| 1889 |
35-year old Isaac Ripley marries 20-year old Lillie Bell Yocka |
| 1890 |
birth of Robert Leroy Ripley in Santa Rosa, California |
| 1893 |
birth of sister Ethel |
| 1901 - 1908 |
formal education in Santa Rosa; quit school in 1908 before graduating in order to support his mother |
| 1904 |
birth of brother Doug |
| 1905 |
death of Isaac Ripley (father) |
| 1906 |
playing semi-professional baseball in Santa Rosa and sells first artwork locally |
| 1908 |
sells first cartoon, “The Village Belles are Wringing” to LIFE, a national magazine |
| 1909 |
joins the staff of the San Francisco Bulletin, then the Chronicle |
| 1912 |
August 28, Ripley’s last drawing for the Chronicle, moves to New York that winter |
| 1913 |
January 2, draws his first cartoon for “The Globe”; tries out for the New York Giants, but gets injured, ending his dreams of a baseball career |
| 1914 |
his first trip abroad (Europe) |
| 1915 |
death of Lillie Belle Ripley (mother) |
| 1918 |
December 19th - publishes Champs & Chumps cartoon, long regarded as the “first” BION cartoon; moves into the New York Athletic Club |
| 1919 |
October 16th - actual first cartoon with the BION bi-line; marries Beatrice Roberts on October 21st but separates 3 months later |
| 1920 |
second trip to Europe (his first “solo” excursion) to cover the Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium |
| 1922 |
December 3, embarks on his first trip around the world (returns April 7, 1923); publishes his travel journal in installment form |
| 1923 |
April 13, divorce finalized; hires researcher/ linguist Norbert Pearlroth; Globe newspaper folds, Ripley moves to “The Post”. |
| 1925 |
trip to South America, publishes his travel journal; publishes a Handball Guide |
| 1926 |
New York City Handball champion; publishes “Boxing Score” (a book on boxing) |
| 1929 |
July 9th - joins W. R. Hearst’s King Features Syndicate, goes from 17 papers to world-wide distribution; first BION book published |
| 1930 |
begins his 14 - year run on radio and his 19- year association with radio show promoter Doug Storer (future President of Ripley’s Believe It or Not!); Hearst funds Ripley’s passion for travel, starting a decade of world travel, which culminates in Ripley visiting 201 countries by 1940; develops the concept for on location live radio broadcasts throughout the decade, which by the end of the decade becomes the Ripley radio show trademark with shows broadcast from underwater, in the sky, in caves in snake pits and from foreign countries |
| 1931 |
creates movie shorts for Vitaphone Pictures, later owned by RKO; publishes his second book of BIONs |
| 1932 |
lengthy trip to the Orient; the first, biggest and most successful national BION contest |
| 1933 |
July, opens his first Odditiorium in Chicago, Illinois |
| 1934 |
first radio show broadcast simultaneously around the world; purchases 28-room BION Island home (Mamaroneck, NY); closing of Chicago Odditorium in the Fall |
| 1935 |
opens Odditorium in San Diego, California |
| 1936 - 1937 |
opens Odditorium in Dallas, Texas; voted the most popular man in America (more popular than the president) |
| 1937 |
the first published Charles Schulz drawing appears in BION; opens Odditiorium in Cleveland |
| 1939 |
opens Odditorium in San Francisco and New York City (Times Square); receives Honorary Degree from Dartmouth College |
| 1940 |
purchases his second home, a Manhattan studio apartment with 13 rooms; receives two more honorary degrees |
| 1940 - 1945 |
stops foreign travels and concentrates on “Seeing America First” (radio shows); World War II charity work, including a Madison Square Gardens baseball game featuring Beabe Ruth. |
| 1946 |
purchases his Chinese junk, the Mon Lei |
| 1947 |
purchases his third home, Hi Mount, Florida |
| 1948 |
makes a tv show pilot; takes last foreign trip to the Orient and Hawaii; celebrates 30th anniversary of BION with an elaborate costume party at Toot Shor’s famous nightclub in NYC |
| 1949 |
first tv show; dies May 27th from heart failure after collapsing on the set of his weekly television show (show # 13) |
| 1949 |
public auction of the Ripley estate; exhibits purchased by John Arthur; Doug Storer takes over the publication of the Ripley BION cartoon and Paul Frehm becomes the Ripley cartoon artist. |
| 1950 |
December 9th, the first permanent BION museum opens in St. Augustine; partnership between John Arthur and Robert Herlinger take over the display of Ripley artifacts as a separate entity/company |
| 1950s |
company operates two museums (New York & St. Augustine) and several traveling shows (Las Vegas, Atlantic City…) Doug Ripley sells all family interests in the company to Doug Storer and John Arthur |
