Two of my all-time favorite things when I was a kid were as follows: watching episodes of Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! on Sunday evenings before bed, and getting to visit the Ripley’s museum whenever we made it to Myrtle Beach. I have always had a love affair with the bizarre or mysterious or just plain gross or scary, so these two treats fed right into my fascinations…it wasn’t until I was much older that I started to understand the exploitative implications of a lot of the people the Ripley museum “showcased.”
It also wasn’t until I was much older that I realized that the “Ripley” of Ripley’s fame was an actual person. What? I never claimed to be 100-percent on the ball all the time, denizens. Needless to say, it’s no surprise that I hardly knew anything about LeRoy Robert Ripley beyond the obvious fact that he had a penchant for peculiarities. From this approach, then, I found the details of Neal Thompson’s Ripley biography A Curious Man both fascinating and at times, yes, unbelievable.
Mostly, I think I find it unbelievable how much money cartoonists once made, how like rock stars they were treated by their employers and readers alike. I suppose it should make more sense to me than the celebrity status we so willingly award to the most undeserving of crassness today (“reality” television is a poisonous thing, indeed). Those early comic strip pioneers, including Ripley, at least contributed something to the pantheon of creativity…something more substantial than the stain of fake tan smeared across our collective conscience.
Besides, this was a time before cable television and multiplex theaters. It was a time before world travel was an acceptable option and we dared envision connecting with anyone beyond the boundaries of our ZIP code or even the parameters of our humble little neighborhoods. To experience the wonders and terrors that the world had to offer required a contact, a willing conduit to allow the flow of information from the farthest regions down into Main Street, USA. Someone like Ripley, who gladly would uproot and take to the skies, the seas, the snows, the sun-drenched jungles…wherever he had not yet journeyed, had not yet taken his readers.
Thompson’s biography provides all this information and more on Ripley, from his early days through his rise to fame, his comics, his museums, his radio shows…perhaps even beyond that. Sadly, I ran out of time and had to return this to the library before I could finish it. However, what I did read of this book was quite fascinating, not just in regard to the man but also to where he grew up, where he lived, and where he traveled. Thompson does quite a lovely job of making his biography well-researched, well-rounded, and well-received by readers, including me.
Final Verdict: I would like to check this one back out of the library at some point, so that I can finish the few chapters I had left, and perhaps I’ll add it to my wish list for future buying. Believe it…or not!
