Carl Karcher

Carl Karcher

Money Making Ideas, extra income opportunities and stories to awaken the entrepreneur in you

Business Idea:

Making money by selling fast food.

The story of Carl Karcher

Los Angeles Times

Carl Karcher, 90; entrepreneur turned hot dog stand into a fast-food empire

Carl Karcher, who parlayed a single hot dog pushcart into a chain of more than 1,000 fast-food restaurants bearing his name, died Friday. He was 90.

The affable, burly entrepreneur, known to millions as the jovial television pitchman for the Carl's Jr. chain, died of complications from Parkinson's-related pneumonia at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, according to Beth Mansfield, a spokeswoman for parent company CKE Restaurants.

A stalwart Orange County Republican, Karcher worked tirelessly for the party and its candidates, still finding time for active and enthusiastic involvement in local causes, including United Way of Orange County, Orangewood Children's Home, the Roman Catholic Knights of Malta, Right to Life League and South Coast Repertory.

The paneled library of his 6,500-square-foot home in Anaheim was adorned with photos of Karcher with the famous, powerful and influential, including Presidents Reagan and Nixon, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, entertainer Bob Hope and Pope John Paul II.

But his support of deeply conservative politicians such as Orange County's John Schmitz, his opposition to abortion and his endorsement of failed legislation that would have permitted schools to fire homosexual teachers earned Karcher the enmity of liberal, gay and women's rights groups.

By the late 1980s, insider-trading allegations against Karcher and his family led to a $664,000 settlement. And by the 1990s, ill-advised personal investments and the plummeting price of Carl's Jr. stock pushed him to the edge of bankruptcy and into a losing battle with the company's board of directors that reduced his role to largely ceremonial duties.  Read on...

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