A Curious Man

by Neal Thompson

  Signing on with Hearst, working with Connolly: “Notes on an American Phenomenon,” by John K. Winkler, The New Yorker, April–May 1927 (5 parts); The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst, by David Nasaw, Mariner Books, 2001, pp. 237, 322–23, 379–80, 387); The Uncrowned King: The Sensational Rise of William Randolph Hearst, by Kenneth Whyte, Counterpoint, 2009; MMP, pp. 15, 37; SID (letter to Bradley Kelley, October 29, 1964); author interview with Tom Quinn, NYAC historian; DHS (contracts); Winchell: Gossip, Power, and the Culture of Celebrity, by Neal Gabler, Vintage, 1995, p. 104; kingfeatures.com/about-us/king-features-history; NYT (Connolly obituary, April 18, 1945); SCRAP (assorted undated clips, including “Robert L. Ripley Is Guest of Honor”); “The Press: Average Man,” Time, November 26, 1945; RE (Connolly letter to Ripley, October 29, 1929).

  Living at the NYAC: SCRAP (assorted undated clips, including “Ripgrams,” 1930); author interview with Tom Smith; Terrible Honesty: Mongrel Manhattan in the 1920s, by Ann Douglas, Farrar Straus and Giroux, 1996; DHS (notes by Hazel Storer).

  Believe It! sidebar (plane crash): The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst, by David Nasaw, Mariner Books, 2001, p. 380.

  Early King Features cartoons … and controversies: SCRAP (including “Catholic Father Declares Ripley Shows His ‘Tremendous Ignorance,’ ” Honolulu Star-Bulletin, undated; “Believe It or Not,” The Northwest Review, edited by Rev. SJ Ryan, 1929; “Ripley Contest Has 7 More Days,” San Francisco Examiner, 1929; and “Best Sellers of Year Reported by Publishers,” by Fanny Butcher, Chicago Tribune, December 21, 1929).

  CHAPTER 13

  Hyman working for Ripley: DHS (Hyman letter to Considine, 1959).

  Fans and fan mail: NYP (untitled story, by Norman Klein, 1929); SCRAP (untitled Boston Daily Record story January 11, 1930); MMP, pp. 10, 15, 37. “Odd Man,” by Geoffrey T. Hellman, New Yorker, 1940; part 2, p. 27; “Strange Things Under the Sun,” by Hugh Leamy, The American, October 1929; RE (original letter).

  Fame, radio, and movie offers: SCRAP (“Ripley, True Pioneer,” Kansas City Star, 1929); “Believe It or Not,” by Sylvia Covino, The Bluebird, Julia Richman High School, 1930); “Strange Things Under the Sun,” by Hugh Leamy, The American, October 1929; “Ripley Target of Circuit Bids,” Billboard, February 22, 1930; “Odd Man,” by Geoffrey T. Hellman, New Yorker, 1940, part 1, p. 22; “The Most Unforgettable Character I’ve Met—Robert Ripley,” by Douglas F. Storer, Reader’s Digest, June 1959, Vol. 74, No. 44623.

  Elmer Fudd and Vitaphone films: Winchell: Gossip, Power, and the Culture of Celebrity, by Neal Gabler, Vintage, 1995, p. 112; SCRAP (untitled Variety story, June 25, 1930, and untitled Chicago Herald Examiner story, June 8, 1930); Believe It or Else, directed by Tex Avery, written by Dave Monahan, Warner Bros. Pictures, 1939; NYT (“Cartoons of a Racist Past Lurk on YouTube,” by Daniel Slotnik, April 28, 2008).

  Hearst and radio: The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst, by David Nasaw, Mariner Books, 2001, pp. 389–90, 405, 437; SCRAP (“Ripley to Lecture for Radio Fans at Roselle Tonight,” publication unknown, undated, 1922).

  Letters and Pearlroth: DHS (Hazel Storer notes); Dear Mr. Ripley: A Compendium of Curiosities from the Believe It or Not! Archives, by Mark Sloan, Roger Manley, Michelle Van Parys, and Robert Ripley, Bulfinch Press, 1993; SCRAP (“Ripley’s Career Began When He Was Fourteen,” New York American, 1929, exact date unknown); “Believe It or Not,” by Kenneth Turan, Washington Post, April 1, 1973; “You Better Believe This,” by Dan Carlinsky, Modern Maturity, 1974.

