Robert L. Ripley

Robert L. Ripley first shows the very first cartoon of his, published in newspapers 8 years earlier. He then proceeds with various oddities, first introducing a woman who can read aloud 8 words a second. He demonstrates this by giving her a 200-word tract she reads in 24 seconds. Next a woman telephones to question his assertion that you can walk through a hole in a cigarette paper, but he demonstrates how when she arrives. Other oddities follow.... (imdb)

The second entry in the Believe It or Not series of shorts begins with Robert Ripley in his office sorting his mail. At the time he received about one million pieces of mail per year, more than any other individual. He shows the audience several of the more oddly addressed envelopes. These include one addressed in Morse code; one in Hebrew, one using the naval flag code; and one with a small tear to the left of a picture of Robert E. Lee (i.e., "Rip + Lee" = Ripley). (imdb)

At the request of a television experimenter who needed items to broadcast, Robert L. Ripley states unsubstantiated oddities including that a Spanish lady had her husband's portrait tattooed on her tongue as penance for nagging him to death. He also shows a house and the blind man who built it by himself in Wayne, New Jersey. The longest word in the world (184 letters, from a work by Aristophanes), is written on a blackboard and pronounced and translated by a professor..... (imdb)

At a charity bazaar, Ripley settles a thousand dollar bet by producing man who has not slept in 75 years. (imdb)

Reporters interview Ripley about his world travels. (imdb)

Ripley shows unusual athletic feats, a boy born with "clock" eyes, and a blind French monk who invented navigation laws. (imdb)

Another entry in Robert L. Ripley's series. This time we also get to see Dan Edwards, the most decorated U.S. Veteran who is also missing a hand. For some reason we are introduced to another man missing a hand and then Ripley gets into the "believe it or not" stories. Included here is a woman married twelve times before her sixteenth birthday, a King who was married to a woman for twenty-eight years and only saw her twice; once when they were married and the other when she died. (imdb)

Ripley shows a chair of growing trees, the narrowest street in the world, a city of wine cask dwellers and a bungalow of 144 rooms. (imdb)

Robert L. Ripley presents various oddities to members of the Believe-It-or-Not Club. (imdb)

This entry in the Believe It or Not series (#10) finds Mr. Ripley aboard a US naval ship speaking to a group of sailors. The film he shows them includes items on a Mr. Curt Thompson, a blind telephone operator, and John R. Voorhees, who, at age 102, has voted 81 times since his 21st birthday. The finale is a demonstration of skill by Otto Reiselt, the three-cushion billiards champion. (imdb)

In this entry, passengers enter a mockup of an airplane. During the flight, Robert Ripley shows the "passengers" several oddities across the United States. They include the town with the smallest population (of one) in the 1930 census, a father and son who can rest their shoulders on their chest, and an armless trombone player who uses his foot to move the instrument's slide. (imdb)

Traveling to North Africa, Ripley offers views of The Meeting Place of the Dead in Morocco, a jail for nagging wives, a village with houses made of tin cans, and a sultan with many wives and children. (imdb)

This first entry in the "Believe It Or Not" series of shorts visits northern Africa. Included are a look at the Tuareg people of the Sahara Desert, a waterfall whose under-surface builds up because of lime deposits, a clock that strikes 13, and the Tree of Abraham, estimated to be 3500 years old. (imdb)

Ripley shows an aged Japanese statesman, a strange fish with legs, the 'Rubaiyat' in a finger ring, how a house of cards is torn up, and a giant typewriter in Atlantic City, New Jersey. (imdb)

This entry in the series crisscrosses America to find various curiosities. Among them are a church in Nebraska made of bales of hay; a duck with four legs that lives with its owner in Flint, Michigan; a 128-year-old former slave who lives in Holly Springs, Mississippi, with her 100-year-old daughter; and, in a cemetery in Mayfield, Kentucky, a family plot wherein the deceased members are memorialized with life-size statues, including the patriarch's horse and other family pets. (imdb)

Billy falls asleep and dreams Robert L. Ripley takes him on a tour of Believe-It-or-Not land to see many oddities. (imdb)

A nice "gruesome" entry of this series: Robert Ripley shows a pretty blond a shrunken head and an iron execution chamber. Some lighter fare: floating steel and rocks, funny tombstone descriptions, a male "sewing circle", an armless sharpshooter and expert driver, a champion tire-roller, and an odd Moroccan cure for headaches. (imdb)

Robert Ripley draws and shows movies to train passengers. Highlights include a Manchurian lady with very long eyelashes, a wooden flower garden, a merry go round lunch counter, chickens with featherless wings and various curiosities collected from his North Africa tour. Also included is rare footage of a sand spider attacking a lizard. (imdb)

Robert Ripley gives a show aboard a luxury liner at sea, starting with drawings discussing the origin of "fathom" and Christopher Columbus being banished from America. Film clip highlights include US curiosities such as a leaning lighthouse and more footage from his tour of North Africa. (imdb)

In this entry to the documentary short series, a $5000 contest is revealed for fans. Robert Ripley presents a well-dressed cocktail party an assortment of drawings and film clips: a 17-year old grandmother, one of the largest books in the world, a Boston tea pot steaming since 1873, two 119-year-olds meeting for the first time before the cameras, truffle-hunting pigs in France and Fritz the German Shepherd who walks on the high wire. (imdb)

Mr. Ripley poses in front of a globe, introducing Leo Donnelly the narrator. Film clips (not unlike one the later "Unusual Occupations" series done with Paramount) feature impressive shots of 1932 New York City, one of the first "fat" men's clothing stores (no longer a novelty today), "No Man's Land" part of Europe where only the goats can claim "citizenship" and large Spanish pyramids of salt. (imdb)

The second entry of the series in which Robert Ripley does not present drawings and film clips personally: he just introduces Leo Donnelly the narrator at the beginning. (imdb)

This entry of the Robert Ripley series does not feature Robert (who is away gathering material on his tours). Leo Donnelly narrates various odds and ends like a church service held on a river in boats, one of the largest sculptures in the world, sand art in bottles and a man who pulls cars with his hair. (imdb)

During Robert L. Ripley's absence on a world tour, 'Leo Donnelly' narrates scenes of oddities in the Philippines, Japan, Luxembourg and other places. (imdb)