposes An entrepreneur is a person who has possession over a company enterprise, or Venture, and assumes significant accountability for the inherent risks and the outcome Anthropology (/ˌænθɹəˈpɒlədʒi/ from Greek grc ἄνθρωπος anthrōpos, "human" -λογία -logia) is the study of Ripley's Believe It or Not! is a franchise founded by Robert Ripley, which deals in bizarre events and items so

Subjects covered in Ripley's cartoons and text ranged from sports feats to little known facts about unusual and exotic sites, but what ensured the concept's popularity may have been that Ripley also included items submitted by readers, who supplied photographs of a wide variety of small town American trivia, ranging from unusually shaped vegetables to oddly marked domestic animals, all documented by photographs and then depicted by Ripley's drawings.

Contents

Biography

Robert Ripley was born in Santa Rosa, California on December 25, 1890. Santa Rosa is the County seat of Sonoma County California, United States California ( is a US state on the West Coast of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. Events 274 - Roman Emperor Aurelian Year 1890 ( MDCCCXC) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common While trying to make a career of his original passion, baseball, he found steady work as a cartoonist at the San Francisco Bulletin and later at the San Francisco Chronicle. Baseball is a Bat-and-ball Sport played between two teams of nine players each The San Francisco Call was a Newspaper that served San Francisco California. The San Francisco Chronicle was founded in 1865 as The Daily Dramatic Chronicle by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H He moved to New York in 1912, where he published his first comic for the The New York Globe and simultaneously tried out for the New York Giants baseball club. New York ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous The New York Globe was the name of at least two New York City newspapers The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York City suburb of East Rutherford New Jersey.

After an injury put an end to his athletic hopes in 1913, Ripley turned to a full-time career as a professional cartoonist and writer. Year 1913 ( MCMXIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common He later expanded his work into other media as well. His background in sports contributed to his interest in featuring sports contest records in his graphical work. In 1918, he developed a series of articles for the New York Globe called Champs and Chumps and produced feature material about the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium. Year 1918 ( MCMXVIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Year 1920 ( MCMXX) was a Leap year starting on Thursday (link will display 1920 of the Gregorian calendar The 1920 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the VII Olympiad, were an International Multi-sport event which was celebrated in 1920 ||-||-||-||} Antwerp ( Dutch:, French: Anvers) is a City and Municipality in Belgium and the capital of the The Kingdom of Belgium is a Country in northwest Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts its headquarters as well as those The title Champs and Chumps, did not fit well with the limited focus on sports oddities and was soon replaced by the more general title, Believe it or Not!. With this change of name and focus, Ripley's career began to take off.

In 1919 Ripley married Beatrice Roberts. Year 1919 ( MCMXIX) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common He made his first trip around the world in 1922, delineating a travel journal in installments. Year 1922 ( MCMXXII) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. This ushered in a new topic for his cartoons: unusual and exotic foreign locales and cultures. Because he took the veracity of his work quite seriously, in 1923, Ripley hired a researcher and linguist named Norbert Pearlroth as a full-time assistant. Year 1923 ( MCMXXIII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Linguistics is the scientific study of Language, encompassing a number of sub-fields Norbert Pearlroth ( May 7, 1893, Tarnow, Austria - April 14, 1983, Brooklyn New York) was the primary researcher That same year his feature moved from the New York Globe to the New York Post. The New York Post is the 13th-oldest Newspaper published in the United States and generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continually

Throughout the 1920s, Ripley continued to broaden the scope of his work and his popularity increased greatly. He published both a travel journal and a guide to the game of handball in 1925 and, in 1926, became the New York state handball champion and wrote a book on boxing. Year 1925 ( MCMXXV) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Year 1926 ( MCMXXVI) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. With a proven track record as a versatile writer and artist, he attracted the attention of publishing mogul William Randolph Hearst, who managed the King Features Syndicate. For other people named William Randolph Hearst see William Randolph Hearst (disambiguation William Randolph Hearst I (April 29 1863 &ndash King Features Syndicate, a Print syndication company owned by The Hearst Corporation, distributes about 150 Comic strips newspaper columns, In 1929, Hearst was responsible for Believe It or Not! making its syndicated debut in seventeen papers worldwide. Year 1929 ( MCMXXIX) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. With the success of this series assured, Ripley capitalized on his fame by getting the first book collection of his newspaper panel series published.

