(1890-09-09 )

A plastic statue of the Colonel, which stood in front of a restaurant on the outskirts of Tokyo, was involved in the events that led to the "Curse of the Colonel" belief among fans of the Japanese Hanshin Tigers (阪神タイガース) baseball team: during the Nihon Shiriizu victory celebration, final of the national championship, in 1985 the statue was thrown from the bridge into the river. The team's subsequent failure (it has never won a championship since) is due to the statue's revenge: the Tigers are doomed to lose until it is found.

Mentioned in the third episode of the 14th season of the animated series South Park, where Cartman enters into an agreement with the Colonel to illegally supply KFC products to the city of South Park after the legislative ban on KFC in the state. Also mentioned in the third episode of season 9, where the Colonel is supposedly Cartman's assistant at the talent agency.

In Friends, season 3, episode 21, when one of the main characters, Ross, tries to put on a ridiculous snow-white suit for a TV show, his sister Monica jokingly says that she likes the suit on her brother even more than on Colonel Sanders. As a result, Ross takes offense.

In the second season of the animated series Family Guy, Peter Griffin insistently asks the KFC seller to call him Colonel Sanders, to which he replies that the colonel has died, Peter cannot believe it ...

In computer Game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has the "Colonel Sanderson" achievement, which is to kill twenty chickens (chickens) in 10 seconds. The play on words is that the main character's last name is Sanderson.

In the movie "All or Nothing" ("The longest yard"), the character of Adam Sandler jokingly calls the business partner of the head of the prison - "..Colonel Sanders and his chickens ..", for his resemblance to the colonel himself.

Notes

21 season 2 episode of the simpsons. present in the series historical figures, such as: St. Peter, Jack the Ripper, Charleman and others, as a person who knew some secret. 14:00 minutes Season 4 "Breaking Bad". Colonel Sanders is often mentioned when discussing the investigation into the clandestine meth lab. Parallel with the main boss - Gus Frin - the owner of the network of eateries "Los Pollos Hermanos" ("Chicken Brothers").

Literature

  • Currell, Billy. 2006. Kentucky Fried Tender. ASIN B000JWMI9U .
  • Pearce, John The Colonel(1982) ISBN 0-385-18122-1
  • Kleber, John J. et al. The Kentucky Encyclopedia. - Lexington, KY: University of Kentucky Press, 1992. - ISBN ISBN 0-8131-1772-0

I think many people know such a chain of restaurants fast food, How KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken — direct competitor McDonald's).

Therefore, today I want to offer you to get acquainted with the success story Garland David Sanders founder of this network. By the way, not so long ago this network settled and opened in Kyiv.

But first of all, I draw attention to the founder of this chain of fast food restaurants. After all, real success came to Garland after 70 years.

Becoming a millionaire thanks to the created brand KFC, thereby proving that you can become a millionaire at any age.

Conductor, private, stoker, loader, car mechanic

Garland David Sanders(English) Harland David Sanders), better known by the nickname Colonel Sanders(Eng. Colonel Sanders) ( September 9, 1890 - December 16, 1980) - founder of a chain of fast food restaurants Kentucky Fried Chicken (« fried chicken from Kentucky", KFC).

He first turned chicken roasting into a multi-million dollar business in 1952. His signature recipe is fried chicken chunks seasoned with a mixture of aromatic herbs and spices. His stylized portrait is traditionally depicted on all restaurants of his network and on branded packaging.

In fact, Sanders was never an army officer. The rank of Colonel is an honorary title conferred annually by the governor of a state for outstanding service in public life state.

It is noteworthy that Sanders completed only six classes (once again I am convinced that having an education is not a sign of success), and he fried his first chickens at the age of six.

He opened his own restaurant only at the age of 47, and his fried chicken has become a culinary symbol of the state of Kentucky.

I must say that Garland finally had some decent money to live on. Stable income prompted young man To important event in his life - he proposed to a girl named Claudia, with whom he lived his entire subsequent life.

After the wedding, the life of the Sanders family was not easy - Garland was fired from his position as a fireman almost instantly. Over the following years, he tried a lot of other professions, but he never found one in which he could hold out for a long time.

In such a situation, any marriage would be on the verge, but not the Sanders. The wife endured all the problems of her husband steadfastly, and until the last she believed in him. And, not in vain.

And he knows how to cook chickens!

TO 40 years old Garland managed to change several dozen professions. He traded tires, was a stoker, a military man, a conductor, helped farmers, worked as a peddler and much, much more.

