The tongue of a kind of fish near the coast of Brazil is so rough, it is
used by the locals as sandpaper. Believe it... or not.
The musical instrument, the flute, was named not for its creator, but
for a type of Sicilian eel. Believe it... or not.
In a contest held in Atlantic City, NJ, Israel Weintraub consumed 146
clams in 20 minutes. Believe it... or not.
7,000,000 bats in NYC - and only 1 person assigned to patrol them.
Believe it...or not.
Ripley's Believe It Or Not debuted on ABC 9-26-82 opposite 60 Minutes and a rerun of CHiPs.
Hosts Jack Palance and Catherine Shirriff tour the world seeking the unique and bizarre. Among the opening oddities: moments captured through stroboscopic photography; buildings designed to appear unfinished or crumbling "but it's all tricks with bricks" (Ripley sketch in full page ad shows top exterior of shopping center wall appearing to peel off, car being lowered into graveyard, and police in a bog at night); a conductor who can't read music conducting "the world's worst orchestra" in London; corpses in Denmark preserved for more than 2000 years; death rites and rituals; an eccentric millionairess' Will that specified she be buried in her Ferrari; 2000-year-old murder victims perfectly preserved from centuries ago!
An Italian inventor who bilked the French government of $100 million; a Japanese gameshow that tests contestants' courage; automobile safety equipment; scientific technology to aid the disabled; a man who collects junk mail; a woman who designed a Victorian mansion from her dreams and nightmares: The Winchester Mystery House; a windmill restorer
10-13-85:
The Dead-Letter Office of the N.Y. General Post Office; how postage stamps helped make Adolf Hitler a millionaire; unusual bronzed mementos; a London shoe store that requires an appointment for a fitting; the hay-fever helmet; a boy born with no immune system; a car shredder
10-20-85:(no episode due to Game 2 World Series coverage by ABC)
10-27-85:
A musical number that can be performed by anyone on any instrument; the bizarre fatal downbeat of orchestra conductor Jean-Baptiste Lully; performance art; sculptor Duane Hanson; the development of commercial aviation; aircraft safety; an autopsy performed on a 2500-year-old murder victim found in a British bog, so well-preserved that police were called!
11-3-85:
(no TV Guide listing this week) *A man who lives in a golden pyramid; Japanese scientists building a pyramid to prove pyramid-building theories; Marie follows a heart from doner to transplant patient; Houdini bio by Walter B. Gibson
11-10-85:
A 1916 Quarter that was recalled for being indecent; *The Mummy Museum of Guanajuato, Mexico; *Human remains that are launched into orbit; revolutionary medical devices; the Russian space program; sonic sculpture; the unique sound of the Stradivarius violin; a natural art treasure
11-17-85:
An Adolf Hitler-sponsored exhibition of "degenerate art"; *a dog that can ski and SCUBA dive; voice-activated cars and mechanisms; *a photographer who uses homing pigeons to deliver undeveloped film; the development of the aircraft carrier; a light-covered car made by sculptor Eric Staller; a man who cares for a collection of over 400 turtles
11-24-85:
The man who pioneered the study of the human stomach; the development of television from the late 1800s to 1985; Soviet Russian assembly-line eye micro-surgery; the world's largest TV set; widely held myths about Old West legends; a "beebeard" contest; Cleopatra's poisonous asp
12-1-85:
How a gallery owner sparked interest in an ignored painting; mud bog racing; motorists who pray at the "Temple Of Safe Driving" in Japan; Ben Franklin's proposed phoenetic alphabet; miniature artwork; British Royal Marine basic training; a mystic artist; restoration of Leonardo Da Vinci's "Last Supper" painting
12-8-85:
A 75-year-old fake newspaper story that caused a Texas town to be torn apart; using hypnotism to control and prevent pain; a thermography machine; Arabian courtship customs; George Willig's illegal climb up the outside of the N.Y. World Trade Center; rock climbing without equipment; cliff parachuting; an 18-year-old deaf woman studying to be a musician; the Leaning Tower of Pisa; a man who transforms ordinary objects into musical intruments; *world's tallest man; a cobra catcher; did Beethoven steal his 4th Symphony?
12-15-85: (rerun from 9/29)
12-22-85: (rerun of 10/13 ep)
1-5-86: (rerun from unknown date)
Explosive sculptures, a blind Scottish artist, kidney stone explosives
1-12 to 1-26: (no info available at this time)
1-30-86:
The man who bilked the Portuguese out of $15,000,000; a torantula ranch
2-6-86:
The best-kept secret of World War 2, a look at medicines from plants & animals
2-13-86: (no info available at this time)
2-20-86: (rerun from 12/8)
* segments that were redone in the later 2000-2003 series
At the 1992 Academy Awards, Jack Palance did one-arm push-ups on stage just to show how healthy he was. He considered himself a rancher first (Tehachapi, CA) and acted onscreen just as a way to pay for his beloved ranch.
