Ripley Entertainment Inc.'s Blog, page 215
March 10, 2020
A Flea Market For Lovers Of The Strange and Unusual
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
“For lovers of the strange and unusual”—The Oddities & Curiosities Expo is a bit more than your typical flea market of vendors. It’s a museum, a collection, a hodge-podge of odd and unusual crafts from collectors across the country. To begin, let’s take a trip down memory lane to learn how this eclectic gathering of exhibitors came to be.
A Match Made in Punk-Rock Heaven
Michelle and Tony Cozzaglio met 12 years ago in Michelle’s hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Tony was touring the city with his band, and Michelle came to his show—a match made in punk-rock heaven! After a few years together, Tony made the move to Tulsa himself, and the two realized they both had similar affinities beyond the music industry: all things odd and curious.
Michelle and Tony Cozzaglio
In 2013, Michelle and Tony decided to put their passions into play with an event called the Punk Rock Flea Market. Centered around a collection of local oddities and vendors, the alternative-style show began with two experiences in Tulsa, Oklahoma and Denver, Colorado.
An Odd Turn of Events
After its unexpected success, Michelle and Tony decided to take the market to the next level. With an online vendor application process and the close community of oddities collectors and sellers, more and more people began hearing about and participating in this eclectic event. Attendee numbers grew larger than Michelle and Tony could have imagined, surpassing 6,000 visitors at some of their earliest shows.
Today, the couple’s full-time job is coordinating and running this traveling event known as The Oddities and Curiosities Expo. The first, under this title, took place in 2017 with just two shows in their root cities—Denver and Tulsa. One year later, they quadrupled their appearances to eight shows in eight cities. The first of the eight was in Kansas City and hosted over 10,000 people! And last year, in 2019, they doubled their presence once more bringing them to 16 shows.
Photo by Megan Vescio Photo via Oddities & Curiosities Expo website
Taxidermy and Skeletons and Artwork, Oh my!
This year, Michelle and Tony are back on the road for a bigger and better year than ever with 22 Oddities and Curiosities Expos across the country. At each of these 22 shows, the O&C Expo showcases an extremely vast variety of hand-selected vendors, dealers, artists, small businesses, and performers from all corners. Michelle and Tony’s love for all things odd and unusual makes them the perfect hosts for such an event that showcases everything from taxidermy to funeral collectibles to skulls and bones.
Photo by Megan Vescio Photo via Oddities & Curiosities Expo website
“I really love the rare pieces—anything antique with a history and good story,” says Michelle.
And aside from the physical items on display at the show, the performances are truly unmatched. Michelle and Tony select particular acts based on their relation to the roots of old sideshow. From human pin-cushions to sword swallowers, there’s far more to see beyond what sits on a vendor’s table.
Photo by Megan Vescio Photo via Oddities & Curiosities Expo website
The Oddities and Curiosities Expo is a place where other lovers of the odd and strange to come and enjoy together.
For Lovers of the Strange and Unusual
“Our show really provides a safe place for people to come and feel welcome. They like weird things—and that’s okay! The Expo is a place for people to come and meet new friends or catch up with old friends,” Michelle says.
Photo by Megan Vescio Photo via Oddities & Curiosities Expo website
From what began as a small idea for locals and members of the punk-rock community has blossomed into a 22-show event averaging anywhere from 7,000 to 9,000 attendees per city. In fact, Ripley’s was one of these attendees back in 2018 when the show took to New Orleans. We fell in love with the passion behind Michelle and Tony’s idea, and their appreciation for all things odd and unusual—from physical products to the art of sideshow.
And it’s no surprise, they’re a fan of ours too. “When I was a kid, I can remember going to Ripley’s in Branson, Missouri all the time! I’ve always been a fan of the museums and the television show,” Michelle recalls.
“For lovers of the strange and unusual,” this is one stop on your bucket list that you won’t want to miss.
For more information, head over to The Oddities and Curiosities Expo website, o r check below for the full travel schedule!
