A Curious Man: The Strange and Brilliant Life of Robert "Believe It or Not" Ripley
Written by Neal Thompson
Narrated by Marc Cashman
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this audiobook
A Curious Man is the marvelously compelling biography of Robert "Believe It or Not" Ripley, the enigmatic cartoonist turned globetrotting millionaire who won international fame by celebrating the world's strangest oddities, and whose outrageous showmanship taught us to believe in the unbelievable.
As portrayed by acclaimed biographer Neal Thompson, Ripley's life is the stuff of a classic American fairy tale. Buck-toothed and cursed by shyness, Ripley turned his sense of being an outsider into an appreciation for the strangeness of the world. After selling his first cartoon to Time magazine at age eighteen, more cartooning triumphs followed, but it was his "Believe It or Not" conceit and the wildly popular radio shows it birthed that would make him one of the most successful entertainment figures of his time and spur him to search the globe's farthest corners for bizarre facts, exotic human curiosities, and shocking phenomena.
Ripley delighted in making outrageous declarations that somehow always turned out to be true-such as that Charles Lindbergh was only the sixty-seventh man to fly across the Atlantic or that "The Star Spangled Banner" was not the national anthem. Assisted by an exotic harem of female admirers and by ex-banker Norbert Pearlroth, a devoted researcher who spoke eleven languages, Ripley simultaneously embodied the spirit of Peter Pan, the fearlessness of Marco Polo and the marketing savvy of P. T. Barnum.
In a very real sense, Ripley sought to remake the world's aesthetic. He demanded respect for those who were labeled "eccentrics" or "freaks"-whether it be E. L. Blystone, who wrote 1,615 alphabet letters on a grain of rice, or the man who could swallow his own nose.
By the 1930s Ripley possessed a vast fortune, a private yacht, and a twenty-eight room mansion stocked with such "oddities" as shrunken heads and medieval torture devices, and his pioneering firsts in print, radio, and television were tapping into something deep in the American consciousness-a taste for the titillating and exotic, and a fascination with the fastest, biggest, dumbest and most weird. Today, that legacy continues and can be seen in reality TV, YouTube, America's Funniest Home Videos, Jackass, MythBusters and a host of other pop-culture phenomena.
In the end Robert L. Ripley changed everything. The supreme irony of his life, which was dedicated to exalting the strange and unusual, is that he may have been the most amazing oddity of all.
From the Hardcover edition.
Neal Thompson
Neal Thompson is the author of four critically acclaimed books, including A Curious Man: The Strange & Brilliant Life of Robert “Believe It or Not” Ripley and Driving with the Devil: Southern Moonshine, Detroit Wheels, and the Birth of NASCAR. Thompson’s writing has appeared in Esquire, Outside, Men’s Health, and other publications. He lives in Seattle with his family.
More audiobooks from Neal Thompson
Kickflip Boys: A Memoir of Freedom, Rebellion, and the Chaos of Fatherhood Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hurricane Season: A Coach, His Team, and Their Triumph in the Time of Katrina Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to A Curious Man
Related audiobooks
The Ingenious Mr. Pyke: Inventor, Fugitive, Spy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPrinter's Error: Irreverent Stories from Book History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5"The Rest of Us": The Rise of America's Eastern European Jews Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hide-and-Seek with Angels: A Life of J.M. Barrie Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIrving Berlin: New York Genius Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Magic Ladder to Success: The Wealth-Builder's Concise Guide to Winning! Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5God of Sperm: Cappy Rothman's Life in Conception Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTo Catch A King: Charles II's Great Escape Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Thomas Paine: Enlightenment, Revolution, and the Birth of Modern Nations Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Thief on the Cross: Templar Secrets in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Truth About Tall Tales: American Folklore from Johnny Appleseed to Paul Bunyan Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Spillane: King of Pulp Fiction Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsScreening Reality: How Documentary Filmmakers Reimagined America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBehind the Candelabra: My Life With Liberace Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Salesman of the Century Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The King's Speech: How One Man Saved the British Monarchy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Seven Dirty Words: The Life and Crimes of George Carlin Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mobituaries: Great Lives Worth Reliving Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Winston Churchill: Man of the Century Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHope: Entertainer of the Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Escape Artist: The Nine Lives of Harry Perry Robinson Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Great Impersonation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5B. J. Harrison Reads The Blue Cross Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming George Orwell: Life and Letters, Legend and Legacy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fool: In Search of Henry VIII's Closest Man Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIdiots, Follies and Misadventures Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5My Old Man: A Personal History of Music Hall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Children's Nursery Rhymes - Part One: The Dark History & Origins of Kid's Nursery Rhymes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsProducer: A Memoir Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBarnum: An American Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Historical Biographies For You
Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Professor and The Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Devil and Harper Lee Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of Charlie Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lincoln Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel: Genius, Power, and Deception on the Eve of World War I Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Up From Slavery Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Diary of Anne Frank Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Moveable Feast: The Restored Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shakespeare Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Greatest Beer Run Ever: A Memoir of Friendship, Loyalty, and War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Benjamin Franklin Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lives of the Wives: Five Literary Marriages Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Moveable Feast Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leonardo da Vinci Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ten Caesars: Roman Emperors from Augustus to Constantine Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A. Lincoln: A Biography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Benjamin Franklin: An American Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Eliza Hamilton: The Extraordinary Life and Times of the Wife of Alexander Hamilton Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Benjamin Franklin: Autobiography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bonhoeffer Abridged: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Duchess Countess Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for A Curious Man
0 ratings0 reviews