KING MANGO'S 40TH BIRTHDAY, article in Key Biscayne's Islander News 12-22-21

                  The Top Banana Reminisces

                                                                         By Bill Durham

 

Everyone loves a parade but Glenn Terry, co-founder of Coconut Grove’s zany King Mango Strut Parade, seems to love a parade more than most. For 28 years he served as – as he puts it – “top banana” of the King Mango Strut.

      Glenn Terry and his son, Ian, performing in the 2001 parade

 It all started back in 1977. “I’m no musician,” says Terry, “but I always wanted to be in a band.” On a whim, he organized “The Mango Marching Band,” composed of a rag-tag group of non-musicians playing mostly kazoos and conch shells. The group first marched in the Grove’s Goombay Festival Parade and later, in 1978 and ’79, in Key Biscayne’s Fourth of July Parade. “Our performances were great fun. Eventually, we asked to march in The Big One—the Orange Bowl Parade.”

 

 Perhaps not surprisingly, the organizers of “The Big One” deemed the Mango Marching Band to be too silly and turned them down. Not the sort to be easily discouraged, Terry and co-conspirator Bill Dobson decided to start their own parade. From the get-go, the goal of the King Mango Strut Parade was to be silly. Entries in the King Mango Strut Parade have ranged from merely creative to extremely creative. For many years a crowd favorite was The Marching Freds. “Anyone named Fred could join,” explains Terry. They chanted things like “We’re Fred, You’re Not!” and carried posters saying “Three Cheers for the Fred, White, and Blue.” The Freds were organized by the Miami Herald’s Fred Tasker. Sadly, Tasker passed away earlier this year. So the Marching Freds will be forever down one.

No topic was off limits. The parade once included a group working to protect the Everglades. They had a car rigged up to look like a bulldozer and, in a parody, held up signs saying, “We give up — PAVE THE EVERGLADES!”

 Sometimes the irreverent entries had a deeper purpose. One year, 25 men and women dressed as Marching Marjories protested plans to move the home of conservation giant Marjory Stoneman Douglas out of the Grove. It worked. The house remained where it stood and is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. And of course what would a parade born of silliness be without the occasional mishap. 

Terry recalls one such incident with a chuckle. “One year we had a guy who was supposed to portray George W. Bush, but he forgot to bring his rubber face mask. So we covered him with hedge clippings and dubbed him ‘a bush named George.’ That turned out to be even funnier than the original idea.” But as with any institution, things change. 

(Below, Art Kendallman receiving the "Weirdest Strutter" Award at  1988's King Mango Black Tie Dinner at Burger King)

 

 In 2009, following a tug- of-war over the future direction of the parade, the City of Miami selected someone else to produce the event. After being the parade’s “top banana” for 28 years, Terry was out. “Some folks had a different vision for what our parade should be,” he explained. “And the City decided to give them the annual permit. I wasn’t thrilled, of course, but am glad the parade continued. It is still the Grove’s greatest event.”

       Below, a reunion of the original King Mango crew, 2018.

 

After spending much of his life as a fixture in Coconut Grove, Terry and his wife Francesca, moved north to Gainesville in 2019. They like the slower pace there. He enjoys riding a restored Italian bicycle—a gift from his sons—on an 18-mile trail near their home. Though the locale is different, Terry’s commitment to his community does not waver. “For me life is about friendships, building community, and making people smile.” 

 Due to Covid, The King Mango Strut parade was canceled in 2020 – and there are no plans to hold a parade this year. But Terry hints that something special just might take place in Coconut Grove to mark the parade’s 40th Anniversary. “We’ll be doing something to honor the King,” he offers surreptitiously. 

And of course he is right. As longtime fans of the parade know, a milestone like this one is too important to go unnoticed. I don’t know exactly what the friends of King Mango are cooking up, but whatever it is, it is bound to be fun. And silly. The parade’s long-time top banana wouldn’t have it any other way. 

(Glenn's Note:  Yes, we celebrated the King's 40th birthday on closed-off Fuller Street in style on

12-26-21)