| 1960 - 1961 |
Doug Storer retires after 30 years with the company |
| 1963 |
Alec Rigby, a Canadian, becomes a franchisee with John Arthur and builds museum # 3 in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada |
| 1966 |
the opening of new museum in San Francisco |
| 1968 |
the opening of new museum in Chicago; publication of the 50th Anniversary Edition of RBION (1968). |
| 1969 |
Alec Rigby becomes sole owner of BION and moves the company from New York to Toronto, Canada |
| 1970 - 1976 |
the opening of several Ripley museums, including Gatlinburg, Tennessee Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and Blackpool, England (the first overseas Ripley museum in 1972). |
| 1972 |
Santa Rosa honors Ripley with a city run memorial in “The Church of One Tree” (closes in 1998) |
| 1973 |
hiring of future BION president Robert Masterson |
| 1976 |
Norbert Pearlroth retires after 53 years service as Head Researcher of BION |
| 1978 |
Paul Frehm retires as the Ripley cartoonist and is replaced by his brother Walter Frehm |
| 1980 - 1985 |
Alec Rigby, semi-retired CEO; company run by president John Withers; successful national television show starring Jack Palance (1980-84) |
| 1985 |
January, company purchased from Rigby by Canadian entrepreneur Jim Pattison of Vancouver; opening of Las Vegas, BION, October 1, the first franchised Ripley museum |
| 1988 |
opening of Surfer’s Paradise, Australia (initially opened as a franchise, but later acquired by Ripley Entertainment Inc), the first “Asian” BION museum. |
| 1989 |
John Withers retires; Bob Masterson becomes president of BION; Walter Frehm retires and is replaced by Don Wimmer (January 1990); Ripley’s leaves King Features Syndicate after 60 years and moves to United Media. |
| 1990 - 1993 |
opening of several franchised museums, domestic and foreign, including Orlando and Korea, and a return to Blackpool, England (the first one closed in 1976). |
| 1991 |
opening of the first Ripley Moving Theater in Gatlinburg, Tennessee |
| 1993 |
RBION headquarters moved from Toronto to Orlando, Florida; celebration of the 75th Anniversary of RBION , including TBS’ 90-minute television documentary “The Life and Times of Robert Ripley.” |
| 1993 - 1997 |
Asian expansion; opening of museums in Thailand, Korea, Jakarta and Hong Kong |
| 1996 |
acquisition of the Guinness World Records Museum franchise rights |
| 1997 |
opening of the first Ripley Aquarium in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina |
| 1999 |
opening of the first Ripley Haunted Adventure in Gatlinburg, Tennessee |
| 2000 |
opening of the first Guinness World Record Experience in Orlando; opening of the second Ripley Aquarium, the Aquarium of the Smokies in Gatlinburg, Tennessee; new television show starring Dean Cain |
| 2001 |
conversion of Ripley’s three Moving Theaters to 3-D presentations |
| 2002 |
opening of museum in Genting Highlands, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; opening of the second Haunted House in Myrtle Beach |
| 2003 |
opening of new museums in Key West, Florida and New Orleans, Louisiana; end of new Dean Cain TV show (4 seasons, 88 shows), and beginning of world syndication of the show; opening of third Haunted House in San Antonio |
| 2004 |
acquisition of 2 franchised Ripley museums and 2 Louis Tussaud’s wax museums in Texas; acquisition of St Augustine Sightseeing trains; launching of Ripley Publishing company with successful New York Times best seller: Ripley’s Believe It or Not! (“eyeball book”). Ripley cartoonist Don Wimmer retires and is replaced by John Graziano.
Ripley’s move its corporate office to its second location in Orlando, Florida, combining the art department, the exhibit warehouse and administrative offices under one roof for the first time in the company’s history. |
| 2005 |
opening of Old MacDonald’s Mini Golf and Super Fun Zone in Sevierville, Tenn.; opening of a new Louis Tussaud’s Waxworks in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada (an earlier version had operated for nearly 40 years); start of construction on Ripley’s first Great Wolf Lodge (to open 2006) in Niagara Falls, Canada. |
| 2006 |
opening of Great Wolf Lodge Indoor Waterpark Resort in Niagara Falls, Canada; opening of Wacky Wilderness Mini-golf on the Great Wolf Lodge property; opening of two new Ripley’s Believe It or Not! museums in Panama City Beach,Florida and Williamsburg, Virginia; release of the highly anticipated Ripley publication: “Expect the Unexpected”. |
| 2007 |
opening of Ripley’s Believe It or Not Times Square |
