All themes in the world were compiled by Believe it or not, by Ripley (or, in English, Ripley’s Believe It or Not!) in short accounts exquisitely narrated by the actor Jack Palan.

Thus, with strangely Spanishized words like “Adolfo” and “orient”, the episode 16:

“Attending a funeral in China where the deceased is doused with alcohol and Orientals refrain from changing for a month. Visit the strange monuments to injured drivers built on the site of their deaths in Yugoslavia. Discover Adolf Hitler’s plot to annihilate England with a secret weapon that could have changed the course of history. “

And he continues: “Traveling with a canine in Nevada. Watch the bloody carnage of wild dogs in Africa by capturing a zebra. Play one of the most unusual games in the world – the Southern Maras version of the English game of cricket. And dance in the tap marathon on the streets of San Francisco ”.

“The strange, the singular, the unexpected. These are the themes that a man named Robert L. Ripley tells us: ‘Believe it or not’ ”, concludes the narrator, showing the use of the leitmotif.

To get to Believe it or not, one of the greatest television hits of the Eighties, it is necessary to insert, even if only for a few lines, in the rich history of its creator.

The empire forged by Robert L. Ripley it is comparable only to that of Charles Foster Kane in The Citizen. Newspapers, books, films, TV programs, radios, museums, gaming centers. The ultimate rare event hunter left nothing unexplored.

Mr. Ripley’s talent

It is 1918. The whistle blows and Ripley enters the field..

The first scene conquered by this humorist from Santa Rosa were the newspapers. In them he reflected the passion of his life: bizarre, mysterious, gruesome, rare, eccentric, exaggerated, unusual events.

His first noteworthy creation was “Champs and Chumps”. It was a section of graphic humor and curiosities related to the world of sport.

Ripley never interrogated the microphones. He has always aimed for the macro and things have worked out for him. That’s why, in 1922, he decided, like someone who puts toast in a toaster, Go around the world. Literally.

He left in December 1922 and arrived in April 1923. It was another. When he returned to his native United States, he decided that his thing about him would not be just sports, but everything the human mind can understand. He has decided to become a boundary explorer.

Everything he jotted down in his travelogue captured him in new graphic comics he called “Ripley’s Believe It or Not.” As expected, exploring all topics in the world was too much for him, so he hired an obsessive like him to help him in his impossible goal.

This person, a kind of journalist – or nerd spy – was called Norberto Pearlroth. Those who knew him claimed that he was “a walking encyclopedia”. Pearlroth has spent more than fifty years holed up ten hours a day in the public library gathering information to spice up Ripley’s reports.

With the help of his faithful companion, in 1929 Robert took a step further and found that his was more. He published his first trivia book and sold it as cola in a sports stadium. His drawings, those published in about 17 local newspapers, were no longer distributed only in the United States: they came from all over the world.

His empire continued to grow even after the death of its creator, the curious emperor, in 1949.

At that point, Robert had reached real radio milestones. Since 1930, when he signed with NBC, he has been involved in broadcasting live from the most remote places in the world, including Argentina.

He was the first to broadcast nationally from the center of the ocean (including underwater), participated in the first broadcast from Buenos Aires to New York, and was a pioneer in broadcasting live to all nations of the world at the same time.

Even cinema, perhaps his least explored artistic branch, could not escape his world. In 1931, while publishing his second book of oddities, he made some short films for Warner.

the world of games It also kept him busy. He’s brand fins can be found everywhere as well as amusement parks specifically dedicated to the bizarre universe of Even if you don’t believe it.

Their museumsthose managed by Ripley Entertainment (the Disney of eccentrics), contain tens of thousands of photos, tens of thousands of strange objects, tens of thousands of drawings.

The branches of Ripley’s Odditoriumcradles of the exotic that hosted two million visitors at the Chicago fair in 1933, do not discriminate between continents: they are, just like the stories and shows they offer, worldwide.

like the fox

Believe it or not, in the 80s and 90s it produced the same effect in Argentina as El Zorro, The Chavo of 8 o Married with children.

A hypnotic effect that put the entire audience of Canale 9, large, small or medium-sized, at ease. While you may not believe it, it was used either to stand in the background, to accompany meals, or to delight the more active viewers.

The notes of the Castilian voice of Palance, the same as He man- she hypnotized those who gave themselves to her.

Not to be confused: the first edition of Although You May Not Believe It was published in 1949 and conducted by Ripley himself. It ran from March to May of that year until the presenter’s death.

Nobody remembers that edition. There is hardly any material on the Internet and it has had very few episodes. The most remembered version of the program, the one that recalls us here, was aired from 1982 to 1986 and is made up of 82 programs.

The aforementioned Palance acted as Ripley’s replacement and was accompanied by co-hosts. The first season, which lasted a year, had the All That Jazz actress at his side Catherine Shirriff. In others, for example, his daughter holly.

The show always had the same structure. It was set to music by Enrico Mancini, it started with Palance promising mysteries, continued with Jack summarizing what the incoming episode would show, continued with Ripley himself saying “Believe it or not” and was completed with assembling reports crazy. In the center, pompadours from the presenter. At the end, the previews of the next episode. And so everyone.

Believe it or not, Ripley’s was just that: a bunch of weird reports about totally arbitrary things that had nothing to do with each other.

Every classic television show has milestones, highlights that everyone remembers. Just as in Married with children you do not forget the episode of the separation of Moni and Pepe, everyone who saw regularly Even if you do not believe it certainly has a place in his subconscious for man with ten meter nails.

Episode 16, the one that guides this reading and gives us an overview of what the series could offer, ends like this:

“Next week on Believe It or Not, step into the ring with a wrestling bear. Find out how two enemies by nature come to an individual peace. Attend a mud festival in Japan and chase a dragon down a street in Belgium. Take part in a duck parade at a Memphis hotel and search for diamonds in Arkansas. All this in the next show of Even if you don’t believe us ”.