The International Banana Club: One Appealing Museum

Travel Blog  •  Joanna Kakissis  •  05.16.08 | 3:40 AM ET

imageJames Frey may have redeemed his fake-memoir self with his latest book, at least according to a rave review by Janet Maslin of The New York Times. But I’m more interested in Frey’s (random?) nod to an L.A.-area museum devoted entirely to bananas.

Maslin mentioned it only in passing and not by name in her review, but since I haven’t read the book yet, I’m going to have to guess that it’s a reference to the 32-year-old International Banana Club and Museum,  now located in Hesperia and home to the “world’s most famous petrified banana.”

It’s not the only banana museum around—Seattle and Martinique, among others, have celebrated bananas—but it claims to be the “world’s first and largest banana museum,” and it’s the only one I can identify in Southern California.

Top Banana Ken Bannister even wears a banana suit.

Photo by marshall astor - food pornographer via Flickr (Creative Commons).

Tags: Food, Tres Loco, North America, United States, California, News and Briefs

Joanna Kakissis's writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe and The Washington Post, among other publications. A contributor to the World Hum blog, she's currently a Ted Scripps fellow in environmental journalism at the University of Colorado in Boulder.


2 Comments for The International Banana Club: One Appealing Museum

John M. Edwards 05.16.08 | 7:20 AM ET

Hi Joanna:

This adds new meaning to a double-barrelled shotgun wedding?

John M. Edwards

Ling 05.17.08 | 11:30 AM ET

Yeah. James Frey was doing book signings in Sunset Blvd couple of days back.

Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.