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Harland Sanders was in his early sixties when the first Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise opened, in Utah in 1952. At 65, after a new highway took the traffic away from his roadside café in Corbin, Kentucky, he sold it and took to the road, selling his recipe to other restaurants.

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The story behind the card

Sanders had been frying chicken for travellers at his café and motel on a busy road in Corbin since the 1930s. He was never an army officer: in 1935 the governor of Kentucky made him an honorary Kentucky Colonel. His first franchisee was Pete Harman, who ran a large restaurant in South Salt Lake, and it was a sign painter hired by Harman who came up with the name Kentucky Fried Chicken. Franchisees paid Sanders four cents for every chicken sold. When the café closed, he lived on his savings and a $105 monthly Social Security pension while he drove from town to town. By 1963 there were more than 600 KFC restaurants. The next year, aged 73, he sold the company for $2 million and stayed on as its white-suited public face. A popular story says he was turned down 1,009 times; no reliable record confirms that number.

Türkçe oku
Harland Sanders, ilk Kentucky Fried Chicken bayisi 1952'de Utah'ta açıldığında altmışlı yaşlarının başındaydı. 65 yaşındayken, yeni açılan otoyol Kentucky'nin Corbin kasabasındaki yol kenarı lokantasının trafiğini alıp götürünce lokantayı sattı ve tarifini başka restoranlara satmak için yollara düştü.

Sanders, 1930'lardan beri Corbin'de işlek bir yolun kenarındaki lokanta ve motelinde yolculara kızarmış tavuk satıyordu. Hiçbir zaman subay olmadı: “Albay” unvanı, 1935'te Kentucky valisinin ona verdiği onursal bir unvandır. İlk bayisi, South Salt Lake'te büyük bir restoran işleten Pete Harman'dı; Kentucky Fried Chicken adını da Harman'ın tuttuğu bir tabela ressamı buldu. Bayiler, satılan her tavuk için Sanders'a dört sent ödüyordu. Lokanta kapandıktan sonra Sanders birikimleriyle ve ayda 105 dolarlık emekli aylığıyla geçinerek kasaba kasaba dolaştı. 1963'e gelindiğinde 600'ü aşkın KFC restoranı vardı. Ertesi yıl, 73 yaşındayken şirketi 2 milyon dolara sattı ve beyaz takım elbisesiyle markanın yüzü olmayı sürdürdü. Sanders'ın tam 1.009 kez reddedildiğine dair yaygın bir hikâye var; ama bu sayıyı doğrulayan güvenilir bir kayıt yok.

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