Company type | Subsidiary |
---|---|
Founded | 1918 |
Headquarters | Orlando, Florida |
Key people | Jim Pattison (CEO) |
Parent | Jim Pattison Group |
Divisions | Ripley Publishing |
Ripley Entertainment Inc. is an entertainment and edutainment holding company owned by the Jim Pattison Group of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The company has its headquarters in an unincorporated part of southern Orange County, Florida, near Orlando, at an office complex near the intersection of Sand Lake Road and John Young Parkway. [1]
Originating with a small daily newspaper cartoon drawn by Robert Ripley, which debuted in 1918, the company now operates more than 90 attractions under a dozen brands worldwide.
The daily Believe It or Not! cartoon that catapulted Ripley to fame in the 1920s is still printed and runs in hundreds of newspapers in more than 40 countries and in dozens of languages.
The 32 Ripley's Believe It or Not! museums that house its signature collection of oddities in various countries have received more than 100 million visitors since 1933. [2]
Ripley Entertainment Inc. established Ripley Publishing Ltd to produce the Ripley's Believe It or Not Annual and other books.
A wax museum or waxworks usually consists of a collection of wax sculptures representing famous people from history and contemporary personalities exhibited in lifelike poses, wearing real clothes.
Madame Tussauds is a wax museum founded in London in 1835 by the French wax sculptor Marie Tussaud. One of the early main attractions was the Chamber of Horrors, which appeared in advertising in 1843.
The cownose ray is a species of Batoidea found throughout a large part of the western Atlantic and Caribbean, from New England to southern Brazil. These rays also belong to the order Myliobatiformes, a group that is shared by bat rays, manta rays, and eagle rays.
Ripley's Believe It or Not! is an American franchise founded by Robert Ripley, which deals in bizarre events and items so strange and unusual that readers might question the claims. Originally a newspaper panel, the Believe It or Not feature proved popular and was later adapted into a wide variety of formats, including radio, television, comic books, a chain of museums, and a book series.
LeRoy Robert Ripley was an American cartoonist, entrepreneur, and amateur anthropologist, who is known for creating the Ripley's Believe It or Not! newspaper panel series, television show, and radio show, which feature odd facts from around the world.
The Grand Strand is an arc of beach land on the Atlantic Ocean in South Carolina, United States, extending more than 60 miles (97 km) from Little River to Winyah Bay. It is located in Horry and Georgetown Counties on the northeastern South Carolina coast.
The Jim Pattison Group is a Canadian conglomerate based in Vancouver. In a recent survey by the Financial Post, the firm was ranked as Canada's 62nd largest company. Jim Pattison, a Vancouver-based entrepreneur, is the chairman, CEO, and sole owner of the company. The Jim Pattison Group, Canada's second largest privately held company, has more than 45,000 employees worldwide, and annual sales of $10.1 billion based on investments in Canada, the U.S., Mexico, Europe, Asia and Australia. The Group is active in 25 divisions, according to Forbes, including packaging, food, forestry products.
Clifton Hill is one of the major tourist promenades in Niagara Falls, Ontario. The street, close to Niagara Falls and the Niagara River, leads from River Road on the Niagara Parkway to intersect with Victoria Avenue, and contains a number of gift shops, wax museums, haunted houses, video arcades, restaurants, hotels and themed attractions. It is a major amusement area and centre for night life, particularly for families and teenagers.
Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville is a United States–based hospitality company that manages and franchises a casual dining American restaurant chain, retail stores selling Jimmy Buffett-themed merchandise, and hotels.
The Hollywood Wax Museum is a wax museum featuring replicas of celebrities located on Hollywood Boulevard in the tourist district in Hollywood in Los Angeles, California. The replicas on display include A-List stars as well as classic entertainers.
The Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) is an international non-profit association that represents creators, developers, designers and producers of themed entertainment. It is also noted for its THEA Awards, which were founded in 1995 and are distributed annually in a range of themed entertainment categories.
Herschend Family Entertainment (HFE) is a privately owned themed-entertainment company that operates several theme parks and tourist attractions within the United States, and as of 2021, one aquarium in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Louis Joseph Kenny Tussaud (1869–1938) was a great-grandson of Marie Tussaud, creator of the Madame Tussauds wax museums. He worked at Madame Tussauds museum as a wax figure sculptor but left when his brother John Theodore Tussaud became chief artist and manager of the museum after a limited company was formed in 1888 and sold in 1889. The main shareholder was Edwin Josiah Poyser.
Merlin Entertainments Limited is a British entertainment company based at Poole in Dorset, England, which operates a number of theme parks and other tourist attractions. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange until November 2019, when it was acquired by a consortium that includes Kirkbi A/S.
Ripley's Haunted Adventure is a tourist attraction brand owned by Ripley Entertainment, known for its Ripley's Believe It or Not! franchise and located along commercial strips and mostly in resort cities. All but one location is in the United States.
The World of the Unexplained were two museums, opened in 1972 by Ripley's Believe It or Not!, one at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco and one in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, originally called the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic.
The Hollywood Wax Museum is a two-story wax museum featuring replicas of celebrities located on Highway 76 in Branson, Missouri.
The Hollywood Wax Museum is a two-story wax museum in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. It features replicas of celebrities in film, television and music. The Tennessee museum was originally located in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.