Senior Superstar Banana George’s Bio is Filled with Inspiration and Fun
Banana George: Don’t Wait for Life to Happen, Make It Happen is the biography of one of the most inspiring and colorful celebrities of recent years. Written by the Blair family (his wife and daughters) along with Karen Putz, author and fellow barefoot water skier, this biography chronicles George’s ninety-eight life-affirming years.
Readers travel with George from his childhood and college years to his first marriage and becoming a father and entrepreneur. We experience his debilitating back problems with him and undergo surgery for them, and then we are thrilled when he discovers the wonderful world of barefoot waterskiing. In the end, George was the oldest barefoot water skier in the world, but he was also a natural showman. He is always busy wearing his characteristic yellow clothes; handing out bananas; appearing on major talk shows like The Oprah Winfrey Show, Late Night with David Letterman, and Live with Regis and Kathy Lee; Traveling around the world; and meet famous people. He even became a true goodwill ambassador between nations.
After reading this book, I came to love Banana George and his zest for life. Most of all, he loved her creative spirit and her refusal to believe that she couldn’t do something. Most people know Banana George for being the oldest barefoot water skier in the world (he was in the Guinness Book of World Records for that designation, continually breaking his record with every birthday), but what most people does not know is that Banana Jorge was an innovative entrepreneur. Once he became a father, George had the fabulous idea to start a business that took pictures of babies in the hospital so that parents could have immediate photos of their newborns to treasure for a lifetime. Consequently, Hospital Picture Service was born. George grew this business by going across the country selling his services to hospitals. While visiting all these hospitals, George also noticed how many babies were constantly crying and how the nurses couldn’t care for all of them at the same time, so he invented the Blair Motion Bassinet, which had a motor connected to the bassinet to make it sway back and forth. behind. Of course, he also marketed the bassinet in all hospitals.
Much of the charm of the section on George’s early years before he became famous was his time as a father. The book is filled with the memories of his four daughters and their experiences growing up with their father, of how he would only slow down the car and tell the children to jump when he had to leave them because he was always in a hurry. How he had to have a lazy Susan at the dining room table to make everything easier for everyone to reach. He even installed bidets in his bathrooms because he thought they were more hygienic; your kids had a blast demonstrating bidets for their friends who had never seen one.
George didn’t start skiing barefoot until he was forty and after undergoing major surgery for his back problems. One day, he was watching some people water skiing and they asked him if he would like to give it a try. He said he was too old, but the man who volunteered insisted, so George tried and never looked back. Soon the whole family was water skiing and performing in shows. George became a regular performer at Cypress Gardens, and that was just the beginning of his showmanship.
There are too many fascinating and funny moments in George’s career as a barefoot water skier and later as a media celebrity to mention in this review, and I don’t want to spoil the fun of the readers, but I can’t help but mention that he rode in a car. racing with Prince Albert of Monaco and did a waterskiing show for King Hussein of Jordan. But that was just the tip of the iceberg for George: He loved to travel and started water skiing all over the world. One of my favorite stories was how, in 1988, George read an article that said the Russian publisher of Pravada was an avid waterskiier. This was during the Cold War, and yet George decided that he would like to water ski in Russia. He wrote a letter to the editor and was eventually invited to perform at the Friendship Cup Tournament in Sofia, Bulgaria (also behind the Iron Curtain). From there, George and his second wife JoAnne visited Russia, traveling across the country. George became known as “Mr. Banana” in Russia because people did not understand his nickname. Later, in 1995, George would welcome a delegation of Russian water skiers to the United States, thus spreading goodwill between the countries, and the Russians left with favorable impressions from the United States.
Before long, George had skied on six continents. Then his brother-in-law reminded him that there were seven of them, so George went skiing in Antarctica. Also once by chance she ended up attending the Miss Switzerland beauty pageant and gave the crowned winner bananas. Before his long celebrity career ended, George even starred in the movie Captiva Island about what else? -A rich young man who goes barefoot skiing in the water and receives advice from several mature men, including George, Ernest Borgnine and Arte Johnson de Laugh. On.
Banana George Blair proved to the world that you are as old as you think you are and that it is never too late to keep doing the things you love. This is a man who loved water skiing so much that when he couldn’t stand up anymore, he used a special chair made to sit on while skiing on the water.
We should all have George’s energy, and we should all read this book because maybe a little of George’s joie de vivre rubs off on us. The book includes a foreword by Phil Keoghan (host of The Amazing Race), Lessons for the Life of Banana George, and a list of all the places Banana George went water skiing and the companies and affiliations with which he was involved. Altogether, Banana George is a delight that will drive you crazy just wanting to make your own life more adventurous.