It would seem that the typical fate of a person who has completed only 6 classes. One time Sanders tried to get an education by enrolling in law courses. But for unknown reasons, he never finished them.

However, by the time Garland was in his 40s, he had little capital accumulated over the years. This money had to be managed somehow.

For a long time, Sanders was out of sorts. Most of his life has flown by, and he is still a small man who has achieved nothing, does not have enough money to live in pleasure. He was disappointed in life.

And, of course, he wanted to change it. For starters, stop exchanging uninteresting work for him.

Starting a business

In 1930, Garland opened his auto repair shop in Kentucky. It is worth noting important point– Garland considered the location of his workshop quite seriously, choosing for the workshop the best place- roadside of the 25th federal highway.

On this road, people traveled to Florida from the northern states. The flow of customers was very high.

And then Sanders came up with a smart idea - to open a small dining room for customers who are waiting for everyone to pass repair work over their car (Sanders' workshop did the most basic work, such as changing engine oil, tires, etc.). There was no special place for the dining room.

Therefore, Garland allocated one room of the workshop for him (his family lived in several others).

This room contained a dining table and 6 chairs. Sanders cooked food right in the home kitchen. Soon, his auto repair shop became famous throughout Kentucky. With his fried chicken.

It was called "Kentucky Fried Chicken by Garland Sanders".

All clients noted the quality of his seasoning, which he prepared from 11 different spices. Life began to improve.

In order to increase his income, Garland introduces some innovation - acquiring a pressure cooker. This was the time when this kind of pans only appeared. One of the first people to appreciate the benefits of pressure cookers was Harland Sanders.

Whereas chicken used to take around 30 minutes to cook, this time has now been reduced to 15. This meant that customers didn't have to wait as long for their food, which contributed to an increase in the number of orders.

A significant event in the life of Sanders occurred in 1935, when the governor of Kentucky, Ruby Laffoon, awarded Garland the title " Kentucky Colonel for services to the state. Indeed, they were great - after all, all over the district they were talking about " National dish » State from Garland Sanders.

The rank of colonel, albeit an honorary one, fueled deep-seated vanity in Garlan. Now he has begun building a 142-seat motel and restaurant near his auto repair shop. Outwardly, the establishment very much resembled a sort of neat German farmstead.

Refocusing your business, moving away from the subject of a car workshop. opening a motel Sanders Court & Cafe, which was also an independent fast food restaurant.

True, you can not compare a fast food restaurant McDonald's And Sanders Court & Cafe because they were not comparable. Still, Garland spent about 10-15 minutes preparing the order. So it was not a full-fledged fast food.

Already a colonel, Garland Sanders began to dress in classic clothes - a white suit and a black bow tie. This is how it is depicted on the company logos. KFC.

This image quickly entered the hearts of ordinary Americans who fell in love with Sanders' small establishment. During these years, Garland had as many orders and money as he had never had in his entire life. He felt success.

It was a golden time for Sanders, and the troubles only invigorated. When the establishment burned down in 1939, Garland rebuilt it within a couple of months. And in the same year, the famous culinary critic Duncan Hines first mentioned it in his restaurant guide " Looking for good food«.

There, the colonel's chickens were listed as a special Kentucky landmark. The restaurant resumed its work a few months after the incident. In addition, the state authorities tried to help Garland, since his chicken was a Kentucky landmark.

At least for other Americans.

A state of nickels

Of course, there were also minor problems from time to time.

Years flew by in pleasant chores, and Sanders was already counting on a quiet old age, when his life once again presented an unexpected surprise.

At the very beginning of the 1950s, the new 75th federal highway from the northern states to Florida was completed, which passed away from Corbin.

The flow of customers that began 20 years ago dried up overnight. Sanders floundered for another year, but in 1952 he no longer had enough money to support the restaurant, and he had to be auctioned off to pay off creditors.

At 62, Sanders again lost his job, home, and money. The only thing he could count on was a state old-age pension of $105 a month.

To Garland's credit, he took the disaster as an opportunity to feel 22 years younger, returning to his old tumbleweed life.

He began to go around cafes and restaurants: first the neighbors, then he climbed further and further from the house. With him he carried a bag with his magic seasoning and his favorite pressure cooker.

Arriving at the restaurant, Sanders asked permission for 15 minutes to cook in front of the owner " kentucky chicken“and then offered to put this chicken on the menu, promising an uninterrupted supply of his spice mix.

In return, he asked for 5 cents from each sold " kentucky chicken". Sanders did not sign any contracts - the deal was sealed with a handshake.

