Leon Trotsky kfc. The founder of KFC is Colonel Sanders. Biography, activities and history. Sale of KFC
We expose! Trotsky founded KFC? September 6th, 2016
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That's the point of this story...
According to the spreaders of this picture on social networks in 1913, American comrades from the US Socialist Party made a gift to Leon Trotsky - they handed him an American passport in the name of Harland Sanders. At that time, Lenin's comrade-in-arms had no idea how much this document would be useful to him twenty-odd years later. With his help, in 1935, he will escape from Norway, which is increasingly yielding to the diplomatic pressure of the USSR, and find himself on the other side of the Atlantic - in the USA.
The entry into the United States was preceded by a long conversation with the FBI officers who detained Trotsky in the Boston port. The United States was not happy with the desire of the famous Bolshevik to find refuge on American soil - firstly, this would worsen the already unimportant relations with the Soviet Union, and secondly, the White House did not, in principle, favor the socialists and their leaders. On the other hand, Trotsky, as an implacable opponent of Stalin, could prove useful.
As a result, an almost gentlemen's agreement was concluded between the American government and the disgraced Bolshevik. Trotsky was allowed to live in the United States, and in exchange, he refused any kind of political activity in all states. Violation would mean immediate deportation. Of course, both sides considered it reasonable to hide as much as possible the very fact that Lev Davidovich now lives in the "land of the free." To divert attention, Trotsky issued a residence permit in Mexico and after a while began to regularly spend holidays there - in his small house in Coyoacan.
In the US, Trotsky opened a small restaurant - the legend of the October Revolution was desperate for money, and catering was an easy way to stay afloat. In fact, behind the proud word "restaurant" was a small eatery in Kentucky, bought for next to nothing from a bankrupt owner. At first, Trotsky cooked himself - there was no money to hire staff.
I must say that Lev Davidovich knew how to cook only one dish - chicken - but he did it well. Even during the emigration, Lenin asked his colleague to help with lunch or dinner. “Nadya is a golden woman, but she doesn’t know how to cook at all!” Vladimir Ilyich explained contritely. After several not entirely successful experiments, Trotsky developed a suitable recipe, each time leading Lenin to delight. “Archive turned out delicious, my dear!”, the leader of the Bolsheviks invariably praised him.
Within a few months, Trotsky realized that the "restaurant" was barely making a profit. Suddenly, an unusual idea occurred to him - what if Marxist-Leninist theory was applied to business, supplementing it with his own doctrine of "permanent revolution"? The US authorities banned Trotsky from politics, but they did not say anything about business. Having sketched out a business plan, Lev Davidovich set to work.
Trotsky decided to use the experience of the development of the Communist Party. According to his plan, in every US city there was to be a cell of his restaurant, and this network was constantly expanding, and would later appear in other countries. In addition, he came up with the idea of patenting his recipe and selling the right to use it - by analogy with the principle of the International, which included a variety of left-wing parties united under a common banner.
To maintain labor discipline, Trotsky actively applied the methods used in the Soviet Union. All employees wore the same uniform, "party meetings" were held regularly, a portrait of the best worker of the month was hung on the wall of honor - and he was given a nominal letter. Posters in the spirit of Sotsart hung in the kitchens of restaurants. Trotsky was especially fond of this one: "Roasting must be permanent, like a revolution!"
Nostalgic for its former greatness, Lev Davidovich could not resist and made his portrait the logo of the network, drawing an unambiguous parallel with countless images of Lenin in the USSR. Red, of course, has become the corporate color of the restaurants. Like any Bolshevik, Trotsky loved abbreviations, so he wittily called his empire KFC - K for Communist ("K" means "Communist").
No one in the US, of course, knew the wrong side of KFC - for everyone around it it was just a chain of eateries "Kentucky Fried Chicken", which was run by an eccentric but good-natured Colonel Sanders (Trotsky received the honorary title from the hands of the governor of the state, a secret member of the 4th International who wanted to help his idol). Several times a year, Trotsky traveled to Mexico, where he wrote political appeals, criticized Stalin, and worked on his memoirs. Only family members knew about his double life.
In the spring of 1940, Trotsky mistook the unsuccessful assassination attempt for an attempt by the owner of the Yammy Burgers chain to settle scores for involuntary bankruptcy, but his Mexican comrades later explained that he was being hunted by NKVD agents. Using his capital, as well as connections in the mafia (no big business in the United States could do without it - and Trotsky's network captured state after state), the old Bolshevik was able to contact Ramon Mercader, a Mexican employee of the Soviet special services. For fifty thousand dollars - a huge amount for those times - Mercader agreed to stage the assassination of Trotsky.
Everything worked out for the best. On August 21, the newspapers wrote how Lenin's comrade-in-arms was crushed in the head with an ice pick. Trotsky breathed a sigh of relief—his Bolshevik alter ego was gone, leaving only a smiling Colonel Sanders. And Mercader, who has become significantly richer, will receive the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for the “successful completion” of the assignment.
From this point on, Trotsky-Sanders concentrates only on his empire of fried legs and wings. New restaurants opened every month, and more and more people wanted to become part of the franchise by buying the right to make fried chicken according to a secret recipe.
In the photo at the beginning of the post, Trotsky is said to be celebrating his seventieth birthday at the Kentucky headquarters, surrounded by grandchildren and granddaughters playing The Internationale for their grandfather.
