Colonel Harlan Sanders, who has just sold his franchised fried
chicken business for $2 million: “I started it with my first Social Security
check ($105)”
Today fewer
and fewer people are even aware that Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken
was once a real person, but here he is, complete with white suit, string tie
and goatee, the public image he maintained soon after being commissioned as an
honorary “Kentucky Colonel” in 1950.
After early struggles, his company rapidly expanded to more than a
thousand stores by the early 1960s, and the aging colonel (74 here) sold the
business to investors. He would remain a
salaried spokesman and good will ambassador for the company, though at times he
caused controversy with negative comments about later menu items he had nothing
to do with. Today, fictionalized
versions of the iconic figure, as well as the original Colonel’s image on
packaging, remain a key element of KFC’s marketing campaign.
Five-year-old Peter Nowacki from North Mankato, Minnesota brings a
box full of 264 baseball cards: “I’ve memorized the vital statistics of all the
players on these cards”
Garry tests
the young man, who amazes the panel with his recall of height, weight and
batting average for any random card Garry pulls out.
Special guest Wally Cox: “I’m making a box lunch…I’m going to eat
the box”
The stage is
set up like a workshop, and Cox fiddles with small planks of what appear to be
wood. Garry explains that the hard but
edible material will be used by astronauts as building material. The idea would be that interior parts of a
spaceship would be made of the stuff, and could be eaten in an emergency. Powdered milk, starch, hominy grits and
banana flakes are among the ingredients.
Dr. Sidney Schwartz, a physiologist working on the Lunar Excursion
Module with Grumann Aircraft, created the substance and is seated in the
audience.
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