Senior Superstar Banana George’s Biography Is Full Of 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 his daughters) along with Karen Putz, author and also a barefoot water skier, this biography chronicles the entire ninety-eight years of George’s life.

Readers travel with George from his childhood and college years to his first marriage and becoming a father and businessman. We experience his debilitating back problems and his surgery with him, and then we’re thrilled when he discovers the wonderful world of barefoot water skiing. Ultimately, George was the world’s oldest barefoot water skier, 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 among nations.

After reading this book, I came to love Banana George and his zest for life. Most of all, I loved his creative spirit and his refusal to believe that he couldn’t do something. Most people know Banana George for being the world’s oldest barefoot water skier (he was in the Guinness Book of World Records for that designation, continually breaking his record with every birthday), but what most people What you may not know is that Banana Jorge was an innovative entrepreneur. Once he became a father, George had a fabulous idea to start a business taking photos of babies at the hospital so that parents could have instant photos of their newborns to treasure for a lifetime. Consequently, Hospital Picture Service was born. George grew this business by touring the country selling his services to hospitals. While visiting all of these hospitals, George also noticed how many babies were constantly crying and how the nurses couldn’t attend to all of them at the same time, so he invented the Blair Motion bassinet, which had a motor attached to the bassinet to make it rock back and forth. back. Of course, he also marketed the bassinet to all the 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 memories of his four daughters and his experiences growing up with his father, from how he would just slow down the car and tell the kids to jump when he had to drop them off because he was always in a hurry. . to how he had to have a lazy susan on 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; His children had a blast demonstrating how the bidet worked to his friends who had never seen one before.

George didn’t start barefoot skiing until he was forty years old and after he had major surgery for his back problems. One day, he was watching some people water skiing and they asked him if he would like to try it. He said he was too old, but the man who offered it to him insisted, so George gave it a try 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 for readers, but I can’t help but mention that he rode in a race with Prince Albert of Monaco and did a water skiing exhibition for King Hussein of Jordan. But that was just the tip of the iceberg for George: he loved to travel and he started water skiing all over the world. One of my favorite stories was how, in 1988, George read an article that said that the Russian editor of Pravada was an avid water skier. 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 and traveled across the country. George became known as “Mr. Banana” in Russia because people did not understand his nickname. Later in 1995, George welcomed a delegation of Russian water skiers to the United States, thus spreading goodwill between the countries, and the Russians left with a favorable impression of the United States.

In a short time, 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, he ended up attending the Miss Switzerland beauty pageant and gave bananas to the crowned winner. Before his long career as a celebrity ended, George even starred in the movie Captiva Island about, what else, a rich young man who waterskis barefoot and gets advice from various older men, including George, Ernest Borgnine and Laugh’s Arte Johnson. – In.

Banana George Blair proved to the world that you’re only as old as you think you are and that it’s 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.

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), Banana George’s Lessons for Life, and a list of all the places Banana George waterskied and the businesses and affiliations he was involved with. Altogether, Banana George is a delight that will drive you crazy with the desire to make your own life more adventurous.