  Travels: “Telephone Remarks to the National Automobile Chamber of Commerce,” January 6, 1931, by Herbert Hoover, The American Presidency Project, www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=22999 [accessed October 1, 2012]; Sideshow World, sideshowworld.com [accessed October 1, 2012]; SCRAP (unnamed article, “Ripley’s Home by Sea and Air,” Memphis Press Scimitar, May 27, 1930, and uncredited International News photos March 6, 1931 and May 22, 1931); MMP, pp. 74–76.

  Lawsuit and Doug Ripley: NYT (May 20, 1930); author interviews with Robert and Rebecca Ripley.

  CHAPTER 14

  Onuki and women: “No One Would Believe It,” by Ruth Biery, Radio Stars magazine, May 1936; DHS (Hyman letter to Considine); NYT (September 19, 1926 and February 25, 1932); MMP, p. 76; Time, March 7, 1932; Los Angeles Times, May 5, 1918 and February 25, 1932; www.strippersguide.com.

  Details of Mariposa trip: RE (Ripley’s travel journal); KFS (assorted cartoons and essays); original travel brochure; assorted NYT clips; Los Angeles Times (February 4, 1932); “Fiji’s Cannibal History,” www.fijiancustomculture.com/2009/10/fijis-cannibal-history.html [accessed October 1, 2012]; SCRAP (untitled article, Daily Democrat News, May 29, 1939); Pearl Buck in China: Journey to the Good Earth, by Hilary Spurling, Simon & Schuster, 2011, p. 201; Zhenjiang Pearl S. Buck Research Association, www.pearlsbcn.org/e/ (Buck’s speech at Nobel Prize Award Ceremony) [accessed October 1, 2012].

  Introduction to Ruth “Oakie” Ross: DHS (Hazel Storer notes, and Bill Mac-Donald letter to Doug Storer, 1962); RE (interviews with Edward Meyer); TBS interviews with Li Ling-Ai; MMP, pp. 72–3.

  Santa Rosa visit: SRD (Ripley obituary, May 28, 1949); SCRAP (assorted clips).

  CHAPTER 15

  Charles “Cash and Carry” Pyle: SRD (February 5, 1995); Chicago Daily Tribune obituary, February 4, 1939; SH; Sports Illustrated, May 2, 1955; SCRAP (untitled columns by Westbrook Pegler, Chicago Tribune, July 29, 1933 and November 7, 1933).

  Odditorium and Chicago World’s Fair: RE (letters and contracts); “Chicago’s World’s Fair Remembered,” by Ray Weiss, Chicago Tribune, May 7, 1984; “Baseball’s First All-Star Game,” by Jennie Cohen, June 13, 2010, www.history.com/news/baseballs-first-all-star-game [accessed October 1, 2012]; Sideshow World, www.sideshowworld.com [accessed October 1, 2012]; “Masters of the Midway,” by A. J. Liebling, two-part series, The New Yorker, 1939.

  Travels to Iraq and Persia: RE (Ripley’s personal travel journal); KFS (cartoons and articles); SCRAP (“The Name Believe It or Not Is Familiar,” by Mary Morris, unknown New York newspaper, unknown date); “Bob Ripley Writes This Week’s Guest Column,” Will Rogers Field News, March 5, 1943; DHS (Hazel Storer notes).

  Odditorium performers, sideshows, and P. T. Barnum: Sideshow World, www.sideshowworld.com; American Sideshow, by Marc Hartzman, Tarcher, 2006; “1934 World’s Fair,” Sideshow Ephemera Gallery, http://missioncreep.com/mundie/gallery/gallery8.htm [accessed October 1, 2012]; “Frieda Pushnick: Armless and Legless Wonder Girl,” http://missioncreep.com/mundie/gallery/gallery21.htm [accessed October 1, 2012]; The Human Marvels, www.thehumanmarvels.com [accessed October 1, 2012]; “Masters of the Midway,” by A. J. Liebling, two-part series, The New Yorker, 1939; Freak Show: Presenting Human Oddities for Amusement and Profit, by Robert Bogdan, University of Chicago Press, 1990.

