Ripley Entertainment Inc.'s Blog, page 299
December 24, 2018
Did Ripley Have A Heart Attack On TV’s First Reality Show?
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Premiering in the spring of 1949, a TV deal was just icing on the cake for Ripley—he had already earned well over half-a-million dollars a year during the height of the Depression. “Believe It or Not!” was one of the very first weekly television shows to enter into American homes. Featuring fascinating people with strange talents and traits, Robert Ripley’s “Believe It or Not!” television show is also arguably the first “reality” show in history.
Airing on NBC, Ripley hosted the first 13 episodes himself, which included him showing guests his exotic artifacts and drawing cartoons for the camera, reenactments of Believe It or Not! stories, and interviews with the real-life “stars” of the strange. In true Ripley fashion, episode 13 took an unexpected turn…
Episode 13
Ripley had a heart attack while on stage, ironically, discussing the military funeral hymn “Taps.”
“Taps,” the bugle tune played at U.S. military memorials, dates back to the American Civil War. The name most likely comes from the fact that the former lights-out call was followed by three drum beats, dubbed the “Taps.” Believe it or not, “Taps” was officially known as “Extinguish Lights” in military manuals until 1891.
He recovered enough to finish the show, but admitted himself into a hospital the next morning. A checkup revealed Ripley had a heart condition, although not thought to be critical. Three days later, the Modern Marco Polo had a fatal heart attack.
The 14th episode was a eulogy and the series continued on for more than two years, hosted by Robert St. John and Ripley’s close friend Li Ling Ai.
Keep an eye on your heart and stay fit in 2019 by entering the 12 Weirds of Christmas contest. Enter every day for a chance to win more prizes. If you win one day, you also win all of the prizes from previous days.
Enter Day 8 to win a fitness tracker. Better yet, you’re always entered for the grand prize, a trip for two to the VIP New Year’s Party at Times Square in New York City!
Good luck, and may your holidays be EERIE and bright!
Source: Did Ripley Have A Heart Attack On TV’s First Reality Show?
December 23, 2018
The First Radio Broadcast From Underground
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Of the many daring and dangerous radio shows produced by Robert Ripley, his foray into subterranean broadcasting is one of his more famous. It may not sound as dangerous as an underwater show featuring sharks, or a play-by-play of rattlesnake milking from a pit of 500 venomous serpents, but Ripley knew that bringing the natural wonders of Americas to people at home was just as unbelievable.
Ripley’s crew was used to setting up antennas and transmission lines to send his voice home from the most remote parts of the world, but finding a way to get a radio signal to listeners from 850 feet underground seemed impossible—never-mind the dangers of navigating a pitch-black cave. To put things in perspective, Carlsbad Caverns had only been designated a National Park 10 years prior. Ripley interviewed the Jim White—man who discovered the caves—on-air. White was just 16 years old when he found the caves. After spotting what he thought was smoke in the distance, the young cowboy went to investigate. What he had seen wasn’t smoke, however. It was thousands of bats flying out of the cave. White told Ripley that he had explored the caves alone with a homemade ladder made out of wire. With no natural light in the deep abyss of the caverns, it took a long time to fully map out the enormous chambers Carlsbad is known for today.
When the park was first established, visitors only had two options for getting into the signature “Big Room” cavern. You could either descend the 750 feet using a slippery switch-back path, or you could jump in an old conveyor bucket whose original purpose was bringing bat guano up from the bottom. Many tourists balked at the bucket and would take the trip down, but would quickly realize the trip up would be even more arduous. Eventually, they built an elevator, and Ripley pointed out in his broadcast that it was the deepest in the world at the time.
Robert Ripley, Jim White, and Thomas Boles
Ripley’s second guest was Park Superintendent Thomas Boles—a big fan of Ripley’s. Boles had made over 3,000 expeditions into the caves himself and is an iconic figure in the caverns’ history. Boles wrote to Ripley about a park ranger surviving a fall down the park’s elevator shaft and regaled him with the caves’ “Rock of Ages” ceremony. Boles spoke of a famous opera singer wandering the caves and becoming so inspired by the natural beauty that he broke out into song—giving a reverberating performance of “Rock of Ages.”
Ripley considered Carlsbad Caverns the most beautiful natural caves on Earth and was delighted to pick up a few unique Believe It or Not! stories while he was there. His favorite was what he saw as a story of unrequited love for the ages. A stalagmite and stalactite in the caverns formed over a period of 50 million years. Despite growing towards each other for so long, they have yet to touch and are separated by just a mere quarter of an inch!
Robert Ripley got his start on radio, and you can hear the echo of his legacy in the Weird Minute podcast by entering th Ripley’s 12 Weirds of Christmas contest. Enter every day for a chance to win more prizes. If you win one day, you also win all of the prizes from previous days.
Enter Day 10 to win an Amazon Echo Spot. Better yet, you’re always entered for the grand prize, a trip for two to the VIP New Year’s Party at Times Square in New York City!
