Organ Grinder and Monkey Team Brings Smiles (Post for Saturday, July 10, 2010)

Tony Lupo and his beloved monkey, Coco, have been entertaining people, bringing smiles by the hundreds, for decades. 

Tony began training the little monkey 30 years ago!  That's a long time for a man and monkey to work together.

At Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, in Lenox, Massachusetts, they have delighted hundreds of adults and children with their antics.  They were quite a duo, filling time before the July 4th James Taylor and Carole King concert .  Unbelievably, it was their 28th performance at Tanglewood!

Organ grinder and monkey teams are among  the oldest forms of entertainment.

Coco learned to strum a small guitar after slipping into a white jacket that resembled one worn by a famous heartthrob entertainer.

She also wore a chili pepper patterned vest and sombrero before cracking up the audience by playing maracas.

Lupo raised Coco the monkey since she was a baby.  He treated her with love and gentleness.  Everything in the act was done tastefully and showed great training.

The only tense moment during the pre-concert performance came when a woman in the audience chastised Lupo  for having Coco perform for the public. More than likely, she  represented an animal rights organization. Lupo handled the criticism with a great deal of tact, letting the woman know that everyone is entititled to an opinion.

Given the fact that Lupo and Coco have been working together for so long, and that the animal is treated with dignity and respect, obviously entertaining hundreds of people, I found nothing tasteless about the act.

Would I prefer for all monkeys to be free, jumping from tree to tree in a jungle somewhere? Yes, probably I would. But if they are not in their native habitat, like Coco, I don't see anything terribly wrong about being part of  age-old entertainment such as an organ grinder and monkey team.

(The complaining "lady"  I observed this past weekend, however, is another story. Her behavior was rather rude and disrespectful.)

DO YOU HAVE AN OPINION ON ANIMALS BEING PART OF ENTERTAINMENT FOR HUMANS?  DO YOU THINK IT'S OKAY FOR THEM TO  BE PART OF CIRCUS ACTS AND OTHER KINDS OF PERFORMANCES?