biography
| name: |
Sanders, Harlan
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known as Colonel
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1890–1980)
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| biography:
| Food franchiser, born in Henryville, Indiana, USA. When he was 12, his mother remarried and his stepfather sent the children away, and Harlan became a farmhand in Greenwood, IN. With a sixth-grade education, he began 25 years of odd jobs which included service as a US Army soldier in Cuba. In 1929 he opened a petrol station and small restaurant in Corbin, KY, and his cooking grew so popular that he closed the station to open Sander's Cafe, which soon added a motel. By 1939, with the invention of the pressure cooker, he had discovered the method for cooking chicken quickly. World War 2 and a new interstate led to a decline in customers and mounting debts required the sale of his restaurant (1956). He began demonstrating the Colonel Sanders method, and his secret seasoning to other restaurant owners, and in return for his secrets, they became franchises. In the first two years he sold five franchises and by 1960 he had sold 200. When he sold his company to John Y Brown and Jack Massey (1964), he had sold more than 600, and he became a spokesman for the Colonel Sanders enterprise. The governor of Kentucky conferred on him the honorary title of Colonel in 1936 in recognition of his contribution to the state's cuisine. |
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