Traveling by car from city to city is not at all an easy task, especially when not every restaurant agreed to cooperate.

Sanders found his first partner only in Salt Lake City.

He became the owner of the restaurant Pete Harman.

And Garland continued with stupid obstinacy to go round more and more new restaurants. During this time, his wife stayed at home to prepare the condiment and distribute it to partner restaurants.

« Claudia took orders, packed the seasoning in small bags and sent them to customers on the night train.“, says Sanders.

By the end of the 1950s, kentucky fried chicken» traded more than 200 eateries in the US and Canada.

« At first, business was slow, but over time, business began to revive.

I began to understand how Mr. Woolworth managed to organize such a large network of his penny shops. said Sanders, laughing. These nickels pile up and grow into a fortune!»

Millionaire at work

It is worth noting that the business created by Sanders had a big drawback - he relied on Garland himself, who was already over 70.

The Colonel personally sold franchises, did network marketing, and even tried to check every bag of spices. The heirs did not want to deal with chicken meat professionally.

In general, when Sanders was offered to sell the business in 1964 Kentucky Fried Chicken (« "), he agreed.

The buyers were a pool of investors led by John Brown- junior, future governor of Kentucky. For the entire company, they paid Garland $ 2 million in February 1964. At that time, the company had more than 600 franchises in the United States and Canada. Sanders also remained a public spokesman for the company, earning $250,000 a year.

So at the age of 70 Garland David Sanders became a millionaire

Although the colonel was now something like Santa Claus in a white suit, he did his job honestly.

He flew to all the countries where KFC establishments were now opening, and his luxurious limousine often visited children's parties. If he was asked why a millionaire should work in his old age, he usually grinned:

There is no reason to be a rich man in a graveyard. Lying there, you can't do business. Jack Daniel's famous motto

At 84, he published his autobiography entitled " Life as I have known it has been finger licking good» (« Life, as I learned, carefully licks hands«).

Having fulfilled this sacred duty of any successful American to society, he calmly, as he had dreamed all his life, lived for another six years, indulging in harmless pleasures, for example, playing golf expertly.

The only thing that poisoned his life were the current " kentucky fried chicken«. « In the company, everyone is too carried away by commerce and they cook the devil knows what from chickens“, he once said in an interview.

However, for the soul he had his own restaurant. Claudia Sanders' Dinner House(he sold the right to his name in the title along with the business), where he always personally followed the technology of cooking chickens.

Garlan Sanders died of leukemia on December 16, 1980, when he was 90 years old. The colonel was buried in his famous white suit with a black bow tie.

Now restaurants KFC opened in many cities around the world.

What know-how did Sanders offer to its franchisees?

1. A special seasoning of 11 herbs and spices for marinating chicken.

2. The technology of cooking chicken in a pressure cooker - the cooking time has been reduced from 30 to 15 minutes.

Five steps to a million from Garland David Sanders

  1. Farmer, tram conductor, private american army, blacksmith's assistant, locomotive stoker, law trainee in court, insurance agent, furniture mover, ferry captain, salesman car tires and a car mechanic.

  2. At 40, life is just beginning: Sanders decided to work for himself and opened his own auto repair shop ... which sold fried chicken best of all.

  3. At the age of 47, he followed the lead of his clients and opened his own restaurant.

  4. At age 62, Colonel Sanders went broke when a new state highway passed by the side of his establishment.

  5. Once again, the retired Sanders began to franchise the technology behind his fried chicken. And he became a millionaire at the age of 70.

Secret materials

The hype around the secret to Garlan Sanders' famous chicken seasoning of 11 herbs and spices continues unabated.

Once the host of the TV show "Fast Food" Gloria Pitzer on TV with Sanders told him that she made a very similar seasoning from three cups of flour, a tablespoon of paprika, two bags of powdered broth and two bags of seasoning Seven Seas.

The Colonel laughed.

« Yes, you are a real cook!«

She adds fuel to the fire KFC. The company officially claims that the full recipe is known only to a few people in the management, and the list itself never leaves a specially guarded safe.

Colonel's first pressure cooker

Still in the museum at the KFC Restaurant Supply Center in Louisville, Kentucky.

Resurrected

A few years after Harlan Sanders' death, KFC ran commercials showing the Colonel very much like the original. Members of his family even said that when they saw them, they experienced superstitious horror.

old freemason

Garlan Sanders He has been a member of the Masonic lodge since 1917. There is a bust on his grave, which was sculpted by his daughter Margaret. It has images of the Masonic square and compasses.