Good luck, and may your holidays be EERIE and bright!
December 22, 2018
The First Odditorium And Ripley’s Legacy Of Wonder
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
While Ripley’s Believe It or Not! operates 30 odditoriums today, it all started with a temporary show at the 1933 Century of Progress World’s Fair in Chicago. In his travels around the world Ripley had encountered more than just weird places and objects, but strange and amazing people as well! The Odditorium finally gave him a chance to share these people with the world.
The Chicago location closed briefly but reopened in 1934 to continue alongside the fair. Human performers made up the majority of the show drawing shock and awe from anyone who ventured close. People who could swallow and regurgitate lightbulbs, smoke a pipe through their eyes, and turn their heads 180 degrees ran the gamut of seemingly impossible feats Ripley’s performers could showcase.
In 1939, Ripley’s Odditorium made it to the big city, opening a collection of oddities from 200 countries and 40 live performers.
Temporary odditoriums and traveling shows popped up across the country in the ensuing decades, but the first permanent location was set up inside Warden Castle in St. Augustine, Florida, in 1950. To this day, the castle is filled with a menagerie of Ripley oddities and is our longest-standing permanent odditorium. Though Ripley’s Believe It or Not! bought the castle after Robert Ripley’s death, he had actually stayed at the castle while it served as a hotel during his travels to Florida.
The artifacts displayed in odditoriums while he was alive were almost exclusively all borrowed from Ripley’s personal collection. In the first few decades following Ripley’s deaths, the odditoriums acted as a sort of shrine to Ripley’s adventures. In 1963, the company looked beyond just sheltering Ripley’s legacy, expanding into Ontario, Canada, with an odditorium in Niagara Falls—a location that stands to this day.
Ripley odditoriums continued to gain steam, popping up in big cities like San Francisco and eventually making a permanent return to New York City. In place of performers, the exteriors of Ripley odditoriums stood out as unique pieces of architecture. No one could see a building wrapped in a sea monster, sinking into the ground, or with a dinosaur on top without becoming immediately curious.
Today, with 30 0dditoriums in 10 countries, the Ripley collection has had to grow considerably, offering up new and exciting treasures for visitors to see.
Venture into the treasure troves of Ripley’s collections by entering the Ripley’s 12 Weirds of Christmas contest. Enter every day for a chance to win more prizes. If you win one day, you also win all of the prizes from previous days.
Enter Day 9 to win the Ripley’s Golden Ticket! Explore rare artifacts and thrilling exhibits as a lifetime pass holder. Better yet, you’re always entered for the grand prize, a trip for two to the VIP New Year’s Party at Times Square in New York City!
Good luck, and may your holidays be EERIE and bright!
CARTOON 12-22-2018December 21, 2018
Deer Poacher Sentenced To Watch Bambi While In Prison
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[December 16-22nd, 2018] Nunchucks for everyone, some really smelly socks, and a prison sentence that fits the crime.
Smelly Socks Send Man To Hospital
A 37-year-old man in Zhangzhou, China, was sent to the hospital after smelling a pair of socks. According to reports in Fujian Daily, the man had become addicted to smelling the socks he had worn during the day. Apparently, this led to a fungus growing in his socks wafting its spores directly into his lungs. X-ray results confirmed his intense pain and cough were caused by a fungal infection.
Cat Shipped 700 Miles
They say curiosity killed the cat, but luckily for Novia Scotian kitty named Baloo, her curiosity didn’t cause her any harm. Jacqueline Lake, the cat’s owner, was packing boxes when Baloo snuck into one. After a 17-hour trip and 700 miles, a shipping worker found the cat after noticing urine leaking from the box. After a vet checkup and a clean bill of health, Baloo was taken back across the country by volunteers from Freedom Drivers, a non-profit that transports shelter animals.
Nunchucks Unbanned
Once, in the bygone era of teeny boppers and street gangs, New York City imposed a ban on the possession of nunchucks. The martial arts weapon was popularized by kung-fu movies like Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon, and adults across the country feared their karate-obsessed kids taking to the streets with the unwieldy weapon. A Supreme Court decision, however, has overturned the ban, citing the second amendment for the guarantee to bear arms…even if they’re nunchucks.
Canada’s Last Witch Trial
While witchcraft has long been legalized in Canada, pretending to be a witch has been a whole other matter. A witch-forgery ban was imposed to keep hucksters from swindling people’s money. Canada, however, felt even this law went too far and planned to remove it December 13th. Two days before the repeal, however, they held what will likely be Canada’s last witch trial. Tiffany Butch, also known as the “White Witch of the North,” was charged with pretending to practice witchcraft after demanding money for lifting a curse.
