19 Oct
Robert Ripley & Santa Rosa: A Legacy
Guest author: Joe Greenlee has worked in copywriting for various websites, and currently works for a local, independently owned video store here in Santa Rosa. He has a BA in English literature, and enjoys reading, bookbinding, running, politics and philosophy, and is currently working on his first novel. He hopes to one day own a real rocket pack.
Robert Ripley, one of the most famous men in America at one point, is now mostly known for Ripley’s Believe It or Not! – a franchise of museums worldwide that has kept audiences gaping for decades. Ripley was a collector of the strange but true. He was to his legions of fans across America, the ultimate gentleman explorer. He brought them on his radio show, with descriptive narration, to the far corners of the globe that few dared imagine going to themselves.
What few people know is that between traveling to some 201 countries around the globe, he was born, lived, and died in Santa Rosa, Calif. Ripley was definitely a local eccentric, and in the wake of news that a (somewhat beleaguered) movie will be made about his life starring Jim Carrey, I thought I’d talk a bit about Santa Rosa’s beloved son.
Above all things he was an explorer. Strange tales of criminal masterminds who made off with treasures, a slew of human oddities, lost cities and tombs, strange rituals, and artifacts that attested to the mysteries of the unknown fed my imagination. And why wouldn’t they? Robert Ripley was interested in that which was the most interesting. He had a discerning ear (being aided by an assistant who spoke 11 languages helped) and a nose for the odds and ends of human behavior.
Ripley was primarily a man who, in spite of the overgeneralizations of the times, transcended the overall attitudes that Americans had towards the rest of the world by finding beauty in the bizarre, and love for the most dangerous sounding stories he could track down. Anyone can dream of having a vacation in a beautiful place, but Ripley’s idea of fun was to crisscross the globe looking for that element that appealed to all ethnicities of mankind: the element of surprise.
Santa Rosa should be extremely proud of Ripley. He was a man of many abilities. A journalist, showman, radio personality, cartoonist, but above all he had a flare for storytelling. A passion for mystery and eccentricity, perhaps because at heart he knew that he was not truly satisfied until he was witnessing something totally and completely unique. For every giant sculpture made entirely out of toothpicks there is a man who will put that sculpture on a pedestal and admire it as a masterpiece.
See, in this age of mass media and marketing we can still often relate, if not more so than before, to the desire to find something new and exciting, and that we can call our own. We who seek to build handcar racing devices, or mix new styles of dress with old, or learn the arts and crafts that were popular back in times long gone, we do so not because it is simply passing ourselves off as throwbacks to another era. We do so because it is exciting and breathtaking. We do it because there is beauty to be found in the past, and beauty in reinvention. There is a pioneering spirit in Sonoma County that lingers still. We do not need the attitudes of the past to capture innovation, aesthetic, and purpose towards the goal of finding adventure in our own back door.
Eventually, Robert Ripley came back to Santa Rosa, where he spent the last of his days. I think there is something to be said for this place that a man who went to literally every part of the globe came back here again. He could have ended up anywhere, chose any tropical beach or palace or marketplace, bistro or cabana, but in the end, Santa Rosa was a place that beckoned to his adventurous spirit.
So here’s to you, Robert Ripley! You taught us all a thing or two about finding out what we’re made of. One need not become a huge celebrity for that. May your penchant for mystery, and celebration of the unusual never cease to thrill and delight audiences the world over. Let alone, those of us here in the place where you got your start.
Read More:
- Believe it: Ripley cartoon turns 90 at Boston.com
- Robert Ripley Photo Archive
- Robert Ripley Timeline
- Robert Ripley Bio
Analogous reports:
WHEN
Generously divluged by Erasmus P. Kitty on 19.10.09 at 6:05 pm
Your bio sounds juicy! Do please drop an excerpt here when available.
No doubt there must have been much of a huckster in Ripley. He certainly knew how to get and hold media attention. Apparently he was quite the ladies’ man with some five girlfriends in different houses he owned (though lying may not play any part in that).
Like anyone, I can muster a fascination in the morbid and bizarre. Too bad the Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! world of today is so lost in the shameless and silly. I haven’t seen any coffee table books of late, but I remember them as full color glossy versions of “bat boy” tabloid rags, complete with horrid design and garish colors meant to bludgeon the viewer and largely hide the idiotic and even mundane “stories”.
Generously divluged by neal thompson on 19.10.09 at 6:05 pm
Nice story about Ripley in Santa Rosa. I’m writing a biography of Ripley, which will be released around the same time as the movie. Working title, “World’s Biggest Liar.”For more info, visit PenandPencilClub.com – I should have an excerpt posted soon.