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!
The Track Star Who Beat The Nazis At Their Own Games
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Despite winning four Olympic gold medals and breaking three world records, when Jesse Owens returned home to the United States, he was treated like a second-class citizen.
This week on the Notcast, come back to the Berlin Olympics of 1936 as we introduce you to an amazing young track star named Jesse Owens—a track star who wanted to defeat the Nazis at their own Olympic Games.
For more weird news and strange stories, visit our homepage, and be sure to rate and share this episode of the Notcast!
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!
Source: The Track Star Who Beat The Nazis At Their Own Games
March 9, 2020
Remains of the Day: How Body Farms Advance Science
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
If you were to come across dozens of human corpses in an open landscape, you might think you’ve just stumbled into a horror movie. But, Believe It or Not!, you’d actually be in a classroom.
This is the Forensic Anthropology Research Facility (FARF), also known as the “body farm,” at Texas State University’s Freeman Ranch in San Marcos, about 35 miles from Austin.
At this 26-acre facility, the largest of its kind, students research the decomposition of human bodies left outside, exposed to the elements, and sometimes animals. Their work helps law enforcement, anthropologists, and archaeologists solve the mysteries of how, when, and where people died.
Body Language
There are currently between 70-80 bodies being studied at FARF, says Danny Wescott, Director of the Forensic Anthropology Center at Texas State (FACTS), via email. People actually donate their bodies for this scientific research and, Westcott says, they never have too many.
As one might imagine, there’s quite a bit of work to do.
Photo courtesy of the Forensic Anthropology Center at Texas State University
“Bodies are placed in various locations and can be clothed, unclothed, or wrapped, depending on the criteria for the research being done,” says Wescott.
There are currently more than 19 projects being studied at the facility, by FARF and other researchers.
One FARF project is measuring the differences in decomposition rates between bodies that have been frozen versus not frozen. This is a project that will help FARF with the protocols of its own research.
“Can we freeze a body for storage and then use it for research at a later date?” Wescott investigates, should the need ever arise. “There is some argument that a frozen body will decompose from the outside in, while a nonfrozen body will decompose from the inside out.”
But they have found that once a body is thawed out, it will decompose at the same rate as one that was never frozen. “The freezing doesn’t seem to be enough to cause rupturing of cells or anything,” he observes.
Breaking It Down
Several projects involve the “thanatomicrobiome,” or the microbes, including worms and bacteria, that colonize us once we’re dead.
“Microbes are responsible for much of the internal organ decomposition and also for attracting flies to the body,” Wescott says. The breaking down of tissue by bacteria gives off that distinctive decaying-corpse scent, which brings the bugs, so these microbes can help determine the postmortem interval, or PMI—the time since death.
Photo courtesy of the Forensic Anthropology Center at Texas State University
Another project conducted by Aaron Tarone of Texas A&M University is called, “Ants as Indicators of Clandestine Graves.” It sounds terrifically Poe-like to us outsiders, but it’s a helpful resource for law enforcement and other disciplines. Technology, like ground penetrating radar, can reveal where a body has been secretly buried but determining what that body is is another matter. Looking at the stomach contents of ants colonizing near a hidden grave may help reveal whether the remains are human or another animal.
“This is in the early days of research,” Tarone says, via email, and a facility like FARF provides “important dimensions and perspective to these kinds of projects.” Some aspects of this kind of work can be done in a lab, “or in the field with non-human models,” Tarone says, “but when you get to the point of wanting to establish real-world situations, the facilities like San Marcos are indispensable.”
Deer In The Headlines
Sometimes cages are put over the bodies to stop scavengers from interfering with them, but in 2014 scavengers were the point. The facility was researching their impact on cadavers, including the impact vultures have on determining the time of death. This particular study made news when a camera caught an image of a deer gnawing away on a human rib bone. It was already known that deer chew on bones—their teeth leave a tell-tale forked pattern on bones, says Smithsonian Magazine. This was just the first instance of one chomping on, well, one of us.
