Colonel Sanders

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Colonel Sanders
Born
September 9, 1890 Henryville, Indiana, USA

Harland David Sanders (September 9, 1890 – December 16, 1980) was the founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC). His picture appears on their boxes to this day, and a stylized graphic of his face is a trademark of the corporation.

Sanders was born in Henryville, Indiana. His father died when he was six years old, and since his mother worked, he was forced to cook for his family. During his teen years, Sanders worked many jobs, including firefighter, steamboat driver, insurance salesman, and he served as an Army private in Cuba.

At the age of 40, Sanders made chicken for people who passed by his service station in Corbin, Kentucky. He didn't have a restaurant then, but served the diners in his living quarters in the service station. Eventually, his local popularity grew, and Sanders moved to a motel and restaurant that seated 142 people and began working as the chef. Over the next nine years, he perfected his method of cooking chicken that used the same eleven herbs and spices that are used today at KFC. He also made use of a pressure cooker that enhanced the flavor and allowed the chicken to be cooked much faster than pan-frying. He was given the honorary title "Kentucky colonel" in 1935 by Governor Ruby Laffoon. Unlike most people who receive this title, Sanders chose to call himself "Colonel" and to dress in a stereotypical "southern gentleman" costume as a way of self-promotion.

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Sanders was forced to sell his property in order to make way for Interstate 75. He lived off his Social Security checks, and based his entire career on his ability to cook. Confident of the quality of his fried chicken, the Colonel devoted himself to the chicken franchising business that he started in 1952, the first franchise being setup on 3900 South State Street in Salt Lake City. He traveled across the country by car from restaurant to restaurant, cooking batches of chicken for restaurant owners and their employees. If the reaction was favorable, he entered into a handshake agreement on a deal that stipulated a payment to him of a nickel for each chicken the restaurant sold. His devoted work turned his small business, Kentucky Fried Chicken, into one of the largest fast food chains in existence. He himself became one of the most recognizable people in the world.

In 1959, Sanders moved the headquarters of his business to a new location near Shelbyville, Kentucky and in 1964, sold it to a group of investors headed by future Kentucky Governor John Y. Brown, Jr. Sanders, after retiring as a cook, worked as its company spokesman for most of the rest of his life. He appeared in many of his company's television commercials between the 1950s and 1970s (with his and KFC's slogan "Finger-lickin' good"), and remained outspoken about the quality of the KFC product, often with a lively vocabulary. In 1975 a libel lawsuit was filed against Harlan Sanders by Kentucky Fried Chicken for his comments, including calling the gravy "sludge" and "wallpaper paste". The suit was unsuccessful, and he continued to speak out when he felt the quality of the business he founded waned.

He also retained ownership of the headquarters building and soon opened a new restaurant in it. KFC's new owners owned the name Colonel Sanders as it pertained to the restaurant business, so Sanders decided to name his new restaurant "Claudia Sanders' Dinner House" after his wife. As of 2006, this restaurant is still operating and is decorated with many photographs and memorabilia from the Sanders family. (A second Claudia Sanders' Dinner House location was opened in a historic mansion in Bowling Green, Kentucky, but closed in the 1980s).

Sanders died at age 90 of leukemia. He was buried in his characteristic white suit and black bow tie in Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky, after lying in state in the rotunda of the Kentucky State Capitol. A later cartoon version of Colonel Sanders (voiced by actor Randy Quaid) has appeared in more recent KFC commercials, and he has an almost-identical impersonator, the latter to the considerable consternation of many in the Sanders family.

To this day, the Colonel's secret recipe of eleven herbs and spices remains one of the best-kept trade secrets in business.

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Trivia

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Madonna referred to the famous Kentucky Fried Chicken slogan in her 1992 song about oral sex, "Where Life Begins", singing the lines Colonel Sanders says it best/It's finger-lickin' good.
In a 2006 episode of the popular crime drama CSI: Miami, a video game representative responds to Horatio Caine's demands that he summarize elements of his game with the quote "That's like asking Colonel Sanders for his secret 11 herbs and spices".
Colonel Sanders appears as a fictional character in Haruki Murakami's novel Kafka on the Shore.
The Hanshin Tigers baseball team suffered from the "Curse of the Colonel" for many years: rioting fans stole a statue of the Colonel from a local KFC shop in 1985 and the team did not win another championship until 2003. (The Tigers' star player was a bearded American slugger named Randy Bass who bore a faint resemblance to the Colonel.)
In January 26, 2006, Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher flatly refused Pamela Anderson's PETA-backed demand to remove a statue of Colonel Sanders from the Kentucky Capitol Building.
The Mike Myers movie So I Married an Axe Murderer featured two parent characters, the McKenzies, who get all of their information from the farcical grocery store tabloid the Weekly World News. Stuart McKenzie claims that Colonel Sanders was a member of the world-controlling organization, the Pentaverate, before he died. Stuart says, "I hated the Colonel with his wee, beady eyes and that smug look on his face. 'Oh, you're gonna buy my chicken, ohhhh!'" Stuart also claimed that Sanders put an addictive chemical in the chicken which makes a person crave it "fortnightly"
The Mel Brooks movie Spaceballs has a character named Colonel Sandurz. When Dark Helmet, the spoof of Darth Vader makes a request to the Colonel and he is too afraid to comply, Dark Helmet replies, "What'sa matter Colonel Sandurz? Chicken?"
In an episode of The Muppet Show, a picture of Colonel Sanders is used as a dartboard in Camilla's dressing room.
According to Todd Wilbur's book Top Secret Recipes the "11 herbs and spices" are actually just flour, salt, pepper, and MSG.
In Adam Sandler's movie The Waterboy, he refers to his biology teacher as Colonel Sanders, due to his appearance which strikingly resembles the Colonel's.
In an episode of Family Guy, Peter exclaims "You mean I came all the way to Kentucky to get some of your fried chicken and the Colonel's not even working?"
The King of Town on Homestar Runner dressed up as Colonel Sanders for Halloween 2005, and showed off his secret mixture of eleven herbs and spices. When Homestar makes off with the bag, the King says that the bag he held up only had ten herbs and spices.
Colonel Sanders' famous Popcorn Chicken are often used in the TV sitcom The Simpsons as a running gag
In the Little House on the Prairie episode "Wave of the Future" a man with a striking resemblence to Colonel Sanders offers Mrs. Oleson a chance to get into the fried chicken business. His name was not mentioned.