Harland Sanders (1890-1980), better known as Colonel Sanders, was the founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken, also known as KFC, one of the first American fast food chains and still one of the largest. He is that man in the picture with the white suit and black tie.
His father died when he was five. As the oldest child his mother taught him how to do the cooking. When he was 12 his mother remarried, but his new stepfather beat him. He dropped out of school and ran away from home.
He took what work he could find. In 1906 at 16 he lied about his age and joined the army, which sent him to Cuba.
In the 1910s and early 1920s he was a lawyer in Little Rock, Arkansas, but lost his right to practise law when he came to blows in the courtroom. He bought the rights to a patent on gas lighting but then the government started spreading electricity to the whole country, making the patent worthless. He sold Prudential insurance for a while.
In 1930 at age 40 he opened a service station on Route 25 in Corbin, Kentucky. People kept asking where there was a good place to eat, so he opened a restaurant. It started with one table and six chairs.
Throughout the 1930s he perfected his fried chicken, finding ways to make it taste better and cook faster. By 1935 it was so good the governor made him an honorary colonel. By 1940 he could cook it in six minutes and made it with a secret recipe of 11 herbs and spices that has proved very hard to guess.
In the 1950s he started wearing the white suit and black tie – his idea of a Southern gentleman.
His restaurant did well partly because it was on the main road to Florida. But then in the 1950s the government built a bigger, better road to Florida, I-75, a few miles to the west.
So after 25 years Sanders sold his restaurant at auction and was just barely able to pay off his debts and taxes. He was now 65 years old and nearly broke.
He travelled across the country with his portable pressure fryer and his secret recipe and made chicken dinners for restaurant owners. If they liked his chicken he would show them how to make it and send them packs of his secret recipe. In return they agreed to give him five cents (3.4 p) for every chicken sold and go by the name of Kentucky Fried Chicken.
In a few years Sanders was making $1000 (900 crowns) a day. He visited KFCs to make sure they did things right. In 1964 he sold the business for $2 million (1.6 million crowns) though he stayed on as a pitchman, appearing in television ads into the 1970s.
Rumours:
- Snopes.com says there is no proof that Sanders ever gave or willed money to the Klan.
- Ron Douglas in “America’s Most Wanted Recipes” says that Sanders took his secret recipe from a black woman, one Miss Childress of Kentucky, whose family he paid $1200 when they complained.
See also:
- American dollar
- people who remind me of Colonel Sanders in one way or another:
- The Green Book
Did he really steal the recipe from a black woman?! I wouldn’t be suprised if it’s true. Whites have been stelaing ideas from blacks for years.
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Wow, I’m 42 (eep!) and I have never had a bite of KFC chicken in my life.
BUT, I am totally curious about why those people remind you of Col Sanders, Abagond. Without reading their entries, is it because they all had success after a certain age or no?
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Dominick Dunne did have his world fall apart at age 50 and remade himself.
For Kubrick it is his perfectionism.
For Wyeth it is his dogged trial and error to come up with something new.
For Walker it is how she built a business empire out of something ordinary and everyday and yet new.
For McMillan it is how she went on the road to push her first book when the publisher gave her no money for it.
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Wow, I’m 42 (eep!) and I have never had a bite of KFC chicken in my life.
I call it Kentucky Fried Upchuck. I eat it once in a while to remind myself why I dislike it so. I always make sure I have a bottle of Maalox on hand! Ptomaine poison in a box!
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Ahhh. I can see it now.
KFU! lol
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Their Poutine isn’t bad, I’ll give them that.
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My grandmother swore up and down til the day she died that he stole the recipe from some Black woman named Ruby! She always did say there was no way he knew anything about cooking fried chicken.
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KFC is a new thing in my country. It’s really expensive for us, and while it tastes good, it’s not worth the money (and not to mention many meals are small).
But I like fried chicken a lot (even though I feel bad about it, as with any other meat) so I can’t say it isn’t tasty.
I don’t think we’ll ever know if he stole the recipe or not. In any case, it wouldn’t be the first time that somebody stole another person’s idea and made a fortune out of it.
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nice post abagond ! Keep reminding me that you have to failed many times before succeed…..