P.S. That's all. Here is such a story. Nikolai Yakimenko was with you with a blog.

Until the next release.

The editors of the site tell about the history of the creation of brands that have become famous all over the world.The global chain of fast food restaurants with the telling name KFC - Kentucky Fried Chicken (fried chicken from Kentucky) is familiar to almost everyone. This brand has spread far beyond the US, and will soon settle in Tashkent.

In the meantime, on the eve of the opening of the first KFC outlets in the capital, we tell an interesting and fascinating story of the emergence of fried chicken from Kentucky.

Family drama and a long search for yourself

Creator world wide web Harland Sanders (better known as Colonel Sanders) was born September 9, 1890 in Henryville, Indiana. When he was 6 years old, his father died, and his mother was forced to around the clock work at a cannery to feed the children. As the oldest child in the family, Garland looked after his younger brother and sister. At the same time, he began to learn how to cook - someone had to feed the younger children.

In the photo: Garland Sanders with his mother and younger brother and sister (left) and he in his youth (right).

After remarriage Sanders' mother did not have a relationship with his stepfather, so at the age of 13 he left school and left home. With the blessing of his mother, Garland moves to his uncle in another city, where he arranges for him to be a tram conductor.

At the age of 16, Sanders was drafted into the army, from where he left a year later, realizing that military service does not seduce him. For a long time Garland was looking for himself and managed to change many professions. He was a secretary, an insurance agent, a fireman, a tire salesman, and so on. It would seem that what else was left for a person who completed only 6 classes to do?

TO At age 40, he decides to rent a roadside gas station in Corbin, Kentucky. There, Garland opens his first diner.Sanders Court and Cafe) , where he offers road-weary travelers fried chicken, steaks and bacon. The owner cooked all the dishes himself, and fried the chicken in his own way. original recipe with herbs and spices.


Photo: Sanders Court and Cafe's first eatery.

Birth of an American Legend

Over time, things went uphill, and people began to stop at Garland not to refuel the car, but just to eat. Note that Sanders thought out the location of his diner well, choosing the federal highway, along which people traveled from the northern states to Florida - the flow of cars was endless.

In 1935, for his contribution to the development of roadside food and service to the state of Kentucky, Garland Sanders was awarded the title of "Colonel", and since then he has been called "Colonel Sanders" (Colonel Sanders).

Two years later, the newly minted businessman expanded his cafe by buying a gas station opposite. At the same time, he began to experience the first difficulties - the chicken was cooked for a long time, and visitors in cars did not have time to wait so long. Garland was thinking of a way to cut the cooking time in half.


Pictured: Garland Sanders roasting chicken in a pressure cooker.

Around the same time, a pressure cooker for vegetables appeared in America, in which Sanders tried to fry chicken, and he was right - the bird cooked twice as fast. This innovation in the colonel's establishment helped him avoid losses and even increased profits.

In 1940, Sanders improved his signature fried chicken recipe, giving it the name "11 Herbs and Spices". From the list of ingredients, only salt and pepper are known, and the rest are still kept secret.

Already a successful businessman, Colonel Sanders, wanting to live up to his position in society, decided to take up his personal image. He grew a goatee (a small narrow beard), began to wear frock coats, and then white suits with a bow tie. This is how the famous image that adorns the logo appeared. brand KFC and to this day. This is how Colonel Sanders was remembered by ordinary Americans, and his fried chicken has become a real symbol of the state of Kentucky.


In the photo: the world famous KFC logo.

Happy outcome of unfortunate circumstances

But in 1950, the colonel failed. The fact is that at that time a new highway was completed from the northern states to Florida, which was located away from Corbin. The number of cars dropped sharply, and Garland himself began to incur losses. Once successful business fell sharply, and Sanders himself was already over 60 years old when he again lost his financial balance. He no longer had the strength to start all over again, and then he thought that it would be nice to sell his idea to other restaurants.

Thus began his numerous journeys throughout the country. He rode on his car from state to state, with a bag of magic seasoning and your favorite pressure cooker. Sanders came to a local restaurant, with the permission of the owners, fried chicken, and then asked him to include it in the restaurant's menu. For each serving of poultry sold, Garland asked for 5 cents.

In 1952, the first KFC franchise appeared in Salt Lake City, and Pete Harman became a business partner of Sanders. The cooperation agreement gave him the right to include fried chicken on the menu, as well as use the name and image of the company. After the deal was closed, revenue at Harman's establishment grew by 75% due to Sanders' dish.


