Col. Sanders - Fried chicken, anyone?

In 1978, I wrote to Col. Harland Sanders, the founder of the Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants. Col. Sanders started selling his fried chicken in his own restaurant in the 1930s, and later developed a "secret recipe" fried chicken which he sold to franchisees of his restaurant, making him wealthy. In the mid-1960s, he sold the entire corporation to a group of investors for a couple of million dollars, but remained as the company's spokesman, appearing in print ads, tv commercials, personal appearances at restaurants, etc. He became a very popular and easily-recognized personality, and even made some cameo appearances in several movies.

In my letter, of which I don't have a copy, I told the Colonel how much I enjoyed his fried chicken and thought it the best available (at the time, I didn't know about Popeye's Fried Chicken, which I actually like better). I asked him for an autographed photo, and this is what I received.

While the signature on the photo is "real", I don't know if it's actually his, as he was usually traveling around the U.S. and probably never read any letters sent to him in care of the company. I suspect the KFC Corporation's publicity department may have had a stack of such photos to send to people requesting them. This is the reason I haven't included it in my general collection of signed photos.