The Banana Split Was Invented By An Apprentice Pharmacist Who Also Invented The Boat Dish For It.

National Banana Split Day recognizes the sweet ice cream treat served with a banana, whipped cream and various toppings. Get yours on August 25th!

• 1904 – 23-year-old apprentice pharmacist, David Evans Strickler, created the first banana split. Strickler enjoyed making sundaes at the store’s soda fountain. For only 10 cents, Strickler sold his first “banana-based triple ice cream sundae,” double the cost of all the other sundaes.
• 1909 – Walgreens hopped on the banana split bandwagon relatively late–in 1909–
• 1959 – American singer, songwriter, bandleader, and trumpeter, Louis Leo Prima, sang “Banana Split for My Baby” in the 1959 film, “Hey, Boy! Hey, Girl!.” It was filmed in front of a “Wilmot Drug Store” concession; the song includes the line, “Serve my gal a mess of calories”.
• 1968 – The Banana Splits was a hugely popular American kids’ TV show from the late 1960s, which ran from 1968 to 1982 in various formats.
• 1969 – The Tra La La Song (One Banana, Two Banana) from the Banana Splits series reached #96 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song’s re-release by American punk band The Dickies in 1979 took the song to #7 in the UK singles chart.
• 2004 – Latrobe hosted the 100th anniversary of the invention, the same year that it was certified as the birthplace of the banana split by NICRA (National Ice Cream Retailers Association).
• 2007 – Wilmington, Ohio, held its annual Banana Split Festival.  Wilmington marked the 100th anniversary of the banana split’s invention by one of its citizens, E.R. Hazard.  Most sundae experts (yes, there are some) think the banana split was created in 1904, about 275 miles away, by David Strickler, a pharmacy clerk in Latrobe, Penn.
• 2013 – David Strickler’s hometown of Latrobe proudly celebrates his creation with a festival every August. In 2013, they placed an official marker at the site of the pharmacy where Strickler first made his famous banana split.
• 2016 – The United States Post Office honored the banana split with a 47-cent “forever stamp” depicting the banana split.  It was one of five stamps in the “Soda Fountain Favorites” series.
• A banana split is an ice cream-based dessert. It is served in a long dish called a boat. A banana is cut in half lengthwise and laid in the dish. There are many variations, but the classic banana split is made with scoops of vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry ice cream served in a row between the split banana.
• In no particular order, pineapple, strawberry, and chocolate sauces are spooned over the ice cream. It is garnished with crushed nuts, whipped cream, and a maraschino cherry.
• This ingenuity had allowed for the creation of the delicious dessert, but there was no proper way for it to be served. This prompted Strickler to elicit outside help from a glassmaker in Grapeville who created the first “banana boat” to house his masterpiece.
• With 33,000 bananas, 2,500 gallons of ice cream, and 150 gallons of chocolate syrup, Selinsgrove, PA made a 4.5-mile banana split to regain a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.
• The popularity of the banana split is often credited to Walgreens drug stores, which are operated by Charles Rudolph Walgreens. The store promoted the banana split as their premium dessert, which caused a lot of customers to try the dessert when they may have otherwise not been interested in it.
• Bananas contain the natural mood enhancer tryptophan (also found in turkey) that instantly relaxes the body and improves mood, they are also high in B vitamins which help to calm the nervous system.
• The banana split dessert provides a variety of beneficial vitamins and minerals. This includes 15% of your daily requirement of Vitamin A, 14% of Vitamin C, and around 24% of the needed daily intake of calcium for strong bones.

Sources:

National Day Calendar

Days of the Year

Mobile-Cuisine

Tropical Foods

NPR

Pennsylvania Center for The Book