Robert L. Ripley (1890–1949) was an American cartoonist, explorer, reporter, adventurer, and collector. He traveled to 201 countries in 35 years in search of the odd, the unusual, and the unexplained.
“I have traveled in 201 countries and the strangest thing I saw was man.”
- 1909 -1912: Was a cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle, grasping the attention of an estimated 80 million readers worldwide. He reportedly received more mail than the president, at an average of 3,000 letters a day for over 20 years, which is over a million letters a year!
- 1913: Briefly played baseball for the New York Giants, until an injury forced him to quit.
- 1918: Published the first “Believe It Or Not” cartoon, Champs and Chumps, in the New York Globe
- 1922: First exploration trip around the world.
- 1926: Became a New York handball champion and writes book on boxing score.
- 1929: First “Believe It Or Not!” book published.
- 1930: Began his 18 year run on the radio. Ripley traveled around the world, where he recorded live radio shows from underwater, the sky, caves, snake pits and foreign countries. Funded by William Randolph Hearst, founder of the mass media and business information conglomerate, Hearst.
- 1933: Ripley opens the first “Odditorium” at the World’s Fair in Chicago, bringing in over 2 million visitors.
- 1934 – 1939: Odditoriums continue to open in San Diego, Dallas, New York, San Francisco, and Cleveland.
- 1936: Voted most popular man in America.
- 1937: Peanuts creator Charles Schulz’s first published drawing appears in Believe it or Not!
- 1940 – 1945: Ripley stops all foreign travel and does volunteer WW2 work.
- 1949: Launched a weekly television show
- 1949: At age 59, Ripley dies during the 13th episode of his series, he had a heart attack while on stage.
- Today there are 31 Ripley’s Believe It or Not! museums in ten countries, dozens of Ripley books, a huge internet web presence, and hundreds of television videos in the company’s archive vaults.
Ripley was a “Radio Pioneer”
He was the FIRST to broadcast:
- from underground
- from the sky (from a falling parachute)
- from underwater
- from mid-ocean to the entire USA
- from Australia to the USA
- from South America to the USA
- from from London, England to every country in the world simultaneously using a team of translators!