Ripley's Outrageous Oddities

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By the 1930s, Robert Ripley was well-known for his cartoons of the bizarre and unbelievable people, places and things that he had seen on his travels around the globe. Constantly trying new outlets for his peculiar fare, Ripley brought a selection of real-life oddities to his "Odditorium," which opened at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair; rumor held that many audience members fainted when they faced Ripley's strange characters in the flesh. Despite this, the Odditorium was a huge success and was held over into the following year. In 1939, Ripley opened his first permanent Odditorium in Manhattan. Take a look at some of Ripley's most shocking and famous "curioddities" over the years.

Ripley acquired his first genuine shrunken head in 1923 in Lima, Peru, which soon became one of his most well-known oddities.
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"Human Owl" Martin Joe Laurello spent three years perfecting his 270-degree head rotation. He was featured in a "Believe It or Not!" comic in 1921 and performed at Ripley's Odditorium at the 1933-1934 Chicago World's Fair.
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With his 78-inch mustache, Ajan Desur Dangar was slated to participate in Ripley's 1933 Odditorium, but just before the opening Dangar's manager ripped off half of Dangar's mustache in a fight. Odditorium manager C.C. Pyle sent them both back to India before the exhibit opened.
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Ripley poses with one of his most peculiar oddities, the 6.5-inch mummified "Atta Boy." Discovered in the Atacama Desert region of Peru, Atta Boy's origins are unknown, though Ripley described it as a boy shrunken and mummified by the Jivaro Indians.
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Alvarez Kanichka astonished audiences as he swallowed electric lightbulbs whole at Ripley's Odditorium at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair.
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Harry and Lillian McGregor performed an act at Ripley's 1933 Odditorium in which Harry would pull his wife on a wagon using a hook attached to his eyelids.
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"Human Pin Cushion" Leo Kongee of Pittsburgh could drive nails into his nose, use safety pins in his legs to hold up his socks, sew buttons into his arms and tongue, and put skewers and hatpins through his flesh -- all without producing a drop of blood.
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Lydia McPherson of Los Angeles attracted audiences at the 1933 Chicago Odditorium for having "the longest red hair in the world." It was roughly seven feet long.
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Leonard "Popeye" Perry was featured in a 1933 "Believe It or Not!" cartoon and performed at the Chicago World's Fair that same year. Audiences squirmed at his ability to pop his eyes out of his sockets one at a time or both at once.
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Ripley promised that his 1934 Chicago Odditorium would be "bigger and in every way better" than his first. He gathered extreme oddities from all over the world, such as "The Fireproof Man," originally from Solon, India. Singlee claimed he could not be harmed by fire and held flaming blowtorches to his bare skin to prove it.
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Pundit Mohammed Lala from India performed atop a bed of nails.
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"Human Slate" Rosa Barthelme could etch words into the skin on her back that would remain for several minutes.
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Performing at the 1934 Odditorium, Mort Mortensen wore gloves and a blindfold, covered his piano keys with a cloth, and played a different tune on each piano simultaneously.
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As a teenager, Andrew Gawley lost both arms below the elbow in a sawmill accident, and he designed his own metal "fingers." "The Man With the Iron Hands" appeared at the Chicago, Dallas and Cleveland Odditoriums during the 1930s.
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The magician Voltess wowed Odditorium audiences in San Diego in 1935 and New York City in 1939 with his most famous trick -- the headless living woman.
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During his 1936 travels in India, Ripley met this Hindu Urdhabahu man who had held his arms above his head for 20 years as an act of devotion.
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Another "Human Pin Cushion," B.A. Bryant stuck 100 pins into his body without feeling pain. He performed for thousands of people at the Dallas Odditorium in 1937.
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At his 1939 NYC Odditorium, Ripley delighted in highlighting that the years-old "Fiji Mermaid" was actually a fake, constructed from a monkey and a fish. Ripley claimed he was "flattered" to be called a liar, as he prided himself on being able to prove every one of his own "Believe It or Nots" as true.
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Japanese sculptor Hananuma Masakichi used adjustable mirrors to create this extremely lifelike and detailed statue of himself upon learning he was dying from tuberculosis. Originally intended for the woman he loved, the statue was purchased by Ripley and later displayed in the New York Odditorium in 1939.
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