In 1950, Frank Sinatra and Rosemary Clooney recorded “Cherry Pies Ought to Be You.” In 1990, the Rotary Club of Oliver took cherry pies to another level by creating the world’s biggest. On January 23 their world record will be relived.
On July 14, 1990, during Guinness Day in Oliver local Rotarians orchestrated the baking of a big cherry pie – so huge that it set a new Guinness Book of World Records standard.
During that hot July day, volunteers built and baked the world’s largest cherry pie, with a total weight of 37,713.08 pounds, consisting of 36,800 pounds of pie filling and 913.08 pounds of pastry.
“The total weight was met and the pie filling had to be pitted and edible,” organizer Bob Ellis told the Oliver Chronicle in 1990. “We sold 250 gallons of pie filling for people to take home. I think that proves it was edible.”
Were you an organizer? Were you part of the crowd standing around the big pit at Oliver Community Park nearly 27 years ago, waiting for that cherry pie, which measured about 18 feet across, to finish, so you could dig in?
The Rotary Club is going back down memory lane at its January 23 meeting and the public, especially those who were in attendance in 1990, is invited.
Producer Tony Cerciello of Artaban Productions in Vancouver, along with host Bob Kronbauer, will be travelling to Oliver to tape a segment for BC Was Awesome, a show that focusses on interesting historical stories from all over B.C., including Oliver’s world’s biggest cherry pie of 1990.
The Rotary Club will be baking pies and chatting with people who helped make the world record happen. And who knows. Maybe the host will even take a pie to the face.
The event is on Tuesday, January 23 from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Air Cadet Hangar, located at 5855 Cessna St.
The $20 admission includes dinner, and pie, of course. To RSVP, contact board member Jennifer Roussel by email at [email protected].
