Dates

• Existence: 22 February 1890 - 27 May 1949

Biography

Robert Le Roy Ripley was born on 22nd February 1890 in Santa Rosa, California.

Robert Ripley, as he was known, was a very successful American cartoonist, entrepreneur and amateur anthropologist, known for creating Ripley's Believe It or Not! newspaper panel series and radio and television shows which feature odd facts and the bizarre and strange from around the world. During the 1930s he hosted a series of Believe It or Not! theatrical short films for Warner Bros. Pictures & Vitaphone.

In 1933 Ripley opened his first museum in Chicago, the ‘Odditorium’. The concept was so success that successive Odditoriums opened in San Diego, Dallas, Cleveland, San Francisco, and New York City. During this time Ripley was voted the most popular man in America by the New York Times and received an honorary degree from Dartmouth College.

In 1948, the year of the 20th anniversary of the Believe it or Not! cartoon series, the radio show was replaced with a television series. Ripley completed only thirteen episodes before he died of a heart attack on 27 May 1949 at the age of 58.