Shakey's Pizza
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Shakey's Pizza is a pizza restaurant chain based in the United States. The chain currently has about 400 stores, 63 in the United States and the rest in Asia.
[edit] History
Shakey's was founded in Sacramento, California, on April 30, 1954, by Sherwood "Shakey" Johnson and Ed Plummer. Johnson's nickname resulted from nerve damage following a bout of malaria suffered during World War II. The first weekend the parlor opened, only beer was served and Shakey took the profits from beer sales and bought ingredients for pizza the following Monday. The original store at 57th and J in Sacramento remained in business until the late 1990s. Shakey personally played dixieland jazz piano to entertain patrons. Shakey's initially became known outside Sacramento, not for its pizza, but for the jazz program it sponsored on a regional radio network. Shakey Johnson is honored in the Banjo Hall of Fame in Guthrie, Oklahoma, for his longtime use of banjo music at his pizza parlors. Other live music, including piano, was also a staple in the old Shakey's parlors.
The second Shakey's Pizza Parlor opened in Portland, Oregon, in 1956. Shakey's began franchising its restaurant to others in 1957. According to Johnson, Shakey's Pizza engaged in little market research and made most of its decisions on where to locate stores by going where Kinney Shoes opened stores. By the time Johnson sold his interest in 1967, there were 272 Shakey's Pizza Parlors in the United States. The first international store opened in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in 1968. By 1975, the company had expanded to the Pacific Rim, including Japan and the Philippines. The chain is now much bigger in the Philippines than in the United States.
Shakey Johnson sold his half of the company for $3 million to Colorado Milling and Elevator in 1967, which acquired Plummer's half for $9 million the next year. Shakey's was again sold to Hunt International Resources in 1974. Two franchisees bought the chain in 1984 and they sold out to Inno-Pacific Holdings of Singapore in 1989. Most of the U. S. stores closed during the time Inno-Pacific owned the chain. Some of the remaining franchisees took Inno-Pacific to court in 2003. Before this could come to trial, Shakey's was sold to Jacmar Companies of Alhambra, California, in 2004. Jacmar had been the franchisee of 19 Shakey's restaurants.
Shakey's has gone from 325 stores throughout the United States when Hunt International bought the company in 1974 to 62 stores as of 2006, 55 of them in California. There are only three stores east of the Mississippi River: Warner Robins, Georgia; and Janesville and West Allis, Wisconsin; and only four stores in the West outside California: Nogales, Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, and two in suburban Seattle.
The Springfield, Illinois Shakey's, formerly known as "The Largest Shakey's in The Country," recently ended its franchise agreement upon the announcement that Shakey's will be converting all buffets to sit-down restaurants.
In Japan, Shakey's all-you-can-eat buffet lunch is very popular with teenage girls, who line up waiting for it open.[citation needed]
[edit] References in popular culture
- On the season 5 episode of South Park, "Kenny Dies", the government puts a ban on stem cell research; meanwhile, Cartman replicates a new Shakey's Pizza with biological stem cells. Shakey's Pizza is also referanced in the later episode "Stanley's Cup".
- The fancy restaurant in Ferris Bueller's Day Off is named Chez Quis, which is supposed to sound like "Shakey's".
- In the episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, "eDork", Master Shake orders a piano for his glorified cellphone that only plays one ragtime song over and over again. Frylock gets tired of the song and tells Shake to, "... shut that fucking ragtime music off! It's like I live at Shakey's Pizza!"
- In the beginning of Wayne's World, Rob Lowe is eating Shakey's Pizza.
- In the opening short of the MST3K episode "The Atomic Brain," called "What About Juvenile Delinquency?" a mother is tending to her chores around the house while ragtime music drones in the background, prompting Crow to ask "What, does she live at Shakey's?"
- In the episode of Gilmore Girls in which Lorelai graduates from business school, a classmate asks her if she'd like to go out for Shakey's after the ceremony.
- In the Frank Zappa song, "The Blue Light", his lyrics discuss the choice of toppings offered to customers by Shakey's Pizza.
- In Stephen King's novel Firestarter, the character Andy Mcgee parks in a Shakey's parking lot to think after his wife is killed and daughter is abducted.
- Lupin III has an episode called Shaky Pisa
