Ripley Entertainment Inc.'s Blog, page 184
September 9, 2020
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September 4, 2020
Things Get Weird With ‘Florida Man,’ Robert Ripley
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Turn on the news and, no matter what part of the country you’re in, you’ve got a pretty good chance of hearing, “A Florida Man…” followed by something absolutely absurd—like the Gainesville man who used a three-foot alligator as a weapon or the mermaid that was banned from a pool for violating the “no fins” policy.
To be fair, Florida has been historically offbeat. The state’s first flag displayed the text “Let Us Alone,” and at one point it was pretty lonely.
In 1940, Florida was the least populated state in the South. Today, it is one of the most populated in the country—beating out New York for third place behind California and Texas. With over 21 million residents, plus the hundreds of millions of visitors a year, the state is set up for the strange!
But, let’s take it back to 1940, when Robert Ripley brought his Believe It or Not! CBS radio show, See America First, to Florida.
Marineland, the world’s first “oceanarium,” had opened two years earlier in St. Augustine and quickly became one of Florida’s most popular tourist destinations. Ripley’s crew arrived with plans to broadcast part of the show underwater—a historical first. His Marineland visit started with a dolphin interaction—feeding them and then helping milk a female dolphin. This dolphin was lifted from the water in a webbed harness, but in order for Ripley to get the right angle, a Marineland attendant had to cut a harness strap. In doing so, the dolphin was accidentally grazed and a spurt of blood splattered onto Ripley’s diving suit.
Next, Ripley put on a huge diving helmet, which fit over the headphones and microphone that would allow him to broadcast from the shark pool. Burdened by the cumbersome suit and helmet, Ripley and a Marineland expert slowly descended to the bottom of the pool. Ripley had grumbled about this stunt all day. He was not a good swimmer and was anxious about speaking on the air without a script.
Submerged, Ripley was equipped with a long stick to feed the sharks mullet. For some reason, the sharks weren’t interested. They began circling Ripley and one shark bumped him backward. The diver grabbed Ripley’s arm and dragged him to the stairs, where he was pulled from the water. The diver figured the sharks must have picked up the scent of dolphin blood on Ripley’s suit. The experience may have frightened and infuriated Ripley, but the show was a thrilling hit.
Ready for more Florida and fame, his shark encounter did little to dampen Ripley’s intrepidness. When he heard about a snake and alligator farm at Silver Springs, he notified his New York office to change the broadcast schedule. He wanted to milk a rattlesnake on the air.
Ripley began his broadcast on a boat with Ross Allen, founder of the Silver Springs Reptile Institute. “Don’t be frightened by that noise you hear in the background,” Ripley told listeners. “It is just the bellowing of the alligators, who are all excited by this broadcast from their homeland!” He then described how, moments earlier, Allen had jumped into the water to wrestle a ten-foot alligator.
Once on land, Allen and Ripley climbed down a ladder into a pit slithering with five hundred poisonous snakes. The plan was for Allen to grab a rattlesnake and show Ripley how to “milk” it and collect its venom. Ripley wore thick rubber boots, while Allen remained barefoot. “Nervous, Bob?” Allen asked. According to the script, Ripley was supposed to say that after man-eating sharks and deadly snakes, “These Believe It or Not programs will be the end of me yet.” He didn’t get the chance.
Just as he and Ross lowered themselves into the pit, the lights went out. Allen yelled, “Let’s get the hell out of here!” his words barely audible over the air. He and Ripley fumbled their way out of the pit, and Ripley managed to ad-lib enough to turn the show over to the New York studio.
Needless to say, after these two very Florida broadcasts, Ripley retreated back to his New York home. But it wouldn’t be the last time he explored Florida…
Ripley’s prized possession was a ship called the Mon Lei, built in 1939. One story says it was sailed across to California, to keep it out of Japanese hands, and was later found sunk in the mud in Florida. He invested $40,000 to restore the worn-out vessel and, in April of 1946, set sail towards the Sunshine State.
