DID YOU KNOW?
Traveling all over the world to make commercials, open restaurants, and promote KFC, Sanders earned his salary. However, at times, KFC had to wonder whether the goodwill he generated was worth the challenges he caused.
In 1974, Sanders sued Heublein, Inc., the company that had purchased KFC for $122 million, claiming they were misusing his name, image, and likeness.
No sooner had that suit been settled out of court than Sanders was again speaking out—telling reporters that the chicken made by the company was “the worst I’ve ever seen.” He even compared KFC’s mashed potatoes to wallpaper paste and its gravy to sludge.
Still feisty at 86, and traveling nearly a quarter of a million miles a year as KFC’s goodwill ambassador, Sanders expressed hope that he would live and work until he was 100.
When he dies, he will be laid to rest in Louisville’s Cave Hill Cemetery, in a tomb he had already prepared—a granite portico with four columns and a two-foot-high bust of himself. And if he makes it to heaven, Sanders will likely find a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant
Anyway, the idea began to catch on in the late 1950s. By 1964, Sanders had 600 outlets across the country and earnings of $1,000 a day. In the early days, he and Mrs. Sanders would measure out the herbs and spices at home, then package them and ship them by railroad to various outlets.
The Colonel later moved to Shelbyville to be closer to airports and railroads, but the business had grown so large that he decided to sell it in 1964 to a syndicate headed by John Y. Brown Jr. of Louisville and Jack Massey of Nashville, Tennessee. The new owners paid Sanders $2 million for his business, his recipe, and his image. They also hired Sanders, at age 73, as their “goodwill ambassador” for $40,000 a year for the rest of his life.
hostess in the dining room. Then I would come out as the Colonel and hand out recipes to the ladies.”
“I thought it best to sell so I’d have my estate liquid, and I could handle myself,” said Sanders. “This way, I can do something for my grandchildren now, and perpetuate the company, too.”