Ron the Yarn Spinner

 

                    Have You Ever Seen this Man?

      

 

Baby Boomers and those alive today who survived the Great Depression will probably remember him, going down the “alphabet” to “X,” “Y,” “Z” makes that progressively doubtful. Mr. J. Wellington Wimpy the “Trust me, I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today,” an erstwhile intellectual, well-educated romantic had a prominent role in E.C. Segar’s 1931 comic strip “Popeye” and later into cartoon classics. Many of us grew up with Popeye, the common-man, spinach-eating namesake of the comic strip sailor who always stood-up for what was right, even against the greatly advantaged Bluto. Wimpy was Popeye’s friend, lazy and always supposedly short on cash, he had a voracious appetite he tried assuaging by “bumming” a burger, his favorite food, whenever he could, but with a promise to pay “on Tuesday.”

 

If you do not recall the comic-strip character offhand, you may remember him in another way. It was this unforgettable character that inspired the name of the renowned Wimpy restaurants. But where did they go?

 

The brains behind the restaurant chain, Edward V. Gold, loved hamburgers so much he was nicknamed Wimpy. With a keen understanding of the comic strip's popularity and the widespread appeal of the hamburger-hungry public, Gold saw a chance to bring Wimpy-essence to life through a unique burger dining experience. Inspired by M.J. Wellington’s (Wimpy’s) insatiable appetite and unyielding pursuit of his beloved burger, Gold aimed for a restaurant where people could enjoy delicious, good-quality hamburgers for only ten cents. Ultimately, J. Wellington Wimpy was just the beginning, but the inspiration served as a jumping off point for everything in the Wimpy restaurant business. 

 

Before it became the Wimpy as it is known today, Gold marketed his restaurants under two different names. When Edward V. Gold opened the first restaurant's doors on September 12, 1934, in Bloomington, Indiana, it was called Wimpy Grills. Gold later launched Wimpy Grills restaurants in five other cities in the Midwest. The first one in Chicago was in 1936. Wimpy set itself apart from most fast-food restaurants at the time by embracing a unique approach to ordering: table service instead of the conventional counter service. The arrival of competitors like McDonald's with its highly efficient over-the-counter system, however, coupled with disposable containers, presented a seemingly quicker and more convenient option for those hankering for a “hockey puck.” This shift in customer expectations and the rise of competing fast food chains made things difficult to swallow for Wimpy. They presented serious impediments to the restaurant’s continued success.

 

Gold had twenty-five restaurants across the United States, but by the time he died in 1977, there were only seven remaining, four remained - all in Chicago. You might think this was a fantastic opportunity for the right buyer to scoop up locations together with naming rights and a U.S. trademark, but there were no takers. Absent Gold’s leadership, the prospect of re-establishing the brand in the highly competitive fast-food industry was too much to chew. The U.S. franchise was shuttered. Wimpy had lost its’ sizzle, but not everywhere.

 

About twenty-three years earlier Gold had made plans for multinational expansion and found a company that shared his vision. J. Lyons and Co., a British company. Gold licensed Wimpy Grills and Lyons wasted no time in establishing the "Wimpy Bar" in the United Kingdom. Eventually, the success of the Wimpy Bar led to the establishment of standalone Wimpy restaurants that specialized in burger-focused meals.

 

 

 

The Wimpy brand is now owned by Famous Brands Limited, Africa’s largest branded food services franchisor. The company has a portfolio of twenty-five different restaurant brands, represented by a network of 2,853 restaurants across South Africa, other countries on the African continent, the Middle East, and the United Kingdom (62). Its headquarters is in Johannesburg, South Africa, where it has 453 outlets.

 

                                                        Epilogue

 

Although it was long after his death, Edward Gold’s vision of a multinational Wimpy was actually fulfilled – a vision inspired by a cartoon character demonstrating how a cartoon can entertain audiences and sometime motivate people as well. Take spinach, for example.

 

We know Popeye loved it, but the question is: Why spinach? Why not broccoli or asparagus?

In 1870 German chemist Erich von Wolf found the amount of iron in spinach to be 3.5 milligrams per a 100-gram serving (about 3.5 ounces) but he made a mistake copying his notes and misplaced a decimal point making it ten times as much: thirty-five milligrams. Still, this was the “fact” that went out into the world, and as it was not corrected until almost seventy years later, in 1937. Spinach continued to enjoy a long tenure as the most glorified vaunted of vegetables during that entire time.

 Which brings us to Popeye: these huge health claims did not escape the notice of the Popeye people, which is why they chose spinach as the superfood that gave Popeye his strength. Spinach may not have been as nutritionally as powerful as everyone first thought, but it certainly the message had a powerful effect on people. Mothers everywhere in the US were telling kids to “eat your spinach.” Mine did as well. Mom always made it with two slices of hard-boiled eggs on top. I called it “Spinach with Eyes.” (I was not a fan.) Popeye helped increase American consumption of spinach by a thirty-three percent.”

 

But go ahead, eat your spinach. Spinach is said to be a superfood. Though not as super- as first claimed, it helps to prevent cancer, regulate blood sugar levels, and improve eyesight. (Eyesight? I bet you thought carrots were the all-time winners here. Maybe not. Look for my future post, “What’s up Doc.”  And if your mom gave you castor oil as a child, check out my post “Yuck.”  It will be coming up later too.

God Bless America