Ripley's Odditorium in Hollywood
Ripley's Odditorium in Hollywood

On November 3, 1929, he drew a panel in his syndicated cartoon saying "Believe It or Not, America has no national anthem. Events 644 - Umar ibn al-Khattab, the second Muslim Caliph, is killed by a Persian slave in Medina. Year 1929 ( MCMXXIX) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. " [2] In 1931, John Philip Sousa published his opinion in favor, stating that "it is the spirit of the music that inspires" as much as it is Key’s "soul-stirring" words. John Philip Sousa ( November 6, 1854 &ndash March 6, 1932) was an American Composer and conductor of the late By a law signed on March 3, 1931 by President Herbert Hoover, "The Star-Spangled Banner" was adopted as the national anthem of the United States. Events 1284 - Statute of Rhuddlan incorporated the Principality of Wales into England 1575 - Indian Year 1931 ( MCMXXXI) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1931 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10 1874 &ndash October 20 1964 was the thirty-first President of the United States (1929–1933

The 1930s saw Ripley expand his presence into other media. In 1930, he began an eighteen-year run on radio and a nineteen-year association with the show's producer, Doug Storer. Year 1930 ( MCMXXX) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display 1930 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Funding for his celebrated travels around the world were provided by the Hearst organization, and Ripley recorded live radio shows from underwater, the sky, caves, snake pits and foreign countries. The next year he hosted the first of a series of two dozen Believe It or Not! theatrical short films for Warner Brothers Vitaphone, and King Features published a second collected volume of Believe it or Not! panels. Warner Bros Entertainment Inc (or Warner Bros, Warner Bros Pictures) is one of the world's largest producers of Film and Vitaphone was a Sound film process used on features and nearly 2000 Short subjects produced by Warner Bros He also appeared in a Vitaphone musical short, Seasons Greetings (1931), with Ruth Etting, Joe Penner, Ted Husing, Thelma White, Ray Collins, and others. Ruth Etting ( November 23 1896 – September 24 1978) was an American singing star of the 1930s who had over sixty hit recordings Joe Penner ( 11 November 1904 &mdash 10 January 1941) was a Hungarian-born American 1930s-era vaudeville radio and film comedian Edward Britt (Ted Husing ( November 27, 1901 - August 10, 1962) was an American sportscaster and was among the first to lay the groundwork Thelma White ( December 4, 1910 - January 11, 2005) was an American actress Ray Bidwell Collins ( December 10, 1889 – July 11, 1965)was an American actor in Film, stage, Radio After a trip to Asia in 1932, Ripley opened his first museum, the Odditorium, in Chicago. Year 1932 ( MCMXXXII) was a Leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. Ripley's Believe It or Not! is a franchise founded by Robert Ripley, which deals in bizarre events and items so Chicago (ʃɪˈkɑːgoʊ is the largest City by population in the state of Illinois and the American Midwest of the United States. The concept was a success, and by the end of the decade, there were Odditoriums in San Diego, Dallas, Cleveland, San Francisco, and New York City. Cleveland is a City in the US state of Ohio and the County seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state The City and County of San Francisco is the fourth most populous city The City of New York By this point in his life, Ripley had been voted the most popular man in America by the New York Times,[3], received an honorary degree from Dartmouth College, and visited 201 foreign countries. Dartmouth College ( is a private, Coeducational University located in Hanover, New Hampshire, U

