Lost Fast Food Franchises
Digital collage series commissioned by the Southern Foodways Alliance for the 18th Southern Foodways Symposium. One of these inspired a poem by the great Sandra Beasley.
Erline Lang: Her early success opening for the Carter Family did not prepare her for the cut-throat world of potted meats. She spent much of the ‘80s finishing off her inventory and licking her wounds.
Chester “Butterbean” Biggins: It didn’t take long for Chester’s gravy empire to implode, felled by a truly horrific biscuit recipe. Sadly his soft, fluffy pompadour wasn’t a prescient hairstyle.
Jerry Lee Williams: Jerry Lee bought a tanning bed when he signed to Tennessee Records. At the height of his ultraviolet radiation addiction, this would-be cheese straw baron was a perfect shade of sharp cheddar.
Phyllis Terwilliger: She tried to popularize popcorn possum nuggets, but aside from some cousins on her mama’s side, consumer demand played dead. Her star resurfaced during the disco era, when she had a crossover hit with “You SOB (Sure Oughta Boogie).”
Sue-Bob Caruthers: One of Sue-Bob’s first gigs was backing Dolly Parton on her 1973 tour, and ever thereafter she overstuffed her pear salads with mayonnaise. Friends would later joke that the delicacy held a Freudian appeal for her. (They would be correct.)