Believe It or Not!, there are 7 body farms in the U.S. and recently, at the Forensic Investigation Research Station at Colorado Mesa University, feral cats were seen on camera nibbling on the human remains.
Photo courtesy of the Forensic Anthropology Center at Texas State University
Body farms usually have high fences to keep larger scavengers out, but smaller scavengers are recorded on infrared cameras. Researchers at the Colorado facility reported that cats prefer to hunt, and cases of them scavenging are very rare. Those who opted for the food in front of them at the body farm tended to prefer the soft tissue of the arm and shoulder. Keep that in mind the next time you’re cradling little Mittens.
Because it’s a closed research facility, visitors aren’t allowed at the Freeman Ranch body farm. One day, though, if you choose to donate, you could reside there forever. Or at least until the cats show up.
By Liz Langley, 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!
March 8, 2020
March 7, 2020
March 6, 2020
The Skinny On Necropants: Trousers Made Of Human Skin
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Skinny jeans. Did Icelandic sorcerers take this fashion trend a little too literally in the name of magic? We’re uncovering the truth behind necropants and the history of Iceland’s witchy ways this week on Cool Stuff Strange Things.
The Skinny On Icelandic Sorcery
Europe’s persecution of witches and the Salem Witch Trials are pretty well-known today, but what you might not know is that Iceland had its own period of persecution—The Age of Fire, taking place between 1654 and 1690.
For centuries, Icelanders used sorcery for everything from everyday tasks like obtaining goats milk to traveling cross-dimensional journeys to gain knowledge from the gods. Your typical 17th-century stuff…
As real as that all may sound, most accusations were placed on a foe, who consequently had to prove—beyond a shadow of a doubt—that they were not a witch. Should there be any evidence, the case was promptly closed and the accused was burnt at the stake. During the Icelandic Age of Fire, well over 200 people were officially charged with practicing sorcery, the majority of them men, 20 of which were sentenced to death.
A Priceless Pair Of Pants
Now, Icelandic sorcery is full of strange stories and lore, but perhaps the most haunting relic of the time are necropants: pants made out of human skin. Yes, filleted human flesh.
Legend has it that Icelandic sorcerers would tear the skin off of a dead friend’s body and clothe themselves in their flesh—a type of dark magic that was supposed to bring the wearer unlimited wealth. This type of gag-worthiness leaves us asking plenty of questions—but, mainly, are they real? It’s tricky to tell…
The legend of necropants was passed down orally for generations before it was ever written down. Allegedly, the skin would latch onto the wearer’s legs like glue, with only one bit remaining loose—a little pocket at the scrotum. In that pocket, the sorcerer would have to place a magic rune and/or a coin stolen from a widow. From then on, he would be able to reach his hand into the pocket and pull out as much wealth as he wanted.
As this was a form of black magic, wearing necropants meant that the wearer had formed a pact with the Devil and pretty much guaranteed them a spot in Hell. But there was one way out—the wearer could spare eternal damnation by convincing someone else to take the pants.
Besides the written history, there has only been one person ever accused of wearing necropants: a man Mensalder Jonsson, who lived on Iceland’s Papey Island in the 18th-century.
According to lore, Mensalder amassed an endless fortune rapidly and, it is said, that while he was outside one day, a tempest-type storm lifted him up into the air never to be seen again. Slightly dramatic, as records of his life note that Mensalder passed away in his home in 1799, with none of the drama and no mention of necropants.
It’s likely that the stories of Mensalder’s witchcraft were spread by jealous neighbors, much like the accusations of The Age of Fire. It’s also likely that the legend of necropants started with Mensalder himself.
A replica of necropants at The Museum of Icelandic Sorcery & Witchcraft in Holmavik, Iceland || CC: Bernard McManus from Victoria, BC, Canada
But what about more evidence? I know you want to believe. Well—Believe It or Not!—there is ONE known pair of necropants in the world, housed at the Museum of Icelandic Sorcery & Witchcraft. Chilling to look at, but you also can’t look away.