A Miami newsman described the Mon Lei as “something between an Orange Bowl float and an opium dream.” Ripley continued to sail up Florida’s west coast to St. Petersburg, where he signed autographs at the pier for hours. But he had signed something else on aboard the Mon Lei in St. Pete—his Last Will and Testament. After signing the document, he hid it aboard the Mon Lei, hoping its services wouldn’t be required for years to come.
A couple of years later, Ripley made Florida a permanent home for himself and the Mon Lei with a Spanish-style mansion called Hi-Mount in Palm Beach. Far from the demanding New York lifestyle, Florida seemed to relax Ripley, but within weeks of moving into his new home, he was back in New York.
Regardless of his indecisiveness, Florida was still set to be Ripley’s final destination.
Located at 9 San Marco Avenue, Ripley’s St. Augustine Odditorium was once known as The Warden Castle. These four stories of Moorish Revival architecture were built in the 1880s and hosted many notable guests, from Rockefeller and Flagler to Marjorie Rawlings, author of The Yearling, who actually purchased the castle with her husband.
Robert Ripley was enamored with Warden and tried time after time to purchase it himself but was continuously denied. It wasn’t until after Ripley’s sudden death in 1949 that his estate was able to acquire the property, making it the first permanent Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Attraction.
Now, with four Believe It or Not! Attractions in the state, there is no shortage of strange in Florida.
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A Reminder To SSS-Shut Your Mouth When You Sleep!
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
This Week
[August 31-September 6, 2020] A superstar parrot, some seriously stressed out elephants, and the future of flying cars—all round-up in this week’s weird news from Ripley’s Believe It or Not!
The Trip of a Lifetime
A story straight from a Nicholas Sparks novel, a message in a bottle containing a man’s ashes was found in Spain, two years after being sent to sea from Florida! Mary Whitt, of Somerset, Kentucky, brought a bottle containing her husband’s ashes, with a note and photograph, on a family trip to Daytona Beach. As her husband, Jerry, had passed away unexpectedly two months prior, she decided to ship him off into the ocean to travel the world. And that he did! Jerry traveled all the way across the Atlantic, landing on Razo Beach in Carballo, Spain, where the Alvarez family found him during their family vacation. The family used the information in the note to email Whitt, informing her of their discovery. Upon Whitt’s request, the family then scattered Jerry’s ashes in the Atlantic, ensuring that he will travel the world for eternity.
Singing Parrot’s Got Us Crazy in Love
We don’t think you’re ready for this parrot! A 9-year-old Amazon parrot named Chico is taking the world by storm with his rendition of Beyonce’s “If I Were a Boy.” Videos of his cover of the 2008 hit have gone viral, winning him headlines across the world. A spokesperson from Lincolnshire Wildlife Park in England praised the bird’s singing abilities saying, “He has many years of entertaining in front of him.” Chico’s former owner, Julie Gregory, let it be known that he’s been singing long before he arrived at the park 18 months ago, covering smash hits including Lady Gaga’s, Poker Face, and Katy Perry’s, Firework.
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#chicoparrot #lincolnshirewildlifepark #lincswildlife #amazon #beyonce #ceelogreen
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Eyes on the Skies
One Japanese company is on its way to making all of your Delorean dreams come true. Engineering company, SkyDrive Inc., held a press conference in Tokyo last Friday, where they announced the successful completion of the country’s first human-crewed test flight of a car! They shared footage of the compact vehicle, a single-seater SD-03 prototype, using eight propellers to hover about six feet off the ground, whizzing around untethered for four minutes. While other companies have completed test flights before, SkyDrive is the first to do so with government backing and funding. It is the hope that, by 2023, the flying vehicle will be available for purchase.
Japan’s ‘flying car’ takes off with person aboard pic.twitter.com/x7J3k0NXDw
— Cool Science Videos (@GeoBeats) August 29, 2020
In An Ele-funk
After the death of the eldest female in her herd, zookeepers at the Warsaw Zoo in Poland are experimenting with cannabis oil to treat anxiety and depression in a young grieving elephant. When the herd matriarch, Erna, passed away in March, the remaining elephants were deeply affected by the loss, as they are naturally sensitive creatures. The youngest elephant, Frediza, has had an especially hard time adapting to the new herd dynamics, developing a case of anxiety and depression. Noticing Frediza’s dramatic shift in behavior, zookeepers were inspired to use cannabis oil to alleviate some of the herd’s pain. Though this has never been done before, the large size of an elephant makes them the perfect candidate for this type of experimental treatment, as they are easier to monitor than smaller animals. Zookeepers will mix CBD oil into their food, then measure cortisol levels to track its effects on Frediza and her friends.
