William Theisen
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William Theisen
William Theisen is a restaurant entrepreneur from Omaha, Nebraska, born in Chicago and raised in Clinton, Iowa. He was the founder and former owner of Godfather's Pizza, a popular pizzeria chain that has locations in over 40 states. Theisen got the idea to start a pizza chain when he was running his own bar called "Wild Willys." He noticed many of his customers carried pizza, from a pizza restaurant next door, into his bar to eat it. Theisen decided to remove the wall separating the two businesses. The first Godfathers opened in 1973. Many locations opened throughout the country and Theisen looked to have a hit on his hands. He sold his interest and ownership in the company in the mid-1980s to Pillsbury Company, Pillsbury and stepped down from operating the company. Pillsbury has Godfather's Pizza#History, long since sold the restaurant chain. Theisen in 1983 constructed a mansion, at the time the largest mansion in Omaha; he sold the mansion in 1995 to Terry Watanabe, former owner ...
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Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest city, Omaha's 2020 census population was 486,051. Omaha is the anchor of the eight-county, bi-state Omaha-Council Bluffs metropolitan area. The Omaha Metropolitan Area is the 58th-largest in the United States, with a population of 967,604. The Omaha-Council Bluffs-Fremont, NE-IA Combined Statistical Area (CSA) totaled 1,004,771, according to 2020 estimates. Approximately 1.5 million people reside within the Greater Omaha area, within a radius of Downtown Omaha. It is ranked as a global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network, which in 2020 gave it "sufficiency" status. Omaha's pioneer period began in 1854, when the city was founded by speculators from neighboring Council Bluffs, Iowa. The city was founded along th ...
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Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1 = State , subdivision_type2 = Counties , subdivision_name1 = Illinois , subdivision_name2 = Cook and DuPage , established_title = Settled , established_date = , established_title2 = Incorporated (city) , established_date2 = , founder = Jean Baptiste Point du Sable , government_type = Mayor–council , governing_body = Chicago City Council , leader_title = Mayor , leader_name = Lori Lightfoot ( D) , leader_title1 = City Clerk , leader_name1 = Anna Valencia ( D) , unit_pref = Imperial , area_footnotes = , area_tot ...
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Clinton, Iowa
Clinton is a city in and the county seat of Clinton County, Iowa, United States. The population was 24,469 as of 2020. Clinton, along with DeWitt (also located in Clinton County), was named in honor of the sixth governor of New York, DeWitt Clinton. Clinton is the principal city of the Clinton Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is coterminous with Clinton County. Clinton was incorporated on January 26, 1857. History Among the first settlers of European origin in the Clinton area was Elijah Buell, who built a log cabin on July 25, 1835, and in 1837, established the town of Lyons, named after the French city of the same name. Buell partnered with a John Baker in a successful ferry service across the Mississippi River, at a location called "the Narrows," between Lyons and what would become the city of Fulton, Illinois. Although Lyons grew rapidly and prospered, it eventually merged into the city of Clinton. Clinton was platted as the town of New York in 1836 by Joseph Bar ...
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Godfather's Pizza
Godfather's Pizza is an American privately owned restaurant chain headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, that operates fast casual Italian franchises and Pizza Express locations. History Godfather's Pizza was founded in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1973. Willy Theisen bought out the pizza parlor and the name in 1974 from Gregg Johnson (who later started the Minsky's Pizza restaurants), and sold his first franchise. Theisen sold the company to Pillsbury in 1985 and stepped down from actively managing the company. In 1986, Pillsbury named Herman Cain CEO and president of the brand. Cain and Ronald B. Gartlan, the company's executive vice president, led a group to purchase the Godfather's brand from Pillsbury, which they did by the beginning of 1990 in a leveraged buyout for what was reported to be $100 million. It was reported to be the fifth largest pizza chain in the United States at the time, down from third place in 1985. About this time, many Godfather's locations in the St. Louis area wer ...
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Pillsbury Company
The Pillsbury Company is a Minneapolis, Minnesota-based company that was one of the world's largest producers of cereal, grain and other foodstuffs until it was bought by General Mills in 2001. General Mills brands consist of Annie's, Betty Crocker, Nature Valley, Yoplait, Haagen-Dazs, and Blue Buffalo. It also has ownership in various cereal products including Cheerios, Chex, Lucky Charms, Trix, and Cocoa Puffs. Antitrust law required General Mills to sell off some of the products, so the company kept the rights to refrigerated and frozen Pillsbury branded products, while dry baking products and frosting were sold to the Orrville, Ohio–based The J.M. Smucker Company, Smucker company under license. Brynwood Partners agreed to purchase Pillsbury from Smuckers for 375 million in July 2018. In September 2018, the sale was completed along with other brands including Martha White and Hungry Jack. Advertising company Leo Burnett Worldwide created Pillsbury's Pillsbury Doughboy, Dough ...
