In-N-Out Burger

by Stacy Perman

  “Son of a bitch, these guys have got something.”: “The Burger That Conquered the Country,” Time, September 14, 1973.

  “he soon convinced the McDonalds”: Ray Kroc with Robert Anderson, Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald’s (Chicago: H. Regnery, 1977), 12.

  “On April 15, 1955, Ray Kroc opened his own McDonald’s”: McDonald’s corporate history, http://www.mcdonalds.com/corp/about/mcd_history_pg1.html.

  “Over the next five years, Kroc built a chain”: “The Burger That Conquered the Country,” Time, September 14, 1973.

  “Kroc was only earning a paltry 1.9 percent of the gross”: Ray Kroc with Robert Anderson, Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald’s (Chicago: H. Regnery, 1977), 72.

  “In 1961, Kroc asked the brothers”: Ibid., 121.

  “Kroc not only boasted that he would open”: “The Burger That Conquered the Country,” Time, September 14, 1973.

  “In 1952, an elementary school dropout,”: KFC corporate history, http://www.kfc.com/about/history.asp history.

  “In 1964, Sanders (who had begun opening outlets in Canada and England) sold”: Ibid.; Amy Garber, “Yum’s Got the Whole World in Its Brands,” Nation’s Restaurant News, August 15, 2005.

  CHAPTER 6

  “Take the 3,548,000 babies born in 1950,”: Sylvia F. Porter, “Babies Equal Boom,” New York Post, May 4, 1951.

  “While Harry’s own father, Hendrick, was a tough disciplinarian”: Snyder family home movie; Harry Snyder, interview by Rich Snyder, circa early 1970s.

  “At the academy, the students were given full dress uniforms”: William J. P. Grace, “My Brush with History,” American Heritage, November 1996.

  “On October 14, 1947, Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier”: Gerald Silk, Automobile and Car Culture (New York: Harry N. Abrams Inc., n.d.), 182.

  “A year later, Alex Xydias, a B-17 engineer”: Ibid., 183.

  “In 1949, Muroc was officially converted into Edwards Air Force Base”: Ibid.; History of Edwards Air Force Base, http://www.edwardscareers.com/about.asp.

  “Clare MacKichan, one of the design engineers”: Michael Lamm, Chevrolet 1955: Creating the Original (Stockton, Calif.: Lamm-Morada Inc, 1991), cited in David Halberstam, The Fifties (New York: Ballantine Books, 1993), 494.

  “In an effort to ‘create order from chaos’”: NHRA History: Drag Racing’s Fast Start, http://www.nhra.com/content/about.asp?articleid=3263&zoneid=101.

  “The sport had so transcended its humble beginnings”: “Hot Rod Fever,” Life, April 29, 1957.

  “By the early 1960s, the NHRA had over”: National Hot Rod Association.

  “The Dale was so frequently packed and noisy”: Peyton Canary, “Car Racing Upsets Neighboring Cities,” Los Angeles Times, May 12, 1966.

  “by 1968 there were one thousand McDonald’s across the country”: McDonald’s corporate history, http://www.mcdonalds.com/corp/about/mcd_history_pg1/mcd_history _pg5.html.

  “The ’65 Chevelle he built for Geno Redd”: John Jodauga, “Where Are They Now,” National Dragster, February 2, 1996.

  CHAPTER 7

  “Bell Labs began to create artificial intelligence”: Eisenhower archives, “The Eisenhower Presidential Era,” http://www.dwightdeisenhower.com/president.html.

  “Eisenhower administration came up with its ‘Atoms for Peace’ campaign,”: President Eisenhower introduced the idea publicly in his “Atoms for Peace” speech given before the General Assembly of the United Nations on peaceful uses of atomic energy on December 8, 1953; for more, read Ira Chernus, Eisenhower’s Atoms For Peace (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2002).

  “It was none other than Walt Disney”: Robert Schock, Eileen S. Vergino, Neil Joeck, and Ronald F. Lehman, “Atoms for Peace After 50 Years,” Issues in Science and Technology (Spring 2004).

  “one of the most influential men alive”: “Father Goose,” Time, December 27, 1954.

  “And in 1957, Disney (in conjunction with the U.S. Navy”: Mark Langer, “Disney’s Atomic Fleet,” Animation World, 1998.

  “Automatic electric washers and dryers,”: Caroline Hellman, “The Other American Kitchen: Alternative Domesticity in 1950s Design, Politics, and Fiction,” Journal of American Popular Culture (Fall 2004), http://www.americanpopularculture.com/journal/articles/fall_2004/hellman.htm.

  “in 1953 of the frozen ‘TV Dinner’”: James Trager, The Food Chronology (New York: Henry Holt & Company, 1995), 543.

