To All,
This is the second in a series of e-mails that recognizes those who have been important in the history of fruit. Today it's hats off to Chiquita Banana. In my e-mail of October 12, I asserted that Carmen Miranda was the first lady of fruit. A sizable contingent would dispute that claim and say that the honor belongs to Chiquita Banana. (The debate gets into deep issues since Carmen was the inspiration for Chiquita, but we will not go into these philosophical questions since the Fruit Explorer is impatient with subtleties. I reject as absurd the competing theory that Josephine Baker https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmw5eGh888Y was the inspiration for Chiquita.)
Chiquita was born in 1944 when, to popularize what was at the time an exotic fruit, United Fruit produced the first Chiquita Banana commercial. This commercial played in movie theaters, and you can watch it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFDOI24RRAE. (Do not miss this foundational document of western civilization.) Chiquita was drawn by Dik Browne, later prominent as the creator of the comic strip, "Hagar the Horrible." Two stills from the original cartoon are shown below.
The goal of the cartoon was to teach Americans how to eat bananas, e.g., don't eat until brown spots appear and don't put them in the fridge. The opening words of the original jingle are:
I'm Chiquita banana and I've come to say - Bananas have to ripen in a certain way - When they are fleck'd with brown and have a golden hue - Bananas taste the best and are best for you - You can put them in a salad - You can put them in a pie-aye - Any way you want to eat them - It's impossible to beat them - But, bananas like the climate of the very, very tropical equator - So you should never put bananas in the refrigerator.
To educate the United States public in the versatility of bananas, next came a series of four Chiquita Banana cartoons, also shown in movie theaters, that featured recipes for banana jello at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmeEILEBltM, banana scallops at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icZ_gzXR-ig, banana cream pie at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQpC-nTNq_Q, and baked banana at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lnVcSsAycM. These cartoons embody the attitudes of the 1940s and are not always pleasant to watch today.
The original jingle was so popular that a Hollywood short was made with expanded lyrics in which the Terry twins did the singing and dancing. You can watch it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0A834CwzNHI; a still is below. I conjecture that no other advertising jingle has ever been made into a Hollywood short. Perhaps my far-flung readers will be able to provide a counterexample to this conjecture.
This jingle has also been featured in numerous parodies (many of them concocted by me on the spur of the moment and now lost in the sands of time), with a recent one being Chiquita Obama at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xG5fTbLaRZM. (I give this link only for completeness; I do not recommend it on the grounds that it is not entertaining.) For a modern treatment of the jingle, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4kWSQBqeL0&index=23&list=PL3F05341FC8C75B1D. The jingle, as well as the official Chiquita web site http://www.chiquita.com/Our-Company/The-Chiquita-Story/Miss-Chiquita.aspx, confirms that her name is Chiquita Banana, not Chiquita the Banana as I erroneously thought for decades.
(On a related topic, the name "Smokey the Bear" has been changed by the authorities to "Smokey Bear;" the latter name is now used in all the ads. This is unfortunate since the discarded name is enshrined in the song: "Smokey the Bear, Smokey the Bear, howlin' and a growlin' and a'sniffin' the air/He can find a fire before it starts to flame/That's why they call him Smokey, that was how he got his name." Actually, he got his name because he was a bear cub recovered from a burned-over landscape after a forest fire. (At least, that is what I always thought. Wikipedia informs me that I have fallen for a fiction. God damn that Internet, always destroying the illusions of childhood. There was such a cub who was named Smokey, but he was found in in 1950, six years after Smokey was invented) You can find the 1952 Eddy Arnold version of the song at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goEozOAQ6yI. Those who wanted to drop the "the" from his name went so far as to pass the Smokey Bear Act of 1952 (16 U.S.C. 580 (p-2); 18 U.S.C. 711) to accomplish their purpose. Yes, there are fanatics in every arena of life. Also, in 2001, the slogan, "Only you can prevent forest fires," was changed to, "Only you can prevent wildfires." I guess this is because of the growing importance of grassfires and the fires in California that burn houses. Perhaps my nephew, Erik the fireman, can comment on this. A coincidence is that Smokey and Chiquita both made their debuts in 1944. It was a very good year. We can debate who is the most successful long-lived cartoon advertising spokesman--Chiquita, Smokey, or some other figure. There is lots more here, but since I am not the Bear Explorer, I will get back to the topic.)
Chiquita became an immediate national celebrity; her popularity seems to have been driven by the same hunger for fruit that sent Carmen Miranda to the top of the charts. Chiquita made guest appearances on radio shows hosted by Fred Allen, Charlie McCarthy, and Bert Lahr. She even appeared with Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops. Over the years the public began to think of Chiquita as a real person, so in 1987 her image was changed into a human figure by Oscar Grillo, creator of the Pink Panther. (Keep in mind that these people who could not distinguish between a banana and a real person are also the voters who elect our President.) In 1994 Chiquita made a "Good Will, Good Nutrition" tour and gave a banana to everyone she met. 2001 saw the Chiquita Perfect for Life tour. Most of these facts come from the official Chiquita web site, which calls her "the indisputable the first lady of fruit." Here is a picture of the human Chiquita as well as a half-fruit, half-human hybrid.
