Robert Ripley Discussion - History Comes Alive Festival: Secrets Revealed!

Discussion about Robert Ripley with Larry Bounds

During the June Festival, we gather together to pick the brains of the historical performers. No costumes, no script, just a chance to have some personal time and dialog with the performers – and get to know them and what they think about their characters.

Plenty of free parking.

Robert “Believe It or Not!” Ripley lived an unbelievable life.

A barefoot and bucktoothed boy became a radio, film, and television celebrity who was voted “the most popular man in America.”

A reluctant writer who dropped out his senior year of high school became a best selling author and a world renowned journalist.

A nonstop doodler who was told he would never be an artist became a newspaper illustrator earning more than $500,000 a year – during the Great Depression!

Ripley travelled the world finding and reporting the oddest and most unusual facts about people, places, and events. Often controversial, sometimes shocking, and always entertaining, Robert Ripley created a media empire that survives and thrives more than 70 years after his death – believe it or not!

This Festival is funded in part by the Metropolitan Arts Council which receives funding from the City of Greenville, BMW Manufacturing Co, Michelin NA, SEW Eurodrive, the South Carolina Arts Commission which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts as part of the American Rescue Plan, the Greenville City Accommodations Tax Fund and the generous Friends of Greenville Chautauqua.