The effect of a continuous production of cigars from the hands–through the manipulative recycling of two imitation cigars–was developed by G. W. Hunter and marketed in 1936 through Max Holden's Magic Shop (see ads in the May 1936 issues of The Linking Ring, Vol. 16 No. 3, and The Sphinx, Vol. 35 No. 3) as "G. W. Hunter's Cigar Production".

Jack Chanin was well known for his manipulations with cigars in the early 1930s. In 1937, he published a booklet on the topic, Cigar Manipulation, which included a handling of Hunter's cigar production (uncredited) followed by a variation that Chanin claimed.

The Banana Bag, widely known to magicians by 1925, was a cloth bag constructed like an Egg Bag, from which bananas made of rubber (usually six) were produced. Chanin, in Cigar Manipulation, suggested using rubber cigars in place of the bananas.

Al Cohen, familiar with Chanin's performances of the continuous production of cigars, combined these ideas by adapting the Hunter production to sponge bananas, c. early 1980s, in his marketed trick “It's Bananas”. Dan Garrett made arrangements c. 1986 with Cohen to manufacture and sell the bananas with Garrett's expanded routine as the “World Famous Banana Trick”. See Genii, Vol. 71 No. 5, May 2008, p. 14, for Cohen's recounting of the story. He gives no date.