Americans have an insatiable appetite for fast food.
Credit — or blame, because the case could also be — entrepreneur Billy Ingram.
The Colorado native founded the world’s first burger chain, White Castle, in Wichita, Kansas, in 1921. He’s widely considered the daddy of fast food — recognized as its creator by industry media as early as 1957, before most up-to-date fast-food brands were even born.
The USA today has about 190,000 fast-food eateries, based on restaurant industry sources. But just one was the primary.
“White Castle’s rise to cult status was nothing in need of miraculous,” raved burger enthusiast and “Howard Stern Show” radio personality Jon Hein within the debut episode of TV program “Fast Food Mania.”
Ingram pioneered lots of the processes, equipment and even marketing techniques that make fast food possible today: delicious, savory and mouth-filling flavors served quickly and affordably with the identical taste profile offered by many alternative locations.
His original slider hamburger cost just 5 cents 101 years ago.
A White Castle burger costs about 89 cents today — a delicious steal sold by the sackload.
“It’s just really easy, delicious comfort food,” competitive-eating champ Joey Chestnut told Fox News Digital this week.
“The griddled onions, the best way the burger and the bun are form of steamed — you never get a dry White Castle bun. I really like them.”
Chestnut and fellow competitive eater Matt Stonie recently savaged an order of 100 White Castle sliders in Las Vegas.
Not for a contest. Only for fun.
“It was a protracted, late night in Vegas,” he noted.
Fast-food founder Ingram inspired a cult phenomenon, along with an industry.
White Castle created the Cravers Hall of Fame in 2001 to honor those that have displayed “a lifetime of devotion going to extreme lengths to satisfy cravings,” company spokesman Jamie Richardson told Fox News Digital.
Members include rock ‘n roll icon Alice Cooper, “Man vs. Food” host Adam Richman and the late titan of the comic-book genre, Stan Lee.
“I’m not only within the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, but I’m also within the White Castle Cravers Hall of Fame,” Cooper boasted to Fox News Digital.
“Yep. They made me a throne out of White Castle Burgers. I ate it,” he said.
Partnership reshaped food consumption
Edgar Waldo “Billy” Ingram was born in humble circumstances in Leadville, Colorado, in 1880.
He worked briefly as a reporter covering the livestock industry for the Omaha (Neb.) Bee around 1900, before moving to Wichita to pursue his profession in real estate and insurance.
There, he became energetic within the Rotary Club and met local businessman and burger-shop owner Walter Anderson.
The progressive fry cook held the important thing to the long run of American food.
“In 1916, Anderson developed a special approach to preparing a hamburger sandwich by flattening a ball of ground meat and cooking it with onions on a hot griddle for a brief time period,” writes the Kansas Business Hall of fame.
“Prior to Anderson’s approach to preparation, the hamburger sandwich consisted of a thick ball of ground meat cooked slowly on a griddle for an indefinite time period,” noted the identical source.
“His hamburger sandwich proved popular enough for Anderson to open three hamburger stands in Wichita between 1916 and 1920.”
Ingram loved the concept.
He invested $700, they formed White Castle — and so they opened their first eatery together in 1921 on Fundamental Street in Wichita. It’s known in company lore as White Castle No. 4 — the primary shop the partners opened together.
The tiny burgers, about 2 inches square, are still sizzled in onions today, the highest bun steaming on top of the patty — largely unchanged from the best way Anderson cooked them years before.
Birth of fast-food phenomenon
People in Wichita loved the burgers. However the meat industry nationwide had fallen on hard times as Ingram and Anderson looked to grow White Castle.
Journalist Upton Sinclair had published “The Jungle,” his scathing novel of the meatpacking industry, in 1906.
“They use every thing concerning the hog except the squeal,” Sinclair famously wrote, while exposing the wretched conditions by which humans worked and animals were slaughtered in turn-of-the-century America.
Ingram was forced to not only mass-market his latest concept, but to accomplish that against the cultural headwinds of the time.
“Hamburger was not a food that self-respecting mothers would feed their family,” said Richardson. “It was seen as unsanitary. He completely righted the ship with quality standards, cleanliness and all of it out within the open.”
He conceived of the brand White Castle to project a glistening, healthful image.
“The ‘White’ [was] to connote cleanliness,” said brand spokesman Richardson. “’Castle’ to point permanence and stability.”
Ingram then went to work perfecting ways to end up Anderson’s burgers as quickly as possible — in a sparking, sanitary space to reassure a wary public.
“There was an actual assembly-line fervor that was raging across America [in the 1920s],” creator and fast-food expert Adam Chandler told Smithsonian Magazine in a 2019 interview.
“White Castle adopted this model — they’d food that was prepared quickly in a really highly mechanized, highly systematized way. Every inch of the grill was dedicated for either the bread or the meat in small, square patties.”
He added, “[White Castle] had these efficiencies built into it that basically spoke to the fascinations of the era. Now it might sound weird — the concept that your experience there ought to be the identical each time and that each customer gets the very same food over and all over again.”
