Ripley's Believe It or Not! Museum
Attraction Type: Exhibit
Location: Park Motor/Venture/Comfort Inn, Niagara Falls, Ontario
Year(s) Operational: 1963-Present
Designer(s): Ripley's Studios, Costello Productions
Postcard from opening year in 1963
In 1963, an edition was put on to Welland Securities' Park Motor Inn bringing the structure right to Clifton Hill. This included more rooms, a gift shop and cafe (where Kelsey's has been since the 90s), The Yard pub (became the Rathskeller Pub in the late 60s, then Rumors Nightclub in the 80s, now divided up into multiple things like the relocated Kelsey's bathrooms and Zombie Attack) and the Ripley's Believe It or Not! Museum downstairs. Ripley's leased the space from Welland Securities (present day HOCO), making it Welland Securities' first attraction technically, even if they didn't run or own it. It was the second attraction in the Ripley company's popular chain of "Odditoriums", predated only by the original St. Augustine, Florida location.
The museum would be a mixture of a sideshow, wax museum, and science exhibit showcasing strange, unique, or exotic "believe it or not" facts. It's wax figures and elaborate displays were created by the art department at Ripley's International, who provided fantastic theming and environments to accompany the oddities on display. There was a wide variety featured within including strange artifacts (and replicas of them), unique works of art, interactive scientific dioramas, and illusions. The building was packed, touting over 550 exhibits. Some of these included a replica of the Lincoln Memorial built out of 10,000 Lincoln pennies, Japanese swords amongst other items in an Oriental Room, the burial of a fly, the world's smallest violin, a shrunken head, the tree that spouted water, and recreations of various headstones in an elaborate graveyard scene. There was also a guitar, fiddle, and bicycle made out of matchsticks, as well as a replica of the fictional medieval torture device the "Iron Maiden" which guests could stand in (although it didn't do any impaling.) Some of the wax exhibits included Liu Ch'ung The Double-Eyed Man, Robert Ripley himself in a Ripley Room, The Woman Who Flew, The Man With a Hole in His Head, and the tomb of Chang T'ung the Human Candlestick who's mummified body served as a candle holder for 261 years.
Re-creation of the Tomb of Chang T'ung as seen on this mid-60's brochure cover.
1963 postcard of the Lincoln Memorial model built entirely out of Lincoln pennies.
The attraction was instantly successful and was one of the first in the area, drastically contributing to not only the growth of Clifton Hill and it's character, but also to the growth of the Ripley company who would go on to turn the museums into a global chain after the Niagara location's success. It wasn't the first attraction on The Hill however with that title going to Tussaud's in 1959, and the Antique Auto Museum had opened around the corner on Falls Ave. in 1962. That being said, it did wonders for building Clifton Hill's unique charm, and was the second attraction on The Hill and the first considerably up it, with Tussaud's being located at the bottom and Ripley's at the very top. This greatly improved traffic up The Hill, as tourists who wanted to experience the museum were now traversing the entire street to see the attraction even if they weren't guests in any of the motels along it.
A 1964 T.V. episode of the John Bradshaw Show on Hamilton's CHCH-TV showcased many of the scenes and displays in the museum, but like many of the television episodes, specials and commercials related to most attractions discussed on this site, the episode remains lost media. Due to the age of the episode it will likely never be found, as that was long before home off-air recordings existed and many TV stations (especially small local ones) erased and re-used their tapes at that time, as it was before historical preservation was thought about.
The Graveyard, 1963.
The Oriental Room (Left) and Robert Ripley himself (Right) in 1963.
Exhibits were constantly updated, but major changes came in the early-70s to keep up with more attention-grabbing attractions that had popped up like The House of Frankenstein and Castle Dracula. These updates included a disorienting walk-through vortex tunnel, builder of the Great Wall of China Chin Shih Huang Ti, an ancestor skull from New Guinea, a "Catacombs" section, the animated candy machine used in the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and several more detailed wax displays like Little Jack Homer and the "babes in the woods". A "floating tap" illusion fountain was also constructed in the attraction's lobby at this time and designed by local artist Derek Costello, who may have done more work for the attraction as well including some of the wax figures listed above. A large billboard-style neon sign was also placed on the building's roof in 1974.
Little Jack Homer, mid 70's.
A somewhat embarrassing incident for the Ripley company occurred in 1980 when a visitor to the Niagara museum successfully solved a block puzzle he had seen at the museum after two years and four months. The museum had touted that it would take "all the people on the Earth working day and night for a million years" for the blocks to be arranged in every possible combination, however the guest in question, who was a math teacher, proved otherwise. After his calculations were confirmed by computer, the display, which was featured in every Ripley's location at the time, had to be promptly removed from all of them.
The 80's would see further updates as the Ripley's brand became
more known for their attractions than the source books and T.V.
show that inspired them. The building was remodeled in 1985
when Rumors Nightclub replaced the Rathskeller pub upstairs and
the upstairs windows were removed. The new sign for the attraction, which would be added in addition to the pre-existing rooftop billboard, would appear to be running through the corner of the building. These unique facades would become a staple of the Ripley's Odditoriums all over the world. The lobby would also now feature an animatronic robot at a "broken pipe" fountain. The fountain reused elements of the floating tap, and the robot may have ironically been another piece by Costello, although this isn't confirmed. One large shred of evidence in that direction however is it's resemblance to the fully programmable T-100 Terminator he later built in his garage for Halloween, but that's another story for another time.
Lady Elizabeth Raleigh presents her (ex)husband's head in the Catacombs, 1977.
Top Left: The "Floating Tap" before the addition of the junkyard robot. Above: The re-themed fountain with the towering robot. Bottom Left: The remodeled attraction with Rumours Nightclub above.