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Oriental Trading Company
Oriental Trading Company is a direct merchant of value-priced party supplies, arts and crafts, toys, novelties, and school supplies. It was founded in 1932 as one of the United States' first wholesaling companies. Oriental Trading has been recognized as one of the top 100 Internet retailers and one of the top 50 catalog companies. It is based in Omaha, Nebraska, and is owned by Berkshire Hathaway. Alternative known names for Oriental Trading Company include "Oriental Trading" & "OTC". History The company was founded as a gift shop in 1932 in Omaha, Nebraska by Harry Watanabe. The company expanded to 17 shops in the Midwest. During World War II, with restrictions against imports from Japan, the company shrank back to its Omaha base. Watanabe then bought a ceramic shop which made Kewpie dolls and other ceramic items. In 1954 it resumed its imports from Japan and was a major carnival supplier and in 1956 it launched its first catalog. In 1977 Watanabe's son Terrance Watanabe bec ...
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Pizza Chain Founders
Pizza (, ) is a dish of Italian origin consisting of a usually round, flat base of leavened wheat-based dough topped with tomatoes, cheese, and often various other ingredients (such as various types of sausage, anchovies, mushrooms, onions, olives, vegetables, meat, ham, etc.), which is then baked at a high temperature, traditionally in a wood-fired oven. A small pizza is sometimes called a pizzetta. A person who makes pizza is known as a pizzaiolo. In Italy, pizza served in a restaurant is presented unsliced, and is eaten with the use of a knife and fork. In casual settings, however, it is cut into wedges to be eaten while held in the hand. The term ''pizza'' was first recorded in the 10th century in a Latin manuscript from the Southern Italian town of Gaeta in Lazio, on the border with Campania. Modern pizza was invented in Naples, and the dish and its variants have since become popular in many countries. It has become one of the most popular foods in the world and ...
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Businesspeople From Omaha, Nebraska
A businessperson, businessman, or businesswoman is an individual who has founded, owns, or holds shares in (including as an angel investor) a private-sector company. A businessperson undertakes activities (commercial or industrial) for the purpose of generating cash flow, sales, and revenue by using a combination of human, financial, intellectual, and physical capital with a view to fueling economic development and growth. History Prehistoric period: Traders Since a "businessman" can mean anyone in industry or commerce, businesspeople have existed as long as industry and commerce have existed. "Commerce" can simply mean "trade", and trade has existed through all of recorded history. The first businesspeople in human history were traders or merchants. Medieval period: Rise of the merchant class Merchants emerged as a "class" in medieval Italy (compare, for example, the Vaishya, the traditional merchant caste in Indian society). Between 1300 and 1500, modern accountin ...
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People From Clinton, Iowa
A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of property, or legal responsibility. The defining features of personhood and, consequently, what makes a person count as a person, differ widely among cultures and contexts. In addition to the question of personhood, of what makes a being count as a person to begin with, there are further questions about personal identity and self: both about what makes any particular person that particular person instead of another, and about what makes a person at one time the same person as they were or will be at another time despite any intervening changes. The plural form "people" is often used to refer to an entire nation or ethnic group (as in "a people"), and this was the original meaning of the word; it subsequently acquired its use as a plural form of ...
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Living People
Related categories * :Year of birth missing (living people) / :Year of birth unknown * :Date of birth missing (living people) / :Date of birth unknown * :Place of birth missing (living people) / :Place of birth unknown * :Year of death missing / :Year of death unknown * :Date of death missing / :Date of death unknown * :Place of death missing / :Place of death unknown * :Missing middle or first names See also * :Dead people * :Template:L, which generates this category or death years, and birth year and sort keys. : {{DEFAULTSORT:Living people 21st-century people People by status ...
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American Food Company Founders
American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, people who self-identify their ancestry as "American" ** American English, the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States ** Native Americans in the United States, indigenous peoples of the United States * American, something of, from, or related to the Americas, also known as "America" ** Indigenous peoples of the Americas * American (word), for analysis and history of the meanings in various contexts Organizations * American Airlines, U.S.-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas * American Athletic Conference, an American college athletic conference * American Recordings (record label), a record label previously known as Def American * American University, in Washington, D.C. Sports teams Soccer * B ...
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