In-N-Out Burger (14 page)

Along with his brother, Guy had amassed a significant collection of rare and classic hot rods. It was an expensive hobby that dated back to his teenaged days at the Dale. The collection included a number of jewels such as a 1963 Corvette Split Window Coupe and a 1965 Shelby Cobra 427. Guy was said to have paid about $500,000 for the Cobra that was featured in the 1966 Elvis Presley film
Spinout
.

Guy converted a one-hundred-by-seventy-five-foot storage space within the East Virginia Avenue complex into a museum-quality hangar for the cars with a black-and-white checkered marble flooring fit for an Italian palazzo. The hangar was far enough east of the original warehouse that it was spared from the 1978 fire. Just outside his hangar, Guy built a miniature drag strip about one-eighth of a mile long along with an NHRA regulation burn-out pad and timing light where he could test the cars' performance.

In 1979, while staying at one of the family's vacation homes in the tony surfers' haven of Hermosa Beach, Guy met a woman named Lynda Lou Perkins (
née
Wilson). At the time, she was working in a T-shirt shop and the two began dating. Lynda was seven years older than Guy and had two daughters, Traci (thirteen) and Terri (eleven), from a previous marriage. According to intimates, it was Lynda who pursued the eligible bachelor.

ARMY GREEN:
A perforated eardrum left Harry Snyder, circa 1942, stateside and serving largely behind a desk during World War II. Among his duties, Harry processed B-52s at Hamilton Field in Novato, California. On the side, Harry worked at the Sausalito Shipyards for extra cash. (
Rich Snyder Family Collection
)

NAVY BLUE:
Esther enlisted in the Navy WAVES (Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service) in 1943. Established to fill the vacancies created by the thousands of men sent to the battlefront, WAVES were not eligible for combat duty; following boot camp, Esther was stationed at the San Diego Naval Hospital, where she earned the rank of pharmacist's mate second class. (
U.S. Navy Memorial, Washington D.C.
)

BOATING IN SEATTLE:
Harry and Esther met in 1947 at Fort Lawton, where she was the restaurant's manager and he sold sandwiches. After the war, Harry came up with the idea for a new kind of restaurant. (
Rich Snyder Family Collection
)

HALCYON DAYS:
In the fields and orchards surrounding the Snyders' San Dimas house, Guy and Rich (circa late 1950s) played army and Guy displayed his early love of cars. (
Rich Snyder Family Collection
)

NO DELAY:
Harry's two-way speaker box inspired the company's name—customers drove
in
to order and then drove
out
without ever having to leave their cars. The original (1948) sign is now pitched at the company's Baldwin Park headquarters. (
Duke Sherman
)

BURGER U:
In 1984, Rich Snyder built the chain's first university on the site of Harry and Esther's old Baldwin Park house. The university's purpose was to help create and train a steady pool of management talent to populate the expanding chain. The current university was built in 2004. (
Duke Sherman
)

ROADSIDE BILLBOARD:
The famous In-N-Out yellow arrow and analog clock tower still stands on the north side of the I-10 freeway. In 1954, the path of the I-10's expansion in Baldwin Park cut through store Number One and the Snyders tore down the original, rebuilding a new Number One a short distance away. Harry designed the new shop as the now famous double drive-through. In 2004, In-N-Out shuttered the original and built the third of its “Number Ones” on the opposite side of the freeway. (
Duke Sherman
)

THE WEDDING PARTY:
Rich and Christina Snyder (center) married on May 2, 1992, in Maui. Almost eighteen months later Rich, Phil West (far left), and Jack Sims (third from left) were killed in a plane crash. (
John L. Blom Custom Photography
)

IN-N-OUT BURGER FAMILY PICNIC:
At the annual company outing in 1997, Guy Snyder and his second wife, Kathy Touché, along with her children, Aaron, Andy, and Emily. (
Kathy Touché
)

THE PRESIDENT AND SECRETARY-TREASURER CIRCA LATE 1980S:
Despite their great success, Rich and his mother, Esther, loved attending new store openings and visiting with associates. (
Rich Snyder Family Collection
)

IN-N-OUT BURGER'S SOLE HEIRESS:
Lynsi Snyder Martinez has been largely kept out of the spotlight and rarely photographed publicly. As a toddler in the arms of her Uncle Rich (circa 1984), she's already aware of her inheritance, holding an In-N-Out soda cup. (
Rich Snyder Family Collection
)