Ingram bought out Anderson in 1933 and expanded to Detroit, Chicago, Cincinnati, Recent York and Minneapolis. In 1934 he moved the corporate headquarters to Columbus, Ohio.
Fast-food fever soon gripped the nation.
Kentucky Fried Chicken (now KFC) opened in 1930; Dairy Queen in 1940; and Jack within the Box in 1951, amongst others.
The primary McDonald’s hamburger shop opened in 1940.
By the point Ray Krok turned it — in 1955 — into the fast food chain we all know today, White Castle was well on its strategy to selling burger No. 1 billion.
It passed that milestone in 1961.
‘Billy modified the best way the world eats’
Billy Ingram died in Columbus on May 20, 1966, after battling a brief illness. He was 85 years old.
“He got here into the office almost daily to the very end,” said Richardson.
“Mr. Ingram helped present in 1921 the White Castle System, noted for its inexpensive burgers, years before [the] recent boom in hamburger chain operations,” The Recent York Times reported in its obituary.
It called Ingram “the person who parlayed a 5-cent hamburger right into a $36 million chain.”
White Castle did $847 million in sales in 2021.
The brand stays small by modern fast-food standards: It has fewer than 400 locations, most of them clustered within the Midwest and Recent York area.
White Castle supplements its in-store product with an enormous fast-food business. Its sliders can be found within the frozen-food aisle of supermarkets in all 50 states.
White Castle has also managed to punch above to construct a legacy amongst its many loyal fans in popular culture.
White Castle enjoyed a trophy silver screen moment within the landmark 1977 film “Saturday Night Fever” when Brooklyn disco celebrity Tony Manero (John Travolta) takes his date to the burger joint — along with his classless buddies.
Hundreds of thousands of American teenagers who had never heard of the regional brand were turned onto the magic of White Castle by the Beastie Boys of their celebrated 1986 debut album “Licensed to Ailing.”
The Recent York City rappers shouted out the burger joint in five of the 13 tracks on the album; and again in a tune on their sophomore album “Paul’s Boutique.”
“I chill at White Castle ‘cause it’s the perfect,” the trio rapped in “The Recent Style.”
The Smithereens recorded the song “White Castle Blues” in 1986, a novelty of their breakout yr.
The burger eatery was the topic of the 2004 Hollywood comedy, “Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle.”
The USA today is a quick food nation. Americans are expected to spend about $333 billion on fast food in 2022, based on IBIS World data.
“Billy modified the best way world eats by making hot, tasty food reasonably priced for the masses,” said Richardson, company spokesperson.
Americans have an insatiable appetite for fast food.
Credit — or blame, because the case could also be — entrepreneur Billy Ingram.
The Colorado native founded the world’s first burger chain, White Castle, in Wichita, Kansas, in 1921. He’s widely considered the daddy of fast food — recognized as its creator by industry media as early as 1957, before most up-to-date fast-food brands were even born.
The USA today has about 190,000 fast-food eateries, based on restaurant industry sources. But just one was the primary.
“White Castle’s rise to cult status was nothing in need of miraculous,” raved burger enthusiast and “Howard Stern Show” radio personality Jon Hein within the debut episode of TV program “Fast Food Mania.”
Ingram pioneered lots of the processes, equipment and even marketing techniques that make fast food possible today: delicious, savory and mouth-filling flavors served quickly and affordably with the identical taste profile offered by many alternative locations.
His original slider hamburger cost just 5 cents 101 years ago.
A White Castle burger costs about 89 cents today — a delicious steal sold by the sackload.
“It’s just really easy, delicious comfort food,” competitive-eating champ Joey Chestnut told Fox News Digital this week.
“The griddled onions, the best way the burger and the bun are form of steamed — you never get a dry White Castle bun. I really like them.”
Chestnut and fellow competitive eater Matt Stonie recently savaged an order of 100 White Castle sliders in Las Vegas.
Not for a contest. Only for fun.
“It was a protracted, late night in Vegas,” he noted.
Fast-food founder Ingram inspired a cult phenomenon, along with an industry.
White Castle created the Cravers Hall of Fame in 2001 to honor those that have displayed “a lifetime of devotion going to extreme lengths to satisfy cravings,” company spokesman Jamie Richardson told Fox News Digital.
Members include rock ‘n roll icon Alice Cooper, “Man vs. Food” host Adam Richman and the late titan of the comic-book genre, Stan Lee.
“I’m not only within the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, but I’m also within the White Castle Cravers Hall of Fame,” Cooper boasted to Fox News Digital.
“Yep. They made me a throne out of White Castle Burgers. I ate it,” he said.
Partnership reshaped food consumption
Edgar Waldo “Billy” Ingram was born in humble circumstances in Leadville, Colorado, in 1880.
He worked briefly as a reporter covering the livestock industry for the Omaha (Neb.) Bee around 1900, before moving to Wichita to pursue his profession in real estate and insurance.
There, he became energetic within the Rotary Club and met local businessman and burger-shop owner Walter Anderson.
The progressive fry cook held the important thing to the long run of American food.