The oldest national flag currently in use is that of Denmark, which has been a white cross for 700 years, believe it or not!
Radio/televangelist Aimee Semple McPherson was buried with a telephone in her coffin. A pound of grasshoppers have three times the nutrition as a steak. The Hula-Hoop was a financial disaster for its manufacturer, Whammo, which had it in full production when the fad suddenly ended, leaving the company with thousands of dollars of unsold Hula-Hoops in storage--it only netted $10,000 from the craze due to all the unsold hoops! The company got its name from the sound of its first product, a slingshot, hitting a target. Believe It or Not!
Lord Dudley & Ward, British Foreign Secretary in 1827, was convinced that the was actually twins, and constantly talked with himself using a falsetto voice for his "twin"
In 1938, a mule named Boston Curtis was elected precinct committeeman in Milton, Washington, by a 51 vote plurality. His hoof prints were placed on the filing notice and witnessed by his sponsor, the Democratic mayor of Milton, who did it to prove that Republicans will vote for anyone with an (R) after their name and that voters are careless.
A pound of feathers weighs more than a pound of gold: a pound of feathers is 16 oz. while precious metals use the troy scale of 12 oz. to a pound.
St. Nicholas (Santa Claus) was the Bishop of Myra in Asia Minor. He died December 6, 342 A.D. and is buried in the Church of St. Nicholas in Bari, Italy. He was the patron saint of thieves and pawn brokers. Santa has a brother in Pennsylvania Dutch tradition, Bells Nichols, who leaves children cake and cookies on New Year's Eve
Wayne Harbour of Bedford, Iowa, was obsessed with proving that Ripley was a liar. For 26 years, this postmaster wrote a letter a day challenging at least one of the claims in the daily cartoon. As of 1970, he had written 22,708 letters to people highlighted in the cartoon. He never received a single contradiction to the claims Ripley made. His letters are now part of the Ripley's collection.
Ripley's prized possession was a sculpture of Japanese artist Hananuma Masakichi. The life-size, life-like self-sculpted statue incorporated Masakichi's own hair, fingernails and toenails to make it apppear more real. Ripley kept the statue in a special curtained area of his bedroom.
This series of sculptures in the clear, shallow waters off the coast of Grenada has one highly unusual characteristic: it is accessible only to divers (though it can also be viewed through glass-bottomed boats.) Sculptor Jason de Caires Taylor created the works, a series of human figures in various groupings and settings, as the world’s first underwater sculpture park, which also serves as an artificial reef to promote conservation awareness.
The Earl of Glasgow lost millions betting on his own horses and said on 10/30/1852, he would shoot the next one that lost a race. All six of his horses won their races that day
The ancient Aztecs refered to gold as "excrement of the gods"
In 1928, Ripley visited Hell (a town in Norway, where hell means Gentle Slope) and sent back a photo of himself in front of Hell's train station. He signed it, "With the warmest regards, from Ripley in Hell. Norway-1928. Believe It Or Not." He also said that the maidens in Hell were the most beautiful in the world. As of 2007, Norway's #1 immigrant group is Vietnamese. Norway has eight times as many immigrants from Vietnam than from Denmark, and five times as many as from Sweden
Michigan, home to the major automobile makers, says it costs $100,000 to repave a road but only $10,000 to grind up a mile of road and replace it with gravel. As of June 2009, 50 miles of roads in 20 counties have been converted from paved to gravel.
In April 2009, hundreds of dolphins kept pirate speedboats away from Chinese merchant ships passing through the Gulf of Aden. And rescuers in China the same month, failed to find lost tourists on Taishan Mountain but did find seven other frozen corpses. Worm Castles: During the Civil War, the US army came up with something called army crackers, Hardtack. They were baked to last, and resembled concrete more than bread. Dipping the stale, moldy hard round crackers into coffee or soup to soften it often released worms and weavils as well. One soldier commented, "All the fresh meat we had came in the hard bread."
Hosts Jack Palance and Catherine Shirriff tour the world seeking the unique and bizarre. Among the opening oddities: moments captured through stroboscopic photography; buildings designed to appear unfinished or crumbling "but it's all tricks with bricks" (Ripley sketch in full page ad shows top exterior of shopping center wall appearing to peel off, car being lowered into graveyard, and police in a bog at night); a conductor who can't read music conducting "the world's worst orchestra" in London; corpses in Denmark preserved for more than 2000 years; death rites and rituals; an eccentric millionairess' Will that specified she be buried in her Ferrari; 2000-year-old murder victims perfectly preserved from centuries ago!
10-13-85:
This series of sculptures in the clear, shallow waters off the coast of Grenada has one highly unusual characteristic: it is accessible only to divers (though it can also be viewed through glass-bottomed boats.) Sculptor Jason de Caires Taylor created the works, a series of human figures in various groupings and settings, as the world’s first underwater sculpture park, which also serves as an artificial reef to promote conservation awareness.