  “During the 1950s, when Americans snapped up”: According to the American Frozen Food Institute, as cited in “More than Frozen Pizza,” University of California Nutrition, Family and Consumer Science, Cooperative Extension, March 2, 2000, http://cekern.ucdavis.edu/Custom_Program804/More_Than_Frozen_Pizza.htm.

  “The Seeman Brothers of New York”: James Trager, The Food Chronology (New York: Henry Holt & Company, 1995), 543.

  “as the prices for cocoa spiked, Robert Welch,”: Ibid., 545.

  “In 1959, General Foods Corporation”: “Just Heat & Serve,” Time, December 7, 1959.

  “Kroc hired engineers and technicians”: John Love, McDonald’s: Behind the Arches, rev. ed. (New York: Bantam Books, 1995), 137–139.

  “As early as 1931, White Castle,”: White Castle corporate history, http://www.whitecastle.com/_pages/timeline_40s.asp.

  “In 1968 there were about one thousand McDonald’s restaurants”: McDonald’s Corporation 1968 financial statement.

  “To supply them all, the company was using 175 different meat suppliers.”: John Love, McDonald’s: Behind the Arches, rev. ed. (New York: Bantam Books, 1995), 333.

  “After twelve years of insisting on fresh beef,”: Ibid., 334.

  “Equity Meat Company had proved that it could standardize”: Keystone (formerly Equity Meat Company) corporate history, http://www.keystonefoods.com/history.html.

  “Equity (later renamed Keystone Foods) became”: Ibid.

  “John Richard ‘J. R.’ Simplot, the country’s largest supplier of fresh potatoes,”: J. R. Simplot Company corporate history, http://www.simplot.com/company/origins_found er.cfm.

  “I told him frozen fries would allow him”: John Love, McDonald’s: Behind the Arches, rev. ed. (New York: Bantam Books, 1995), 330.

  “J. R. Simplot went on to build an estimated $3.6 billion empire”: Company corporate history and “The Forbes 400,” Forbes, September 20, 2007.

  “In 1946, the U.S. Department of Agriculture required”: USDA Fact Sheet “Focus on Beef”; John Love, McDonald’s: Behind the Arches, rev. ed. (New York: Bantam Books, 1995), 129. (Today’s USDA standards: both hamburger and ground beef can have seasonings, but no water, phosphates, extenders, or binders may be added.)

  “You would negotiate a price with the drive-in”: John Love, McDonald’s: Behind the Arches, rev. ed. (New York: Bantam Books, 1995), 129.

  “Schlosser listed forty-seven chemical ingredients”: Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation (New York: Perennial, 2001), 125–126.

  “‘This way,’ the company later proclaimed, enabled it to ‘completely control the patty-making process.’”: In-N-Out Burger corporate website, http://www.in-n-out.com/statement.asp.

  “In-N-Out took the same approach with its french fries”: In-N-Out Burger corporate statement on quality, http://www.in-n-out.com/freshness.asp.

  “Frequently, the potatoes were picked in the morning”: Edmund Newton, “Faithful Customers Have No Beef with In-N-Out Burger,” Los Angeles Times, September 16, 1990.

  “In an industry that was substituting chemically processed,”: In-N-Out Burger corporate statement on quality, http://www.in-n-out.com/freshness.asp.

  “TV ownership had grown exponentially,”: According to U.S. Labor Statistics as cited in Lizabeth Cohen, A Consumer’s Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America (New York: Knopf, 2003), 19.

  “McDonald’s launched its first national commercial in 1967.”: “Thoroughly Modern Marketing,” Nation’s Restaurant News, April 11, 2005.

  “J
ack in the Box, founded in 1951,”: Jack In the Box corporate history, http://www.jackinthebox.com; Rodney Allen Rippey’s homepage at http://www.rodneyallen rippey.net/.

  “In 1973, television producers Sid and Marty Krofft”: Cecil Adams, “Was McDonaldland Plagiarized from the old HR Pufnstuf Kids’ Show?” Straight Dope, August 27, 1999, http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1343/was-mcdonaldlandplagiarized-from-the-old-h-r-pufnstuf-kids-tv-show; Sid & Marty Krofft Television Productions, Inc., et al. v. McDonald’s Corporation and Needham, Harper & Steers Inc., U.S. Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit, October 12, 1977.

  “Favorites included: the”: Not so Secret Menu at the In-N-Out website, http://www.in-n-out.com/secretmenu.asp.

  “In the mid-1960s, McDonald’s traced the origins of the hamburger”: John Love, McDonald’s: Behind the Arches, rev. ed. (New York: Bantam Books, 1995), 208.

  “In 1930, White Castle founders Billy Ingram and Walter Anderson”: White Castle corporate history, http://www.whitecastle.com.

