Banana Museum

It all started at one of the photographer's forums in 1972, when Ken Bannister, then a representative of the photo agency, handed out banana Chiquita stickers to passers-by. This was done, he said, for a noble purpose – to attract people's attention and make them smile. His joke was that because a banana is shaped like a smile, it can encourage people to do so.
Shortly thereafter Bannister by mail began to send various attributes associated with bananas. Inspired by his unusual image, Ken began to call himself Bananaster, or TB (Top Banana) and founded the first ever International Banana Club.
The logical consequence of the club's work to collect banana symbols, artifacts and everything related to this fruit was the opening of the International Banana Club Museum in 1976.
Today, the museum houses about 17,000 banana items. The exhibits were, for example, a gold sequined banana by Michael Jackson and the only fossilized banana in the world. The museum is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as a world record holder in the category "the largest collection in the world dedicated to a single fruit".
The club membership fee is fixed at $ 15. Each member, like the founder of the Bananaster club, can come up with his own unique nickname, under which he will be known by the rest of the members. The more a member of the club multiplies the glory of the club and the number of exhibits in the museum, the higher his reputation. The pinnacle, sought by every active Bannister, is the degree Benedictional Doctor.
In fact, the club strives to make its members smile as often as possible. And, by the way, the International Banana Club boasts that such famous personalities as comedian Jay Leno and former US President Ronald Reagan have been in its ranks.
Bananaster placed the entire collection on eBay for $ 45,000. In the end, he had to lower the price to $ 7,500. In 2010, Fred Garbut bought the collection for an undisclosed sum, moved it to Mecca, and became the new curator; it was reported that Bananaster agreed to a purchase price below $ 7,500.

More information about the Banana Museum: http://www.bananamuseum.com
Official website of the Banana Museum: https://bananaclub.com/

Author: 

Alex

Last modified: 

Jan 2021

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