Ripley’s Believe It or Not

The 1933 World’s Fair in Chicago introduced Ripley’s collection of ‘oddities and unusual people’ to the public. While it may today offend 21st-century politically correct sensibilities, this museum embraces Ripley’s vision with no holds barred. A short documentary film chronicles his search for the ‘strange, exotic and incredible’, and TVs throughout the museum screen footage of classic Ripley, including exotic food customs, the man with the ‘strongest eyes in the world’ and a snake slithering through a guy’s nose and out his mouth. Exhibits range from the life-sized Rolls Royce made entirely from matchsticks to a shrunken skull to a model of the 1,069lb man who, as the story goes, gained so much weight because he burst a gland in the back of his neck during a bout of whooping cough at age three.