Believe It or Else!

(click on pictures to read them)

On this date in 1918 Robert Ripley began his "Believe It or Not" column (New York Globe). I enjoyed the “Believe or Not” columns or articles as far back as I remember and then some.

Some of the material in the articles appeared to be all BS and some had that carnival wide-eyed freak-appeal like a two-headed baby or something as freakish, but all got your attention like a trashy scandalous magazine cover.

The control or editorship of BION has been handed down generation after generation. It probably was not handed down through the Ripley family but handed down to the highest bidder.

In the past several decades Ripley’s BION has not in the local papers here, but in the past few years with the help of GOOGLE I can find a BION anytime I feel a craving.

Above is an actual Ripley’s Believe or Not and below is the MAD #23, drawn by Wallace Wood, is a take off on the legendary column.

Also, when we took a tour of Charleston, South Carolina, the tour guide pointed out the house where Robert Ripley lived as a youngster. It was near Battery Park I think, so believe that or else!