Lev Davidovich kept his promise and never participated in American politics - he did not even go to the polls. At the same time, he sincerely sympathized with the black population of the United States suffering from discrimination, so he regularly arranged a charitable distribution of fried chicken in black neighborhoods and allocated money to various African-American foundations. That is why even now KFC is the most popular fast food among blacks. During Khrushchev's famous visit to the United States, Trotsky sent him an invitation to visit "the most advanced restaurant in the United States", but Nikita Sergeevich showed no interest, which greatly hurt the pride of "Colonel Sanders".
In 1964 Trotsky decided to retire. He was 85, he felt tired of leading. All his life he managed something: revolutionaries, divisions, industry, restaurants. In his declining years, he wanted peace. The former Bolshevik leader turned out to be an excellent businessman - he earned several hundred million dollars in a quarter of a century and almost doubled this amount by selling his legendary company. He died in 1980, a month after his 102nd birthday, surrounded by countless children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Of course, you already understood that this is all either a viral advertisement, or a well-made story like, or, for example, about something that was widely distributed on social networks.
But what really. But in fact, this is a fat stuffing, which appeared due to the similarity of the photo of the founder of KFC and Trotsky.
1. There was no KFC in 1930. Harland Sanders took over the gas station and put in it only a dining table.
2. KFC opened in 1952. Trotsky has been dead for 12 years.
3. KFC stands for Kentucky Fried Chicken.
So there are no coincidences.
Harland David Sanders, better known as Colonel Sanders (September 9, 1890 - December 16, 1980), was the founder of the fast food restaurant chain Kentucky Fried Chicken ("Kentucky Fried Chicken", KFC ), whose signature recipe is fried chicken pieces seasoned with a mixture of aromatic herbs and spices. His stylized portrait is traditionally depicted on all restaurants of his network and on branded packaging.
Sanders was born to a Presbyterian family in Henryville, Indiana. His father, Wilbur David Sanders, died when Garland was 6 years old and, since his mother worked, the boy was in charge of cooking in the house. He dropped out of school in the seventh grade. When his mother remarried, he left home because his stepfather beat him. Sanders forged his date of birth and volunteered for the US Army at the age of 16. He served his full term and ended his service in Cuba. During his early years, Sanders had to work in many places: on a steamboat, an insurance agent, a fireman on a railroad, a farmer. He had a son (died at an early age) and two daughters, Margaret and Mildred. At the age of 40, Sanders began to prepare chicken dishes, as well as other dishes, for those who stopped at his gas station in Corbin, Kentucky. At that time, he did not have his own restaurant, so his customers were mainly residents of nearby neighborhoods. However, his local popularity grew, and Sanders soon moved into a motel with a 142-bed restaurant, later becoming the Garland Sanders Cafe and Museum. Over the next nine years, he came up with and improved his "secret recipe" for pressure frying chicken, which cooks the chicken faster than in a frying pan. Sanders received the honorary title "Colonel of Kentucky" in 1935 from Governor Ruby Lafont, and a second time in 1950 from Governor Lawrence Weatherby.
With the development of his career, Sanders began to lead an active social life, joined the Rotary club. He was a Freemason, and managed to reach the 33rd degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. He was a member of the charitable para-Masonic organization Shriners.
Around 1950, Sanders began to create his own distinct image, growing his signature mustache and goatee, and wearing an aristocratic white suit with a ribbon tie. He wore nothing else in public for the last 20 years of his life, alternating between a warm woolen suit in winter and light cotton in summer.
When Sanders turned 65, his restaurant began to suffer losses due to the opening of the new Interstate I-75, which reduced the number of visitors. He withdrew money from his Social Security fund and began to bypass potential franchisees. This approach proved successful, and less than 10 years later (in 1964) Sanders sold KFC Corporation for $2 million to a Kentucky businessman headed by John Brown. The deal did not include Canadian restaurants. In 1965, Sanders moved to Mosisoje, Ontario to control his Canadian franchises and continued to pick up new ones.
Sanders grave in Louisville
In 1973, he sued the Hubline Corporation (the parent company of KFC) for misusing his image to promote products he did not design. In 1979, Huebline unsuccessfully sued Sanders for defamation when he publicly referred to their gravy as "wallpaper-glue-flavoured mud".
Sanders died in Louisville, Kentucky from pneumonia on December 16, 1980 at the age of 90. He was ill with an acute form of leukemia, discovered earlier in June of that year. Sanders was buried in his famous white suit with a thin black tie.
That's it.
sources
In the middle of winter, I arrived in Burlington, Vermont. All business matters that needed to be done were settled and completed in three days. I started getting ready to leave home, but suddenly I thought: why not combine business with pleasure and spend a couple of days at the Cochran ski resort, which was only half an hour away by car? So I did, went to this resort, rented skis and enjoyed skiing for two days. Each of these days, early in the morning, I went to the ski lifts, fortunately not far away, and returned to the city to spend the night. The mountains in Vermont are quite low and good mostly for kids and beginners, not like Colorado or Utah where my wife and I usually ride. But what is - that is, and thanks for that.
