Ripley Entertainment Inc.'s Blog, page 381
October 27, 2017
October 26, 2017
Louis Tussaud’s Nightmare at the Wax Museum
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
From the classic 1924 Waxworks to the remake of House of Wax, anything featuring wax figures—and I mean ANYTHING—has terrified me, except for Mannequin the movie, because who didn’t want to be Kim Cattrall in the 80s?
Ok, perhaps I am getting a bit off track here, but you can’t deny the horror culture that has been built around wax figures. Does anyone remember the video game Are You Afraid of the Dark? The Tale of Orpheo’s Curse? From lurking in the wax museum, with that darn mummy mannequin following you around, to getting lost for hours in the wax vault—I kid you not, I still have nightmares about it!
Creations
Here at Ripley’s, we have a vast collection of wax figures that make me jump and, yes, sometimes pee myself each time I walk into our warehouse. Our incredible wax figures are made right here, in our Headquarters, as well as by partnered artists across the country. Seeing headless torsos and limbs scattered around the Ripley’s Art Department is common place, and something that takes quite a bit of getting used to!
Believe It or Not!, we own Louis Tussaud’s Waxworks! He was the great-grandson of Marie Tussaud, creator of the Madame Tussauds wax museums.
Mexican Vampire Woman, Marie Jose Cristerna, being body cast for a wax figure by Ripley artists Bruce Miller and Andy Howard.
Our Louis Tussaud’s museums feature wax characters from both historical personages and contemporary celebrities from the worlds of sports, music, and film. You can experience the world of movie stars, historical figures, fantasy, and fear. What’s better than mingling with Tinseltown’s most famous stars, past and present?
Locations
The iconic scene from The Shining lives at our Louis Tussaud’s Waxworks in Niagara Falls
Marilyn Monroe in our Louis Tussaud’s Waxworks in San Antonio
October
Imagine your adrenaline pumping, your imagination churning, as you make your way through Louis Tussaud’s Nightmare at the Wax Museum. Is it wax or is it alive? We’ll let you decide!
For only three more nights in October, you can experience the heart-stopping fear of classic horror coming to life at San Antonio’s best haunted house! So please, watch your step, hold on to your loved ones, and try not to squeal. We can guarantee your entrance, but…not your exit!
Get you spines chilled NOW!
Have you been to Nightmare at the Wax Museum? Let us know in the comments below, and don’t forget to share your photos with us! Happy hauntings…
Or Not: Ostriches Bury Their Heads in Sand
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: Ostriches Don’t Bury Their Heads
Ostriches, Get Your Heads Out of the Sand!
If you’ve ever been told to get your head out of the sand, you were being compared to an ostrich. Ostriches are alleged to hide their tiny bird heads in the ground when approached by predators. The logic being that the bird-brained behemoth thinks that if it can’t see the predator, then the predator can’t see it either.
At over 300 pounds, ostriches outweigh most people and lay eggs that weigh the equivalent of 24 chicken eggs!
An adult can sprint 43 miles per hour, covering 16 feet in a single stride. Even when a chick is just one month old, they can already run 35 miles per hour! Believe it or not, these strong legs have even been observed kicking lions to death!
So, if we know ostriches can outrun just about any predator—and defend themselves from the King of the Jungle if they had to—why has this rumor of hiding their heads in the sand perpetuated?
Illusion
Many zoologists think the rumor may be the product of optical illusion. Ostriches lay their eggs in nests dug into the ground and rotate their eggs many times a day. At a distance, the large ostrich’s small head is difficult to see and, as it reaches its head into their nest, it may look as though the bird is burying its head in the sand.
An alternate behavior has also been described by the San Diego Zoo. When an ostrich has nowhere to run, it may drop itself low to the ground, stretching its neck out. Their light-colored neck blends in with the sand, possibly making it look as though they’ve buried themselves underground.
October 25, 2017
Scroll Work: Bending Steel Barehanded to Make Art
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Chris Rider, better known by the strongman pseudonym “Haircules,” shapes cold metal into beautiful pieces of art with just his hands.
Strongman
Rider’s strongman pursuits began after he ripped a phonebook in half the first time he tried it. He was immediately hooked on old-time strength feats. Rider has worked to bring the strongman craft into modern times. Today’s strongmen can be seen rolling frying pans into tubes, twisting drop-forged steel wrenches, bending metal spikes, curling iron bars, tearing full decks of playing cards, and ripping phone books apart.