SSS-Shut Your Mouth When You Sleep!
A sss-shocking video has been released showing Russian doctors pulling a four-foot-long snake from a woman’s mouth! The unnamed woman from Dagestan was rushed to the hospital after the serpent slithered into her mouth while she was napping in her yard. It is unknown if the snake was alive at the time of retrieval. The Levashinksy District Hospital’s chief doctor, Patimat Abdurashidova, states that she was unaware of any such procedure happening at the facility, doubting the authenticity of the video. The Ministry of Health in the Republic of Dagestan is investigating the video as a result. Dagestan locals say these incidents are rare, as citizens are advised not to sleep outside due to the risk of this exact scenario.
By Meghan Yani, contributor for Ripleys.com
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September 3, 2020
September 2, 2020
Patience Worth, The Ghostly Author, And Her Medium
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Around the turn of the century, spiritualism had risen in popularity for a number of reasons, and women were almost always at the forefront of the movement. Mysterious feminism consistently clashed with hardnosed masculinity. Male debunkers, from distinguished scientists to flamboyant showmen, traveled the country to uncover spiritualist frauds. But, there was one who remains a bit of a question mark to this day—the author from beyond the grave, Patience Worth, who is said to have come to her earthly conduit, Pearl Curran, through a Ouija board.
Patience became an overnight sensation; people traveled for miles on end to see her perform in Pearl’s living room. Through Pearl, Patience would recite poems and stories she created on the spot, while also interacting with the audience. Not only was she adept at putting on a show, but Patience also wrote several fairly popular novels, plays, and other literary works through Pearl. Now that she has mostly faded into obscurity, there is still some confusion about whether or not Patience was real—or just an elaborate scheme cooked up by a bored and clever housewife.
Pearl Meets Patience
Pearl Curran, then Pollard, was born in Mound City, Illinois in 1883. As a child, she moved around quite a bit and was eventually sent to live with her grandmother in St. Louis, Missouri. While she was interested in playing the piano, acting, singing, and being a generally talkative child with a good memory, she dropped out of school at 13 as the result of a “nervous collapse.” She married John Curran at the age of 24, and as a childless, jobless housewife, was starting to get a bit restless.
It’s said she complained of many ailments that, in the end, turned out to be nothing. This proved her very similar to other women of her time, earning the title of hysteric or hypochondriac when, in most cases, they were simply reaching out for something beyond the constricted lives they lived.
Pearl Curran around 1926
However, this all changed when Pearl’s father died and her friend, Emily Grant Hutchings, suggested the two of them try to contact him from beyond the grave. At the time, spiritualism was flourishing, and Ouija boards had become a popular fixation for those hoping to dip their toes into the occult. Pearl and Emily were not able to contact Pearl’s late father, but they did, in fact, claim to contact a spirit.
On July 8, 1913, Pearl and Emily received a ghostly message from the Ouija board:
“Many moons ago I lived. Again I come—Patience Worth my name.”
Patience claimed she was the spirit of a 17th-century woman who had sailed to America from England and had been killed by Native Americans. While Emily originally took over the questioning of Patience, Pearl quickly began to believe that the spirit was trying to reach out to her and her alone. She stated she could see pictures in her head when she sat down with the Ouija board, ones she was convinced the spirit was trying to share with her. Soon, people began to get wind of this ghostly occurrence, and Pearl and her husband started holding gatherings in their home where people from all walks of life could view Patience’s storytelling prowess as funneled through Pearl.
Patience Parties
Patience Worth began to conduct readings of her poems as well as original compositions in front of audiences in the Currans’ sitting room. Pearl spelled out the words on her Ouija board as they were spoken to her, and her husband recorded them on paper in shorthand. While she was spelling, Pearl would hold conversations with the audience members or smoke a cigarette. Often, Pearl looked as if she was being two people at once—as if both consciousnesses existed at the same time and in her one body!