By the end of the second day, when it was already getting dark and the lifts were supposed to stop in a quarter of an hour, for the last trip upstairs I sat down in a chair hooked to the cable. A gentleman of about seventy-five sat next to me, we closed the damper and slowly swam to the top of the rolled snow track. The neighbor's face seemed familiar to me and I soon remembered him - it was none other than Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, an unsuccessful candidate for US President in the last primaries. I said hello, and he was delighted to be recognized in his ski gear.
We rolled down together, and despite his age, he turned out to be a rather dashing skier, and I could hardly keep up with him. When we took off our skis and I began to say goodbye, Bernie noticed that I had an accent and asked where I would be from? When I answered that my roots are in Russia, he smiled: "Mine too." To which I said that in this case we were almost fellow countrymen, and asked if he had come here to ski for a long time? He replied that he was right now returning to Burlington, where he has a house, and added that he would go to the bus station - from where the shuttle goes to the city. Then I suggested that I could give him a lift - I have a rented car, I am also returning to Burlington, and it will be more fun to drive together. Bernie happily accepted my offer, I ran into the building, handed in the rental skis, and we went to the parking lot to my car.
On the way, he caustically asked about me and my political views, but I, knowing that he was an official socialist (and perhaps even a communist at heart), did my best to dodge questions, trying not to hook him with my conservatism. I don’t enter into discussions with liberals, communists and socialists, knowing that their ideas are not based on sober logic and common sense, but on faith, sort of like religion, and discussion is meaningless in matters of faith. Soon we drove into the city and a few minutes later we drove up to a snow-covered house. Bernie got out of the car, unloaded his skis from the trunk, and when I was about to leave, he said to me:
Can you come warm up? Where are you in a hurry? Today I am also alone, my wife went to her sister. Let's drink coffee, chat, and then go to your hotel.
I gladly agreed, parked the car at his garage, and we went inside. Bernie explained that he bought this house a long time ago, when he was mayor of the city, and now he only stays in it when he comes to Vermont from Washington. It was a small two-story cottage typical of New England, furnished with beautiful old furniture, but without ostentation. On the walls of the living room, framed, hung a lot of family photos of the owners of the house with children and grandchildren, and everywhere there was a smiling face of Bernie Sanders himself, along with Democratic senators and Presidents Clinton and Obama. While he lit the fire and busied himself with the coffee maker in the kitchen, I walked along the walls and looked at the pictures. Unexpectedly, one photograph caught my attention - it was a portrait of Trotsky. When Bernie entered the living room with cups and a coffee pot on a tray, I asked him, pointing to a photograph of the tribune of the Russian revolution:
I thought you were a socialist, but it turns out you are a Trotskyist.
Yes, - the senator chuckled, - I am a Trotskyist, but not quite in the sense that you think. Now let me explain, - he continued, looking at my surprised face, - this gentleman in a beard and mustache, whom everyone knows as Leon Trotsky, is my own ... father. Yes, yes, not only spiritual, but native.
Here I almost dropped a cup of coffee:
So like a father? Wait, wait… If my memory serves me, you were born in 1941…
Yes, - answered the owner of the house, flattered that I remember, - in September, the eighth.
Then it doesn't fit! Trotsky was killed in August 1940...
Do you always believe what they write in newspapers and books? History is a flexible thing - one clicker will come up with some kind of “fact”, write about it, and then they rewrite everything from him along the chain. After a while, such a notion becomes sort of like a historical truth. In fact, everything was completely different. This happens all the time. That is, history is not what really happened, but what people think it was like. Or they want to think for some reason. For some reason, history is called science, but for me it's just fiction. If you're interested in knowing the truth about Trotsky, take a seat right here by the fireplace, have coffee and cookies, and I'll tell you. Winter evenings in our area are long, and I am in a chatty mood today (remembering the Senator Sanders campaign, I thought that it was not only today).
I sat down in an armchair at the coffee table by the fireplace, and the senator went over to the bookcase and removed a small photo album from the shelf. He turned a few thick pages, found what he was looking for, and showed me an old photograph of a young black-haired woman:
This is my mother Dora Glassberg. It was taken around the time when she met Trotsky, that is, at the end of 1940. However, let's go in order, otherwise you will get confused.
Bernie pulled another chair closer to the fireplace, settled comfortably in it with a cup of coffee in his hand and continued:
I'm sure you know that in 1929 Stalin exiled Trotsky to Turkey, and then Leon, fearing for his life, went as far as possible - to Mexico. There he began to write the book "Stalin", where he literally turned this tyrant inside out. By the way, this book is on my shelf. Or rather, only the first volume, since the second volume remained unfinished. In Mexico City, Trotsky first lived in the house of the communist artist Diego Rivera and his wife, the artist Frida Kahlo. It’s inconvenient to talk like that about my father, but my father was always a big walker, he didn’t let a single interesting woman pass. He even managed to seduce Frida, although she moved in a wheelchair. However, this does not apply to my story.
In short, Stalin decided to get his father in Mexico as well. He entrusted the best Soviet specialist in wet cases, Naum Eitingon, a general of the NKVD, with the task of liquidating it. But here Trotsky was unspeakably lucky. The general secretly treated him with reverence, as an organizer of the Red Army and a person close to Lenin. Therefore, he decided to save Trotsky, but to do everything in such a way as to create the illusion that he had completed Stalin's task.