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i like the chicken. extra batter please. and only the breast meat. the cole slaw isn’t my favorite. ad the taters are a joke. i just wish they had purple kool aid to go with it.
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Who cares about KFC? It is unhealthy for you. Aren’t you reinforcing black stereotypes by writing about KFC? What about Popeye’s? Yeah we “love dat chicken from Popeyes!” right? Give me a break!
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Joey, I hate to break it to you, but fried chicken is generic USA po’ folks food, black and white.
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I’ll eat KFC every now and then. Their “original” recipe is my favorite, but since I’m so frugal, I think their prices are a bit high. In my area, we also have what’s called “Bojangle’s” along with “Chick Fil’A” so the choices spread around.
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[…] Fried Chicken (KFC). He’s still the face of KFC with his white suit and black string tie. Colonel Sanders led a turbulent life but kept at it until he found success selling his chicken cooked with his […]
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KFC mmmmm!! i love it, specialy CHEEZY WEDGES!!;)
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Akim,
Before you go and make a ignorant remark like that, why don’t you go find out your facts instead of making your cute little remarks upon assumption.. I am so sick of people making remarks when they don’t even know what they are talking about. Go educate yourself and realize how ignorant you sound before you open your mouth.
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[…] Colonel Sanders led a turbulent life but kept at it until he found success selling his chicken cooked with his world famous recipe. His father died when he was five. His mother taught him how to do the cooking as he was the oldest child and his mother had to work to support the family. When he was 12 his mother remarried. His new stepfather beat him. He then dropped out of school and ran away from home. He worked where he could find. At 16 he lied about his age and joined the army, which sent him to Cuba. After the army, he was a failure who got fired from a dozen jobs. In the 1910s and early 1920s he was a lawyer in Little Rock, Arkansas, but lost his right to practice law when he came to blows with his client in the courtroom. He even sold insurance for a while. In 1930, at age 40, he opened a service station on Route 25 in Corbin, Kentucky. Colonel Sanders cooked chicken dishes and other meals for people who stopped at his service station. Since he did not have a restaurant, he served customers in his living quarters at the service station. His local popularity grew, and Sanders moved to a motel and restaurant that seated 142 people where he worked as the chef. Throughout the 1930s he perfected his fried chicken, finding ways to make it taste better and cook faster. By 1935, the governor made him an honorary colonel. By 1940 he could cook his chicken in six minutes and made it with a secret recipe of 11 herbs and spices. In the 1950s the government built I-75 which by-passed his restaurant a few miles to the west. The restaurant failed. Colonel Sanders sold his restaurant at auction and was just barely able to pay off his debts and taxes. He found himself broke at the age of 65. Down to his month $105 social security check as his sole source of income, he drove around in a Cadillac with his face painted on the side before anybody knew who he was, pleading with the owners of run-down diners to use his recipe and give him a nickel commission on each chicken. He slept in the back of the car and made handshake deals. If the restaurant owners liked his chicken, he would show them how to make it and send them packs of his secret recipe. In return, they agreed to give him five cents for every chicken sold and go by the name of Kentucky Fried Chicken. In a few years Sanders was making $1000 a day. In 1964 he sold the business for $2 million (over $13 million in today’s money). Success may not come easy, but if you stick to it, you may find success in the end as Colonel Sanders did. […]
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People make fried chicken in many countries. He didn’t steal from anyone.
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Ok, it has been proved he never stole a recipe, also you cannot copyright a recipe. the timeline that that is used in the myth of him stealing the recipe doesn’t add up. he had been open 10 plus years before he got the recipe right and started frying chicken in a pressure cooker. so even if he did but the recipe for $1200 in 1930, that would be almost $20,000.00 today. I think a fair price for a recipe, No one knew how big KFC would get. Also, Col. Sanders sold KFC for 2 million dollars in 1964. Which ironically did over $28 billion in sales last year… So if Miss Childress did, in fact, sold the recipe, and Col. Sanders did sell KFC, no one forced them to.
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KFC upchuck, went downhill after that woman sold the recipe as far as I’m concerned!
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KFC has always been nasty to me so there’s that.
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@ Herneith
I deleted your comment because I deleted the comment it was in response and it would not make sense without it.
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LOL!
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