  CHAPTER 16

  Decision to move to Mamaroneck: SCRAP (undated “News and Views” and “Ripgrams” clips; Ripley profile in Hobbies: The Magazine for Collectors, July 1940); interviews with Greg Daugherty; NYT (Ripley obituary, 1949); DHS (notes and letters by Hazel Storer and Bob Considine); SCRAP (“Ripley’s Life a Believe It or Not,” by Gladys Baker, Birmingham News-Age-Herald, May 12, 1936); MMP, pp. 41–43.

  Odditorium, continued: RE (telegrams and letters, press releases and brochures); SCRAP (“Barnum Was Wrong, Says Ripley,” Boston Advertiser, 1930, day unknown); “Which Is the Real Masakichi?” www.anomalies-unlimited.com/Death/Masakichi.html [accessed October 1, 2012]; “Century of Progress Exposition,” Encyclopedia of Chicago, www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org [accessed October 1, 2012].

  Doug Storer and radio: RE (publicity press releases); DHS (assorted notes, letters, and articles); “The Most Unforgettable Character I’ve Met—Robert Ripley,” by Douglas F. Storer, Reader’s Digest, June 1959; “To Be or Not to Be Like Bing,” by Alton Cook, World Telegram, October 17, 1935; MMP, pp. 114, 120.

  Ripley and Russia: RE (telegram, Hearst to Ripley, June 15, 1935; copies of letters to l
egislators; undated memo from Joe Simpson to Ripley, “RE: Anti-Communist Broadcast”; Ripley telegram to Hearst, March 18, 1936; Ripley letter, March 10, 1936; John F. Royal letter to Storer, March 14, 1936); DHS (Hazel Storer notes on Ripley’s “politics”); SCRAP (untitled Daily Worker article, April 6, 1935; New York American clip, March 3, 1936); The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst, by David Nasaw, Mariner Books, 2001, pp. 484, 493–94); “Russia Afraid of Ripley, say Legislators,” Associated Press, March 4, 1936; “Appeal for Religion,” New York American, June 5, 1936.

  Ripley’s income and popularity: NYT (“Highest Salaries Paid in the Nation Are Listed by House Committee,” January 9, 1936); “How Comic Cartoons Make Fortunes,” by Alfred Albelli, Modern Mechanix and Inventions, November 1933; SCRAP (“A Laugh with Rube Goldberg,” April 19, 1936; “Believe It or Not,” column by O. B. Keeler, date unknown); DHS (Hazel Storer notes on “travel”).

  CHAPTER 17

  Female relationships, especially Oakie: SCRAP (“New York, Day by Day,” by O. O. McIntyre, June 16, 1937; “Ripley Discovers a New Republic,” Sunday Republican, Waterbury, CT, June 30, 1935; “Ripley Pins His Faith in Future on Aviation,” by Frances Wayne, Denver Post, January 14, 1943; “Search for Oddities Leads Robert Ripley to Visit 181 Countries,” by Harriet Mencken, unknown publication, 1936; “Mr Ripley Visits Shetland,” The Shetland Times, September 15, 1934; “The Name Believe It or Not Is Familiar,” by Mary Morris, unknown New York newspaper, unknown date; “No One Would Believe It,” by Ruth Biery, Radio Stars magazine, May 1936); ships’ passenger logs, including the SS Ile de France, September 28, 1934; MMP, pp. 72–3, 41–3; RE (1962 letter from Bill McDonald to Doug Storer); DHS (extensive notes by Hazel Storer about Ripley’s “women”); according to the US Census, Ross was born July 11, 1899, and lived at 112 W. 59th Street, also Park Avenue, Central Park South, and Beekman Place.

  Details about life at BION Island: 1001 Curious Things: Ye Olde Curiosity Shop and Native American Art, by Kate C. Duncan, University of Washington Press, 2001; MMP, pp. 41–43, 72–73, 169; Just a minute, Mrs. Gulliver, by Millie Considine, Prentice-Hall, 1967, reprint edition; RE (unpublished memoir by Ripley’s housekeeper, Almuth Seabeck); DHS (Hazel Storer notes); “Ripley’s Boat Draws Visitors,” by O. O. McIntyre, unnamed newspaper, New Castle, PA, June 25, 1937; “Ripley Was Crazy About Dogs,” by Greg Daugherty, Bark, Nov/Dec 2007); SCRAP (undated “News and Views” clips, 1933–36); author interviews with Robert and Rebecca Ripley; RE (Cygna Conly memos to KFS; Joseph Connolly memo to Robert Ripley, March 3, 1938).