Here begins the most interesting. Eitingon had a female agent, Sylvia Angeloff, whom he introduced into Trotsky's entourage in Mexico as a secretary. She was the only one the general trusted. He did not even tell Trotsky himself about the plan for his salvation, he was afraid that he would spill the beans. Therefore, everything was prepared in the deepest secrecy. Trotsky lived in a house fortified like a fortress on the outskirts of the city, and it was not easy to get close to him.
I read, I said, that Trotsky was first tried to be killed by a group of Mexican thugs led by the famous communist artist David Alfaro Siqueiros.
Yes, it was. They decided to shoot at Trotsky's bedroom from the street at night, but Leon and his wife hid behind an oak bed, so the attempt failed, and Siqueiros and his gang ended up behind bars. After that, on a tip from Eitingon, Sylvia advised Trotsky to pick up a double for himself. They found one Mexican peasant, vaguely similar to his father, grew his beard and mustache, dyed his hair, dressed him up, and when Trotsky worked in the office, the double walked in the garden behind the house, sometimes went out the gate to the street to a neighboring shop for tequila. He looked pretty similar. Even the guards confused them. Sometimes they did the opposite, the father walked in the garden, and the double sat in his office at the table.
How do you know all this, I asked.
What do you mean how do I know? I know first hand, from my father. But listen further. Ever since the Spanish Civil War, Eitingon had a Spanish mistress, Caridad Mercader. Her son Ramon was sent by General Eitingon to Mexico to simulate the assassination of Trotsky. Of course, Ramon had no idea that this was an imitation, he was sure that he would really kill. Sylvia brought him to her father and introduced him as a Spanish Trotskyist and her fiancé. In August 1940, Eitingon himself came to Mexico to lead the operation and gave Ramon the order of Stalin-Trotsky to kill him with an ax. There is an interesting psychological nuance here. Stalin has been obsessed with killing with an ax since the time when his friend Kamo, at the request of Koba-Stalin, hacked to death with an ax Stalin's hated drunken father Vissarion. In addition, Stalin saw himself as the spiritual heir to Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great - they also chopped off the heads of their enemies with axes. However, in Mexico, an ax is not at all easy to find. At first they decided to use a machete, but how to sneak it into the house past the guards? Then we stopped at a small ice ax for climbers - although not quite an ax, but close.
On August 20, 1940, Sylvia informed Trotsky that another assassination attempt was being prepared on him and that he urgently needed to hide. He changed into a simple shirt and canvas trousers, put on a sombrero hat, disguised as a gardener, left the house with a trash basket on his shoulders, left the basket in a neighboring street, got into Eitingon's car, and they drove off. Meanwhile, Mercader went into Trotsky's office, where a double was sitting at the table and leafing through a magazine, took an ice pick out of his raincoat, came up from behind and hit him on the head. Guards came running to the cries of the double, Ramon was seized, the imaginary Trotsky was taken to the hospital, where he died. And Eitingon brought the real Trotsky to the United States.
Does anyone in the US know about this? I mean officials.
What are you, no one knew! In those years, entering the United States from Mexico was as easy as shelling pears, they didn’t even ask for any documents. Eitingon said that for the sake of conspiracy, Trotsky needed to change his name and asked which one he would choose? Leon thought for a moment and answered that he had had to change names more than once before the revolution. His real surname was Bronstein, which comes from the German Braunstein, meaning brown sandstone. Now, as he said, "his past life, like a stone under a blow of a hammer, crumbled into sand (sand)", so let his new name be something like "Sands", that is, in English, Sanders (Sanders).
As far as I understand, Stalin and all his entourage really believed that Trotsky was killed. So it is still written everywhere ...
Of course, Sanders said, although after Stalin's death, the Soviet leadership somehow found out the truth. Khrushchev, a loyal Stalinist, became terribly angry and ordered Eitingon to be arrested and imprisoned. There he died in prison.
Eitingon first brought him to Brooklyn, New York, and settled with my future mother. She was a communist and happily hid another communist, Leon Sanders, in her house for a while, although she had no idea at the time that it was Trotsky. He lived with her for four months, but then he himself decided that he needed to hide away, somewhere in the outback. Still, New York is a bad place to hide. My mother by that time was pregnant with me by him and Leon knew about it. Then he was already 60 years old, however, as a man he was anywhere!
In early 1941, Sanders moved to Kentucky, to the city of Louisville, where he settled. The police said that he had lost his driver's license and they gave him a new one. America was then a patriarchal country, and everyone was taken at their word. In memory of the fact that twenty years earlier he had led the civil war in Russia, Sanders-Trotsky even decided to take a military rank. But what? Not a general - that would draw attention to him and might raise unwanted questions. Therefore, he settled on the modest rank of "colonel" and since then he has presented himself to everyone: "Colonel Sanders" (Colonel Sanders), and no one delicately asked where he served and in what branches of the military.
What was he doing there in Kentucky? What did you live on? I asked.
