Shakey's Pizza

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Shakey's logo

Shakey's Pizza is a pizza restaurant chain based in the United States. The chain currently has about 400 stores, about 60 in the United States and the rest in Asia.

Contents

[edit] History

A Shakey's restaurant in the Philippines.
A Shakey's restaurant in the Philippines.

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.

A "Ye Old Notice" sign.
A "Ye Old Notice" sign.

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 original store at 57th and J in Sacramento remained in business until the late 1990s.

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 (two Shakey's restaurants in the Houston, Texas metro area were shuttered). 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 63 stores as of 2008, 55 of them in California. There are three stores east of the Mississippi River: Warner Robins, Georgia; Auburn, Alabama; and West Allis, Wisconsin[1]; and only three stores in the West outside California: Nogales, Arizona and two in suburban Seattle.

[edit] Gallery

A Shakey's restaurant in Hong Kong

This "Ye Old Notice" sign originally said "Giannini don't make pizza" but Shakey's changed the sign after being served with a cease and desist order by Bank of America.[citation needed]

Shakey's had its own "pledge of allegiance" in the early 1970s.

[edit] References in popular culture

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  • While playing the banjo on the album "Let's Get Small", Steve Martin states "when you're with me, it's like being at Shakey's Pizza all the time." He then goes on to attempt singing "Way Down Upon the Swanee River" to the tune of "Ain't She Sweet."
  • In an episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force called E-Dork, Frylock demands Shake to turn off his Ragtime music after several hours, stating that it is like he's living at Shakey's Pizza.
  • 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 referenced in the later episodes "Up the Down Steroid", "Asspen", and "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 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?"
  • Also, in the MST3K episode "Monster A Go-Go", after a scene where the General and his men are deciding where to go, an abrupt scene change occurs, shows a woman dancing and shaking her breasts. Crow says "Oh, they decided to go to Shakey's!" prompting Joel to go "Oh...", possibly scolding the crudity and stupidity of the reference.
  • 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
  • In a later season of Six Feet Under Federico comments to his wife Vanessa, that the children have gone out to eat at Shakey's and then play Goofy Golf.
  • Shakey's is mentioned in the chorus to "Old Timer" by That Dog: "Hey old timer, why ya drinkin' the wine at Shakeys?"
  • In the Corey Haim movie "License to Drive" at one point Haim's character and his friends are at Shakey's to try to sober up the character portrayed by Heather Graham.
  • It is mentioned as having terrible pizza in an episode of The Simpsons by Lisa Simpson.

[edit] See also

[edit] Further reading

[edit] References

  1. ^ A store in Janesville, Wisconsin closed in 2008. ("Longtime Janesville restaurant will close", Janesville Gazette, February 9, 2008. Retrieved on 2008-02-12. )

[edit] External links

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