Dee's Drive-In was a

fast food Fast food is a type of mass-produced food designed for commercial resale, with a strong priority placed on speed of service. It is a commercial term, limited to food sold in a restaurant or store with frozen, preheated or precooked ingredien ...

hamburger A hamburger, or simply burger, is a food consisting of fillings—usually a patty of ground meat, typically Ground beef, beef—placed inside a sliced bun or bread roll. Hamburgers are often served with cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles ...

drive-in restaurant A drive-in is a facility (such as a restaurant or movie theater) where one can drive in with an automobile for service. At a drive-in restaurant, for example, customers park their vehicles and are usually served by staff who walk or rollerskat ...

chain based in

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

. The chain was founded by Dee Frederick Anderson, who got his start selling hamburgers operating the Ute Hamburger Shop near the

University of Utah The University of Utah (U of U, UofU, or simply The U) is a public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the flagship institution of the Utah System of Higher Education. The university was established in 1850 as the University of De ...

in the 1920s. Anderson opened the first Dee's Restaurant in 1932. Dee's would evolve into two separate but related restaurant chains: Dee's Family Restaurant and Dee's Drive-In. Noted for its family-friendly advertising and the colorful "Dee's Clowns" that adorned its restaurants, the franchise became a Utah cultural landmark in the 1960s. At its height, the family operated 53 restaurants with an annual revenue of $20 million per year. In the late 1970s, an altered business strategy led the Anderson family to sell all of its Dee's Drive-Ins to

Hardee's Hardee's Restaurants LLC is an American fast-food restaurant chain operated by CKE Restaurants Holdings, Inc. ("CKE") with locations primarily in the Southern and Midwestern United States. The company has evolved through several corporate owne ...

; a dozen Dee's Family Restaurants remained in business. Half of them continue to operate across the

Wasatch Front The Wasatch Front is a metropolitan region in the north-central part of the U.S. state of Utah. It consists of a chain of contiguous cities and towns stretched along the Wasatch Range from approximately Provo in the south to Logan in the north ...

region of Utah.

History

Dee Frederick Anderson, a fast-food

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

from

Ephraim, Utah Ephraim is a city in Sanpete County, Utah, Sanpete County, Utah, United States. The population was 5,611 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, making it the largest city in Sanpete County. It is the location of Snow College and is located ...

, opened his first Dee's Restaurant in 1932. He was inspired to create Dee's Drive-Ins after seeing drive-in restaurants during a 1953 visit to

Long Beach, California Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

. Established a year later, his first Dee's Drive-In was a $125,000 building at 753 E. 2100 South Street in

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

. On average, the shop served 2,500 customers daily, selling burgers, hot dogs and apple turnovers for 19 cents and French fries and soft drinks for ten cents. Within two years, Anderson had opened his two more drive-ins and Dee's Drive-In had 100 employees. One of Anderson's friends opened a franchise in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

in 1972, which was the first American fast food outlet in South Africa. Dee's Drive-In went on to have 53 restaurants earning over $20 million annually. In the late 1970s, the Anderson family chose to focus on other business ventures, particularly on their property management operations. All remaining Dee's Drive-Ins were sold to

; Hardee's withdrew from Utah just months before its purchase by

CKE Restaurants CKE Restaurants Holdings (an acronym from Carl Karcher Enterprises) is an American fast food corporation and is the parent organization for the Carl's Jr., Hardee's, Green Burrito, and Red Burrito brands. CKE Restaurants is a subsidiary of the priv ...

, which subsequently expanded its

Carl's Jr. Carl's Jr. Restaurants LLC is an American fast food restaurant chain operated by CKE Restaurant Holdings, Inc., with franchisees in North & South America, Asia, Oceania, Europe and Africa. In 2016, ''Entrepreneur'' listed Carl's Jr. as No. 54 ...

brand there without any previous connection to Hardee's. Twelve Dee's Family Restaurants remained in operation in the

area of Utah until March 2004, when five Salt Lake outlets were sold to real estate developers. The restaurants were transformed into

Walgreens Walgreen Company, d/b/a Walgreens, is an American company that operates the second-largest pharmacy store chain in the United States behind CVS Health. It specializes in filling prescriptions, health and wellness products, health information, an ...

, in a deal which marked "the point of entry" into the Utah market for developer Phillips Edison. In August 2005, the restaurant chain settled an employment discrimination lawsuit filed by the

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is a federal agency that was established via the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to administer and enforce civil rights laws against workplace discrimination. The EEOC investigates discrimination ...

on behalf of three employees who alleged they had been sexually harassed by a co-worker at a Dee's location in Midvale. As part of the settlement, the company agreed to revamp its sexual harassment policy and employee training procedures.

Marketing

Dee's Drive-In was famous for the large clown marquee outside each drive-in with the title Dee's Hamburgers. The clown was brightly colored and had a large round belly, and would hold four large balloons, each one spelling out a fast food item for sale inside the restaurant. The original clown was designed by Paul Jensen of Salt Lake City. As an added attention-getting device, the clown marquee rocked back and forth. The marquee was designed in 1968 by the

Young Electric Sign Company YESCO is a privately owned manufacturer of electric signs based in Salt Lake City, founded by Thomas Young in 1920. The company provides design, fabrication, installation and maintenance of signs. Many notable sign projects have been produce ...

and manufactured using

Plexiglas Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) belongs to a group of materials called engineering plastics. It is a transparent thermoplastic. PMMA is also known as acrylic, acrylic glass, as well as by the trade names and brands Crylux, Plexiglas, Acrylite, ...

, acrylic plastics and flashing lights. The Dee's restaurant chain was noted for its "Let's go to Dee's" jingle which was conceived by Gordon A. Johnson. and for its "Disco Down to Dee's" commercials. The

Utah Department of Transportation The Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) is an agency of the state government of Utah, United States; it is usually referred to by its initials UDOT (pronounced "you-dot"). UDOT is charged with maintaining the more than of roadway that co ...

filmed an advertisement in 1997 that combined new footage with footage from historical Dee's Drive-In commercials, provided by Anderson's family. The advertising agency that created the ad said, "We started talking about a setting

or the commercial Or or OR may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television * "O.R.", a 1974 episode of M*A*S*H * Or (My Treasure), a 2004 movie from Israel (''Or'' means "light" in Hebrew) Music * ''Or'' (album), a 2002 album by Golden Boy with Miss ...

What defined Utah in 1962? It was Dee's. Dee's was really an icon in Wasatch Front history." ''

The Salt Lake Tribune ''The Salt Lake Tribune'' is a newspaper published in the city of Salt Lake City, Utah. The ''Tribune'' is owned by The Salt Lake Tribune, Inc., a non-profit corporation. The newspaper's motto is "Utah's Independent Voice Since 1871." History ...

'' described the advertisement as "a wonderful source of memories for many Utahns".

References

External links

YESCO-produced "Dee's Hamburgers" Sign
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090925190940/http://images.businessweek.com/ss/08/05/0514_familybiz/source/13.htm , date=2009-09-25
Paul Heath painting, based on the signLast "Dee's Clown" still in existence
Restaurants in Utah Fast-food chains of the United States Fast-food hamburger restaurants Defunct fast-food chains in the United States Drive-in restaurants Defunct restaurant chains in the United States Regional restaurant chains in the United States Defunct companies based in Utah Buildings and structures in Salt Lake City Restaurants established in 1932 1932 establishments in Utah

History

Marketing

See also

References

External links