Kewpee

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1 History
2 Locations
3 References
4 See also
5 External links

Kewpee

Type	Private
Founded	Flint, Michigan, U.S., (1923)
Founder	Samuel V. Blair
Headquarters	Lima, Ohio, United States
No. of locations	5 Restaurants (2008)
Area served	Midwest United States
Key people	Harrison E. Shutt, President^[1]
Industry	Fast Food
Products	Fast food, including hamburgers, french fries, pies, and Frozen Malts
Website	Racine, WI , Lansing, MI

Kewpee Hamburgers is the second known chain of hamburger fast-food restaurants originally founded in 1923^[2] in Flint, Michigan under the name "Kewpee Hotel Hamburgs". Kewpee's current headquarters is located in Lima, Ohio.^[3] The chain is named after the Kewpee doll.^[4]

Their advertising slogan is: Hamburg pickle on top, makes your heart go flippity-flop! While an earlier slogan was: "Mity Nice Hamburger".^[2]

[edit] History

Kewpee Hamburgers is a chain of fast-food restaurants originally founded in 1923 in Flint, Michigan by Samuel V. Blair under the name "Kewpee Hotel Hamburgs".^[3] At its peak, before World War II, there were more than 400 Kewpee restaurants in operation with half closing during the Great Depression.^[2] The early Kewpees were not franchises and there was no group association. Each differently-owned Kewpee had its own menu with their own different style of hamburger. A later attempt at a franchise agreement lead to some Kewpees closing or changing names leaving even less Kewpee restaurants around.^[3]

Kewpee began operating out of a wagon then from a location on Harrison Street Downtown Flint.^[3] In Lansing, Michigan, the Weston family has owned and operated the Kewpees restaurant since it opened in 1923, that makes it the oldest restaurant in the city of Lansing. The Weston family has had as many as two Kewpee restaurants open at one time in Lansing. The Weston's are in their third generation of operating Kewpee.^[4] Kewpee's early plans under Blair and Adams seem to stay out of major city. After Prohibition, some Kewpee restaurants add real beer to its staple of root beer.^[2] In 1928, the Lima, Ohio location opens under the ownership of Stub Wilson. In 1936, a Kewpee location is already located in Findlay, Ohio, so Stub Wilson opens a restaurant called Wilson's Sandwich Shop.^[5]

Blair upon his retirement on April 1, 1944 starts renting the original location. Blair dies in 1945 and licensees continues to leases the location and pay royalities for use of the Kewpee name from the estate until the Kewpee trademark goes up for sale in 1955 and Blair estate owned locations go up for sale in 1958. The original location and the rights to the Kewpee are split up in sale with the original location going to leasor William "Bill" V. Thomas while the trademark goes to Ed F. Adams's Kewpee Hotels partnership of Toledo, Ohio^[3]^[6]

Ed Adams's partnership, Kewpee Hotels transfer the Kewpee trademark to Kewpee Hotel Systems, Inc. in 1965.^[6] of which Ed Adams was president.^[7] The number of Kewpee locations dropped considerably in 1967 when the Kewpee Hotel Systems, Inc. demanded a full franchising arrangement and a percentage of the profits. The locations which objected either closed or changed their names. The original Flint location changed its name to Bill Thomas' Halo Burger which is still a thriving business, but not at the original location which was torn down in 1979.^[3]^[8] Hortense M. Adams took over as president of Kewpee Hotel System, Inc. by March of 1975.^[9] In August of 1985, a Kewpee International partnership, (later most likely incorporated as Kewpee of Toledo) lead by former Kewpee Hotel System Vice President Robert L. Dane, purchase the Kewpee rights from Kewpee Hotel System, Inc. ^[10] The Kewpee, Inc. forms in 1969 by Harold J., James F. and Richard E. Meredith based in Lima, Ohio. ^[11] The Kewpee, Inc. of Toledo assigns the trademark of Kewpee to the The Kewpee, Inc.^[12]

According to a 2001 interview with Dave Thomas, the founder of Wendy's, as a child, he lived near the intersection of Douglas and Kalamazoo Avenue in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Thomas used to love eating at a Kewpee restaurant, which stood at Burdick and South. He said it’s what inspired him to go into the business. Kewpee’s sold square hamburgers and thick malt shakes, much like that famous restaurant that Thomas eventually founded in Columbus, Ohio in 1969.^[13]