In the photo: the first KFC franchise - Harman's diner, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1952.

Pete also officially registered the slogan that already existed in his establishmentIt's finger lickin' good (It's delicious that you lick your fingers), which was later adopted in other places.

In addition, in 1957, Harman came up with a $3.50 "bucket lunch" that included fried chicken, a bun, and sauce. It happened by chance: at that time, Sanders handed him a batch of paper buckets so that he would somehow use them. Garland got them by mistake: the supplier of the container mixed up the order.

This story marked the beginning of a successful KFC franchise - by the mid-1960s, there were about 600 outlets with "Kentucky fried chicken" in the US and Canada.

Garland Sanders is a living trademark

The business created by Garland Sanders flourished from year to year, but he himself, unfortunately, was not getting younger - he was already over 70. He personally managed all the franchises, followed their work, and at that age it was no longer easy to do. The direct heirs of the colonel did not want to deal with fried chicken, and therefore, when in 1964 Sanders received an offer to sell the business, he agreed.

Garland sold his chain to a group of investors led by John Brown and Jack Massey for $2 million, while remaining the face of KFC with an annual salary of $250,000. His task was to "shine his face" - he traveled around the countries where new network points were opened, met with the press, clients, employees. In a word, he performed the work of a formal leader and was the embodiment of a “living trademark”.


In the photo: the “living trademark” of KFC is Colonel Garland Sanders.

When the colonel was asked about why he should work, he answered: “There is no point in being a millionaire in a cemetery - you can’t do business lying there.” Sanders spent the rest of his life traveling, playing golf and running his own restaurant.Claudia Sanders' Dinner House with his wife.Garland Sanders died in 1980 at the age of 90. He was buried in the famous white suit with a bow tie.

Yum!Brands and distribution of KFC around the world

After the death of the colonel, the history of KFC did not end. The chain went through a fair amount of ownership—even being owned by PepsiCo for a while. In 1997, the company spun off into Tricon Global Restaurants, later renamed Yum!Brands. Now this corporation is the largest operator of fast food restaurants and owns three famous brands: Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza Hut. The company's profit for the first half of 2018 is about $433 million.

With Yum!Brandz, the KFC chain became known all over the world. Countless restaurants were opened. Especially the fried chicken from Kentucky was loved by the people of China - this division has become one of the largest in the network.


Pictured: KFC in China.

As a result of a rebranding in the 1990s, the chain expanded its menu to include burgers, sandwiches, french fries, salads and sodas in addition to chicken.

Today, there are more than 15 thousand KFC restaurants in the world and they employ more than 750 thousand employees.The network has long become a national treasure of America, glorifying the state of Kentucky throughout the world.

And soon the residents of Tashkent will have the opportunity to try fried chicken and appreciate the taste of a dish invented by Harland Sanders in the distant 1940s.

All photographs are taken from open sources on the Internet.

May 7, 1931 in the mountain town of Corbin (Kentucky, USA) was unbearable heat. Matt Stewart, the owner of the gas station, was standing on the stairs and painting the concrete wall. He paused for a minute when he heard the sound of an approaching car that appeared to be moving at high speed.

Escape from home

Garland Sanders was born on September 9, 1890 in the farming community of Henryville, Indiana, where men only wore a suit twice in their lives - on own wedding and funerals. In 1895, when Garland was only five years old, his father, a butcher shop owner, came down with a fever and died a few days later.

Garland was raised by his mother, Margaret, a strict Christian who constantly told her children about the dangers of alcohol, tobacco, gambling and whistling on Sundays. At the age of seven, Garland was forced to look after his younger siblings while his mother was at work. When he was twelve years old, he dropped out of school because he was sick of the mere sight of English alphabet and mathematical examples. Margaret married a second time; her new husband disliked children and often beat them for any insignificant reason. A year later, thirteen-year-old Garland packed his meager belongings into a small suitcase and left home to live his life.

In 1906, young Harland Sanders took a job as a conductor in New Albany, Indiana. On the tram, he overheard two passengers discussing the military situation in Cuba. They were army recruiters. They managed to convince Sanders, who became interested, that military service was his calling. So he decided to go to Cuba on a ship full of people and donkeys.

He arrived safely at his destination, apart from seasickness. However, when the commander in Cuba found out that Sanders was only sixteen years old, he sent him back to the States. So ended military career future colonel.

