New York City Police Commissioner Teddy Roosevelt's War Against Banana Peels

Featured image credit: Ephemeral New York

I was perusing my usual webpages this morning when I came across a fascinating article from Esther Crain’s wonderful blog Ephemeral New York. Today’s post was about a forgotten New York City crime wave… the littering of banana peels. And it’s about the man who decided to do something about it: Teddy Roosevelt.

You know that old vaudeville slapstick gag where someone slips on a banana peel and goes down? I had always wondered where that specific conceit originated… and it turns out, it was based on a REAL LIFE problem that plagued cities, particularly New York City in the 1870s through the 1890s. Newspapers recorded many accounts of people slipping on the fruit skin and getting seriously injured (or worse).

Crain writes,

“The streets and sidewalks were notoriously filthy—the resting place for rotting discarded fruit and other perishable foods, not to mention horse manure and dead animals. But now that the once-exotic banana had become a popular street food sold by vendors from wood carts across the city, enormous numbers of peels would be tossed carelessly, posing a hazard to unseeing pedestrians… Newspapers began to call for some kind of action.”

In 1896, The New York Herald demanded “the police ought to be instructed to look out for people who peel bananas in the street and fling down their skin.” And, according to Crain, a month later, the young New York City Police Commissioner Teddy Roosevelt began to crack down on the problem. He had first become aware of it as the President of the New York City Police Board. But as Commissioner, he took matters into his own hands.

According a post at the Teddy Roosevelt Presidential Library website,

“Less than a month later on February 8, 1896, Roosevelt assembled captains, sergeants, and roundsmen of the police force and explained ‘the bad habits of the banana skin, dwelling particularly on its tendency to toss people into the air and bring them down with terrific fore on the hard pavement.'”

… Roosevelt read from the city ordinance about those who littered fruit or vegetables in the street, noting they could be fined up to $5.00 (or close to $200 today!) and serve 10 days in jail, and told the police officers to enforce those laws regarding litter and clean up the streets.”

Crain notes that the Library estimates the fine to equal $200 in today’s money.

Read Ester Crain’s article here at Ephemeral New York!

When Gilded Age New York City went to war against banana peels