He decided that it was necessary to put an end to past affairs - no articles, no books, complete secrecy, otherwise Stalin would find out the truth and would definitely get to him. He had no money, and in order to earn a living, he first got a job in a restaurant washing dishes. Soon he became a chef there. One day he remembered how many years ago his mother cooked wonderfully fried chicken according to her own method, and he decided to try the old recipe that he remembered from childhood. Immediately this dish became very popular. The people went to the restaurant in succession. After a while, my father quit and opened his own restaurant, which he called "Kentucky Fried Chicken" (Kentucky Fried Chicken or KFC). The business was successfully promoted, and a year later he was able to open several more of the same restaurants in Louisville and other cities. Organization and leadership were his passion, and the restaurant business gave him the opportunity to prove himself as a leader again. He has always been a successful leader - in revolution, in war, and in business. KFC expanded all over America and he became quite wealthy. To advertise the company, the father decided to use his own face, reasonably believing that it would never occur to anyone that Trotsky and Colonel Sanders were the same person. Moreover, everyone considered Trotsky dead.
Now I remember reading about it somewhere,” I said.
The truth came out after his death,” Sanders said. - They wrote about it, but there was a lot of speculation and nonsense. If you go to the Internet, you will find a lot of half-truths there.
Well, how are you? Did he somehow maintain contact with your mother, help you?
Oh yes, the senator answered, he called her often and when he started earning he sent money until she got married and her husband adopted me. But I kept my last name after my father. He paid for my university education. I remember when I was five or seven years old, my father came to Brooklyn, we went to Coney Island, where he rode me on a carousel. In later years, he often came to New York, and when I grew up, I myself began to visit him in Louisville. At first, my father hoped to introduce me to the chicken business, he wanted to transfer the whole company to me, but I was only interested in politics - you see, the genes showed themselves. Then he began to give me his old articles and books to read, which were in English. We often talked about the working class, the bourgeoisie, and the theory of permanent revolution. I am proud that I was not only his son, but also a student.
An interesting detail - fifty years ago, that is, at the end of 1967, a young man appeared on the threshold of his house, who introduced himself in Russian as the second secretary of the Soviet embassy in Washington. He said that the Kremlin knew the truth about his fate and condemned Stalin's attempts to kill him. He added that they highly appreciate Trotsky's huge contribution to the Russian revolution and civil war, but for political reasons they do not want to talk about it publicly. The diplomat said that the 50th anniversary of the creation of the Red Army was approaching and, on behalf of the government, invited Colonel Sanders to come to Moscow for the celebration. My father was then already 88 years old, and he was rather weak, but he agreed, reasonably believing that times had changed and now he had nothing to fear. That same evening he called me and invited me to go with him to Soviet Russia. It was very interesting to me, and I gladly agreed.
We flew to Moscow in February, we were received in complete secrecy, but with great honors. They settled in the Moscow Hotel, which is not far from Red Square. They took him to the Mausoleum to Lenin, made a tour of the city, but my father didn’t know much, because so many years had passed since his departure! Then there was a military parade on Red Square, we were sitting on the guest podium near the Mausoleum. With great triumph in the Kremlin, Brezhnev presented his father with the Order of Lenin for his services in organizing the Red Army. A private banquet in his honor was attended by their entire government. There were toasts and lots of amazing food. I have never eaten so delicious before or after. There, for the first time, I heard my father speak Russian, and I was completely amazed by it. No correspondents were allowed there, but I had a camera with me and I was able to take a couple of pictures. Look here.
Sanders opened the album again and found a photo of his father with Brezhnev. With his permission, I copied this picture. Bernie then told me that Trotsky-Sanders lived a long life and died at the age of 94.
Colonel Sanders (founder of KFC, Garland David Sanders) is the founder of a large well-known fast food chain KFC (Kentucky Fired Chicken). The most recognizable and widespread signature dish of the KFC chain is breaded fried chicken with the addition of many aromatic spices and spices.
The portrait of the founder of the famous fast food chain KFC is traditionally installed in each establishment as a stylized outline of the company. The success story of Colonel Sanders is endowed with amazing events that can only happen to a strong-willed person. This entrepreneur is a real hard worker and a blacksmith of his own happiness. Colonel Sanders, his story is an example of how you should not give up in difficult life situations. His life credo is to run towards his goals and dreams with an unprincipled zeal for success.
Colonel Sanders: biography
Garland David Sanders was born September 9, 1890 in Henryville, Indiana, United States of America. His father, Wilbur David Sanders, was the heir to a wealthy Presbyterian family, and his mother was Margaret Ann Sanders (maiden name Dunlevy). Unfortunately, young Garland lost his father when he was six years old. Mother worked day and night to somehow feed her family. In view of this, the boy constantly remained at home alone and was responsible for cooking. Garland quickly became addicted to cooking, it was difficult to convince him that the kitchen was the lot of women's concerns. Who knew that culinary skills would determine the future fate of the young man, and he would become a big millionaire. In his studies, Sanders Jr. did not shine at all with his mind - the guy constantly skipped classes and refused to do his homework. Soon, in 1902, he was expelled from school, never allowing him to finish the seventh grade. Garland was not at all upset about this, because he dreamed of living an adult life and earning money. The twelve-year-old boy managed to work in a lot of places - he washed cars, worked as a loader at the local market, and also sold his own pies to passers-by in local neighborhoods.
Young Garland runs away from home
A few years after the death of her husband, Margaret Ann Sanders (mother) starts a new affair with a man and soon marries him. Family changes for Sanders Jr. did not turn out well - his stepfather constantly beat and humiliated him. Without thinking twice, the guy runs away from home and moves to the city of New Alban, which is located in the same state (Indiana). His own uncle lived here, who received Garland with warmth.
