Colonel Sanders: Great American!

The damn Yankee reds are at it again!  They have declared Colonel Sanders to be an insulting symbol of the Old South and demand he be removed from all the Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise stores and restaurants!  They launched this attack on Colonel Sanders 127th birthday!  He was born on September 9, 1890 and he remains a model and inspiration to young and old today.  He was a really remarkable man and solid evidence of the wonders of capitalism that is now under attack by people calling themselves "liberals."  They are anything but!

Harlen David Sanders is, or deserves to be, a hero to all Americans who love to dream of success as he achieved it at age 65!  He started Kentucky Fried Chicken at the age most see as retirement!  It is today one of most famous, and recognizable franchises on planet Earth.

Harland Sanders was an Indiana farm boy who lied about his age to join the US Army in 1906.  He was stationed in Cuba. He did not become a Colonel in the military. His honorary title was given to him by two Kentucky Governors in 1935, and 1950.

His early life on the farm gave him much experience in the kitchen and doing many tasks and jobs as a farmhand as his father had died and the family struggled and he did every job there was in southern Indiana at that time including local politics, midwifery, delivering babies, skippering a riverboat and was the Secretary of the Columbus, Indiana Chamber of Commerce.

He studied law by correspondence, passed the Indiana State Bar and practiced law for three years, but his legal career ended after he got into a fistfight with a client.  In 1930 he became a franchisee of a Shell Oil station and sold chicken dishes, steak and ham sandwiches to his clientele.

His first restaurant was a kitchen table in front of the service station. Then he he opened Sander’s Café across the street.  Fried chicken took a long time to cook before the pressure cooker fryer was developed.  It is not clear that he invented this innovation, but his "11 herbs and spices" recipe and "Finger lickin' good" were all Sanders.  The development process was not without hazards as the pressure cooker fryers occasionally exploded, he apparently got that aspect under control.

When Sanders painted advertising on area barns competitor Matt Stewart, a local Shell Oil dealer objected. Sanders met with Stewart, accompanied by two Shell executives and a hot dispute ensued.  Stewart shot and killed one of Shell’s district managers and Sanders shot Stewart wounding him in the shoulder.  Stewart was convicted of murder and charges against Sanders were dropped.

Sanders operated a motel with a 140-seat restaurant in Asheville, North Carolina during the 1940s, but World War II gas rationing killed the business. However, in that restaurant he perfected his recipe and cooking  chicken in a pressure cooker much faster than pan frying.

He enjoyed great success until Interstate 75 opened, bypassing the town so he sold the restaurant and settled for a $105 Social Security check in 1952. This was not an acceptable situation for Harlen David Sanders!  He took to the road with a pressure cooker and recipe in hand with the idea of franchising.  Many thought he was a crazy, old man, cornball, but when they ate his "finger-lickin' good" chicken it was all over, but doing this one "lick" at a time is not a workable strategy.

Pete Harman, a friend of Sanders operated a large restaurant in Salt Lake City and he began selling his chicken was a success, increasing sales by 75%. Several restaurant owners signed franchise agreements with Sanders for a franchise fee of four cents per chicken.

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.

Sanders continued visiting Kentucky Fried Chicken locations.  As its brand ambassador he filmed TV commercials and made personal appearances. The Heublein Co. purchased the KFC in 1971, and it was an unhappy marriage as they made changes in the gravy and other components.  This resulted in a dispute that was ultimately settled for $1 million to Colonel Sanders!  

Colonel Harland Sanders died in Louisville, Kentucky and many will remember him well as an elderly man who had a great idea and the drive to make it happen in America.

Adrian Vance