The familiar blue Chiquita stickers were first placed on bananas in 1963 as an attempt to differentiate the Chiquita Banana from other brands. It is claimed that since machines tend to bruise the delicate fruit, every sticker is placed by hand. Here is a sampling of the many stickers used over the years.
Parodies of these stickers have become popular. In fact, the first picture below suggests that there is some kind of a site or app that allows you to design your own sticker. If you have a dynamite idea for a sticker, you might be excited to hear that you can submit it in a contest and win big bucks at http://investors.chiquita.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=119836&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1463353. Don't get too excited. The contest is over, and the eighteen winners are shown below, along with a few of the multitude of parodies. (It is sometimes difficult to distinguish a real sticker from a parody.)
Mystery: The ads from the 1960s show (see picture below, from http://www.chiquita.com/Our-Company/The-Chiquita-Story/Commercials-Ads.aspx) the human Chiquita, which supposedly was not created until 1987. I will leave the resolution of this mystery to Chiquita scholars.
Ebay is replete with Chiquita memorabilia at http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_sop=7&_nkw=chiquita+stickers&_frs=1.
Here's your party tip. Play the Chiquita theme several times to fix its tune in the minds of your guests. Then give them the opportunity to compose parodies that give Chiquita's take on the issues of the day. If they are slow getting started, you can prompt them by supplying them with topics that could benefit from Chiquita's insights.
- World problems such as global warming ("I'm Chiquita Banana and if the world gets hot/Then our ecosystem will be totally shot").
- Technological issues such as how at the end of a vexing conversation on a cell phone one cannot do a satisfying slam ("I'm Chiquita Banana and if they get your goat/Pocket your phone and go straight for the throat").
- Public service announcements
- "I'm Chiquita Banana and I'm here to explain/Working jigsaw puzzles is good for the brain."
- "I'm Chiquita Banana and I want to make it clear/Don't hit the road if you're too drunk to steer."
- "I'm Chiquita Banana and you won't tear your hair/If you get to the airport with two hours to spare."
- "I'm Chiquita Banana and I hate to bore/But your auto MPG has got to be more."
- "I'm Chiquita Banana and I say it is a sin/If you don't fill up your recycle bin."
- "I'm Chiquita Banana and I always explode/When I see litter tossed by the side of the road."
- "I'm Chiquita Banana, be sure to wash each hand/Or flu will spread all over the land."
- "I'm Chiquita Banana and I have got the answer/At your first chance do a dance against cancer."
- "I'm Chiquita Banana and you must not forget/To open your home to a rescue pet."
- "I'm Chiquita Banana and I hope you do have time/To apply bug spray to avoid getting Lyme."
- "I'm Chiquita Banana and to keep bad health at bay/Take a vigorous walk every day."
- "I'm Chiquita Banana, you'll be safe from harm/If you put in every room a smoke alarm."
- "I'm Chiquita Banana and this do not ignore/Eat less fat or death rates will soar."
- New activities ("I'm Chiquita Banana and I'm over the moon/Ever since my first trip in a hot air balloon" or "I'm Chiquita Banana and now I am able/To enjoy myself ever since I got cable").
(I have gone heavy on public service announcements since in my view this is the area where Chiquita should concentrate her influence.) Video your guests as they sing and dance their parodies, and upload the composite video to YouTube. When you get up the following morning and check your computer; you will find that your party is trending. Perhaps this will launch some of your guests into lucrative careers as Chiquita impersonators.
In an attempt to escape its unsavory image and to associate itself with its wholesome, potassium-powered pitchwoman, United Fruit, which had changed its name to United Brands in 1970, changed its name again to Chiquita Brands in 1984. I might cover the era of the banana republic in a later e-mail.
I close with miscellaneous Chiquita pictures.
- I had no idea it was so easy to build a banana split, the most celebrated dessert. An alternative party tip is to give a banana split party where each guest customizes his/her own banana split.
- Three days after this picture was taken, there was a huge banana disposal problem. Maybe they let the homeless forage. I can see the homeless fleeing the site with shopping carts loaded with bananas, which they traded for bottles of Ripple.
- This is a must-acquisition for Pepe's hat collection.
- Here we have a hybrid between Chiquita and Josephine Baker.
- Paul should adopt this shirt for stylish cycling.
- Bad news for Anne: 22 August 2014 was the deadline to enter the contest to win a Chiquita Banana putter; see http://www.golfshopradio.com/greenys-blog/chiquita-putter-club-contest/. Think what a conversation piece it would be on the golf course. This putter was a tie-in with the golf tournament sponsored by Chiquita Brands; see http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/golf/2012-01-11-1351841447_x.htm. One Chiquita putter was given away every month for six months, but I can't find one on Ebay; apparently they are being hoarded while their value appreciates.