Moving in a more "world record" direction, the museum did away with some of the cultural artifacts and replicas as the world became more connected, and certain items no longer held the exotic allure they once did. While still containing several of those elements to this day, the museum began to move more in the direction of "world's smallest", "world's largest", "world's only" sort of displays. Strange taxidermy also became a staple of the attraction such as the legendary "Fiji Mermaids" the chain became known for, and the "Two Headed Calf" which became somewhat of a mascot for the Niagara location. A shooting gallery was also added inside the actual attraction, and a large arcade replaced most of the gift shop. Owner of the Ripley's company Jim Pattison along with the mayor attended the official ribbon cutting for the remodeled attraction on June 10th, 1987.
The 1987 ribbon cutting for the updated attraction.
The mysterious "Fiji Mermaid" in the early 2000's.
Ripley's, who owned Tussaud's by that time and had moved the Ripley's International art department to above that attraction, even got up to some cross-promotion when a figure of O.J. Simpson (promoted as "The Greatest Running-Back of All Time!") was placed in Ripley's next to a plaque discussing his sports records. This was of course complete with a large sign reading "Wax figure courtesy of Louis Tussaud's English Wax Museum. Before leaving Niagara Falls be sure to visit this... WORLD FAMOUS ATTRACTION." And then, in somehow even larger text: "DOWN THE HILL." This scene probably aged about as well as milk, and was (understandably) removed in the early-90s for obvious reasons. Perhaps it would have been better suited for a "Believe Him or Not" museum.
The horribly aged O.J. exhibit in 1977.
Above and beside: Shots of the arcade in 1999.
The attraction was extensively remodeled again in November/December of 2003 and into spring 2004, debuting in time for the tourist season that same year. The billboard sign on the roof installed in 1974 was removed, as was the sign through the building's corner. The facade would now be a massive replica of the Empire State Building turned on its side, with the antenna atop the building extending out over the street. A giant fiberglass King Kong was now standing on the structure, and a sideways helicopter with spinning blades was sitting on a landing pad. A sign resembling the original billboard formerly upright on the building's roof was placed sideways at the top of the toppled Empire State Building. The remodel also saw the edition of an animatronic worker climbing a rope up and down the side of the building. Also added were many comically destressed fiberglass characters hanging off, and even upturned cars and soil at the far side of the building where the toppled skyscraper's uprooted foundation would be. One of the pillars in the lobby's entrance was even disguised as a crushed phone booth the building had fallen on. With the new update also came the removal of the arcade in favor of the "Wax Zone" counter selling wax casts of customer's hands.
Above: Removal of the iconic sign in 2003. Top right: The attraction 2002 before the remodel. Bottom right: The totally changed building following the extensive the remodel as seen in the early 2010's
The animatronic lobby band, 2010.
The impressive new facade was accompanied by a completely overhauled interior focusing more on interactivity and education. Many of the wax displays and darker areas (both thematically and literally) were removed at this time. The lobby robot would eventually be removed in 2010 while the fountain would remain. Instead of the robot, the lobby would now feature an animatronic show of sideshow performers singing current pop songs, located at the front facing the road into Comfort Inn (formerly Park Motor Hotel.) This new show (of admittedly debatable tastefulness) would feature the Three-Legged Man (loosely based on Francesco Lentini) on banjo, The World's Smallest Man (based on world's then-smallest man Chandra Bahadur Dangi) playing the bars of his cage, and a depiction of a woman of the Myanmar Padaung Tribe playing her neck extension bracket like a xylophone.
The museum would close at the end of the 2015 season (after the attached Comfort Inn/former Park Motor Hotel had been torn down), and reopened on May 20th, 2016. The new version of the attraction would be modernized even further inside and out, and gone was the questionably-ethical animatronic band in the lobby (which had seen better days in recent years anyway) in favor of a much more Ripley's-esque display. The new animatronics, located in the front window facing Clifton Hill, are an elderly man in a replica of a vintage coin-operated car ride name the (self-aware) "Sonic Animatronic Flyer", with a large snail on the hood. His friend, an equally-elderly turtle standing on a nearby crate, holds a fan and blows wind in the man's face, as if to give him the sensation of speed. The random, sarcastic, zany nature of the display perfectly encapsulates the spirit of the Ripley's brand.
The Sonic Animatronic Flyer that inhabits the lobby today.
The facade was also repainted at the time, and the side facing Clifton Hill extensively remolded since Rumors Nightclub had been removed in 2015. The former stairs up to it were now gone, and the space formerly home to the bar was now home to Kelsey's new bathrooms and Zombie Attack, both of which are accessed from elsewhere. This allowed for the first floor of the building to expand to where the stairs had previously sat, this being the front window the new animatronics are displayed in. The fountain in the lobby was removed, however. The remodel also saw the removal of the wax hand casting counter in exchange for a re-expanded gift shop.
The attraction as it's appeared since the removal of Rumours upstairs in 2015.
An attraction like Ripley's is bound to change constantly as world records are set and broken, what's shocking or entertaining changes, and what's considered taboo becomes no longer (or becomes too taboo to continue to display.) Despite all the changes, updates, and remodels over the years, Ripley's continues to be one of Clifton Hill's most popular attractions. It paved the way for Clifton Hill's wacky personality, and other than Tussaud's (which Ripley's also owns) is currently the only other member of Niagara's sixth decade club of attractions who have been entertaining guests for over 60 years. It's also still in it's original location whereas Tussaud's has since moved to Victoria Ave., making it the oldest Niagara attraction in its original location and the oldest on Clifton Hill, Believe It... or Not.