It seemed as though Patience was composing the works as Pearl was spelling them out. But despite seeming off-the-cuff, they were always impressive to audiences and remained of a consistently high literary caliber. Patience would also answer questions from the audience. When someone asked her what tribe the Native American who killed her came from, her cutting reply: “Would ye with a blade at thy throat seek the [identity] of thine assassin?”
Many notable people visited the Currans’ home for Patience’s readings. Edgar Lee Masters, the poet who wrote Spoon River Anthology, Stephen Braude, past president of the American Parapsychological Association, and Otto Heller, dean of Washington University in St. Louis’ Graduate School, were all truly flabbergasted by their visits to the ghostly author. But of course, Patience and Pearl certainly had a number of detractors, however, none were able to fully pull back the curtain—or even explain Patience’s work without acknowledging some confusion as to how it was done.
Patience Published
In 1915, Casper S. Yost, the editor of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat’s editorial page, asked the Currans if he could write a book about what he had witnessed during their sessions. The book was titled Patience Worth: A Psychic Mystery. It was published in 1916—perfect timing, as books concerning ghosts and spirits were their peak popularity during the war. The book contained some of Patience’s words of wisdom and a number of her poems, including the one below:
“Am I a broken lyre,
Who, at the Master’s touch,
Respondeth with a tinkle and a whir?
Or am I strung in full
And at His touch give forth the full chord?”
In 1917, Patience’s own novel, The Sorry Tale, was published. Its reviews were stellar. However, her next novel, Hope Trueblood, which was published the following year, did not receive the same excitement. For one thing, it was written in a decidedly more modern voice. Pearl claims it was intentional as Patience wanted to broaden her audience. And for another, it was released after the spiritualist fad had begun to fade, making it seem passé.
Patience and Pearl
By the 1920s, people had largely begun to forget about Patience and Pearl, and although the Currans had enjoyed some moderate financial success from the venture, it seemed they were still struggling to make ends meet. Pearl explained that “entertaining 8,000 persons at [their] home” was an expense they hadn’t factored into the project. Plus, John had lost around $4,000—quite a large sum of money at the time—on a Patience Worth-themed magazine that hadn’t sold.
In 1922, John died, and Pearl gave birth to a child six months later. After having adopted another child while John was still alive, she now had two children, no husband, and very little money. Pearl started making appearances at private parties and traveling the country, performing readings and compositions for those who wanted to see them. Pearl married twice more, and it was said she was still able to conjure Patience until a week before her death in 1937.
Was Patience Real?
There are many reasons why people believed Patience to be fake and Pearl to be a fraud. For one, the name Patience Worth was the name of a character from the popular, turn-of-the-century novel To Have and To Hold that had been written before Pearl began conjuring Patience. For another, Pearl and John hand-picked the scientists to whom they would submit themselves for scrutiny.
Still, no one was able to prove whether or not Patience actually existed. Yost journeyed to Dorsetshire, England, where Patience claimed she’d been born, to see if he could find anything she’d described or evidence that a Patience Worth had lived there during the 17th century, but results were inconclusive.
Those who tried to explain away the phenomenon with scientific evidence, however, also came up short. Though Charles Cory, chairman of Washington University’s philosophy department, argued that Pearl had a form of multiple personality disorder—or what we now call dissociative identity disorder—people who suffer from this problem usually only have one personality inhabiting the body at a time. Patience and Pearl seemed to both be aware and present at once.
Finally, if it is to be believed that Pearl was a gifted liar who simply made up everything, there is still quite a bit of confusion as to how this was done. How did she manage to write so eloquently, as well as to mirror the style of 17th-century writing, when she had dropped out of school? And how did she so easily communicate with others while Patience spelled out her stories, seemingly never making a mistake or fumbling over her words?
As far as mysteries go, this story remains thick with it in a way few other turn-of-the-century spiritualist tales do.
By Julia Tilford, contributor for Ripleys.com
EXPLORE THE ODD IN PERSON!
Discover hundreds of strange and unusual artifacts and get hands-on with unbelievable interactives when you visit a Ripley’s Odditorium!
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