Early start to adulthood - 15-year-old would-be millionaire joins US Army with fake ID
In 1906, heavy military and political events unfolded on the island of the same name and the state of Cuba. Cubans protested against the occupation by American troops. The United States Department of America decided to organize a campaign for voluntary entry into the ranks of the national army in order to prevent popular unrest in the controlled state. At this time, Sanders decides that he needs to become a military man in any way, but the guy has only recently turned fifteen years old. Thinking about how to deceive everyone and start serving the homeland, Garland forges his own documents with simple manipulations, where he indicates his age. Oddly enough, but the clever Sanders' scam was successful - the guy became a soldier in the national army of the United States of America. He was assigned to the division of military logistics. Initially, the guy was supposed to monitor logistics, as well as keep inventory records in the supply of ammunition. However, no one asked him to do this. As a result, a dubious alternative was found for him: due to his short stature and frail muscles, he was assigned to the army stable to remove manure. In his autobiography, this is stated as follows: "All I did in the service was shoveling horse manure with my bare hands and watching the hygiene of these long-legged animals."
During the period of service, Garland caught some kind of climatic disease, due to which he lost 20 kilograms. Having lost literally a third of his weight, Sanders lay in a military hospital for some time, but quickly recovered. As a result, Garland finished his service with honors. The demobilized Sanders sailed on a ferry by sea to the port of New Orleans. When he reached the first railroad fork, he boarded a freight train that was heading along the Mississippi River. In the end, the guy got to the city of St. Louis (Missouri).
Alternative version of the Sanders biography after the army
There is another version of events after demobilization: some sources indicate that Colonel Sanders, upon arrival on the continent, drove to Alabama, where he immediately found work as an assistant in a blacksmith shop. Here, he didn’t work for anyone in the future - he washed rail rolling stock at a railway station, worked as an intercity tram conductor, and was also a steam locomotive stoker, a loader at a furniture factory, an insurance agent, a mechanic in a car repair shop, a ferry captain, a manager of a tire fitting enterprise, and even an intern courses in law at the local court. Colonel Sanders noted that none of his above jobs brought him pleasure. Feeling the charm of many professions in his own skin, he realized that he needed to do what he loved - to develop the restaurant business.
Studying at the university can always be combined with work
A few years later, Colonel Sanders moved to live in Tennessee. Here he got a job as an ordinary worker in the fire safety department and entered the LaSalle University at the correspondence department in the city of Chicago. Garland skillfully combined study with work. To great surprise, he received high marks, and also successfully closed all the exams. When he worked in the fire department, he had a conflict with one of the employees - there was a fight, as a result of which Sanders was fired from his position. Then he decides to move to the city of Arkansas and get a new job (here he worked for some time in a mine, and then got a job on a farm). Despite this, Sanders successfully completed his studies at the university.
Happy moments of life: meeting his future wife Claudia and the first business
Colonel Sanders (photo below) always mentioned that in his difficult life he constantly earned his bread in an unloved profession.
And this is true, because his professions were not the best. However, he received the greatest happiness when he worked as a stoker of a steam locomotive heating apparatus, because at that time he met his love - his future wife Claudia. Being, roughly speaking, nobody, he dared to propose to her, to which he received an immediate “yes”. The young wife inspired him with love and care every day, so Sanders always considered himself a happy person. After several years working on a steam locomotive, Garland got a job as a mechanic in an auto repair shop. And this profession has also become no less fateful than the previous one.
He was no longer a young boy. Forty-year-old Sanders was filled with ambition and a desire to achieve more in order to live in pleasure with his wife. A few years later, he opens his own business - an auto repair shop on the twenty-fifth highway, where many long-distance and passenger cars from the northern states of the United States often rush through. This business began to be successful, because the prudent Garland justified his auto repair shop in a profitable (from a marketing point of view) location where there is constant demand. A lot of money began to appear in the Sanders family. It is worth noting that the colonel turned out to be a very enterprising person - he proved himself not only as a successful businessman, but also as a talented forecaster. Garland (Colonel Sanders) came to the conclusion that his visitors are hungry tourists or truckers who come from the far north of the country. Based on this, he decides to open a small dining room here, where at first he prepared various dishes himself. Already at that time, the future millionaire developed his own unique recipe for breaded fried chicken. Word had begun to circulate around the area that Highway 25 was preparing some incredible chicken.
Titled "Kentucky Colonel Sanders"
The recipes of Colonel Sanders were kept secret, and the people in his institution only increased. Two well-established businesses, a canteen and an auto repair shop, brought incredible income to his family. Life began to improve gradually. In 1935, the Governor of Kentucky honored Garland with the title of "Kentucky Colonel Sanders" for making his signature dish a state treasure. Everyone was excited about the new "national dish" in Kentucky.
In the early 50s, Colonel Sanders developed his own image - he grew a graceful beard and neat mustache, creating the image of an aristocratic pedant-professor. Also, his calling card was a white tuxedo. All this was complemented by a neat ribbon tie. In this form, he constantly appeared in the light. Rumor has it that Sanders had a whole set of identical white suits, there were about 50 of them - for all seasons. Garland did not buy clothes in shopping centers and clothing stores, but liked to order suits in the atelier.
