Charles Schulz’s Snoopy Was First a Believe It or Not!

From Spike to Snoopy

When most people think of the legendary cartoonist Charles Schulz, they of course think of world famous comic strip Peanuts, and the adorable dog Snoopy.

Schulz’s first published drawing, however,  wasn’t Snoopy … it was a cartoon of his own dog, Spike, sent to Robert Ripley as a Believe It or Not!

Schulz’s drawing of his dog Spike became the inspiration for Snoopy.

Ripley published the sketch as part of his Believe It or Not! cartoon on February 22, 1937 (as seen to the right)

One Hungry Dog

February 22 marks the 75th anniversary of Charles Schulz’s very first published drawing.

Schulz, 15 years old at the time and nicknamed “Sparky,” submitted a sketch of his dog Spike to Robert Ripley and wrote about how the dog would eat pins, tacks, razor blades, and more.

In the book PEANUTS JUBILEE, Schulz talks about his dog and his first drawing. “Spike was a mixed breed, probably part pointer. The similarity to Snoopy is at least in the markings. Spike would eat almost anything in sight [...] I made this drawing of Spike and sent it to Ripley’s Believe it or Not!. It was my first published drawing.”

The Letter that Started it All

“That was an amazing crossing of paths for two young illustrators who would go on to  create cartoons, books and other media that have entertained millions of people around the world,” said Norm Deska, Executive VP of Intellectual Property for Ripley Entertainment. “This cartoon was basically the birth of Snoopy.”

 

Volcanic Cooking: An Unbelievable Eatery

Feast your eyes barbeque fans!

This oddball restaurant is located on top of an active volcano and is sure to get your kebabs grilling nice and crispy…

Powered by a flaming inferno that reaches to a deep pit underground, chefs at El Diablo Restaurant can safely rely on their “kitchen appliance” of choice to never break down. Or to erupt for that matter as there is reportedly no danger of the semi-dormant volcano blowing sky high.

Designed by artist/architect/eco-warrior César Manrique, the circular dining room offers panoramic views of the surrounding aftermath, devastated centuries ago by a series of volcanic blasts. The fallout from these eruptions made up of lumps of dark, hardened lava and ash makes for a ‘post-apocalyptic-esque” landscape. NASA is known to research the area for future lunar missions and perhaps to take advantage of some volcano-roasted chicken too.

The restaurant has been in place since the 1970′s and serves traditional Canary Islands cuisine.

Unbelievable Feats of Superhuman Prowess

Next time you have a sore head, spare a thought for Li Xin who has quite literally hit the nail on the head.

Many of us think that our job is a big headache, but it’s not for the 47 year old Li Xin from China who spends his whole day practicing to balance his head on a spike and he has been doing this from last 20 years.

His weight is 66kg and he manages to balance the total body up side down on his skull. Li Xin can do this stunt for up to 10 seconds, as we all know many people can manage to balance upside down but on headstand not on spike.

Putting his hands out to the side, he balanced all his  66kg (107lb) body weight, putting intense pressure on his skull.

Li Xin shows off the spike mark

After the stunt, Li Xin leaned forward to show off a small but definite indent on the top of his head.  It’s not just his head that is as hard as nails – he also balanced all his body weight on a similar spike against his stomach. The spike was placed on a stool and Li Xin pulled back his shirt and lowered his body onto the spike. He then lifted his arms and legs in the air, holding a starfish pose.

The likelihood of this spike piercing his skin is reduced  because the end is shaped into a larger blunt arrow, meaning there is more surface area for Li Xin to balance upon.

More Superhumans Are Around Us

Here at Ripley’s Believe It or Not! we have found many amazing, almost too hard to believe people with incredible physical and mental abilities. We have added a few videos to this post to share with you just a few samples of this remarkable individuals possessing abilities that most of us would simply think are impossible.

People like Chad Netherland,  a true master of strength and destruction holding more Guinness world records in martial arts and strength than anyone else in the World. In one of the videos above Chad keeps two airplanes at full throttle from taking of in opposite directions! Or Master Zhou, featured in one of our syndicated TV shows, who can channel his Chi energy and produce temperatures with his bare hands of up to 206 degrees Fahrenheit.  BELIEVE IT OR NOT!

Weird Valentine’s Day Chocolates

Here’s a fun way to break out of the traditional box of chocolates “mold” we’re all used to seeing. We’ve gathered a small collection of “out of the box” chocolates on this time-honored day of love and all the weird, unbelievable and bizarre that comes with it. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Three Werewolf Sisters

Only one in a billion people are affected by an extremely rare condition termed Hypertrichosis Universalis or better known as Werewolf Syndrome. As fate would have it, 3 of 6 sisters Savita, 23, Monisha, 18, and 16-year-old Savitri Sangli, who live in a small village near Pune, central India, inherited the disorder from their father.