Scroll Work
His name comes from his ability to use his long red hair to pull trucks and airplanes, and to break chains. Bending coins and wrenches is common fare for Rider, but he’s also adept at scroll work. Scrollwork, bending iron into shape, has been a strongman art since the glory days of the carnival and vaudeville, with performers like the Mighty Atom renowned for their ability to take a piece of straight steel and bend it into loops with their strength.
A handmade rebar pretzel.
While the ability to bend a long metal bar at the center indeed takes strength, the multiple tight bends of a piece of scroll work are far more difficult. Rider doesn’t just rely on his brute strength for his art, but uses traditional strongman techniques to use his body efficiently while bending an eight-foot piece of steel into a backpack-sized sculpture—all in the span of just a few minutes!
October 24, 2017
It’s Not Halloween Decor. It’s a Real Clown Corpse.
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Achile Chatouilleu, “The French Tickler”, died in 1912 and wished for his body to be displayed forever in his favorite clown costume. Carl Crew, owner of the California Institute of Abnormalarts, or CIA, located in North Hollywood, California, made that wish come true!
Today, Achile Chatouilleu can’t make an appearance on the other side of his glass coffin as he is embalmed with mercury and arsenic—very toxic!
The 105-year-old embalmed body of Achile Chatouilleu now lays creepily peacefully at the CIA, but how does one acquire a clown corpse? Crew explains:
“A family came through, and they were talking about their circus ranch, which houses all these crazy things—one of them was a relative on display. Since they were always away from the ranch and their relative never really got to be shown, I told them, “Bring him down!” and they did, 21 years ago. Now they come back every year, and we do a memorial service for Achile Chatouilleu.”
Achile Chatouilleu’s family had him hermetically sealed in clown makeup, and dressed him in his Shriners parade outfit from the first Shriners parade in 1906 in Detroit. He was one of the last bodies to be gravity embalmed—they used to strap the body down to a table and then turn it upside down, letting gravity pull the chemicals into the body while it bled out!
Sensing You Want More?
Filled with remarkable photos and over 1,500 all new—all true—stories to immerse yourself in, Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Shatter Your Senses! is the newest book in the bestselling series from Ripley Publishing—so incredible you won’t believe your eyes…or ears…or nose!
Spark your senses here, on the blog, weekly for a feature from the 2018 annual, Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Shatter Your Senses! and follow us on social media for a chance to win a copy, among other unbelievable prizes!
October 23, 2017
Theda Bara, Hollywood’s Most Famous ‘Vamp’
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
With heavily kohl-lined eyes and a coy smirk, Theda Bara was one of Hollywood’s early silent film stars who first came to prominence playing “The Vampire” in the 1915 film A Fool There Was.
Bara was so convincing in her role as a vampire on and off screen that in 1918 she was subpoenaed by a California court to give expert testimony on the psychology of female vampires in a murder trial!
George Martinez was accused of throwing his wife out of their apartment window to her death. In his defense, Martinez’s attorney tried to prove that his late wife was a vampire that had fallen in love—a big no-no for vamps—and threw herself, along with her scorned heart, out the window. Theda was called to explain the mentality of a thwarted vampire.
Woman vampires like Bara were not blood suckers, though. Instead, a woman vampire preyed on respectable but foolish men by draining them of their “life force” and leading them down a path of degradation. Eventually, people shortened the word and referred to Bara and women like her as just “vamps”.
The conclusion of the trial from a 1918 newspaper (when that racially charged headline was apparently ok).
Although the vamp character was just a role she played in many films, Bara was touted to be a real “vampire” by her movie studio’s press team. Magazines of the time referred to her as “The Queen of Vampires”, “Purgatory’s Ivory Angel” and “The Devil’s Handmaiden”.
She played along with the studio’s depiction of her as the “Wickedest Woman in the World” and repeated stories of her foreign upbringing, although born Theodosia Goodman in Cincinnati, Ohio. She even touted interest in the occult and posed for photographs with an incredibly realistic looking skeleton!
Today, only a handful of Theda Bara’s films still exist in their entirety, adding to the mystery that was her life as Hollywood’s most famous vamp.
By Brittany Ann Morrisey, guest writer for Ripleys.com
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