Serious business failures - bankruptcy
Sanders' business has been a success for just over fifteen years, constantly improving his recipes and surprising his customers with delicious food. At the age of 62, Colonel Sanders failed when a multi-year construction of another newer and larger highway was completed a few kilometers away. The businessman has lost 90 percent of potential buyers. At this time, Garland was greatly depressed, because he could not foresee such a fate at retirement age. However, the future millionaire and founder of CFS, Colonel Sanders, did not give up and continued to fight against the pitfalls of fate.
"Kentucky Fried Chicken" comes to the rescue again
While he was thinking about how to continue earning a living, Garland came up with the idea that his unique fried chicken recipe could be presented to several large restaurants and asked for a cash reward or a contract that would include a percentage of the proceeds from the sale of his signature dish. . Colonel Sanders collected his thoughts, filled his suitcase with the necessary things and began to walk around the state's large restaurants, stating only one phrase: "I cook a dish of fried chicken that tastes better than you." Such a bold and arrogant statement was perceived with contempt - Garland was refused everywhere, escorting the businessman with an abundance of impartial words addressed to him.
The "Kentucky Colonel" did not become upset, but only continued to distribute offers to all catering establishments. He's been turned down a little over a thousand times. I had to wait quite some time to find the first customer. Gradually, his signature dish began to spread throughout the country, and already potential businessmen themselves turned to the colonel with a request for an agreement. At first, in the terms of the contract, it was said that for each portion sold, Colonel Sanders would receive 5 cents (in the future, the interest rate only increased). The monopoly of "breaded wings" already by the beginning of the 60s brought fabulous money. Hundreds of restaurants called KFC began to open all over the states of America. Colonel Sanders for a long time could not believe that he managed to surpass his goals and himself, especially at that age! From now on, he felt incredibly happy man, because he found his calling. His talent and dedication made the audience believe in success.
Sale of KFC
When Colonel Sanders (pictured below) was celebrating his 70th birthday, the idea came to him that it was time to retire. Soon a successful businessman announces the sale of KFC. This news was immediately picked up by investors. As a result, Garland sells his offspring for two million dollars. In addition, he will receive $250,000 a year as a brand ambassador (a stylized portrait of Colonel Sanders). Now his activity is that he needs to “shine his face” everywhere and represent the popular KFC brand. A successful retired millionaire must deal with the press and be the head of the company from a marketing point of view. By right, Sanders was no longer the owner of a fast food chain, but he no longer needed this at all.
End of Colonel Sanders story
On December 16, 1980, 90-year-old Garland David Sanders died. He lived a difficult but happy life. At retirement age, he reached incredible heights in business, which allowed him to live his last years in full prosperity. The Colonel loved to travel, play golf, and also visit his favorite restaurant called Claudia Sander's Dinner House, which he gave to his beloved wife. That was Colonel Sanders. His story demonstrates a beautiful life, which is overflowing with happy moments and long-awaited joy.
A few months before his death, he said the following words: “I have always strived to make a lot of money, but I never saw the global sense in this. Why be rich in a graveyard? There you will no longer be able to manage your money. Many people do not even suspect that I gave most of the money I earned to donations to orphans, and also sponsored many churches. These quotes by Colonel Sanders reveal the full meaning of his warm and kind soul. This man left behind a huge mark, he will be remembered for a very long time. The grave of Garland David Sanders is located in Louisville.
Colonel Sanders - Trotsky
Have you noticed the similarities between these two people? It is obvious! Quite often, the names Sanders - Trotsky are mentioned, creating a lot of "memes" and "demotivators".
There is a story about this story: “Not many people know that in 1913 members of the American Socialist Party gave Leon Trotsky a US passport in the name of Harland Sanders. This was originally done symbolically, as a joke about the similarity of the two people. However, in 1935, Lev Davydovich used this document when he fled from Norway to the United States (due to diplomatic pressure from the USSR). The American authorities made an exceptional compromise for the Bolshevik and allowed him to enter the country with only one condition - not to engage in political activities in the United States. The condition was met, but Trotsky in the 60s managed to deploy a whole chain of restaurants called K for Communist, which is identical in abbreviation with the popular fast food KFC. Well, with the imagination of the public, everything is in order ...
Colonel Sanders (real name Garland David) is the famous founder of the KFS fast food restaurant chain. The signature recipe of these establishments were pieces of fried chicken in batter, seasoned with a special mixture of spices and aromatic herbs. Sanders still flaunts on all restaurants and branded packaging of the company. In fact, Garland was never an officer. The title "colonel" he received from the governor of the state for outstanding public services. In this article, we will present his brief biography.
Childhood
Many customers of KFS restaurants do not even know what year Colonel Sanders was born. Now we will fix it. Harland Sanders was born in Henryville in 1890. The boy's father worked as a helper for local farmers. This brought the family a small income and allowed the mother to stay at home with the children. But the boy's father died suddenly when he was six years old. To feed the children, the mother went to work, and the future Colonel Sanders sat at home all day and looked after his sister and brother. Such a life allowed the boy to discover his talent for cooking. Within a few months, Garland was masterfully cooking some of the family's most popular dishes. Of course, the boy had no time to study, and he had to attend school in fits and starts.
First job
At the age of 10, he got a job working on a farm. He was paid only $2 a month. A couple of years later, his mother remarried and sent the boy to the nearby town of Greenwood. There he returned to the farm. At the age of 14, Garland finally dropped out of school. That is, the total experience of his studies was only 6 classes.
