Ripley Entertainment Inc.'s Blog, page 324
August 21, 2018
Summer Comes To A Close With 99 Days of Strange!
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Summer at Ripley’s comes to an end on September 21st, but there is still time to have some strange fun in the sun by sharing YOUR strange!
From weird pets to outrageously cool facial hair, everyone has a little strange in them. This summer, we’ve asked you to share it with us (and there is still time!). We want you to celebrate your individuality by tweeting, posting to Instagram, or directly uploading your strangest photo HERE!
This is your chance to win some cool prizes—even $5,000! The sun is about to set on the season, so what are you waiting for? Celebrate 99 Strange Days of Summer with Ripley’s today!
Twitter entries must include #Ripleys99 and @Ripleys. Instagram entries must include #Ripleys99.
Take a look at some of our strange submissions below!
Join the Strange Ripley’s Family
John “Hammerhead” Ferraro
John Ferraro is the Hammerhead! His skull is more than two times thicker than the average human’s and he uses it to hammer nails into wood, snap baseball bats in half, and bend steel bars! John shocks scientists and amazes audiences with his ability to withstand incredible amounts of force to his head, with apparently no negative side effects.
Believe it or not, the average human skull is 7 mm thick, but an MRI scan revealed that John’s is 16 mm!
Robert Wadlow
Only 18 people in history are known to have reached a height of 8 feet or more. Measuring in at 8 feet 11.1 inches from head to toe, Robert Wadlow was the tallest man to have ever lived. Even today’s contenders for the title of world’s tallest person don’t come anywhere near his great height. Sultan Kosen, the tallest living man today, would stand 8 inches shorter than Wadlow.
Featured in Robert Ripley’s cartoon in 1926 and 1929, Wadlow became known as the “Alton Giant” for his hometown of Alton, Illinois.
The Dragon Lady
Eva Tiamat Baphomet Medusa, otherwise known as the Dragon Lady, has undergone extreme body modifications in order to transform into a dragon. A former banker now living in Texas, Tiamat has had her nose and ears removed, her tongue bifurcated (split), her eyes stained green, almost all her teeth extracted, and horns implanted on her head.
Fearsome Cassowary Nose Bone Decoration From New Guinea
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Ripley’s has showcased many unusual and rare artifacts from its collection hailing from the culturally rich islands of Papua New Guinea. Among the ancestor heads, midwife skulls, and penis sheaths are a number of fearsome nose bone decorations.
These sharply carved bones would be fitted into a piercing on a tribesman’s nose giving them a fearsome countenance to scare their foes and protect them from spirits. According to tradition, the more ornate and decorative the nose ornament, the more fearsome and powerful the warrior was.
Some believe the natives of New Guinea were inspired to make these decorations in order to appear more like the fierce boars they hunted, though the materials were made of something even more fearsome. This example of a nose ornament was carved from the bones of a cassowary bird. This large avian behemoth can stand over six feet tall and weigh over a hundred pounds.
The tops of a cassowary’s head is covered in a keratinous ridge known as a casque. Scientists still aren’t sure exactly what this horny ridge is for, but they guess that it helps amplify their calls, attract mates, and can even be used as a shovel when digging for food. Their heads may be eye-catching, but it’s the cassowary’s feet that are deadly weapons. According to ornithologist Ernest Gilliard, the bird was known to disembowel humans with ease, and that many natives were killed by the bird while he was on the island. It’s little wonder why the tribesmen of New Guinea would choose such a fearsome creature to characterize their own ferocity.
When Robert Ripley visited New Guinea in 1932, he immersed himself in the culture. He met tribal chieftains, musicians, dancers, head-hunters, and warriors covered in head to toe with trophies of war. He found the bones piercing their septums to be particularly fascinating. Ripley was only able to stay near the Port of Moresby during his visit on the SS Mariposa. Officials at the time required an escort of soldiers for foreigners to traverse the dangerous jungles. Nevertheless, scores of tribesmen and chiefs showed up to share their culture with Ripley.
“It would take me a long time to explain this day, but I will say this as I sit on the lanai. I make a prediction that this port will be remembered longer than any other port touched by the Mariposa.”—Robert Ripley
Source:
August 20, 2018
Luckiest Or Unluckiest Man In The World?
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Frane Selak, of Croatia, has a reputation as the world’s luckiest man (or unluckiest, depending on your outlook). He’s said to have survived a train crash, a plane crash, and a car crash—and that’s just the start of his impossible brushes with death!
If you’ve grown up on a diet of Arnold Schwarzenegger movies, you’ll know that ridiculous and impossible setpieces are just par for the course. That’s the way things work on the big screen. For Selak, though, the truth is far stranger and more dramatic than anything Hollywood could cook up. But what really is the truth?
This humble man was born in Croatia in 1929. He led a relatively unremarkable life as a music teacher (which is hardly the most high-octane, daredevil occupation out there), until a fateful train journey in 1962 set off an unbelievable, impossible chain of events.