Werewolf Syndrome is a genetic mutation, in which the cells that normally turn off hair growth in unusual areas, like the eyelids and forehead, are left switched on.

Meaning, the girls have had abnormal hair growth on their bodies and even their faces, affecting their eyebrows, nose and giving them appearance of having a beard. They must use special creams every day – otherwise the hair will rapidly regrow.

Dreams of Love. Fears of Loneliness

Despite the detrimental effects of the condition, the siblings still dream of a day when they might get married. However, in their small Indian village of Sangli, unmarried women have few prospects.

“Marriage is not an option for us, it’s not likely to happen, who is going to marry us when hair keeps growing on our faces.”

Life would be difficult anywhere for the three girls, but India in particular, is sensitive to rare and unique health conditions. Unfortunately, it’s laws against discrimination are not enforced here. Which explains why the oldest daughter gets a pink slip 10 to 15 days after she finds a new job. When her hair starts growing, her employers kick her to the curb.

Mother of six, Anita says her three daughters are desperate to find a way to fund laser hair removal surgery to rid the girls of the worry of suffering the condition any further. Surgery costs will exceed £4000 which is approximately $7,000 US per daughter.

“If a good proposal comes in, I’ll get her married. If nothing comes in she’ll have to work and survive. As long as I am living I have to keep trying.”

Get the New Pinball Arcade App Featuring Ripley’s Believe It or Not!

From FarSight Studios

The Pinball Arcade is the most accurate and realistic pinball videogame ever created.

Building on FarSight’s critically acclaimed pinball franchise, The Pinball Arcade features licensed pinball tables from Bally®, Williams®, Gottlieb® and Stern®, and includes the most popular historical and modern tables of all time.

Four tables will be available at launch: Tales of the Arabian Nights®, Ripley’s Believe It or Not®, Theatre of Magic®, and Black Hole™.

FarSight Studios will feature the Ripley’s Believe it or Not® pinball table in the initial launch.

“We are thrilled to expand and build upon the Ripley’s Believe it or Not® franchise as it gives our fans another enjoyable way to experience this exciting brand and help solidify Ripley’s commitment to family entertainment,” said Bill Daley, Director of Online Marketing and New Media from Ripley Entertainment. “FarSight has done an amazing job recreating this popular, but incredibly complex table, in meticulous detail. With more than 500 pages of rules, this was no easy feat!”

The Pinball Arcade will also be available for the Xbox 360, PlayStation3, Macintosh and PlayStation Vita in March of 2012 and will launch on PC and other platforms later in the year.

Available Now!

This app is available for iPhone, iPad, and Android devices. Please use the icons below to download the Apple iOS version. The Android version will be live later this evening in Google’s Android Market.

Living Among the Dead?

A megacity where the living must share with the dead

Manila North Cemetery is the largest Philippine National Cemetery, also lived here thousands of Philippine poor people.

This public cemetery is not silence and ghastly, and every day it is a tremendous hubbub, formed the Philippines features graveyard slums.

There is no official record about the history of the graveyard inhabitants. They only use a iron sheet as rain shield.  Children sometimes sleep in marble headstone and also do their homework there.

“It’s much more peaceful and quiet.”

Ricky Baking, serves “eviction” notices to the dead whose relatives cannot the rent payments for the grave plot. He cracks the marble lids open and pulls the evicted dead out to make room for a “new tenant”.

The crypt where his family of seven sleeps is barely bigger than a garden shed, but it’s furnished with every modern convenience: there’s a fridge, a DVD player, electric fans and a built-in toilet. His youngest daughter was a little frightened when they moved here four years ago, he says, but they now find it easy to forget the body buried beneath its floor. In a city with too many people, this is a decent place to live.

 Unbelievable? Believe It!

[source]

Pillow FIGHHTT!

China’s workforce has seen their share of stress from working such long hours. There’s no surprise that the country’s citizens are looking for a way to release that stress – most recently, by going to a loud and raucous pillow fight with hundreds of white collar workers and students.

Last Christmas Eve, Shanghai was anything but peaceful as hundreds gathered with pillows on hand ready for the epic battle celebrating the once a year holiday. Rock and roll music filled the background as feathers poofed their way up in the air.