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Source: The Skinny On Necropants: Trousers Made Of Human Skin
March 5, 2020
Is It Dangerous To Wake A Sleepwalker?
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Remember Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking scene in Shakespeare’s 1606 tragedy when she scrubs her hands feverishly mumbling, “Out damned spot”? Or the sheer idiocy of the Stepbrothers’ (2008) take on somnambulism—movement while asleep—and midnight snacking? Some of the best-documented and dramatic sleepwalking incidents have come down to us through the ages via literature, theater, television, and films.
That’s because no matter how you slice it, sleepwalking is as old as human history. Of course, what people think about sleepwalkers and how they’ve been treated has evolved since ancient times. Modern portrayals of sleepwalking usually end with another individual stepping in to wake up the sleepwalker.
It just seems like the natural thing to do, right? Or will jolting a sleepwalker back into consciousness condemn them to a soulless existence?
Supernatural Sleepwalkers
Sleepwalking episodes come on without warning and leave the participant unaware of their actions while asleep. As a result, many ancient cultures concluded that strange metaphysical powers were at work, whether through divine or demonic possession. A bewildering disorder, people historically associated sleepwalking with the sacred, supernatural, and scary.
During the Middle Ages, somnambulism earned an additional, contagious reputation. Communities shunned sleepwalkers and their families in sad attempts to stop its “spread.” They saw the phenomenon as a malevolent curse, mark of evil, plague, or punishment for unconfessed sins. In this context, Lady Macbeth’s frantic attempts to wash her hands clean while lost in a dream state hearken back to her guilt-ridden conscience.
The Sleepwalking Lady Macbeth, by Henry Fuseli
Since ancient and medieval beliefs taught that the human soul left the body during sleep, waking a somnambulist came with dire consequences. Namely, dooming them to wander the earth, soullessly, for the rest of their existence.
Modern Views Emerge
By the Renaissance, however, some natural philosophers (a.k.a. proto-scientists) started taking a closer look at sleepwalking and its causes. By the mid-1800s, a new theory emerged of sleepwalking as a common condition rather than a neuropsychiatric one rooted in guilt and shame. The superstitions about possession faded over time.
Of course, as sleepwalking transformed from an inexplicable and terrifying taboo into an accepted part of human existence, people started interacting differently with sleepwalkers. Waking them up became the norm and remains a common practice to this day.
As scientists continue to gain a better understanding of how sleepwalking works, though, many have concluded that the best thing you can do for a somnambulist is tuck them back in.
What We Know Today
More than 8.4 million Americans sleepwalk each year. As for kids, you’d be hard-pressed to find any who haven’t experienced at least one episode of sleepwalking. We now know it’s a part of the human condition, not a manifestation of a psychiatric disorder.
So, why don’t sleepwalkers retain any memories of an episode? Because their behaviors take place without conscious awareness. Their behavior comes from the brain’s central pattern generator. This area of the brain contains neural pathways associated with heavily practiced and learned movements, basically a typical or repeated schedule.
That’s why you’ll notice sleepwalkers partaking in behavior from daily life, but you won’t see them doing something new or unlearned, like speaking a language they don’t know or playing an instrument they’re unfamiliar with. You also won’t observe sleepwalkers acting out in complex ways. The region of the brain that stores memories remains asleep, too, which leads to zero recall later.
The Somnambulist, 1871, by John Everett Millais
How to Handle Sleepwalkers
So, what should you do when you encounter a sleepwalker? Researchers warn that it’s very tough to rouse somebody from this state. Unless the sleepwalker’s partaking in a dangerous activity—like getting ready to dive down the stairs, head outside, or go for a drive—it’s best to just steer them back to bed.
That said, if you do manage to wake them, don’t worry. Interrupting a sleepwalker won’t harm them. Or lead to a soulless existence. Whew!
By Engrid Barnett, 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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