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CNN Live At Daybreak

Thomas Used Folksy Image to Peddle Hamburgers

Aired January 09, 2002 - 06:23   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Wendy's without Dave, that's the sad reality now at the international restaurant chain, but officials say future Wendy's commercials will carry on the homespun traditions started by founder, Dave Thomas.

CNN's Fred Katayama looks back at what made Dave one of the most famous faces in the burger business.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVE THOMAS, WENDY'S INTERNATIONAL: My daughter, Wendy, said to me: "Dad, I think you've got to come up with some new kind of foods. Be different. Get on the cutting edge.

FRED KATAYAMA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Dave Thomas was different. For one, his face became almost as famous as his food. The folksy entrepreneur founded Wendy's International, the burger chain he named after one of his daughters. He built it into the third largest chain, after McDonald's and Burger King.

Not bad for a high school dropout. The turning point in his life: meeting his future mentor, Colonel Sanders, the founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken. He learned from Sanders the cult of personality, but he clearly had his own flair for the restaurant business.

In 1962, Thomas took over four failing KFC outlets and turned them around. He sold the restaurants back to KFC, making him a millionaire at 35. He used that money to build Wendy's. What began in 1969 with one store in Columbus, Ohio has grown to more than 6,000 restaurants worldwide.

From the start, he went against conventional fast food wisdom. He made his burgers square, not round, and the restaurants were carpeted.

JOHN IVANKOE, JP MORGAN: Well, certainly from a product perspective, Wendy's is the only of the major chains that uses fresh, not frozen, hamburger meat. The quality of their chicken is apparently higher.

KATAYAMA: Thomas retired as chairman in 1982, but seven years later, he became the company's pitchman and went on to star in more than 800 commercials. The hamburger man was no ham, and that's what made the ads effective. MERCEDES CARDONA, ADVERTISING AGE: He was a very folksy, unslick spokesman. I don't think these ads would have worked as well if he looked like he did commercials for a living.

KATAYAMA: When he wasn't in the kitchen or the corner office, Thomas worked to make adoptions easier and more affordable. An adoptee himself, he set up his own foundation to give money to adoption organizations.

WILLIAM CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Perhaps more than any other American citizen, he has made these adoption provisions possible, and we thank him.

KATAYAMA: Despite his wealth and fame, Thomas referred to himself as a hamburger cook.

JACK SCHUESSLER, CEO WENDY'S INTERNATIONAL: He was as comfortable wearing an apron behind the grill as he was being in a suit in a boardroom. And maybe I'm stretching it a little bit, but he'd rather be behind the grill.

KATAYAMA: He succumbed to cancer Tuesday morning. Dave Thomas was 69. You could say mustard and ketchup were in his blood.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hey, dad, where are you?

THOMAS: In the kitchen on the cutting edge.

KATAYAMA: Fred Katayama, CNN Financial News, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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