Railway

Six years of education prevented Sanders from finding a decent job, so he got a job at the Southern Railroad, where he worked by scraping ash from steam engines. Soon, by observing locomotive drivers, he learned to throw coal and learned how to use fuel to achieve maximum efficiency of the steam engine. At the age of eighteen, he changed his occupation and began to fill in for machinists who did not show up for work. He also took over from them an extensive lexicon swear words that are often used in everyday speech. Whatever the case, Sanders was obsessed with cleanliness. He was very fond of wearing white overalls and cotton gloves of the same color to work. According to him, he returned home without a single spot on his clothes, despite the fact that he worked with coal all day.

It was during this time that Sanders met his beloved Josephine King. After meeting for a while, they decided to get married. As Margaret Sanders, the daughter of Garland and Josephine, later stated, her mother never wanted to have children. However, forty weeks after the first wedding night she gave birth to a girl.

Pound of meat

Sanders worked for railway some years. His career as a machinist came to an end when he got into a fight with an engineer on a water tower. History is silent about the cause of the conflict, as well as whether the young Sanders spoiled his snow-white form with the blood of the enemy or not.

When he was twenty-one, he decided to get an education and began studying law in the office of a Little Rock judge. In the end, he found a job in the world court, where he dreamed of achieving justice for the poor and disadvantaged inhabitants of the region. Sanders was especially proud of the cases in which he managed to negotiate assistance for black victims of a train crash and to stop the practice of the courts to pressure the accused. However, his legal career came to an end when he got into a fight with his client in the courtroom over unpaid legal fees.

Next years Sanders spent on independent business. He founded several businesses that met with mixed success. He lost most of his money when he tried to sell internal systems acetylene-based lighting. Who knew that electricity countryside appear earlier than expected? However, he managed to make quite a fortune by founding a company that handled much-needed ferry services in Jeffersonville, Indiana.

Sanders used the profits to create a Young Entrepreneurs Club in the city. One fine Saturday afternoon, the club announced that all city businesses would be closed due to a picnic in the local park. Its members put up signs announcing the picnic the day before the event.

A customer at a Jeffersonville barbershop was just enjoying a hot shave when a surly Sanders appeared at the door. “Even food and grocery stores are closed,” Sanders said to the owner of the barbershop. “So why are you working then?”

“If I want to close my barbershop, I will hang a sign on the door,” the barber replied. “I’m not going to do this just because you damn well decided to shut me down.”

“Come on, get out of your chair, I’ll show you now!” Sanders perked up. Angry men took to the streets. Garland slammed his opponent in the face, which was smeared with shaving cream. Unfortunately, during the fight, Sanders' new straw hat, which he bought especially for the picnic, was badly damaged. However, according to reports, the public event was a success. The people of Jeffersonville even chipped in for a new straw hat for Sanders.

Sanders at the time he worked as a tire salesman

bridge incident

In the late 1920s, the Sanders family moved to Camp Nelson, Kentucky, where Garland got a job as a salesman for the Michelin Tire Company. He was so good at everything that he even became the proud owner of a new top-end car "Maxwell". It was a real beauty that had varnished wood-spoke wheels and a revolutionary six-cylinder engine under the hood.

One frosty November morning in 1926, Sanders was trying to tie a tow rope to his new Maxwell and an old Ford Model T1 that also belonged to his family. "Ford Model T1" behaved terribly, especially in the cold season. Sanders' eighteen-year-old son, Garland Jr., got behind the wheel of a Ford Model T1, and Sanders Sr. dragged him towards the bridge over Hickman Creek. It was a "suspension bridge" intended for horse-drawn carriages, however, members of the Sanders family often crossed it in their cars without any problems. But not at this time. The bridge could not support the weight of two cars, and when they were about halfway across, it broke off.

The new "Maxwell" and the old "Ford Model T1" flew into a deep ravine. The younger Sanders escaped with only minor cuts and bruises, the older one received several bruises and lacerations. They made it safely to the house, where Josephine washed her husband's wounds with turpentine and bandaged them. Sanders survived, but now he had neither a job nor a car.

Corbin Stories: Part 1

Harland Sanders some time later found a job managing a Standard Oil gas station in the nearby town of Nicholasville. He earned two cents from every gallon of gasoline. He also engaged in the sale of agricultural machinery for local residents on credit. However, in the late 1920s, a severe drought hit the region, destroying crops and ruining many farmers. Demand for gasoline declined and customers failed to meet their loan obligations.