  Hix and other competitors: “How Comic Cartoons Make Fortunes,” by Alfred Albelli, Modern Mechanix and Inventions, November 1933; Everything Was Better in America: Print Culture in the Great Depression, by David Welky, University of Illinois Press, 2008, pp. 93–4; www.bernarrmacfadden.com/macfadden5.html; Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book, by Gerard Jones, Basic Books, 1995, pp. 29–33; DHS (copies of lawsuit filings); SCRAP (“Believe It or Not,” column by O. B. Keeler, date unknown); Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography, by David Michaelis, Harper Perennial, 2008, p. 93.

  Radio shows with Storer: RE (assorted Storer/Ripley letters and contracts; BION radio script, August 2, 1938; Kuda Bux film footage); DHS (assorted Storer/Ripley letters and contracts); MMP, pp. 84, 112–113; SCRAP (“Search for Oddities Leads Robert Ripley to Visit 181 Countries,” by Harriet Mencken, unknown publication, 1936; “New York, Day by Day,” by O. O. McIntyre, 1934; “Fire on Air,” Time, August 15, 1938; undated Crossley ratings clip, 1936); Daily Life in the United States, 1920–1940: How Americans Lived Through the Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression, by David E. Kyvig, Ivan R. Dee, 2004, p. 90; Everything Was Better in America: Print Culture in the Great Depression, by David Welky, University of Illinois Press, 2008, p. 67; SID (letters: December 2, 1938 and December 15, 1938).

  CHAPTER 18

  Prewar radio and travel: MMP, p. 114; DHS (legal contracts from 1930s; Hazel Storer “chronology” notes); SCRAP (untitled Daily Democrat News clip, May 29, 1939; “Ripley Broadcast Carries Cavern Publicity to Entire World,” Eddy County News, June 9, 1939); NYT (“14,000 See Ruth Smash Soft Ball as Celebrities Play in Garden,” by Louis Effrat, May 10, 1939).

  Note on female performers: Betty Lou went on to have a successful sideshow career, earning enough money to send her twelve siblings to college. She died in 1955 at age twenty-two. Frieda Pushnik spent six years with Ripley and in 1943 joined the “Congress of Freaks.” She entered semi-retirement in the 1950s, but appeared occasionally in films, including 1963’s The House of the Damned. Frieda died in 2000 at the age of seventy-seven. (Sources include American Sideshow, by Marc Hartzman, Tarcher, 2006, p. 230; “1934 World’s Fair,” Sideshow Ephemera Gallery, http://missioncreep.com/mundie/gallery/gallery8.htm [accessed October 1, 2012]; “Frieda Pushnick: Armless and Legless Wonder Girl,” http://missioncreep.com/mundie/gallery/gallery21.htm [accessed October 1, 2012]; The Human Marvels, www.thehumanmarvels.com [accessed October 1, 2012]).

  Odditoriums (San Fransisco and NYC), Lou Dufour, and Doug Ripley: Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco, www.sfmuseum.net/hist1/index0.1.html [accessed October 1, 2012]; “CC Pyle Dies,” Chicago Daily Tribune, February 4, 1939; www.sideshowworld.com/SSNL-Spring-2008-P5.html; “Masters of the Midway,” Liebling, New Yorker; DHS (Hazel Storer notes, and assorted letters and documents); author interview with Robert Ripley (nephew).

  Traveling radio shows: SCRAP (International Newsreel photo, January 1, 1940; “Words and Music,” by Sid Weiss, Radio Daily, February 8, 1940; “Bob Ripley Program at Grand Canyon,” by Kenneth Webb and Charles Speer, Santa Fe Magazine, unknown date); MMP, pp. 124–126; RE (radio scripts).

  Believe It! sidebar (Goldwater): RE (letter from Ripley to Goldwater, October 7, 1940); Joan Nevills Staveley and Sandra Nevills Reiff interview, Cline Library, Northern Arizona University, September 12, 1994.

  Odditorium flop: “Odd Man,” by Geoffrey T. Hellman, New Yorker, 1940; DHS (Hazel Storer notes, and Odditorium documents and court files).

  Believe It! sidebar (Widdicombe and Tapscott): “The Log of the SS Anglo Saxon’s Jolly Boat,” Imperial War Museum, www.iwm.org.uk/upload/package/7/anglosaxon/log.htm and “Landfall,” Imperial War Museum, www.iwm.org.uk/upload/package/7/anglosaxon/landfall.htm [accessed October 1, 2012]; DHS (Hazel Storer notes and letters); MMP, p. 130.

