Shakey's Pizza
The new logo used since 2013.
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| Private | |
| Industry | Restaurants |
| Founded |
Sacramento, California, U.S. (April 30, 1954) |
| Founders |
Sherwood Johnson Ed Plummer |
| Headquarters | Alhambra, California |
| Products | Pizza, sandwiches, pasta, fried chicken, desserts |
| Parent | The Jacmar Companies |
| Website | shakeys.com |
Shakey's Pizza is a pizza restaurant chain based in the United States. Founded in 1954, it was the first franchise pizza chain in the United States. The chain currently has about 500 stores globally, and about 60 in the United States.
Shakey's Pizza 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 parlor opened on a weekend, but since the pizza ovens were not yet completed, only beer was served and Shakey took the profits from beer sales and bought ingredients for pizza the following Monday.
Shakey personally played dixieland jazz piano to entertain patrons and hired the original members of the Silver Dollar Jazz Band for $10 per person plus all the beer and pizza they wanted—he soon realized it was cheaper to pay the musicians scale—this brought the music of Lu Watters to the Sacramento area and caused a local sensation. Jazz historian K. O. Eckland gives this band the credit for the jazz revival in Sacramento that extended to the formation of the Sacramento Traditional Jazz Society. Shakey's also 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 American Banjo Museum in Oklahoma City, 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 (a remodeled grocery store) at 57th and J Streets in Sacramento remained in business until the mid-1990s.
The second Shakey's Pizza Parlor opened in Portland, Oregon, in 1956. Shakey's opened their third parlor in Albany, Oregon, in 1959, which was the first building Shakey's actually owned and the first building to be built in the distinct building style for which Shakey's is known. It now operates as a used bookstore. 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, Canada, in 1968. By 1975, the company had expanded to the Pacific Rim, including Japan and the Philippines.
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Wikipedia