Trivia

His first job was a polisher for a tombstone engraver.

His favorite vacation spot was Hell, Norway, and delighted in sending both friends and foes alike "a postcard from Hell".

While he was an avid collector of both antique cars and beer steins, he never drove nor even had a driver's license, and his drink of choice was gin.

Drew all his cartoons upside-down.

A memorial to Ripley stands in his hometown of Santa Rosa, California, in a church built entirely from one redwood tree.

Was an avid collector of anything Chinese, and even owned a Chinese junk (a sailboat) that he had converted to diesel. According to friends, he went into a state of depression when the mainland government fell into Communist hands.

Suffered a heart attack on the air shooting his 13th episode of "Believe It Or Not". Ironically, the segment he had just completed was on the origins of the song "Taps" which is frequently played at funerals.

Was the first man to broadcast via radio from Australia to New York.

One cartoon alone, in which he stated that Charles Lindbergh was not the first man to cross the Atlantic by plane, drew 170,000 letters. This cartoon made Ripley so famous that postmen forwarded his mail even without a full address. Envelopes simply addressed "To Rip" or "To the World's Biggest Liar" were all delivered. One man even sent a letter written in a microscopic code that could only be deciphered with a magnifying glass. The bizarre forms of addresses and the sheer volume of mail was enough for the U.S. Postmaster General to issue a decree in 1930: "mail to Ripley would not be delivered if the address was incomplete or indecipherable." The law had little effect and "Rip-O-Mania" had swept the world.

Robert L. Ripley is buried with his parents in his home town of Santa Rosa, California.

He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Radio at 6400 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.

Originator of the "Believe It Or Not" newspaper feature.

At the suggestion of his newspaper editor, adopted first name Robert to have a more masculine-sounding name for his byline on sports features.

On January 1, 1931, "Ripley's Believe It Or Not" ran a cartoon stating that the USA had no national anthem. While "The Star Spangled Banner" (based on Francis Scott Key's poem "The Defense of Fort McHenry" set to the tune of the British drinking song "To Anacreon in Heaven" by John Smith) was often used as an anthem, it had never been official. Within days, millions of letters poured into Congress, demanding that the song be officially adopted. On March 3, 1931, an act of Congress officially designated "The Star Spangled Banner" as the National Anthem of the United States of America.

His comic feature was originally entitled "Champs and Chumps", but at the insistance of his editor, he changed the name to "Believe It Or Not".

Was an up-and-coming semi-pro baseball player until an injury halted his sports ambitions. Soon afterwards, he directed his talents to being a sports cartoonist.

Mr. Ripley was a student of physical culture mentor Charles Atlas and was a graduate of his mail order course.

Segments of his 1949 TV show were filmed in his Mamaroneck, New York mansion.