  CHAPTER 19

  Ripley’s parties and life at BION: SCRAP (“America’s Catch of the Season,” by E. V. Durling, Boston Evening American, March 3, 1942; “Where a Globetrotter Hangs His Hat,” Liberty Magazine, May 11, 1946); “If You Were Housekeeper to Mr. Ripley,” by Nanete Kutner, Good Housekeeping, 1942; You’re Right Mr. Ripley, unpublished manuscript, by Almuth Seabeck (Ripley’s housekeeper); DHS (Hazel Storer notes on “parties”); “Life Goes to a Party,” LIFE, July 8, 1940; “Odd Man,” by Geoffrey T. Hellman, New Yorker, 1940; MMP, pp. 101, 104, 108; “Believe It or Not,” by Jack Banner, Radio Guide, November 9, 1935.

  Note: One of the more revealing articles I came across was an undated clip found in the Ripley archives—“The Name Believe It or Not is Familiar”—written by Mary Morris for an unnamed New York newspaper. Morris describes the day she spent with Ripley, at one point asking him what he liked most about the East. “Love, marriage, romance,” he said. “In the Mohammaden countries there are no fights between husband and wife, no divorces. Men are left to enjoy themselves. Women aren’t making noise all the time with court litigation like they do here.” In the United States, he added, “Our moral codes, or standards, are all wrong.”

  TBS: I managed to review the unedited interview that TBS conducted with Li Ling-Ai, during which Li mentions Ripley’s relationships with Fannie Hurst, Babe Murray, and others, including Oakie. (In the same interview, Li declined to say whether she and Ripley had been lovers.) TBS also interviewed Hazel Storer, who also discussed Ripley’s love affair with Oakie. (Li died in 2003, and Storer died in 2005.)

  L
osing Oakie; other women: RE (interviews with Edward Meyer; Ripley’s will); SCRAP (“Ripley Returns with Brand New Believe It Or Nots,” International News Service, September 25, 1936; “The Name Believe It or Not Is Familiar,” by Mary Morris); DHS (detailed handwritten notes by Hazel Storer on “women”); TBS (unedited interview footage, Hazel Storer); MMP, p. 72; “Tosia Mori,” Canadian Ken, http://canadianken.blogspot.com/2008/06/toshia-mori.html; Just a Minute, Mrs. Gulliver, by Millie Considine, Prentice-Hall, 1967, reprint edition; You’re Right Mr. Ripley, by Almuth Seabeck (unpublished manuscript); Liberty Magazine, May 11, 1946; “Believe It or Not Ripley,” by Jack Stone, The American Weekly, June 22, 1947.

  Believe It! sidebar (Wong and Mori): Anna May Wong: From Laundryman’s Daughter to Hollywood Legend, by Graham Russell Hodges, Hong Kong University Press, 2004.

  Wartime: RE (Hoover letter to Ripley, May 1941; Taft letter to Ripley, September 19, 1941); Liberty Magazine, May 11, 1946; MMP, pp. 92, 104, 108; passenger list for the SS President Cleveland, 1927.

  CHAPTER 20

  Li Ling-Ai and China Relief efforts: Charles Pearson press releases (from Robin Lung); TBS interview; SCRAP (New York Journal article, date unknown); Liberty Magazine, May 11, 1946; “The Name Believe It or Not Is Familiar,” by Mary Morris; author interviews with Robin Lung.

  WWII radio shows … and CIAA spies: RE (contract, January 10, 1939; BION radio show scripts); “The Most Unforgettable Character I’ve Met—Robert Ripley,” by Douglas F. Storer, Reader’s Digest, June 1959; DHS (assorted letters and contracts, 1941–43); Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination, by Neal Gabler, Vintage, 2007, pp. 372, 394–95; www.waltandelgrupo.com; “Ripley Pins His Faith in Future on Aviation,” by Frances Wayne, Denver Post, January 14, 1943); “Nelson A. Rockefeller’s Office of Inter-American Affairs (1940–1946) and Record Group 229,” by Gisela Cramer and Ursula Prutsch, Hispanic American Historical Review, 2006; “Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordinator_of_Inter-American_Affairs (external references and links); The Venona Project, http://sovietspies.blogspot.com.