The Banana Man

Sometimes a memory comes back to you as vague dream, something youu are familiar with and has influienced you profoundly as a child, but you weren't sure if it was real or a fantasy...It was this way. I vaguely remembered a performer called The Banana Man from my childhood and he never spoke, just made inane musical noises while he produced item after item from his pockets. I found myself imitating his idiotic falsetto squeals of amazement when playing with my dog.
I remember seeing The Banana Man perform on The Jimmy Durante Show as a regular, but now I know, I never saw the real Banana Man...The Real Banana Man was a Vaudeville Performer, A.Robbins. Little is known about Robbins.
It is known that he was a theatrical prop manufacturer and dealer who had a meticulous shop in Manhattan. He was famouss because on occasion he would operate the shop blindfolded and customers would ask for various size bolts and he would unerringly go to the correct drawer and always be correct.
He originally billed himself as the Walking Music Store, because he would produce and pretend to play a varety of instruments he produced from his pockets...of course, the music was the annoying falsetto miming of the instrument he produced.
As the act evolved, he began to produce bunches of bananas from his pockets and by the time the act was finished, the stage was littered with what looked like a ton of bananas and other assorted fruit.
He seems to have sold the act in the 40's and a number of different Banana Men took the secrets and kept performing until the 1960's.
The original Robbins was amazing, below is a video from a 1936 Variety Movie by Red Skelton. He was a master of an art form that has almost entirely disappeared today, he created a sense of lunatic magic we could all use. There is a website devoted to him.