Finding yourself
Until the age of 15, the future Colonel Sanders led a semi-wandering lifestyle, changing places of residence and occupations. And then Garland began to work as a tram conductor. At the age of 16, the young man decided to join the army. He ended up in Cuba, which was actually a US colony at that time. There, Garland served for six months and escaped, later getting a job as a blacksmith's assistant. Due to low wages, the young man decided to change his profession and become a stoker. In this position, Sanders stayed longer. Harland's life began to improve, and he even married his girlfriend Claudia. But after the appearance of the spouses' child, Sanders was unexpectedly fired. The wife loved Garland very much and was already used to his search for himself.
At one time, the future owner of "KFS" tried to do mental work - he entered the correspondence law courses for further work in court. After a few months, he got bored with this activity. Until the age of 40, he tried many professions: a car mechanic, a tire seller, a ferry captain, a loader, an insurance agent, etc.
Life begins at 40
So imperceptibly for himself, Garland began to approach the fifth ten. He met his 40th birthday in a deep depression. All youth passed, and Sanders did not have a permanent job or his own home. Once he listened to a humorous speech by Will Rogers on the radio. And one of the comedian's phrases made a deep impression on Garland and turned his life upside down. It sounded like this: "Life begins only at the age of forty." We can say that from that moment the story of Colonel Sanders begins. Henceforth, Garland decided to work exclusively for himself.
Auto repair shop and diner
Small savings allowed Sanders to open his auto repair shop. He very well chose a place near the 25th federal highway, which connected Florida with the northern states. This provided a large client flow. The future Colonel Sanders lived with his family right there, at the auto repair shop.
Over time, Garland began to offer food to tired customers. He loved to cook and did it in the home kitchen, and placed visitors in a separate room. There was only one table and six chairs. The main menu was chicken, which Sanders did best. A year later, Garland had regular customers, and he noticed that it was the diner, and not the auto repair shop, that brought the lion's share of the income. It was decided to give the mini-institution a name. Above the entrance, Sanders hung a sign that read "Special Recipe Kentucky Fried Chicken." He also came up with a technical novelty. Many of the diner's customers were often in a hurry, and half an hour to fry a chicken seemed like a very long time to Garland. The solution was found quickly. Sanders attended a promotional presentation of newly released pressure cookers, where food was cooked under pressure. He bought himself one of the models and learned how to cook juicy chicken in just 15 minutes. A pressure cooker and spices - that was the secret to cooking Kentucky chickens.
Success
For the first time in his life, Garland was satisfied with his own work. Firstly, he was paid for his hobby, and secondly, no one could fire him. The fame of Kentucky chickens quickly spread. By the mid-1930s, everyone who had been to the Sanders diner perceived them as the "national" dish of Kentucky. Perhaps this was Garland's main success in introducing his product into the public consciousness. Many people did not understand how a person with a sixth grade education and incomplete law courses managed to achieve this.
Getting a rank
In 1935, Roby Lafoon (Governor of Kentucky) accepted Garland into the honorary "Order of Kentucky Colonels" with the following wording - "For his contribution to the development of roadside food." The rank of colonel he received fueled a latent vanity in Sanders. He decided to build a restaurant and a motel near the auto repair shop.
New restaurant
The opening took place in 1937. KFC founder Colonel Sanders appeared before the guests in a white suit with a black bow tie. The image was completed by a wedge beard and gray hair.
This character was a huge success with the public. Now Garland always went only in a white suit. Customers lined up. The number of chickens sold could be determined by how much seasoning they needed. Sanders kneaded it like cement in the back room of a cafe. Several bags could go a day.
Those years were golden for Garland. Any problems only invigorated and forced to go forward. In 1939, an unpleasant event occurred, witnessed by Colonel Sanders. KFC burned down completely. But Garland rebuilt it in the shortest possible time. In the same year, Duncan Hines (a food critic) mentioned his establishment in his guide book, calling the colonel's chickens a special Kentucky attraction.
Loss of business
In pleasant troubles, the years flew by unnoticed, and Sanders was already thinking about a calm old age, but fate presented him with an unpleasant surprise. At the beginning of 1950, bypassing the 25th federal highway, the 75th was completed. The client flow dried up overnight. In 1952, Garland no longer had enough money to maintain the FSC. Colonel Sanders sold it at auction to pay off creditors. At 62, he lost everything he had: money, home and job. The only thing Garland could count on was a $105 pension.
New case
But Colonel Sanders did not want to live as a poor pensioner and came up with a new business. He began to go around the nearest restaurants and cafes, offering them to use his author's seasoning. For this they had to pay him 5 cents per chicken. Very few agreed. Nevertheless, by the end of the 1950s, Garland had already partnered with 200 eateries. By 1964, the number of franchises had increased to 600, and Sanders received an offer to sell the business. The buyers were a group of investors who paid $2 million for KFS.
Last years
At 84, Colonel Sanders, whose biography was described above, published a book called Life Licks Your Hands Diligently. In it, he fully described his life path. Having fulfilled this sacred “duty” to society, he retired, and until his death indulged in harmless pleasures like playing golf. The only thing that upset Garland was the change in the taste of Kentucky chickens after his departure from the KFS. In his interviews, he often stated: "They are too commercial and they cook chicken in any way." Sanders died in 1980 from leukemia. The colonel was 90 years old.