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> If ghosts exist, Norbert Pearlroth’smight likely haunt the reading room ofthe New York Public Library. It is therethat he spent 52 years digging for oddfacts and bizarre trivia to publish inRipley’s Believe it or Not!, the popularnewspaper panel series syndicated inpublications around the world.

Born in Austria on May 7, 1893,Pearlroth originally intended to becomea lawyer. But his studies in Poland were

interrupted by the outbreak of WorldWar I. And so in 1920 he moved toAmerica, where he settled in Brooklyn,N.Y., and took a job working in a bank.Then, in 1923, he learned from a friendthat Robert LeRoy Ripley—who wasalready having success as a cartoonistand travel journalist—was lookingfor a linguist who could read foreignnewspapers and compile informationfor his syndicated Believe it or Not!

cartoon series in the now-defunctNew York Globe.

Pearlroth, who spoke 14 languages,got the job.

BY LAUREN GLENN

For 52 years, an obscure researcher tirelessly dug upthe bizarre facts that put ‘Ripley’s’ on the map

Believe it or Not!

PROFILE/

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For 10 hours a day, six days a week,for 52 consecutive years, Pearlrothpored over books, constantly on aquest for the kinds of oddities that con-tributed to Ripley’s success as a collec-tor and exhibitor of all things bizarre.“He would spend a great deal of timewith the card catalog and then sit inthe reading room with these books forwhat seemed like days,” CatherineMarquard, a supervising librarian atthe New York City Library, told TheNew York Times.

Much of Ripley’s brand—includinghis famous insistence that he could pro-vide evidence for all of his far-fetchedfacts and unlikely exhibits—was tied upin Pearlroth’s indefatigable research. Staffat the library estimated that Pearlrothexamined 7,000 books each year—andmore than 350,000 during his career. Hisefforts more than paid off, with Ripley’spublication garnering some 80 million

readers around the world.“Everyone has always believed that

all of this information was found [by]wandering the world,” Pearlroth’s sonArthur told The New York Times, in hisfather’s obituary. “But it was reallyfound on 42nd Street and Fifth Avenueat the Main Library.”

But even as the Ripley brand grewinto a multimillion-dollar industry—with books, museums and radio andtelevision features—Pearlroth remainedcomparatively low-key. Married formore than 50 years, Pearlroth took thesubway every day from Brooklyn to hisManhattan office, where he workeduntil noon answering the thousands ofletters that arrived weekly. After a quick30-minute lunch, it was off to the NewYork Public Library, where he oftenworked until close to 10 p.m. He nevermissed his Friday deadline and notori-ously worked weeks ahead of schedule.

After Ripley’s death from a heartattack in 1949, Believe it or Not! waspurchased by King Features Syndicate,whose editors required that Pearlrothsubmit 24 items every week. On theside, he also wrote a weekly newspapercolumn, “Your Name,” about the originsof Jewish names, for the Jewish Post ofNew York.

Although Pearlroth never missed adeadline, King Features replaced him in1975. He continued to contribute as afreelancer, despite receiving no pension orroyalties from the many Ripley collectionsand reprints that sold in the millions.(Ripley himself left Pearlroth a bequest of$5,000 and paid for his son’s schooling.)

On April 25, 1983, the man whohimself could have been the subject ofa “Believe it or Not!” for his unflaggingwork ethic and tireless pursuit ofthe bizarre, died of heart and kidneydisease. He was 90 years old.