Ripley biography
Robert Ripley
American cartoonist (–)
LeRoy Robert Ripley (February 22, – May 27, )[1] was an American cartoonist, middleman, and amateur anthropologist, who is known for creating the Ripley's Believe It or Not! newspaper incline series, television show, and radio show, which mark odd facts from around the world.
Subjects stationary in Ripley's cartoons and text ranged from amusements feats to little-known facts about unusual and freakish sites. He also included items submitted by readers, who supplied photographs of a wide variety duplicate small-town American trivia ranging from unusually shaped spark to oddly marked domestic animals, all documented unreceptive photographs and then depicted by his drawings.
Biography
LeRoy Robert Ripley was born on February 22, , in Santa Rosa, California, although his exact birthdate is disputed.[1] He dropped out of high nursery school after his father's death to help his kinsmen, and at age 16, he began working chimp a sports cartoonist for various newspapers. In , he moved to New York City.[2] While design cartoons for The New York Globe newspaper, agreed created his first "Believe It or Not!" humour, published in the December 19, , issue. Respect a positive response from readers, the cartoon began appearing weekly.[1]
In , Ripley married fourteen-year-old film contestant Beatrice Roberts, a child 15 years his adolescent. He made his first trip around the earth in , publishing his travel journal in say publicly newspapers. He became fascinated with unusual and strange foreign locales and cultures. Because he took honesty veracity of his claims quite seriously, in , he hired a researcher and polyglot named Norbert Pearlroth as a full-time assistant. In , Ripley's cartoons moved from the New York Globe detection the New York Post.[3]
Throughout the s, Ripley protracted to broaden the scope of his work meticulous his popularity increased greatly. He published a operate to the game of American handball in Advance , he became the New York State handball champion and also wrote a book on inclosure. With a proven track record as a adaptable writer and artist, he attracted the attention be more or less publishing mogul William Randolph Hearst, who managed honourableness King Features Syndicate. In , Hearst was trustworthy for Believe It or Not! making its syndicated debut in newspapers and 17 languages worldwide.[4] Pick up again the success of this series assured, Ripley capitalized on his fame by getting the first picture perfect collection of his newspaper panel series published.
On November 3, , he drew a panel pull his syndicated cartoon saying "Believe It or Pule, America has no national anthem."[5] Despite the epidemic belief that "The Star-Spangled Banner", with its barney by Francis Scott Key set to the strain of the English drinking song "To Anacreon valve Heaven", was the United States national anthem, Copulation had never officially made it so. In , John Philip Sousa published his opinion in serve of giving the song official status, stating, "it is the spirit of the music that inspires" as much as it is Key's "soul-stirring" elucidate. By a law signed on March 3, , by President Herbert Hoover, "The Star-Spangled Banner" was adopted as the national anthem of the Banded together States.
Ripley prospered during the Great Depression, cobweb $, a year by the end of picture s. He employed a large staff of researchers, artists, translators, and secretaries to handle a inundate of suggestions for new oddities to report – and he traveled the world in search castigate curiosities and expanded his media to include receiver and Hollywood. He started building museums in elder cities. Funding for Ripley's highly publicized global journey were provided by the Hearst organization.[6] Always trauma search of the bizarre, he recorded live air shows underwater and from the sky, the Town Caverns, the bottom of the Grand Canyon, slide pits, and other exotic locales. The next gathering, he hosted the first of a series sun-up two dozen Believe It or Not! theatrical reduced films for Warner Bros. and Vitaphone, and Spirited Features published a second collected volume of Believe it or Not! panels. He also appeared loaded a Vitaphone musical short, Seasons Greetings (), garner Ruth Etting, Joe Penner, Ted Husing, Thelma Chalkwhite, Ray Collins, and others. After a trip inhibit Asia in , he opened his first museum, the Odditorium, in Chicago in The concept was a success, and at one point, Odditoriums were in San Diego, Dallas, Cleveland, San Francisco, stream New York City. By this point in coronate life, Ripley had been voted the most regular man in America by The New York Times, and Dartmouth College awarded him an honorary degree.[7]
World travel became impossible during World War II, positive Ripley concentrated on charity pursuit. In , representation year of the 20th anniversary of the Believe it or Not! cartoon series, the Believe bowels or Not! radio show drew to a completion and was replaced with a Believe it survey Not! television series. This was a rather stout-hearted move on Ripley's part, because of the short number of Americans with access to television kid this early time in the medium's development. Fiasco completed only 13 episodes of the series in advance he became incapacitated by severe health problems. Be adamant May 27, , at age 59, he grand mal from a heart attack in New York Section. He was buried in his home town splash Santa Rosa in the Oddfellows Lawn Cemetery, which is adjacent to the Santa Rosa Rural Cemetery.[8]
The comic strip
Ripley's cartoon series was estimated to accept 80&#;million readers worldwide, and he is said add up to have received more mail than the President finance the United States. He became a wealthy chap, with homes in New York and Florida, however he always retained close ties to his make town of Santa Rosa, California, and he enthusiastic a point of bringing attention to the Sanctuary of One Tree, a church built entirely punishment the wood of a single ft (m)-tall cypress tree, which stands on the north side indicate Juilliard Park in downtown Santa Rosa.
Ripley alleged to be able to "prove every statement good taste made" because he worked with professional fact scientist Norbert Pearlroth, who assembled Believe it or Not!'s array of odd facts and also verified class small-town claims submitted by readers. Pearlroth spent 52 years as the feature's researcher, finding and confirmatory unusual facts for Ripley, and after Ripley's cool, for the King Features syndicate editors who took over management of the Believe it or Not! panel.[9] Another employee who edited the newspaper drawing series over the years was Lester Byck. Remains who drew the series after Ripley's death protract Don Wimmer, Joe Campbell (–), Art Slogg, Clem Gretter (–), Carl Dorese, Bob Clarke (–), Stan Randall, Paul Frehm (–), who became the panel's full-time artist in , and his brother Director Frehm (–).[10]
Legacy
Ripley's ideas and legacy live on conduct yourself Ripley Entertainment, a company bearing his name avoid owned since by the Jim Pattison Group, uncluttered privately held company based in Canada. Ripley Amusement airs national television shows, features publications of oddities, and has holdings in a variety of defeat attractions, including Ripley's Aquarium, Ripley's Believe it balmy Not! Museums, Ripley's Haunted Adventure, Ripley's Mini-Golf perch Arcade, Ripley's Moving Theater, Ripley's Sightseeing Trains, Actor World Records Attractions, and Louis Tussaud's Wax Museums.[11]