Stress Relief

The organizer of this event explains that pillow fighting is a great way for Chinese to relieve pressure and reduce stress. After a year’s worth of the daily grind, people finally get to write onto the pillows the names of their bosses, teachers and exam subjects, and enjoy and vent to the maximum!

“It’s impossible to feel no pressure from the intense academy study. This kind of soft violence can help relieve my stress and can also help some office workers release some pressure too.”

In America, we have office parties with egg nogg and toasts.
In China, they battle it out with rock music
for over two days.

At this particular nightclub over 800 registered for the event (mostly young people), but only 600 managed to partake because of security reasons. The event took place for two days before Christmas and due to increasing popularity, another one was scheduled on December 30th. Jealous?

A Million Swarovski Crystals + 12 Miles of Yarn + One Small Hole in the Roof

“Don’t scratch my million pound motor!”

Ripley’s Believe it or Not! scales all new heights as a bright red knitted Ferrari enters the popular attraction, while a classic Swarovski-covered Mini-Cooper exits all through the roof of the 5-story building

An American Icon

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s an amazing crystal encrusted Mini Cooper flying high over Piccadilly Circus on the way out of top attraction Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! London.

The ‘American Icon’ Mini, worth a cool £1 million, was delicately inched out through a smoke duct in the roof of the famous Trocadero building – the first incredible stage of a 5,000-mile journey to its new home at the Ripley’s Believe it or Not! in Baltimore, Md., USA.

Westminster Council gave special permission for the streets around Piccadilly Circus to be closed in the early hours of Saturday morning so a giant crane could be put in place for the intricate lift.

The unique car is covered in more than one million coloured Swarovski gems arranged to create pictures of iconic American landmarks, including the Statue of Liberty and Mount Rushmore.

With only inches to spare on either side of the narrow gap the car was lifted out vertically (rear first). Ripley’s staff inside had earlier spent the day shifting other quirky exhibits out of the way (including a two-headed lamb and the skeleton of a now extinct cave bear) to ensure the Mini could be driven to its exit point safely.

12 Amazing Miles of Yarn!

Even though the American Icon is heading across the Atlantic to the U.S., car fanatics in Britain will have a new, amazing and unbelievable vehicle in which to marvel – a life-sized hand knitted Ferrari, made from 12 miles of yarn.

“The American Icon Mini Cooper is one of Ripley’s most prized possessions, so the pressure was really on to get it out without a scratch,” explained Tim O’Brien, a vice president with the Orlando, Fla. – based Ripley Entertainment Inc.

“As the global leader in the weird, bizarre and unusual, we are constantly striving to keep our attractions fresh, fun and family-friendly. You can see by what we did here today that we will go to any and all heights to keep our attractions teeming with new and exciting exhibits!”

Fast Facts

Want More Photos?

For a more expansive selection of photos and for a variety of downloadable broadcast video of this amazing event, go to the special online newsroom set up specifically for this event. Please sign in and use the password mini.  Be advised this site is only live through Feb. 11, 2012.

About Ripley’s Believe It or Not! London

With more than 700 amazing artefacts on display over five floors, the attraction celebrates the weird, wonderful and bizarre in all its forms. With everything you can imagine (and plenty more you can’t), Ripley’s Believe It or Not! London is a family day out that’s definitely out of the ordinary. For additional information call +44 (0)20 3238 0022 or visit www.ripleyslondon.com.

A Cave You Can Call Home

Arizona’s real estate market has a unique property for sale near the sweeping views of the Mule Mountains in the town of Bisbee, Arizona. Unlike your typical ranch home, this one is has deep “natural” charm to it. The Cave House boasts a guesthouse, two bathrooms, and attractive tile flooring. It was built in 1985 and is 2,980 square feet. The Cave House has no water bills, thanks to a natural spring, or heating or cooling bills.

“…it has all of the good qualities of a cave for living like it stays the same temperature all year round. Maintaining a so-called ‘rock temperature,’ the house never slips below 66 degrees Fahrenheit or above 72 degrees.”

The cave house features rough petrous walls, rock and cement ceilings and a potable wall water seep that is collected from it’s natural spring. There’s a glass-walled sunroom, a commercial-grade kitchen with stained glass cabinets and mosaic tiling, an-eight person dining room, a sunken living room, a sleep loft with walk-in closet tucked below underneath the loft stairs, and a back room that is currently used as an exercise and yoga room.

It does have an efficient pellet fireplace, as well as a workshop, shed, carport, hot tub, barbeque area, and a separate office and library. You can snag this unique and unusual dwelling for $1.5 Million.