Deer Poacher Sentenced To Watch Bambi
David Berry Jr. was sentenced to a short but unusual prison stay after being convicted of poaching. During his time behind bars, the judge ordered that he watch the 1942 Disney film, Bambi, at least once a month. Berry Jr. and his family were charged with hunting deer for just their antlers and heads, out of season.
Source: Deer Poacher Sentenced To Watch Bambi While In Prison
December 20, 2018
Some Animals That Are Much Blinder Than Bats
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Or Not
In today’s world many misconceptions have been perpetuated—becoming modern day “facts”—when, in reality, myths and hearsay have taken over. Sorry to burst your bubble, but in this weekly column, Ripley’s puts those delusions to the test, turning your world upside down, because you can’t always…Believe It!
Today
: Bats aren’t as blind as you think.
Most people have heard the expression, “blind as a bat,” but the nocturnal creatures aren’t actually sightless. In fact, some bats can see three times better than humans. Many bats can also see ultraviolet (UV) light, which is a wavelength of color that people can’t even detect.
Bats are known for using echolocation. They navigate the world using echoes, which bounce off of objects and help them pinpoint a location. This behavior has boosted the myth that bats only use sound to get around. But not all bat species use sonar to identify their surroundings.
Of the approximate 1,300 varieties of bats in the world, some eat insects and others get their nutrition from flowers. Only three are bloodsuckers. A few bats actually favor using their eyes instead of their ears when searching for a meal. Fruit bats, for example, have a nectar diet and don’t echolocate (for the most part).
In 2009, German researchers analyzed bat eyes and found that two species from South and Central America—Pallas’s long-tongued bat (Glossophaga soricina) and Seba’s short-tailed bat (Carollia perspicillata)—can see during the daytime. Scientists concluded that these bats can see some colors and have UV vision. Their UV-sensitive cones may aid them in seeing at twilight, help them avoid predators, and help them find flowers that reflect UV light.
A 2003 study published in the journal Animal Behavior found that brown long-eared bats (Plecotus auritus) like hunting insects using both visual and sonar cues, but favor visual input to solely sonar.
Evolution plays a key role when it comes to how well some species of bats can see. Some with advanced echolocation seem to have lost their ability to see UV light, but they hear extraordinarily well. Other bats that live in caves but do not echolocate have also lost UV vision, according to 2018 study published in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution. These bats aren’t sightless, but they favor other senses over vision.
“Bats are not blind, with most species capable of seeing in both the UV and middle range of the color spectrum,” noted study author Emma Teeling. “This suggests that vision is still an important means of sensory perception even in echolocating, nocturnal bats.
“However, acquisition of the most advanced type of echolocation does coincide with the loss of UV vision in most bats and surprisingly cave-roosting drives loss of UV vision in the non-echolocating lineages. This suggests that sensory trade-offs are more complex than previously considered and that bats still make fascinating subjects to understand the evolution of the mammalian senses!”
While bats aren’t blind, there are a few animals that are sightless. For example, the cave-dwelling blind Huntsman spider has no eyes at all (other spider species have eight eyes). Texas Blind Salamanders are also eyeless, and a few species of deep-sea lobsters are blind.
By Noelle Talmon, contributor for Ripleys.com
Making Adorably Small Origami Paper Cranes
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
David Kawai, of Ottwa, Ontario, Canada, uses just his fingers to make teeny tiny origami cranes. After a friend taught him how to make full-sized paper cranes, he started making hundreds. As time went on, however, he challenged himself to make them as small as possible.
Making paper cranes about a tenth the size of a fingernail requires expert precision. Each fold in the paper has to be precise down o a quarter of a millimeter. “Sometimes I use a table when creasing the paper with my fingernails,” says the diligent artist, “I have to use scissors to cut out a tiny square.”
Kawai uses his preferred paper and doesn’t stray into folding other animals. To get the tiny cranes he wants, the initial unfolded square of paper measures between five and six millimeters. Anything too thick makes folding difficult at such a tiny size, but anything too thin could tear.
Kawai keeps most of his cranes for himself but has given a few away. For now, he’s content to keep folding his tiny paper cranes.
“One day it would be nice to make 1,000 tiny ones. It would feel like a big accomplishment!”—David Kawai
From conga-dancing dogs and bicycling ballerinas, to hair-raising feats of strength and death-defying motorcycle stunts, Ripley’s Believe It or Not! A Century of Strange! is sure to delight readers of all ages. With over 1,200 weird-but-true stories from around the world and 256 pages of wild and wonderful photography, this year’s collection of all things odd is not-to-be-missed.
You can get this year’s collection of books from Ripley’s Believe It or Not! by entering the 12 Weirds of Christmas contest. Enter every day for a chance to win more prizes. If you win one day, you also win all of the prizes from previous days.
Enter Day 7 to win A Century of Strange!, Odd Is Art, and Time Warp. Better yet, you’re always entered for the grand prize, a trip for two to the VIP New Year’s Party at Times Square in New York City!
Good luck, and may your holidays be EERIE and bright!
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