Dee's Drive-In was a

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

hamburger A hamburger (or simply a burger) consists of fillings—usually a patty of ground meat, typically beef—placed inside a sliced bun or bread roll. The patties are often served with cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, bacon, or chilis ...

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 rollersk ...

chain based in

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

. 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 (the U, U of U, or simply Utah) is a public university, public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. It was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret (Book of Mormon), Deseret by the General A ...

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, fast-food restaurant chain operated by CKE Restaurants, CKE Restaurants Holdings, Inc. ("CKE") with locations primarily in the Southern and Midwestern United States. The company has ...

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

Wasatch Front The Wasatch Front is a major 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 Santaquin in the south to Pleasant View in the n ...

region of Utah.

History

Dee Frederick Anderson, a fast-food

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

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 locat ...

, 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 coastal city in southeastern Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is the list of United States cities by population, 44th-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 451,307 as of 2022. A charter ci ...

. 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 or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

. 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 language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

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, Inc. (an acronym for 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 headquartered in ...

, which subsequently expanded its

Carl's Jr. Carl's Jr. Restaurants LLC is an American fast-food restaurant chain store, chain owned by CKE Restaurants, CKE Restaurant Holdings, Inc., who also owns Hardee's, with franchisees in North and South America, Asia, Oceania, Europe, and Africa. ...

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 Walgreens is an American pharmacy store chain. It is the second largest in the United States, behind CVS Pharmacy. As of March 2025, the company operated more than 8,700 stores in the U.S. Walgreens has been the subject of a number of lawsuit ...

, 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 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 produced by YESCO, inc ...

and manufactured using

Plexiglas Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) is a synthetic polymer derived from methyl methacrylate. It is a transparent thermoplastic, used as an engineering plastic. PMMA is also known as acrylic, acrylic glass, as well as by the trade names and bra ...

, 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 responsible for approximately 5,900 miles (9,495 kilomet ...

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 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