Fast Food Nation: What The All-American Meal is Doing to the World (39 page)

new restaurants are opening there at a faster pace
: See “1999 to Mark Eighth Consecutive Year of Growth for Restaurant Industry,” news release, National Restaurant Association, December 22, 1998.

8
“interstate socialism”:
Stephen B. Goddard,
Getting There: The Epic Struggle between Road and Rail in the American Century
(New York: Basic Books, 1994), p. 179.

the inflation-adjusted value of the minimum wage:
Between 1968 and and 1989 the real value of the minimum wage fell from $7.21 to $4.24; in 1995, it stood at $4.38. See “Federal Minimum Wage Rates: 1954–1996,”
Statistical Abstract
, p. 447.

more prison inmates than full-time farmers:
Today there are fewer than 1 million full-time farmers in the United States. And there are about 1.3 million people in the nation’s prisons. For the number of full-time farmers, see “Appendix Table 21 — Characteristics of Farms and Their Operators, by Farm Typology Group, 1996,”
Rural Conditions and Trends
, USDA Economic Research Service, February 1999. For the number of prison inmates, see “Nation’s Prison and Jail Population Reaches 1,860,520,” press release, Bureau of Justice Statistics, April 19, 2000.

9
“
the irrationality of rationality
”: See Ritzer,
The McDonaldization of America
, pp. 121–42.

I spent an afternoon with Carl Karcher at his Anaheim office. My account of his life is largely based on that interview and on a pair of corporate histories: B. Carolyn Knight,
Making It Happen: The Story of Carl Karcher Enterprises
(Anaheim, Calif.: Carl Karcher Enterprises, 1981); and Carl Karcher with B. Carolyn Knight,
Never Stop Dreaming: 50 Years of Making It Happen
(San Marcos, Calif.: Robert Erdmann Publishing, 1991). For the history of Anaheim, I relied on John Westcott,
Anaheim: City of Dreams
(Chatsworth, Calif.: Windsor Publications, 1990). My view of early Los Angeles has been greatly influenced by the work of Carey McWilliams, one of the twentieth century’s finest and most underappreciated journalists. His
Southern California Country
(New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1946) and
California: The Great Exception
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999) are still vibrant and insightful, though first published more than fifty years ago. Mike Davis is in many ways carrying forward the aims and ideals of McWilliams;
City of Quartz
(New York: Vintage Books, 1992), especially the material on San Bernardino and Fontana, was both useful and inspiring. Kevin Starr’s
The Dream Endures: California Enters the 1940s
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1997) gave me a strong sense of life there before the “fabulous boom.” Richard White’s
“It’s Your Misfortune and None of My Own”: A New History of the American West
(Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1991) provides a good overview of a region where free enterprise has long been celebrated more in theory than in practice. Marc Reisner’s
Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water
(New York: Penguin Books, 1987) aptly describes how water was brought to Los Angeles, and the rest of the arid West, at public expense. “Aerospace Capital of the World: Los Angeles” — a chapter in
The Rise of the Gunbelt: The Military Remapping of Industrial America
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), by Ann Markuson et al. — outlines how military spending fueled southern California’s
postwar economy. For California’s role in the spread of the car culture, I relied on Kenneth T. Jackson’s classic
Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1985). In
Getting There
, Stephen B. Goddard shows how the free market had little to do with the triumph of the automobile. Jonathan Kwitny’s “The Great Transportation Conspiracy,” published in
Harper’s
during February of 1981, is a fine piece of investigative journalism.

The fast food memoir is a growing literary genre; in addition to Carl Karcher’s, I relied on Ray Kroc’s
Grinding It Out
; James W. McLamore,
The Burger King: Jim McLamore and the Building of an Empire
(New York: McGraw-Hill, 1998); Tom Monaghan, with Robert Anderson,
Pizza Tiger
(New York: Random House, 1986); Colonel Harland Sanders,
Life As I Have Known It Has Been “Finger Lickin’ Good”
(Carol Stream, Ill.: Creation House, 1974); R. David Thomas,
Dave’s Way: A New Approach to Old-Fashioned Success
(New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1991). Richard J. Mc-Donald, one of the founders of the chain with that name, contributed the foreword to Ronald J. McDonald’s interesting book,
The Complete Hamburger: The History of America’s Favorite Sandwich
(New York: Birch Lane Press, 1997). I learned a great deal from two other books that have similar themes and many evocative photographs: Jeffrey Tennyson,
Hamburger Heaven: The Illustrated History of the Hamburger
(New York: Hyperion, 1993); and Michael Karl Witzel,
The American Drive-In: History and Folklore of the Drive-In Restaurant in American Car Culture
(Osceola, Wis.: Motor-books International, 1994). Stan Luxenberg’s
Roadside Empires
has much information on the early days of the fast food industry, as do John Love’s
Behind the Arches
and
Big Mac
, by Max Boas and Steve Chain. William Whitworth’s profile of Colonel Sanders, “Kentucky Fried,” published in the
New Yorker
on February 14, 1970, remains my favorite piece of writing on fast food.

Page

13
“The harder you work”:
Interview with Carl Karcher.

“This is heaven”:
Ibid.

the heart of southern California’s citrus belt:
See McWilliams,
Southern California Country
, p. 206. The chapter titled “The Citrus Belt” is a good account of the region’s cultural and economic life.

14
the leading agricultural counties in the United States:
Ibid., p. 213. See also Reisner,
Cadillac Desert
, p. 87.

about 70,000 acres
: Cited in Westcott,
Anaheim
, p. 67.

the acronym “KIGY”
: Ibid., p. 54.

