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25 unusual facts about Ripley's Believe It or Not


Bobbie the Wonder Dog

He was the subject of newspaper articles including Ripley's Believe It or Not!, books and film.

Brielle, New Jersey

Ripley's Believe It or Not! once stated that Brielle has "16 bars and no churches".

Charge of the Goddess

It has been shown that Gerald Gardner's book collection which was acquired by Ripley's Believe It or Not! included a copy of Crowley's The Blue Equinox which includes all of the Crowley quotations in the Charge of the Goddess.

D3 LED

In their first two years of operations, D3 landed projects in and around Times Square, including the ABC Studios Supersign, two M&Ms World displays, the Army Recruiting Station display, Ripley's Believe It Or Not, and the Walgreens display on the One Times Square building, which is the tallest LED display in Times Square.

Dave Spector

Originally from Chicago, USA, he moved to Japan in 1983 after visiting as a producer with the American television program Ripley's Believe It or Not!.

He moved to Japan in 1983 to research exotic film clips from Japanese television to be used on the American TV show Ripley's Believe It or Not!.

Eddie Oatman

He was the subject of a Ripley's "Believe It Or Not" article for playing 30 years in professional hockey and is featured on at least two trading cards.

February 31

Ripley's Believe It or Not! states that William O'Malley, "according to his birth certificate on file in Clifden, Ireland, was born in 1853 on February 31".

First World Plaza

It consists of shops, restaurants, an indoor theme park, a cineplex, a Watersplash Pool (an indoor water theme park for children), Genting Sky Venture (a skydiving simulator), a Starworld casino, bowling center, Genting International Convention Center, the Pavilion (for daily night performance show), Haunted Adventure and a Ripley's Believe It or Not! museum.

Glenn Sundby

A 1949 stunt in which Sundby walked down the Washington Monument's 898 steps on his hands was included as an item illustrated in the pages of Ripley's Believe It or Not!.

Hugh Bedient

Twenty-three years later, Robert LeRoy Ripley, in his syndicated Believe It Or Not! of September 5, 1931, informed the world of Bedient's feat, giving the first national recognition of this event.

Internet Explorer for UNIX

Tod Nielsen, general manager of Microsoft's developer relations group, jokingly declared that he wanted to hold the launch of the browser at the Ripley's Believe It or Not museum in San Francisco due to the skepticism by those who believed the project was vaporware.

Joseph Karwowski

A fact concerning Karwowski's dead body-preserving invention appeared on the June 29, 2013 Ripley's Believe it or Not! comic strip by John Graziano.

Knowledge Power

The program is a cross between Ripley’s Believe It or Not and Discovery Channel.

London Pavilion

The London Pavilion now houses Ripley's Believe It or Not!, a visitor attraction dedicated to the weird, the unusual and the unbelievable, which opened in August 2008.

Longest-lasting light bulbs

The bulb has been noted by The Guinness Book of World Records, Ripley's Believe It or Not!, and General Electric as being the world's longest-lasting light bulb.

Maggie Murphy hoax

The photograph appeared in numerous publications, including Scientific American and Ripley's Believe It or Not!.

The photo rapidly spread around the United States, and appeared in a panel of Ripley's Believe It or Not!.

Nehi

Robert Ripley helped the Nehi Corporation, when he advertised for them on his radio show "Ripley's Believe It or Not!" By 1940, Nehi products were available in forty-seven of the forty-eight states.

New York City Breakers

Soon after, the NYCBs began appearing on everything from "Soul Train", "Ripley's Believe It or Not!", "P.M. Magazine", "CBS Evening News", "Good Morning America", "Amnesty International Gala", "That's Incredible!", and "NBC's Salute to the Olympics" just to name a few.

Nicolas Noxon

In 1982 he became a writer-producer on the series Ripley's Believe It or Not! which ran for four years on ABC.

Ocean Park, Surrey

In 1921, Ocean Park opened its first post office, which was featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not! as 'the world's smallest post office'.

Paris, Kentucky

The Shinner Building, located on the corner of 8th and Main streets, is listed by Ripley's Believe It or Not! as the world's tallest three-story structure.

The Society in Dedham for Apprehending Horse Thieves

The club's website claims that Robert Ripley of Ripley's Believe It or Not! fame had applied for membership before this restriction was eliminated, and the clerk-treasurer returned his application with a note rejecting his application.

World's littlest skyscraper

During the 1920s, the Newby-McMahon Building was featured in Robert Ripley's Ripley's Believe It or Not! syndicated column as "the world's littlest skyscraper", a sobriquet that has stuck with it ever since.


Alexandra Ripley

Alexandra Ripley, née Braid (January 8, 1934 – January 10, 2004) was an American writer best known as the author of Scarlett (1991), the sequel to Gone with the Wind.

Ripley was thrice wed; to Leonard Ripley, an early partner and recording engineer at Elektra Records, Thomas Garlock, and John Graham (1926-2007), a former professor at The University of Virginia, from whom she was separated at the time of her death.

Alice Ripley

Ripley recently wrapped shooting on the feature film, Muckland, shot on location in the towns of Elba and Batavia in upstate New York.

Biggest ball of twine

In Branson, Missouri, a ball of plastic twine built by J. C. Payne of Valley View, Texas, is on display in Ripley's Believe It or Not museum.

Birds of South Asia. The Ripley Guide

Rasmussen, Pamela C. and John C. Anderton (2005) Birds of South Asia. The Ripley Guide ISBN 84-87334-67-9

Bracken County, Kentucky

A network of citizens sympathetic to escaping slaves helped them cross the Ohio River to nearby Ripley, Ohio and other points north.

