Orlando Vacation: Day 6 - Ripley's Believe It or Not!

We decided to check out Robert Leroy Ripley’s collection of the strange and unusual on a whim since it was a rainy day and what else did we have to do. Even before entering we noticed that the building/odditorium, as they call it, looked like it was falling into a sinkhole with its significant lean.  Its a cool way to draw attention to the building and its contents. Its particularly fitting since there have been a number of sink hole issues in Florida lately.

After paying our admission we made our way through he turnstiles where we found Wall-E one of my favorite animated characters. I couldn’t resist taking my picture with this garbage collecting hero of the 2008 Disney/Pixar movie. This guy isn't a mock up from the movie but a very cool depiction by a talented artist.

Once in the exhibit hall we found ourselves first looking at a hologram of Robert Ripley sitting behind his original desk where he produced a series of drawings for his newspaper column. In addition to being a cartoon illustrator he was known for collecting all kinds of weird, unusual, and rare items from all around the globe. We learned that Ripley first displayed some of his collection to the public in 1933 at Chicago’s World Fair. Over 2 million people visited that first exhibition and with its success he led a cross country exhibit before the first permanent Odditorium opened in Saint Augustine Florida. Today the collection is vast and is spread between 32 such museums/odditoriums around the world.

This particular odditorium open since 1992 has a collection of 600 exhibits in 16 themed galleries housed in 10,000 square feet of showroom.

Some of the notable or interesting items we saw included a variety of Africa artifacts such as a necklace made from dog’s teeth which was a form of currency in New Guinea. Other unusual African items included the African skin mask made with skin flayed from slaves which according to legend allowed surviving relatives to inherit the virtues of the person whom it resembled. There is also a selection of skulls that have been intricately carved and serve as “war trophies.” Some of my favorite items are the shrunken heads made by the Jivaro Indians of Ecuador who would shrink the heads of their killed enemy’s as war trophies.

In addition to the more primitive African curiosities they also had more modern examples of collectibles such as a pair of signed panties from Madonna. They also have a significant collection of taxidermy of unusual and deformed animals like the two headed calf and mike the chicken from Fruita who survived decapitation for 18 months.

 

Some of the most unusual items are from darker medieval times in history. Many of these items were tools to punish people like the shame brank to humiliate a person or the confessional used to extort confessions from people using sharp spikes. They seemed to have a little of everything from this period all meant to torture or kill.

 

They also have a collection of less odd items more of the curiosities then the weird.  Some of my favorites were the miniature items some made from gum wrappers and others just so small that you can barely tell what they are without a magnifying glass. Imagine playing cards with a miniature deck or trying to eat using these mini spoons made of gold. One of the more impressive items is the Old King Cole book. It is the smallest printed book in the world and there was only a total of 85 printed in Scotland.

They also had a collection of oversized things such as the enormous Goodyear tire which was so big I got my picture taken inside it. Then there was the lifesize model of Mr Wadlow who stood almost 9 feet tall. He was also known as the Alton Giant. He is the tallest person in history and stood at an incredible height of 8’11.1”. He died at the age of 22 from an infection.

More highlights include a 25-foot mural of Jimi Hendrix made from over 8,500 playing cards and the model shark jaw with teeth from a Megladon.

 

Nearing the end we bumped into some of the world’s most unique people and visitors from Tussaud’s collection of wax statues like the lizard man and the Mexican Vampire woman. The final part is the vertigo tunnel just before the gift shop. It’s a challenge just to keep your balance in this tunnel.