Ripley’s Believe It or Not is internationally famous for its museums of unique and peculiar items, but its headquarters, including the warehouse where all the oddities are stored when they’re not on display, is located right here in Orlando. The company’s vice president of exhibits and archives tells us all about shrunken heads, fertility statues and more, all to be found in the Ripley catalog.

Edward Meyer started at Ripley Entertainment when the company was still located in Toronto, Canada. He was a summer intern whose primary job was to digitize the catalog of cartoons that the company still produces every day. Today, he is the vice president of exhibits and archives, and his job is to search the world for unbelievable items and buy them for display in one of some 30 museums, which the company calls “odditoriums.”

We caught up with Meyer to discuss his peculiar gig, to find out the most expensive item he’s ever purchased and how he became an expert in identifying authentic shrunken heads.

What is your favorite part of this job?
Meeting the people that have the “Believe It or Not.” Whether they’re telling me about it, whether they’ve made it,  whether their aunt Frida made it. The people are usually as least as interesting as the thing. And quite often, more interesting.

For example, Patrick Acton of Gladbrook, Iowa, makes everything and anything out of matchsticks. I love his art. The matchstick models are spectacular. But try to get inside the head of the guy who spends his life making things out of matchsticks. It’s way more interesting than anything he actually makes. He has now made out of 960,000 matchsticks the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars. The thought process that goes into doing something like that; I mean it’s a fabulous Believe It or Not.

How do you obtain most of Ripley’s oddities?
I tell you the best stuff finds us. Someone like Patrick Acton. He lives in a  tiny little town. I would never hear about him. You know, he makes front page in his newspaper, it’s still not going to hit Florida. He needs someone near him [to go], “You should call Ripley’s.” That’s the best stuff. The history, the expensive stuff, typically we’re buying it at auctions.

What is the most expensive item you’ve ever bought?
Marilyn Monroe: J.F.K sequin dress. Five million bucks. The second most expensive thing: John Lennon’s Rolls-Royce.

Do people ever try to sell you things that are not legitimate?
It doesn’t happen a lot. Shrunken heads is the single best example. They think they have a real shrunken head. They have read somewhere that a shrunken head is worth $10,000 or $20,000 or today even $100,000. So they got dollar signs  in their eyes. They think it’s real and I’ve broken many a heart. I would say I’m one of the two or three world experts on shrunken heads. I can tell if it’s real or fake instantly. The average person can’t.

I read that the famous Winter Park sink hole was the inspiration for the design of the Orlando “odditorium.” Is that true?
A couple of years before we built the museum here, we did a cartoon on what then was the world’s biggest sinkhole, which was in Winter Park. So when we came to build a museum in Orlando — and we’re known for our iconic what I call “destruction architecture,” you know, things that look like they shouldn’t— we said, “Well, why don’t we build a building that looks like it’s   slipping into a sinkhole.”

And so that [sinkhole] in Winter Park was the inspiration. Our building is on a slant because buildings fall into holes here and in this part of Florida, which is pretty amazing to anybody that doesn’t live here.

Dealing with theft is an unfortunate part of your job. Can you think of any specific items that have been stolen that you wish you could get back?
Nineteen forty-one: Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees hit in 56 straight games. Never been done. Nobody’s been close 70 years later. In my mind, it is the single greatest sports record. I never got to see DiMaggio play but [he’s] one of the true greats. That record is in my mind the single greatest record of all time. We had one of  the bats that was used in that streak. A nicely framed, autographed bat. [It was] number, I think it was, 15 of the 42. And it was stolen from our museum in New York City. … Broke my heart.

To be honest with you, the No. 1 theft we have is the pistol out of vampire killing kits. The No. 2 theft we have is the entire vampire killing kit. So some people are happy just to get the antique gun. Some people want the whole thing. It scares the daylights out of me to think that there are people running around with a 150-year-old gun playing with it. And they don’t have serial numbers on them, so we’ll never get them back.

I read that you are into ancient history. I imagine  that plays a factor in what you are personally interested in buying.  

Mummies and dinosaurs. I am a little boy at heart, 62-year-old little boy [who] still loves mummies and dinosaurs. And what a great thrill in my life that I’ve been able to buy a real dinosaur and a real mummy. I certainly didn’t dream about that when I was 8.

Can you tell us about the famous fertility statue exhibit?
It is our all-time most popular exhibit. I say that with absolutely 100 percent confidence. We have toured it four times around the world. People line up to see it. We get telephone calls and emails virtually every day asking where is it now and when is it coming to my town.

And it all it all started here. They were originally  in this office and we had so many  people wanting to come and see them here that it was disrupting  business and we said, “Let’s put it in the museum.” And it was an overnight success in the Orlando museum. We said, “Well, maybe we’ve got to take this to every museum.” And it went from Orlando to St. Augustine to San Antonio, Texas. And in those first three locations, we probably had a couple million visitors. And so it just kept going. And we’ve taken them off tour a couple times [thinking], “Oh surely, people are tired of this. Let’s retire it.” And a couple weeks later people are crying like, “Why did you put it in a warehouse? Bring it to Atlantic City.”

Can you explain the ancient legend behind the statues?
Two statues. One is a lady.  One is a man. Put ’em in a doorway. You walk through the doorway into presumably the bedroom and you’re going to get pregnant.

Do people want to see the exhibit because they’re trying to conceive?
Absolutely. One-hundred percent. They come to touch the statues hoping they’re going to get pregnant. Now there is absolutely zero scientific background here. Zero. But it’s all about belief. If you believe in something strong enough, there’s a good chance it will come true. And these don’t hurt. Fertility is a very touchy subject that people spend thousands of dollars on. And for some people, we’re the first people they visit. For some people, we’re the last. But if they want a child, they’ll try anything. And this is free. We never charge for   them. We always put them in the front lobby. You can come in, touch it and walk right back out.

Do many people say that the statues are what got them pregnant?
We stopped keeping track. We had like 3,000 people claim that these statues got them pregnant. And I’m not careful the way I phrase that because some people really made it sound like there was no man involved. So, [the statues] are still traveling. They were here until recently but they are now in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. I’m not sure where they’re going next but we have a schedule and they move every couple of months.

This article originally appeared in Orlando Family Magazine’s April 2018 issue.