Sanders contacted contacts at Shell Oil and used his reputation to secure a lease on a new location where demand for fuel was higher. He was given a small plot in the city of Corbin (Kentucky). It was a poor area with no electricity, but it was next to a busy Route 25 highway. locals called it "Half an acre of Hell." It was here that the shootout took place between Sanders and Matt Stewart, who, by the way, was sentenced to eighteen years in prison for the murder of Shell Oil manager Robert Gibson. Stewart died two years after he ended up in jail, in the arms of a sheriff who, rumor has it, was hired to avenge Gibson's death.

One night, in the wee hours, Sanders was awakened by the sound of gunfire outside. Two bootleggers staged a showdown right in front of his house. He grabbed a gun and went out into the street in his shorts. "Hey, you sons of bitches, drop your guns on the ground!" Sanders shouted. The phrase "sons of bitches" sounded offensive, but the gun in the hands of the one who said it was more convincing. The men obeyed.

When the sheriff arrived at the scene to pick up the suspects, he asked Sanders to drive with him to testify. As the car pulled away, Sanders' daughter Margaret ran out of the house screaming, "Father! You forgot your pants!

Gas station in Corbin

secret city

One December evening in 1941, the Sanders family sat in Margaret's house, enjoying the music that was playing on the radio. Suddenly the concert was interrupted special issue news. The announcer informed the listeners that Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, which means war was declared on the States.

Sanders was then fifty-two years old, unfit for military service, but still able to do his little good for his country. He left the restaurant on Claudia and went to the city of Oak Ridge (Tennessee). Here, the government hastily erected a state facility on the site where farmland used to be. Sanders met with his friend Joe Clemmons, the owner of a local cafeteria, and was appointed to the position of assistant manager.

Sanders worked in Oak Ridge until the end of the war, but he had no idea what the thousands of men and women who called the city home were doing. They never openly discussed their work, not even with Sanders. Only after some time he learns that they were scientists and engineers who worked on the creation of uranium-235. They spent years turning the heaps of metal into several kilograms of a special isotope. In 1945, with the help of it, the Little Boy bomb was created, which was loaded into the Enola Gay combat aircraft and dropped on Hiroshima. This was the first use nuclear weapons for military purposes.

Return of the Colonel

In 1952, Harland Sanders decided to visit Australia. Much has changed in his life after the war. Garland divorced Josephine after 39 years life together and married Claudia. Governor Weatherby reinstated him to the rank of Kentucky Colonel for culinary merit, and this time Sanders decided to take full advantage of his title. He grew a grizzled beard, gave himself an odd signature, introduced himself as "Colonel Sanders" and wore black suits with a bolo tie. He also thought that it would be nice for him to change his vocabulary in order to become a real gentleman. This meant that he needed to completely eliminate profanity from his speech. That's why he went to Australia, where he hoped that a big religious conference would be able to rid him of the habit of swearing. However, first he needed to visit Utah.

Sixty-two-year-old Colonel Sanders got off the train in Salt Lake City and headed to the Do Drop Inn, a hamburger stand that was owned by Pete Harman. Sanders met Harman at a meeting of restaurateurs in Chicago. The colonel immediately liked the young man, because he was the only one present who refused alcohol.

Sanders asked Harman to take him to a local grocer, from whom he bought some frozen chicken carcasses and lots of condiments. He wanted to cook his "secret recipe" chicken, which he had perfected before the war, in the hope that Harman would be willing to sign a franchise agreement with him. Franchising was new at the time; Sanders wanted to convince well-known restaurateurs to add his recipe's chicken and sauce to their establishments' menus. However, for access to the method of preparing Sanders' signature dish, they naturally had to pay a certain amount.

The Colonel cooked chicken in Harman's kitchen in a borrowed pressure cooker. Fried chicken was not a ubiquitous dish in those days, so Do Drop's chefs were wary of it. They looked at Sanders's chicken as a pile of seasoned dinosaur descendants. They tried it, but they were not particularly enthusiastic. Colonel Sanders boarded the train and returned to San Francisco, from where he flew to Australia.

In 1951, Sanders decided to run for Kentucky Senator, but he was defeated by a narrow margin.

Two weeks later, Claudia met her husband in San Francisco, and Sanders decided that she should definitely see Harman's new establishment. They got off the train in Salt Lake City and headed to Do Drop, where they saw a huge sign that read "Kentucky Fried Chicken - Something New, Something Different" ("Kentucky Fried Chicken - Something New, Something Different"). other").

"Damn it!" Sanders said. A trip to Australia did not help him.