During World War II, Ripley concentrated on charity efforts rather than world travel, but after the war, he again expanded his media efforts. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including In 1948, the year of the 20th anniversary of the Believe it or Not! cartoon series, the Believe it or Not! radio show drew to a close and was replaced with a Believe it or Not! television series. Year 1948 ( MCMXLVIII) was a Leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the 1948 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. This was a rather bold move on Ripley's part because of the small number of Americans with access to television at this early time in the medium's development. Ripley only completed thirteen episodes of the series when he became incapacitated by severe health problems. He reportedly passed out during the filming of his final show. His health worsened, and on May 27, 1949, at age 58, he succumbed to a heart attack. Events 927 - Simeon the Great, Tsar of Bulgaria, dies 1120 - Richard III of Capua is anointed Year 1949 ( MCMXLIX) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Myocardial infarction ( MI or AMI for acute myocardial infarction) also known as a heart attack, occurs when the blood supply He was buried in his home town of Santa Rosa, in the Oddfellows Lawn Cemetery, which is adjacent to the Santa Rosa Rural Cemetery. Santa Rosa is the County seat of Sonoma County California, United States

Ripley is often regarded as an extraordinary individual. His cartoon series was estimated to have 80 million readers worldwide and it was said that he received more mail than the President of the United States. He became a wealthy man, with homes in New York and Florida, but he always retained close ties to his home town of Santa Rosa, California, and he made a point of bringing attention to The Church of the One Tree, a church built entirely from the wood of a single 300 ft (91. 4 m) tall redwood tree, which stands on the north side of Juilliard Park in downtown Santa Rosa. Sequoia sempervirens is the sole living Species of the Genus Sequoia in the cypress family Cupressaceae (formerly

Some have called Ripley a liar and accused him of exaggerating the facts, but throughout the years, he always gave appropriate sources. He claimed to be able to "prove every statement he made. "[4], and the major reason he could make such a claim was that behind him stood the work of the indefatigable professional fact researcher, Norbert Pearlroth, who assembled Believe it or Not!s vast array of odd historical, geographical, and scientific facts and also verified the small-town claims submitted by readers. Norbert Pearlroth ( May 7, 1893, Tarnow, Austria - April 14, 1983, Brooklyn New York) was the primary researcher Pearlroth, who spoke 11 languages, spent 52 years as the feature's researcher, working in the New York Public Library ten hours a day, six days a week, finding and verifying unusual facts for Ripley and, after Ripley's death, for the King Features syndicate editors who took over management of the Believe it or Not!' panel.

Other employees who researched the newspaper cartoon series over the years were Lester Byck and Don Wimmer. Others who drew the series after Ripley's death include Joe Campbell (1946‚1956), Art Slogg at, Clem Gretter (1941‚1949), Carl Dorese, Bob Clarke (1943‚1944), Stan Randall, Paul Frehm (1938‚1978) - who became the panel's full time artist in 1949) and his brother Walter Frehm (1948&x20 1A;1989). Paul Frehm is a cartoonist who worked on the comic strip Ripley's Believe It or Not.

Ripley's ideas and legacy live on in Ripley Entertainment, a company bearing his name, which, since 1985 has been owned by the Jim Pattison Group, Canada's 3rd largest privately held company. Created by the success of Ripley's Believe it or Not!, Ripley Entertainment Inc The Jim Pattison Group is Canada’s third largest privately held company and in a recent survey by the Financial Post, The Jim Pattison Group was ranked as Canada’s Ripley Entertainment airs national television shows, features publications of oddities, and has holdings in a variety of public attractions, including Ripley's Aquarium, Ripley's Believe it or Not! Museums, Ripley's Haunted Adventure, Ripley's Mini-Golf and Arcade, Ripley's Movie Theater, Ripley's Sightseeing Trains, Great Wolf Lodge overlooking Niagara Falls, Guinness World Records Attractions, and Louis Tussaud's Wax Museums. The Niagara Falls are massive Waterfalls on the Niagara River, straddling the international border separating the Canadian province of Ontario

Trivia

Chronology

References

  1. ^ NNDB biography of Robert L. Ripley
  2. ^ Bizarre Magazine Robert L. Ripley. Published February 2006.
  3. ^ Ripley’s Believe It or Not - Madame Tussauds - New York Times
  4. ^ Ripley's Believe It Or Not!

External links

© 2009 citizendia.org; parts available under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License, from http://en.wikipedia.org
 Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic