Happy Birthday, Ripley's!

Believe it or not, 90 years ago today obscure newspaper illustrator Robert Ripley threw together a cartoon called "Champs and Chumps," rush off to a party, certain he'd return the next day to be fired.

The rest, as they say, is history.

From those humble beginnings Ripley's Believe It Or Not! carved a singular history in the entertainment history And because it's hard to know where to start, here are just a few reasons to celebrate Ripley's.

1. In one 1929 cartoon Ripley stated “Believe It or Not, America has no national anthem,” which led to legislation that made The Star Spangled Banner the county’s official anthem.
2. Two years earlier, Ripley claimed that Charles Lindbergh was not the first man to cross the Atlantic by airplane. The controversy drew 170,000 letters.
3. In the 1920s, Ripley became so famous postal workers forwarded his mail even without a full address. Envelopes simply addressed, “To Rip” or “To the World’s Biggest Liar” came to his desk.
4. One dedicated man, Wayne Harbour -- not a fan, but a would-be Ripley debunker -- wrote 22,000 letters to Ripley. Upon his death, Harbour widow donated the correspondence (80 cartons) to Ripley's archives.
5. By 1936, a poll of newspaper readers proclaimed Ripley the most popular person in American, beating out FDR and various movies stars.
6. Another dedicated fan, a 14-year-old kid named Charles Shultz, mailed in a sketched a cute little dog. It was published in a Feb. 22, 1937 "Believe It Or Not!" -- and that dog eventually became known as "Snoopy."
7. At the height of Believe It Or Not's popularity, it was carried by 360 newspapers around the world, reaching an estimated 80 million readers.

Today, Ripley's is featured in 200 papers, and it’s the oldest continuing single panel carton. The Ripley's book -- which gets a 5-star Buck wolf endorsement, if that's worth anything -- is currently on the New York Times Best Seller List.

Even to this day, if you're looking for shrunken heads, ancient costumes made from human bones, or just an experience with a man who can blow up balloons with his eyes, the best place to find the real deal is on of Ripley's Odditoriums.

It's no wonder Jim Carrey is taking on Ripley's life in a Chris Columbus biopic, on target to open next year. (Tim Burton was set to take on the project, with Johnny Depp playing the famed purveyor of weird before they mutually decided to make Sweeney Todd.)

Anyway, Mr. Ripley, you may have died six decades ago, but like one of your own attractions, you've taken on a new life form.

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Photo © Ripley's Believe It Or Not!