Fifty Years for THE BANANA CLUB!
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HE INTERNATIONAL BANANA CLUB celebrates its FIFTIETH year in 2022! See the web site at BananaClub.com for history and events through the years. This is an amazing feat considering the clubs purpose is to just keep everyone smiling, get more attention and stay in good health. Back in 1972, the self proclaimed Top Banana Ken Bannister, started the bunch by simply handing out Chiquita Banana stickers at photographic trade shows to affix to I D badges . His secretary gave him a 10,000 count roll of Chiquita banana stickers that her Stevedore husband gave her. He carried that roll of stickers in his briefcase to trade shows and assured all those attendees that they would get more attention and discounts if they simply put that sticker on their person and smiled while asking politely. He also offered everyone an opportunity to get either a M.B. (Master of Bananistry) degree or a PhB (Doctor of Bananistry degree) by simply sending things in good taste to do with bananas to him at his office in Southern CA. He offered them B.M.’s (Banana Merits) for all contributions and members kept track. Before long, the “Banana Man” (as he became known) Ken had to rent a storefront in his hometown of Altadena, CA to display all the banana submissions which became known around the world as the International Banana Club Museum. Items totaled over 17,000 and was a site to see at this location for over 35 years, then to Hesperia, CA. It was a Guinness Book record and documented in the 2005 Golden Anniversary edition. The Club and Museum has been featured on over 100 TV shows around the world and Ken and the collection were featured and included in all major newspapers and magazines around the world via 12 press agencies. T.B. Ken was a feature guest of Jay Leno on the Tonight show and featured in People magazine.
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With some 35,000 card carrying members in 27 different countries, the club goes on! Over the years, the club conducted successful, fun B.C. Picnic and Games, we marched in parades from the first Doo Dah in Pasadena to the Fulton Kentucky Banana Festival. T.B. Ken gave lectures across the U.S. as as President of a photo manufacturing company and always included the many health benefits of bananas and benefits of being a member of the club. All this and just for fun at no profit. See the BananaClub.com web site.
OF THE DESERT THEPULSE HIGH