Carlene LeFevre

In addition to their appearance on Ripley's, the LeFevres have also appeared on The Tonight Show, a buffet contest on the Travel Channel, the Donny & Marie Osmond Talk Show, The View and the BBC Worldservice's "Outlook" programme.

Edward Payson Ripley

Disneyland Railroad locomotive number 2, a 4-4-0 built in 1954 by the Disney shops, was named E. P. Ripley in his honor.

Ripley, California, was a town named after him when the Arizona and California Railroad's Blythe Branch was originally intended to be a shortcut to San Diego until his retirement/death as the branch reached to the town in 1920.

Fiji mermaid

Exhibits at Ripley's Believe It Or Not, Coney Island's Sideshow by the Seashore, and Bobby Reynolds's traveling sideshow all lay claim to the title, but in Nickell's opinion, none is to be believed.

Formica rufibarbis

In the 1927 edition of British Ants: their life histories and classification, Donisthorpe gives its distribution as being confined to Ripley, Chobham, Reigate and Weybridge.

Francis Ripley

Canon Francis Joseph Ripley (26 August 1912 - 7 January 1998) was a Roman Catholic priest in London, England.

Hearts Once Nourished with Hope and Compassion

Sigourney Weaver in Alien (1979) is heard at the end of the record saying, "This is Lieutenant Ripley, last survivor of the Nostromo, signing off."

Holly Palance

Palance co-hosted the television version of Ripley's Believe It or Not! with her father for one season, replacing Jack's former co-host, Catherine Shirriff; Holly would later be replaced as co-host by singer Marie Osmond.

Illinois Route 103

Route 103 begins at a junction with U.S. Route 24 in Woodstock Township in southern Schuyler County, northeast of Ripley.

John Parker House

John P. Parker House in Ripley, Ohio, a U.S. National Historic Landmark

John Ripley Myers

John Ripley Myers graduated from Hamilton College in 1887 and shortly after (in the same year) purchased Clinton Pharmaceutical Company in Upstate New York with friend and fellow graduate from Hamilton College, William McLaren Bristol.

Kotzen

Since one English translation of the German verb "kotzen" is "to vomit" therefore the town was jokingly (?) incorrectly referred to in Ripley's Believe-It-or-Not under the title "Barfburg".

Michigan Road

From Madison it went north through Ripley and Jefferson counties straight to Napoleon, Indiana, and from there straight through Shelby County, Indiana to Indianapolis.

Neil Ripley Ker

Neil Ripley Ker, FBA, (1908-1982) was a scholar of Anglo-Saxon literature.

Osgood Perkins

Perkins was born James Ripley Osgood Perkins in West Newton, Massachusetts, son of Henry Phelps Perkins, Jr., and his wife, Helen Virginia (née Anthony).

Pleiades Club

Among the customers of Maria's, the Pleiades Club named: Amos Cummings, Colonel William Gulder, Ripley Oswood Anthony, Paul Du Chaillu, Clara Louise Kellogg, Mark Twain, Valerian Gribayedoff, Signor Tagliapietra, "Billy" (W. E. S) Fales, Cleveland Moffett, Stephen Crane, "Billy" Welsh, Henry Tyrrell, Sam Chamberlain, Colonel Patton, William Garrison, George Luks, and Ernest Jarrold as its progenitors.

Ramon Foster

Foster started for all four year both on offense and defense at Ripley High School in Ripley, Tennessee and also handled some place-kicking and kickoff duties.

Ripley Bogle

Zachary Leader in the London Review of Books compares the lead character novel to John Self and Charles Highway in Martin Amis's Money and The Rachel Papers: "Ripley Bogle isn't as good a novel as The Rachel Papers, let alone Money, but its author has talent and nerve".

Ripley Castle

Ripley Castle is a Grade I listed 14th-century country house in Ripley, North Yorkshire, England, some 5 km (3 miles) north of Harrogate.

Ripley Entertainment

Louis Tussaud's Wax Museums: In the summer of 2004, Ripley's bought out the Palace of Wax museum in Grand Prairie, Texas, rebranding it as the United States' first Tussauds'.

Ripley S.A.

In the financial sector it operates a bank under the Banco Ripley brand and manages credit lines through its Tarjeta Ripley cards.

Ripley, Tennessee

In 2009, Ripley appeared on Newsmax magazine's list of the "Top 25 Most Uniquely American Cities and Towns," a piece written by current CBS News travel editor Peter Greenberg.

In determining his ranking, Greenberg cited the city's extensive involvement in the National Defense University program.

Ripley, West Virginia

During the Civil War, Ripley remained under control of the Union except for a brief incursion by Confederate General Albert G. Jenkins in September 1862.

Samuel Pullen

Samuel Pullen was the son of William Pullein, rector of Ripley, Yorkshire.

Sidney Dillon Ripley

In 1947, Ripley entered Nepal pretending to be a close confidante of Jawaharlal Nehru and the Nepal government, eager to maintain diplomatic ties with its newly independent neighbour, allowed him to collect bird specimens.

Toshia Mori

After her film career ended, Mori worked as a researcher for Robert Ripley on his short films, Ripley's Believe It or Not.

William Y. W. Ripley

William Y. W. Ripley's sister Helen was the mother of John Ripley Myers.

William Z. Ripley

Ripley's tripartite system of race put him at odds both with others on the topic of human difference, including those who insisted that there was only one European race, and those who insisted that there were dozens of European races (such as Joseph Deniker, who Ripley saw as his chief rival).

WREO-FM

Once boasted as the "Powerhouse of the North Coast", the station's 50,000-watt signal allows listeners to enjoy WREO (Mix 97.1) from London, Ontario; west to Cleveland, Ohio; all of Erie, Pennsylvania; east to Ripley, New York, south to Meadville, Pennsylvania, and all point in between.