  “accomplished only with the dedicated enthusiasm”: Aileen Pinheiro, comp., “In-N-Out, Inc.: Esther L. Snyder,” The Heritage of Baldwin Park, vol. 1 (Dallas, Tex.: Taylor Publishing Co., 1981), 242.

  CHAPTER 8

  “In 1973, more than 245 franchise companies”: Robert L. Emerson, The New Economics of Fast Food (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1990), 23, 62.

  “had launched more than 32,000 fast-food establishments”: John A. Jakle and Keith A. Sculle, Fast Food Roadside Restaurants in the Automobile Age (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999), 85.

  “that sold $9.68 billion”: National Restaurant Association.

  “You can find your way across this country using burger joints”: Charles Kuralt, CBS Morning, as cited in John T. Edge, Hamburgers & Fries, An American Story (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2005).

  “the fast-food industry was growing”: This figure averaged from the percentage chain of sales growth reported by the National Restaurant Association between the years 1970 and 1979 and cited in Robert L. Emerson, The New Economics of Fast Food (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1990), 23.

  “Between 1965 and 1971, Kentucky Fried Chicken”: Robert L. Emerson, The New Economics of Fast Food (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1990), 7.

  “Between 1965 and 1973, the number of McDonald’s outlets”: Ibid.

  “Between 1945 and 1960, the Valley’s population”: Kevin Roderick, “America’s Suburb Timeline,” The Valley Observed, http://www.Americassuburb.com/timeline.html.

  “that earned it the nickname”: Kevin Roderick, The San Fernando Valley: America’s Suburb (Los Angeles: Los Angeles Times Books, 2001).

  “North Hollywood drive-through was close to the Hollywood Freeway,”: Los Angeles City Department of Transportation, Cahuenga Parkway report, http://www.lacity.org/ladot/TopicsAndTales/Freeway4.pdf.

  “Over 12 Billion Sold.”: “The Burger that Conquered America,” Time, September 14, 1973.

  “the chain launched its $50 million ‘You Deserve a Break Today’ campaign”: Ibid.

  “In 1965, McDonald’s went public”: McDonald’s corporate history; Ray Kroc with Robert Anderson, Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald’s (Chicago: H. Regnery, 1977), 149.

  “Over the next thirty-five years, the stock split twelve times.” “McDonald’s the Rise and Stall,” Businessweek, March 2, 2003, http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_09/b3822087_mz017.htm.

  “In 1969, the year of Taco Bell’s IPO,”: Taco Bell corporate history, http://www.tacobell.com/.

  “KFC (as it later became known) was listed”: KFC corporate history, http://www.kfc.com/about/history.asp.

  “When Carl Karcher took his company public in 1981,”: Carl Karcher Enterprises corporate history, http://www.ckr.com/about_history.html#80s; Louise Kramer, “Carl Karcher,” Nation’s Restaurant News, February 1996.

  “In 1967, the Pillsbury Company”: Eric Berg, “Burger King’s Angry Franchisees,” New York Times, November 14, 1988.

  “Ralston-Purina, best known as a maker of breakfast cereals and pet foods,”: “Goodall Forges Buyout,” Nation’s Restaurant News, May 13, 1985.

  “General Foods Corporation purchased Burger Chef”: Connie J. Zeigler, “Burger Chef,” Encyclopedia of Indianapolis (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994), 364.

  “A successful Indianapolis-based chain”: Ibid.; John A. Jakle and Keith A. Sculle, Fast Food Roadside Restaurants in the Automobile Age (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999), 120.

  “By 1970, Kentucky Fried Chicken had made”: “Franchising: Too Much, Too Soon,” Businessweek, June 27, 1970.

  “McDonald’s announced it was going to increase the price”: Michael Karl Witzel, The American Drive-In Restaurant (St. Paul: MBI Publishing, 1994), 175.

  “Burger King waited until May 17, 2006,”: “BK Sets IPO Price,” Nation’s Restaurant News, May 15, 2006.

  “Two years after General Foods purchased Burger Chef,”: Remembering Burger Chef, http://www.waymarking.com/cat/details.aspx?f=1&guid=65766bda–9049–4276–9ee6–1fe3ed9e6d1f&exp=True.

  “In 1972, General Foods took a $75 million loss”: John Love, McDonald’s: Behind the Arches, rev. ed. (New York: Bantam Books, 1995), 279.

  “and a decade later sold the chain”: “Hardee’s to Buy Burger Chef,” New York Times, December 10, 1981.

  “McDonald’s actually picked up the pace”: Robert L. Emerson, The New Economics of Fast Food (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1990), 10.

  “As Robert McKay, the general manager of Taco Bell,”: “A Promising Mañana,” Forbes, August 1, 1977.