15
“I’m in business for myself now”:
Karcher interview.

the population of southern California nearly tripled:
Cited in McWilliams,
Southern California
, p. 14.

About 80 percent of the population
: Cited ibid., p. 165.

16
about a million cars in Los Angeles:
Cited ibid., p. 236.

Lobbyists from the oil, tire, and automobile industries:
See Jackson,
Crabgrass Frontier
, pp. 163–68.

General Motors secretly began to purchase:
For the story of the American trolley’s demise, see Kwitny, “The Great Transportation Conspiracy”; Jackson,
Crabgrass Frontier
, pp. 168–71; and Goddard,
Getting There
, pp. 120–37. For a contrary view, much more benign toward General Motors, see Martha J. Bianco, “Technological Innovation and the Rise and Fall of Urban Mass Transit,”
Journal of Urban History
, March 1999.

17
“People with cars are so lazy”:
Quoted in Witzel,
American Drive-In
, p. 24.

“circular meccas of neon”
: Ibid., p. 47.

18
“
fabulous boom
”: McWilliams,
The Great Exception
, p. 233.

federal government spent nearly $20 billion… federal spending was responsible for nearly half:
Cited in White,
Your Misfortune
, p. 498.

the second-largest manufacturing center:
Ibid., p. 498.

the focus of the local economy:
Ibid., p. 515.

19
“Worship as you are”:
Quoted in Jackson,
Crabgrass Frontier
, p. 264.

the fastest-growing city:
Cited in Wescott,
Anaheim
, p. 71.

Richard and Maurice McDonald:
For the story of the McDonald brothers, I have relied on Kroc,
Grinding It Out;
McDonald,
Complete Hamburger;
Love,
Behind the Arches;
Tennyson,
Hamburger Heaven;
Boas and Chain,
Big Mac
.

20
“Imagine — No Car Hops”:
The ad is reprinted in Tennyson,
Hamburger Heaven
, p. 62.

“Working-class families”:
Love,
Behind the Arches
, p. 41.

21
The same year the McDonald brothers opened:
For the founding of the Hell’s An-gels and the fiftieth anniversary celebration, see Phillip W. Browne, “Ventura Event a ‘Milestone’ for Hell’s Angels,”
Ventura County Star
, March 15, 1998.

“They get angry when they read”:
Hunter S. Thompson,
Hell’s Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga
(New York: Ballantine Books, 1995), p. 45.

22
impressed by Adolf Hitler’s Reichsautobahn:
See Goddard,
Getting There
, p. 181;

“1956: Interstate,”
Business Week: 100 Years of Innovation
, Summer 1999.
46,000 miles of road:
“1956: Interstate.”

“Our food was exactly the same”:
George Clark, one of the founders of Burger Queen, made this admission. Quoted in Luxenberg,
Roadside Empires
, p. 76.

William Rosenberg:
For the story of Dunkin’ Donuts, see Luxenberg,
Roadside Empires
, pp. 18–20.

Glenn W. Bell, Jr.:
For the story of Taco Bell, see Love,
Behind the Arches
, pp. 267; Jakle and Sculle,
Fast Food
, pp. 257–58.

Keith G. Cramer:
For the story of Burger King, see McLamore,
The Burger King
.

Dave Thomas:
For the story of Wendy’s, see Thomas,
Dave’s Way
.

23
Thomas S. Monaghan:
For the story of Domino’s, see Monaghan,
Pizza Tiger
.

Harland Sanders:
For the story of KFC, see Sanders,
Life As I Have Known It
; and Whitworth, “Kentucky Fried.”

“not to call a no-good, lazy”:
Sanders,
Life As I Have Known It
, p. 141.

24
The Motormat:
See Witzel,
American Drive-In
, p. 121.

the Biff-Burger chain:
See Tennyson,
Hamburger Heaven
, p. 73.

“Miracle Insta Machines”:
See McLamore,
The Burger King
, photo insert between pp. 126 and 127.

25
one of the largest privately owned fast food chains:
Karcher,
Never Stop Dreaming
, p. 79.

accused of insider trading:
See Karcher,
Never Stop Dreaming
, pp. 123–24; Bruce Horovitz and Keith Bradsher, “Carl’s Jr. Founder Accused of Insider Trading
Scheme,”
Los Angeles Times
, April 15, 1988; and Richard Martin, “Karchers Pay $664, 000 Fine in Stock Case,”
Nation’s Restaurant News
, August 7,1989.

25
Carl’s real estate investments proved unwise:
My account of Carl Karcher’s financial difficulties is based primarily on my interview with him. I confirmed the details through a variety of printed sources, including “Carl Karcher Board Rejects Founder’s Bid to Take Firm Private,”
Wall Street Journal
, December 21, 1992; Thomas R. King, “Chairman of Carl Karcher Enterprises May Seek to Oust Some Board Members,”
Wall Street Journal
, September 2, 1993; Peggy Hesketh, “Karcher’s ‘Godfather’: Board Says Pizza Baron’s Offer Is One It Can Refuse,”
Orange County Business Journal
, September 20, 1993; David J. Jefferson, “Fast Food Firm Ousts Karcher as Chairman,”
Wall Street Journal
, October 4, 1993; Jim Gardner, “Foley-Karcher: Tentative Team in Control of CKE,”
Orange County Business Journal
, December 20, 1993; Richard Martin, “Carl N. Karcher: CKE’s Founder Reflects on His Past, Looks Toward His Future,”
Nation’s Restaurant News
, August 3, 1998.