Colonel Sanders' - Kentucky Fried Chicken Story

In 1952 at the age of 65, when most people are looking at slowing down and retiring, Harland
David Sanders began Kentucky Fried Chicken. We are fortunate that Colonel Harland Sanders
did not believe in the adage that “the future belongs to the young,” or we would likely have never
tasted the “finger lickin'” fried chicken we all so much enjoy today. KFC is arguably one of the
most widely recognized brands worldwide, and the Colonel is one of the pioneers of
modern franchising.

The Early Years

Harland Sanders was born on a farm in Indiana. Lying about his age, he joined the U.S. Army in
1906 and was stationed in Cuba. His rank of Colonel did not come from his military career,
however. That honorary title was given to him twice, once by Kentucky Governor Ruby Laffoon
in 1935, and again in 1950 by Governor Lawrence Wetherby.

While not as flamboyant and certainly without much of the drama, in many ways, Harland’s
childhood was very similar to that of one of his early franchisees, Dave Thomas, the founder
of Wendy’s. Harland grew up poor and needed to become self-sufficient at an early age.
Following his father’s death when Harland was only six, his mother’s work kept her away from
home for extended periods and young Harland needed to learn to cook and care for his siblings.
By the time he turned ten he took a job as a farmhand and, during his life before KFC, he
painted horse carriages, was a streetcar conductor, insurance salesman, railroad fireman,
blacksmith’s helper, cleaned ashbins on trains, operated a ferry boat on the Ohio River, sold life
insurance, sold automobile tires, became a midwife delivering babies, managed a gasoline
service station, and was secretary at the Columbus, Indiana Chamber of Commerce.

Ultimately Colonel Sanders obtained his law degree by taking correspondence courses from
LaSalle Extension University and began a short three-year law practice in the justice-of-the-
peace courts in Little Rock, Arkansas. His legal career ended after he got into a fistfight with one
of his clients.

In 1930 Sanders became a franchisee of Shell Oil Company and, to improve his sales, began to
sell chicken dishes, steak, ham, and other comfort food to his customers. His original restaurant
was a kitchen table he placed in front of the service station and eventually, he opened up
Sander’s Café, his first restaurant, across the street from the service station. Because he felt it
took too long to cook, his original restaurant did not start out serving fried chicken.That did not
come until later when he developed his secret recipe of 11 herbs and spices and began to cook
his chicken in a pressure cooker.

I recall Dave Thomas telling me that one of the dangers of the Colonel’s cooking process was
that the pressure cookers frequently exploded.

Sanders was an aggressive marketer of his restaurant and service station, and his talent and
temper landed him in a bit of trouble with one of his local competitors. Sanders began to paint
advertising for his service station and restaurant on barns for miles around his location. One of
his competitors, Matt Stewart, who operated a nearby Standard Oil station, took exception to the
Colonel’s advertising and began to paint over his signs. Sanders went to see Stewart,
accompanied by two Shell executives.
During the confrontation, Stewart shot and killed Robert Gibson, one of Shell’s district managers
and during the fight, Sanders shot Stewart and wounded him in the shoulder. Stewart was
convicted of murder, but the charges against Sanders were dropped after his arrest.

The Kentucky Fried Chicken Franchise Begins

Sanders successfully operated a motel with an attached 140-seat restaurant in Asheville, North
Carolina during the 1940s, but during World War II with gas rationing, the motel and restaurant
began to fail. It was in that restaurant that he perfected his secret recipe and began cooking his
chicken in a pressure cooker because it was faster than pan frying. The Sanders Court &
Café was popular with travelers on their way to Florida through the town of Corbin, Kentucky but
when Interstate 75 was built in the 1950s, bypassing the town, Sanders was forced to retire and
sell the restaurant.

In 1952, living on his $105 a month social security check, Colonel Sanders embarked on his last
career.

Sanders began traveling across the country, cooking along the way, determined to franchise his
fried chicken. Many of the restaurant owners he met laughed at his signature dress of a
starched white shirt, black tie, and white jacket and pants. There is a wonderful picture of the
Colonel and Dave Thomas both wearing the Colonel’s signature attire.

Pete Harman was a friend of Sanders and operated one of the largest restaurants in Salt Lake
City. Persuading Harman to begin selling his recipe chicken in his "Do Drop Inn" restaurant was
a success, increasing sales by 75%. It was Don Anderson, a painter hired by Harman, who
came up with the name Kentucky Fried Chicken and it was Harman that created the original
bucket that still exists today. Soon several more restaurant owners signed franchise agreements
with Sanders for the princely franchise fee of four (4) cents per chicken.

It was during this early period that the Colonel met Dave Thomas. Dave at the time was working
as a cook for the Clauss family operators of the Hobby House restaurants. It was Dave who
developed the classic wobbly red-and-white striped chicken bucket that became the classic sign
outside of each Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant, and who also streamlined the method of
delivery by creating the “snake” line still used today in many restaurants. Against the Colonel’s
advice, Dave took over eight failing restaurants and was so successful in turning them around
that he was able to sell the restaurants and begin his own chain of hamburger restaurants,
named after his daughter Melinda Lou “Wendy” Thomas.

By 1964 there were over 600 franchised Kentucky Fried Chicken locations in the U.S., Canada,
Mexico, England, and Jamaica. At the age of 73, Harland sold most of Kentucky Fried Chicken
to John Y. Brown and Jack Massey for two million dollars, retaining Canada for himself and
excluding England, Florida, Utah, and Montana that he had already sold to others.

Sanders continued visiting Kentucky Fried Chicken locations and, as its brand ambassador,
filmed many TV commercials and made personal appearances. Heublein purchased the
company in 1971, and following their acquisition Colonel Sanders began to criticize the
company’s products in colorful terms, calling the gravy "god-damned slop” or “wallpaper paste
to which sludge has been added” and describing Heublein's executives as "a bunch of booze
hounds.”
While still its brand ambassador, he and his wife Claudia opened “The Colonel’s Lady’s Dinner
House” restaurant in Shelbyville, Kentucky, in 1968. Heublein tried to stop the couple from
opening the restaurant and in settling the dispute, Sanders received $1 million in exchange for
his promise to stop criticizing Kentucky Fried Chicken’s food and was allowed to open his
restaurant. Renamed the "Claudia Sanders Dinner House," the restaurant was the only non-
Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant to serve a true version of Sander's original recipe.

The restaurant was sold in the 1970s.

Colonel Harland Sanders died in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1980 and his wife Claudia died in 1997.

Kentucky Fried Chicken continues to be a well-known franchise brand, currently ranking #41 on
Entrepreneur's "Franchise 500" list, and with over 500 new locations added within the past year.

Colonel Harland Sanders, founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken, did. But he took his failures and didn't just
make lemonade--he made the world a better place.