  “beef prices were rising sharply.”: John Mariani, America Eats Out (New York: William Morrow & Co., 1991), 174.

  “Over the next few years, nearly all of them began”: Ibid., 174, 176.

  “McDonald’s added its Quarter Pounder;”: McDonald’s history listing, http://www.mcdepk.com/50/downloads/history_listing.pdf.

  “Wendy’s began offering stuffed baked potatoes,”: John Mariani, America Eats Out (New York: William Morrow & Co., 1991), 176.

  “Burger King launched its ‘Have It Your Way’ campaign”: “Jack v. Mac,” Time, May 5, 1975; Burger King corporate history of advertising, http://www.bk.com/companyinfo/corporation/history.aspx.

  “Watch out McDonald’s!”: “Jack v. Mac,” Time, May 5, 1975.

  “In some areas, local ordinances forbade fast-food restaurants”: John A. Jakle and Keith A. Sculle, Fast Food Roadside Restaurants in the Automobile Age (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999), 160.

  “residents of Woods Hole, Massachusetts,”: Ibid., 159.

  “In 1975, three community groups protested the efforts”: “The Fast-Food Furor,” Time, April 21, 1975.

  “This is what our country is all about”: “The Burger That Conquered the Country,” Time, September 14, 1973.

  CHAPTER 9

  “It’s okay on goals to dream big,”: Karen de Witt, “The Executive Life; A White House Dinner: The Thrill of a Lifetime,” New York Times, June 21, 1992.

  “in 1976, when McDonald’s posted $3 billion”: McDonald’s history listing, http://www.mcdepk.com/50/downloads/history_listing.pdf.

  “He died on December 14, 1976;”: Obituary, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, December 15, 1976.

  “Hubert Eaton, the founder of Forest Lawn,”: A history of Eaton and Forest Lawn can be found on the DVD Forest Lawn: The First Hundred Years, released in 2006 and available at the Forest Lawn–Glendale museum. Information can also be found in Cecilia Rasmussen, “Cemetery Was Not an End, but a Beginning,” Los Angeles Times, April 16, 2000; Carey McWilliams, Southern California Country, An Island in the Land (New York: Duell Sloan & Pearce, 1946), 230–231.

  “unlike other cemeteries as sunshine is unlike darkness,”: Eaton composed this statement for his “The Builder’s Creed,” written in 1917 and cited in Tom Sitton and William Francis Deverell, eds., Metropolis in the Making: Los Angeles in the 1920s (Berkeley: Univers
ity of California Press, 2001), 346.

  “Forest Lawn’s Wee Kirk O’ the Heather Church”: Claudia Luther, “Jane Wyman, 90, Oscar Winner First Wife of Reagan,” Los Angeles Times, September 11, 2007.

  CHAPTER 10

  “In 1976, the United States was celebrating its bicentennial”: Robert L. Emerson, The New Economics of Fast Food (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1990), 23.

  “It’s hard enough to sell burgers, fries, and drinks, right,”: Ellen Paris, “Where Bob Hope Buys His Burgers,” Forbes, June 24, 1989.

  “First established in 1958, Sizzler was a pioneer”: Sizzler corporate history, http://www.sizzler.com/about/our_history.asp.

  “At about 7:00 p.m. on August 16, 1978, a fire broke out”: Randy Woods, “Spectacular Fire Blankets Valley in Dense Smoke,” San Gabriel Valley Tribune, August 17, 1978.

  “the San Gabriel Valley Tribune reported”: Ibid.

  “It had outgrown its signature format:”: Richard Martin, “In-N-Out Burgers Pulls Away from Drive-thru Only Focus,” Nation’s Restaurant News, June 19, 1989.

  “I think double drive-throughs are great;”: Ibid.

  “The couple lived in a $600,000 estate”: Andrew Bluth and Chris Knap, “Life of Fast Food, Cars Came to an Early Halt,” Orange County Register, February 6, 2000.

  CHAPTER 11

  “In January 1979, Rich hired a local architect to work with him”: Detailed description of the building of the new headquarters from Baldwin Park Historical Society archives.

  “The national news was focused on the new president’s supply-side economic policy”: Irving Kristol, “The Truth about Reaganomics,” Wall Street Journal, November 20, 1981; Bernard Gwertzman, “There May Be More to Foreign Policy than Stopping the Soviet,” New York Times, April 26, 1981.

  “Their wedding attracted 750 million television viewers”: Jay Cocks, “Magic in the Daylight,” Time, April 20, 1981.

  “Baldwin Park’s chamber of commerce began actively recruiting new businesses”: Kenneth J. Fanucchi, “Renewal Purses, Chief Quits,” Los Angeles Times, November 26, 1981.

  Description of the newly built headquarters from Baldwin Park Historical Society archives.