Celebrity monkey takes his act to public library.

Byline: Lynne Klaft

LUNENBURG - There was monkey business going on at the Lunenburg Public Library this week.

No, not that kind of business. In this case, it was a real monkey, a hurdy-gurdy organ grinder's monkey, which played classical and rock on the piano, hurled a baseball, and did many other tricks, making kids laugh and cheer.

Tony "the Monkey Man" Lupo brought his electronic barrel organ and Coco the monkey to the library to entertain more than 60 children and their parents Wednesday night.

He imparted information about capuchin monkeys and answered most of the questions posed to him by the children.

Mr. Lupo said his hurdy-gurdy monkey act is one of three left in the United States.

The other two are in Florida and Nevada.

"The first organ grinder appeared in Back Bay Boston in 1864," he said.

"I researched the Globe paper to find this out."

He began his career in 1980 after studying the art of organ grinding.

Coco the monkey has been with Mr. Lupo for 26 years; he raised her from the age of 6 weeks, using his own reward training system after researching monkey behavior-modification methods.

Although he owns five hand-crank organs, Mr. Lupo prefers to use an electronic organ, which has a wider variety of music available for entertainment purposes.

"I found one of the older ones in Pennsylvania and bought two street pianos from Germany which have pinned barrels that can play six to seven songs each. The electronic one just makes things more interesting," Mr. Lupo said.

He regularly entertains with Coco at Fenway Park and Tanglewood, and has been featured on "Late Night with David Letterman," "Saturday Night Live" and the "TODAY" show.

The pair has also received the prestigious comedic honor of lifetime membership in the Harvard Lampoon.

"In the old days, the grinders would do a couple of songs, and a couple of tricks with the monkey and then the monkey collected coins," he said.

"Coco does all kinds of tricks and just keeps going, learning new ones all the time."

Coco is a capuchin rain forest monkey that Mr. Lupo bought from a breeder in Miami.

"Monkeys need a lot of psychological support and I believe that they need to interact with their own species. I have never owned less than two monkeys, had eight at one time.

"Right now, I just have two, Coco and Mikki, who I got when she was 3 weeks old. She's 16 years old now," Mr. Lupo said.

Coco's costumes - she has Red Sox, Boston Celtics, and New England Patriots uniforms with matching helmets or caps, an Elvis outfit, several brightly colored jackets and a Mexican sombrero/serape ensemble - are handmade by Mr. Lupo, although he does buy purchase tiny hats and wigs, which are harder to size.

The monkeys are housed in a separate facility at Mr. Lupo's home. His daughters help him out.

"They grew up with those monkeys. My oldest daughter was 6 years old when we got Coco," Mr. Lupo said.

When he started out in 1980, he said, there were six or seven organ grinder/monkey teams.

"Now there's just the three of us in the U.S., but there are quite a few left in Berlin, Germany and Amsterdam, Holland, where there are a lot of street performers, a lot of them using puppets instead of a monkey," said Mr. Lupo.

Kyle Massak, 8, said he thought the show was a lot of fun and that Coco was really silly.

"I learned a lot about capuchin monkeys. I didn't know she had five fingers and no thumbs, but an extra baby finger, and I didn't know she had such long claws," said Kyle, who attended the show with his big brother Eric, 17, and his mother, Kim.

"I thought it was a great show for all ages and am glad that the library thought to provide entertainment for the whole family to enjoy," Mrs. Massak said.

ART: PHOTOS

CUTLINE: (1) Tony Lupo gets a nose kiss from his monkey, Coco, during the show at the Lunenburg Public Library. (2) Mr. Lupo talks about Coco. (3) At left, Coco wears a Red Sox jersey and helmet, one of many different outfits he has. (4) Below left, Jamieson Sharpe, 4, of Lunenburg laughs during the show.

PHOTOG: T&G Staff Photos/RICK CINCLAIR