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David Evans Strickler, a 23-year-old apprentice pharmacist at Tassel Pharmacy in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.

14 years ago. Rating: 4
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I guess banana splits are so good that there are several places and people that claim it was their invention:

David Evans Strickler, a 23-year-old apprentice pharmacist at Tassel Pharmacy in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, who enjoyed inventing sundaes at the store's soda fountain, invented the banana-based triple ice cream sundae in 1904. The sundae originally cost 10 cents, twice the price of other sundaes, and caught on with students of nearby Saint Vincent College. News of the sundae spread by word-of-mouth by students, through correspondence, and at professional conventions. Strickler went on to buy the pharmacy, naming it Strickler's Pharmacy. The city of Latrobe celebrated the 100th anniversary of the invention of the banana split in 2004, and in the same year the National Ice Cream Retailers Association (NICRA) certified the city as its birthplace.

A year or two later, historians say, a Boston ice cream entrepreneur came up with the same sundae, with one minor flaw — he served his banana splits with the bananas unpeeled until he discovered that ladies preferred them peeled.

Town fathers in Wilmington, Ohio, claim their city, southeast of Dayton, is the birthplace of the popular treat. In 1907, restaurant owner Ernest Hazard wanted to attract students from Wilmington College during the slow days of winter. He staged an employee contest to come up with a new ice cream dish. When none of his workers were up to the task, he split a banana lengthwise, threw it into an elongated dish and created his own dessert. The town commemorates the event each June with a Banana Split Festival.

14 years ago. Rating: 3
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