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The Colonel By the bucket
The rich, full life of a fast-food pioneer
MUCH as he might resemble the inspired figment of an advertising man's imagination, Colonel Harland Sanders, the face of Kentucky Fried Chicken, really did exist, and really was a colonel—though the title was an honorary one conferred by the governor of Kentucky, not a military rank.
Born in Indiana in 1890, Sanders left school at ten and for the next 30 years pursued a fine American life as a farmhand, street-car conductor, soldier in Cuba, railway fireman, lawyer, insurance salesman, ferry-man, tyre salesman and petrol-station operator. When the petrol station, in Corbin, Kentucky, did well, he opened a motel and restaurant, where he perfected his fried-chicken recipe. The state governor, the gloriously named Ruby Laffoon, so enjoyed eating there that he named Sanders a Kentucky Colonel in 1935.
When a new interstate highway killed the motel in the early 1950s, Sanders started travelling the country frying seasoned chicken for restaurants and offering them his recipe for a royalty. The first to agree, a Utah restaurateur called Leon Harman, suggested the paper “bucket” which soon became part of the brand. In 1964, when Sanders had 600 franchisees, he sold the business for $2m to private investors who resold it in 1971 for $285m to Heublein, a drinks company, which in turn was bought in 1982 by R.J. Reynolds. The tobacco company sold Kentucky Fried Chicken to PepsiCo four years later.
Sanders died in 1980, a rich man, but not nearly as rich as if he had taken shares instead of cash for his business. Still, he seemed happy enough. He called his autobiography “Life as I Have Known It Has Been Finger Lickin' Good”.
The Colonel By the bucket
The rich, full life of a fast-food pioneer
MUCH as he might resemble the inspired figment of an advertising man's imagination, Colonel Harland Sanders, the face of Kentucky Fried Chicken, really did exist, and really was a colonel—though the title was an honorary one conferred by the governor of Kentucky, not a military rank.
Born in Indiana in 1890, Sanders left school at ten and for the next 30 years pursued a fine American life as a farmhand, street-car conductor, soldier in Cuba, railway fireman, lawyer, insurance salesman, ferry-man, tyre salesman and petrol-station operator. When the petrol station, in Corbin, Kentucky, did well, he opened a motel and restaurant, where he perfected his fried-chicken recipe. The state governor, the gloriously named Ruby Laffoon, so enjoyed eating there that he named Sanders a Kentucky Colonel in 1935.
When a new interstate highway killed the motel in the early 1950s, Sanders started travelling the country frying seasoned chicken for restaurants and offering them his recipe for a royalty. The first to agree, a Utah restaurateur called Leon Harman, suggested the paper “bucket” which soon became part of the brand. In 1964, when Sanders had 600 franchisees, he sold the business for $2m to private investors who resold it in 1971 for $285m to Heublein, a drinks company, which in turn was bought in 1982 by R.J. Reynolds. The tobacco company sold Kentucky Fried Chicken to PepsiCo four years later.
Sanders died in 1980, a rich man, but not nearly as rich as if he had taken shares instead of cash for his business. Still, he seemed happy enough. He called his autobiography “Life as I Have Known It Has Been Finger Lickin' Good”.
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