Geoff Hall writes to ask…
In your latest blog post, you described someone as "banana-wackie," which I assume means crazy or nuts. I've seen you use that term before and I'm wondering where it comes from. Is it a joke I'm missing or something?
It's something that wormed its way into my vocabulary in the mid-sixties when the General Foods people marketed (briefly) a breakfast cereal that was called "Wackies" on the box but "Banana Wackies" in the commercials for it. I never tasted it and am not sure it got as far as supermarkets in Los Angeles before they gave up on it…but I sure saw a lot of those ads. Here are a few…
It was, I'm given to understand, a sort of spin-off from the same company's Lucky Charms cereal which came out to great success in 1964. A box of Lucky Charms contained puffed oat cereal mixed with little marshmallow pieces shaped like moons, stars, clovers, etc. A box of Banana Wackies contained puffed oat cereal mixed with little marshmallow pieces that were allegedly banana-flavored. Since I never cared much for Lucky Charms, I probably wouldn't have tried Wackies if I'd had the opportunity…but I liked the name.
Incidentally! In the commercials you may have just watched, there's a little boy and a gorilla. I have no idea who did the little boy's voice but the gorilla seems to be the comedian and character actor, B.S. Pully. And if it isn't him, it's someone doing a darned good impression of him.
B.S. Pully was said to be the dirtiest comedian of his day, starting in the mid-forties. The "B.S." was not an abbreviation for his actual first and middle names. His real name was Murray Lerman. He named himself "B.S." to hint at the profanity and for a time was teamed with a comedian named H.S. Gump who operated on the same principle.
Pully with his gravel voice and earthy manner did bit parts in movies until 1950 when he accompanied a friend to an audition for the original production of the show Guys and Dolls. According to legend, the friend who was trying out for a role did not get the part but B.S. wound up getting cast as mob boss Big Jule on Broadway and later in the movie. He spent most of the rest of his career playing gangsters. And he outlived Banana Wackies, though not by much.