“In 1916, Anderson developed a special approach to preparing a hamburger sandwich by flattening a ball of ground meat and cooking it with onions on a hot griddle for a brief time period,” writes the Kansas Business Hall of fame.
“Prior to Anderson’s approach to preparation, the hamburger sandwich consisted of a thick ball of ground meat cooked slowly on a griddle for an indefinite time period,” noted the identical source.
“His hamburger sandwich proved popular enough for Anderson to open three hamburger stands in Wichita between 1916 and 1920.”
Ingram loved the concept.
He invested $700, they formed White Castle — and so they opened their first eatery together in 1921 on Fundamental Street in Wichita. It’s known in company lore as White Castle No. 4 — the primary shop the partners opened together.
The tiny burgers, about 2 inches square, are still sizzled in onions today, the highest bun steaming on top of the patty — largely unchanged from the best way Anderson cooked them years before.
Birth of fast-food phenomenon
People in Wichita loved the burgers. However the meat industry nationwide had fallen on hard times as Ingram and Anderson looked to grow White Castle.
Journalist Upton Sinclair had published “The Jungle,” his scathing novel of the meatpacking industry, in 1906.
“They use every thing concerning the hog except the squeal,” Sinclair famously wrote, while exposing the wretched conditions by which humans worked and animals were slaughtered in turn-of-the-century America.
Ingram was forced to not only mass-market his latest concept, but to accomplish that against the cultural headwinds of the time.
“Hamburger was not a food that self-respecting mothers would feed their family,” said Richardson. “It was seen as unsanitary. He completely righted the ship with quality standards, cleanliness and all of it out within the open.”
He conceived of the brand White Castle to project a glistening, healthful image.
“The ‘White’ [was] to connote cleanliness,” said brand spokesman Richardson. “’Castle’ to point permanence and stability.”
Ingram then went to work perfecting ways to end up Anderson’s burgers as quickly as possible — in a sparking, sanitary space to reassure a wary public.
“There was an actual assembly-line fervor that was raging across America [in the 1920s],” creator and fast-food expert Adam Chandler told Smithsonian Magazine in a 2019 interview.
“White Castle adopted this model — they’d food that was prepared quickly in a really highly mechanized, highly systematized way. Every inch of the grill was dedicated for either the bread or the meat in small, square patties.”
He added, “[White Castle] had these efficiencies built into it that basically spoke to the fascinations of the era. Now it might sound weird — the concept that your experience there ought to be the identical each time and that each customer gets the very same food over and all over again.”
Ingram bought out Anderson in 1933 and expanded to Detroit, Chicago, Cincinnati, Recent York and Minneapolis. In 1934 he moved the corporate headquarters to Columbus, Ohio.
Fast-food fever soon gripped the nation.
Kentucky Fried Chicken (now KFC) opened in 1930; Dairy Queen in 1940; and Jack within the Box in 1951, amongst others.
The primary McDonald’s hamburger shop opened in 1940.
By the point Ray Krok turned it — in 1955 — into the fast food chain we all know today, White Castle was well on its strategy to selling burger No. 1 billion.
It passed that milestone in 1961.
‘Billy modified the best way the world eats’
Billy Ingram died in Columbus on May 20, 1966, after battling a brief illness. He was 85 years old.
“He got here into the office almost daily to the very end,” said Richardson.
“Mr. Ingram helped present in 1921 the White Castle System, noted for its inexpensive burgers, years before [the] recent boom in hamburger chain operations,” The Recent York Times reported in its obituary.
It called Ingram “the person who parlayed a 5-cent hamburger right into a $36 million chain.”
White Castle did $847 million in sales in 2021.
The brand stays small by modern fast-food standards: It has fewer than 400 locations, most of them clustered within the Midwest and Recent York area.
White Castle supplements its in-store product with an enormous fast-food business. Its sliders can be found within the frozen-food aisle of supermarkets in all 50 states.
White Castle has also managed to punch above to construct a legacy amongst its many loyal fans in popular culture.
White Castle enjoyed a trophy silver screen moment within the landmark 1977 film “Saturday Night Fever” when Brooklyn disco celebrity Tony Manero (John Travolta) takes his date to the burger joint — along with his classless buddies.
Hundreds of thousands of American teenagers who had never heard of the regional brand were turned onto the magic of White Castle by the Beastie Boys of their celebrated 1986 debut album “Licensed to Ailing.”
The Recent York City rappers shouted out the burger joint in five of the 13 tracks on the album; and again in a tune on their sophomore album “Paul’s Boutique.”
“I chill at White Castle ‘cause it’s the perfect,” the trio rapped in “The Recent Style.”
The Smithereens recorded the song “White Castle Blues” in 1986, a novelty of their breakout yr.
The burger eatery was the topic of the 2004 Hollywood comedy, “Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle.”
The USA today is a quick food nation. Americans are expected to spend about $333 billion on fast food in 2022, based on IBIS World data.
“Billy modified the best way world eats by making hot, tasty food reasonably priced for the masses,” said Richardson, company spokesperson.