Selak’s Impossible Story begins
While riding the rails from Sarajevo to Dubrovnik, a freak accident saw his train catapulted into a river. Seventeen passengers were killed, Selak reports, but he was able to swim to shore with nothing but a broken arm and hypothermia for his troubles. This harrowing event was just a drop in the ocean compared to what was in store for him next.
The very next year, Frane was flying from Zagreb to Rijeka. He reports that an accident saw a door come detached from the aircraft, which presently crashed. This time, nineteen people lost their lives, while the superhuman Selak was reportedly found in a haystack. He awoke in a hospital, appropriately rattled but really none the worse for wear.
Next, on the list of Modes of Transport That Clearly Think That Frane Selak Did Them A Great Personal Wrong, we have the bus. In 1966, the unfortunate man was in another fatal accident when the bus he was riding again plunged into a river. There were four casualties, but again he came out largely unscathed.
A couple of comparatively uneventful years passed until 1970 when Selak reports that his car’s fuel tank exploded on the motorway. He just barely escaped with his seemingly-charmed life. 1973 saw another freak car incident, when a malfunctioning fuel pump leaked petrol over his vehicle and sent flames spewing at him.
Fast forward a couple of decades to 1995, and he’s making news again as a Zagreb bus knocked him down. The next year came the immortal man’s seventh and final famous disaster: A truck came barrelling towards his Skoda as he drove around a mountain road. This episode ending with Selak leaping free, only to watch in horror as the car exploded.
The Truth Of The Tales?
So, there it is. Is Selak the unluckiest man in human history, to have had all these disasters befall him, or is he actually the luckiest for having survived them? That depends. If your glass half empty, or half full?
It’s important to remember that there are some doubts about these seven separate claims. Selak himself certainly made sure to emphasize the drama of his life story, and plays up the effect these incidents had on him.
“There came a stage when I was lucky to have any friends at all,” he once said. “Many stopped seeing me saying I was bad karma.”
But where does the line between impossible fact and fiction start to blur?
It’s true that there’s a lack of official verification of some of these incidents (the 1963 plane crash and the train crash before it, for instance), and some inconsistencies in the accounts. Whether this is down to failing memories, embellishments, tall stories or something else, we may never know the whole truth of this man’s extraordinary life. One thing’s for certain, though: there was one more amazing piece to the puzzle, one nobody can deny.
Selak’s Luck Evens Out
In the mid-2000s, as though to make up for the horrible, horrible deal Lady Luck had given him, Selak won the lottery in Croatia. His jackpot was worth around £600,000. With this, he bought a luxurious home, only to have a change of heart and sell it in 2010. He returned to a humble life with his fifth wife.
“All I need at my age is my Katarina. Money would not change anything… when she arrived I knew then that I really did have a charmed, blessed life.”
Whatever happened along the way, Frane’s story has a happy ending. He spent the last of his winnings on a hip operation, and on a shrine to the Virgin Mary in thanks for his good fortune.
By Chris Littlechild, contributor for Ripleys.com
August 19, 2018
August 18, 2018
August 17, 2018
Thieves Make Off With $100,000 In Ramen Noodles
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
[August 12-18th, 2018] Urinals on the sidewalk, a contact lost for 28 years, flying miniature horses, and a noodle heist.
Sidewalk Urinals
Hoping to provide relief to city-goers who just can’t find a place to use the bathroom, the City of Paris has set up a number of “uritrottoirs.” These urinals are placed on public sidewalks for anyone to use. Observers note they are not subtle. Painted bright red, they’ve been placed in four locations so far, including one next to the Notre Dame Cathedral.
Paris, August 13, 2018: A man pees in one of the city’s new eco-friendly “uritrottoirs” as a boat full tourists passes by on the river Seine.
Photo: THOMAS SAMSON/AFP/Getty Images
c’est magnifique pic.twitter.com/ME3J7yDxg8
— Sam
Motordromes Pitted Daredevils Against Lions And The Wall Of Death
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Today, Motordromes, circular board racing tracks to put the popularity, speed, and power of motorcycles on the map, are nearly extinct. There are only about three left in the United States, but their history certainly still intrigues…
Big Cats & Big Thrills
Already putting their lives on the line, some stunt riders in the 1930s upped the ante, adding an additional element of thrill with living, breathing, lions! They called it the “Race For Life,” as these lions were deliberately released to charge after speeding bikes, trying to tackle them and swat at them with their massive paws as if they were prey.
If that wasn’t enough, some riders trained lions to sit in specially built sidecars during their races. These guys were going about 80 miles per hour around an almost perpendicular wall with these big cats by their side!
Unpredictable Predators
This additional element of danger proved fatal (or near fatal) on numerous occasions:
In 1933, a lion escaped from Wildwood New Jersey’s Motordrome Wall of Death and killed an unlucky civilian.
Seasoned rider in the lion drome circuit, Marjorie Kemp was seriously mauled on at least four separate occasions. Her last attack, in 1940, put her in the hospital for over a year.
In 1964, a drunken carnival worker stuck his hand into a lion cage and was bitten by a male lion named King, ending the lion drome era for good.
Source: Motordromes Pitted Daredevils Against Lions And The Wall Of Death
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