In all likelihood, Pete Harman recognized the eleventh ingredient that Colonel Sanders purchased from the grocer and thoroughly studied the process of frying chicken meat in a pressure cooker. The name "Kentucky Fried Chicken" was coined by the person who drew the sign. He suggested it when Harman was considering what to name the Colonel's dish. After Sapders' unexpected return, Harman decided to formally negotiate a franchise deal with him. The Colonel, in turn, laid claim to the name "Kentucky Fried Chicken". They sealed the deal with a handshake. Soon, Harman invented the notorious "bucket" and opened several more establishments. Five years later, his annual income had increased fivefold.

Sanders with Pete Harman

In 1956, US President Dwight Eisenhower signed the General Location of National System of Interstate Highways Act into law, allocating $25 billion to build 40,000 miles of highways. It was the largest project in American history related to community service.

Sanders' hotel and restaurant struggled to stay afloat after a key Route 25 junction was relocated. However, the colonel realized the seriousness of the situation only after the local newspaper published data on new roads. According to this information, Route 25 was supposed to replace Interstate 75, which was going to be built seven miles from the city. Sanders was forced to sell for a small sum what had been built over the years. At sixty-six, he returned to the beginning of the path. He received $105 per month. social assistance as well as a small franchise income.

In this position, Sanders decided to get serious about franchising. He would come to a city in his Oldsmobile, park it on the outskirts and sleep in the back seat. He took with him everything he needed to demonstrate the process of preparing his signature dish - a refrigerator with chicken carcasses, flour, a recently patented pressure cooker, seasonings, vegetable oil and fire extinguishers. At first, he fried chicken for restaurant employees, and if they liked the dish, then he offered it to visitors to try. He walked around the restaurant hall in a snow-white suit, with a silver beard, a bolo tie and a cane in his hands, and asked the guests whether they liked the meal or not.

One of the restaurants that chose to sign a franchise deal with Sanders was The Hobby House in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The Colonel befriends his chef, Dave Thomas. An experienced veteran took young Thomas under his wing and shared wise advice with him. Subsequently, Thomas would become the manager of several successful Kentucky Fried Chicken franchises, and even later create his own chain of fast food restaurants called Wendy's.

Dave Thomas and Harland Sanders

American chain of fast food restaurants (fast food). Specializes in chicken meat, as her name suggests - Kentucky Fried Chicken(fried chicken from Kentucky). From the name, you can immediately understand where this brand comes from. The headquarters of the company is located in Louisville, Kentucky, USA (Louisville, Kentucky, United States).

Telling the story of the brand KFC, it is impossible not to at least briefly tell the biography of its founder, best known as Colonel Sanders (Colonel Sanders). David Sanders was born on September 9, 1890. His childhood was difficult, and the situation in the family forced David to leave home as a boy. He forged documents and at the age of 16 went to serve in the US Army. After the end of his term of service, he wandered a lot around the country and during these wanderings he learned a lot, including cooking a wide variety of dishes. At the age of 40, he opened a gas station in the town of Corbin, Kentucky, where he treated customers to fried chicken, prepared according to his own recipe, containing a certain set of herbs and spices. It was this dish that was destined to play a decisive role in the fate of Sanders. The gas station visitors liked the dish and more and more often they began to come in just to eat, and not just to fill up the car.

Sanders realized that he attacked gold mine. He improved the recipe (the chicken was pressure-fried) and moved to a larger facility; and then to a bigger one. It is noteworthy that in those years the Great Depression raged in the United States. By 1950, he was already so popular in Kentucky that he was even awarded the title of Colonel of Kentucky, handed to him personally by the governor of the state. It was then that the image that is depicted on the logo today crystallized. KFC.

In 1955, the first problems began - the popularity of the Colonel's restaurants began to subside. But Sanders was not at a loss, but finding cash, began to expand their number, actively introducing a franchise. The effect was not long in coming. In 1964, at the age of 74, David Sanders sold his business to Kentucky businessmen for almost $2 million (by then the number of restaurants already exceeded 600). Interestingly, at the same time, he retained the right to Canadian franchises and did not go out of business for a long time.

The Colonel died in 1980, having lived for 90 years. It is interesting that he was buried in the famous white suit, which for so many years has personified the image of the founder KFC. By the way, the image of Colonel Sanders has become so remarkable that he has already been beaten many times in popular culture. He is almost as recognizable as the clown Ronald McDonald

After the death of the founder, the company was resold several times. Owners KFC there were companies like R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company And PepsiCo .

In 1991, it was decided to shorten the name to a three-letter abbreviation. And since 1997 KFC owned by an American corporation Yum! Brands, specializing in food products (also owns brands