AILSA CHANG, HOST:
More than 45 years after his death, people are still fascinated by Colonel Sanders, the founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken. His possessions sold for big bucks at a recent auction, Andrew Henderson of the Appalachia Mid-South Newsroom was there.
UNIDENTIFIED AUCTIONEER: At 75. Seventy-five (inaudible).
ANDREW HENDERSON, BYLINE: Colonel Sanders, you know him - mustache, bow tie, white suit. A framed photo of him hung over a fireplace in the spacious dining room of the Claudia Sanders Dinner House. That's his wife's restaurant in Shelbyville, Kentucky. The mouthwatering smell of fried chicken floated through the air as eager bidders took their seats. First up for auction, Harland Sanders' 1964 date book and working planner. In the back of the planner, written in what appears to be his handwriting, are 11 herbs and spices, along with corresponding measurements.
BILL MENISH: Why the recipe was inscribed there and what it was intended for remains a mystery. We're not saying they're the herbs and spices, but you decide what you think they are.
HENDERSON: Auctioneer Bill Menish, owner of The Menish Group, can't say it's the 11 herbs and spices rumored to make up Sanders' original fried chicken recipe. A 2001 lawsuit determined the herbs and spices written in the planner were not the fabled recipe. Nevertheless, bidding for the planner started at $6,000.
MENISH: Six thousand where? Come on now, 6,000 (inaudible).
HENDERSON: Bids were accepted simultaneously online and in the room of the dinner house. Over the course of nearly five minutes, Menish roused the crowd to continue bidding. One minute later, the book cleared $20,000.
MENISH: They're looking at it. Go ahead and pull the trigger.
UNIDENTIFIED AUCTION BIDDER: Twenty-thousand.
MENISH: Holy cow. Twenty-thousand dollars is bid.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Screaming).
(APPLAUSE)
HENDERSON: Ultimately, the book sold for $30,000 to an online bidder. Over 500 people participated in the auction of more than 100 items - monogrammed cuff links, vintage watches and photos of the Colonel in Japan. Another high-profile item included his briefcase, stuffed with personal and business documents. For $3,500, the lucky winner of the briefcase was Zachary Distel, curator of special collections at the Filson Historical Society. He says the society is hopeful it can give them a better understanding of Sanders' business operation, adding to their comprehensive trove of Kentucky history.
ZACHARY DISTEL: And hopefully there's, you know, correspondence really kind of showing - I hate to say how the sausage is made, but to kind of see behind the scenes of, you know, what life was like for him, especially after he sold the company.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
HENDERSON: KFC started in the 1930s in Corbin, Kentucky, when Harland Sanders started selling fried chicken out of a service station.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: Announcing the portable Sunday dinner by Colonel Sanders.
HENDERSON: The first franchise opened in 1952 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Before Sanders sold the company in 1964 to John Y. Brown, who would later become governor of Kentucky...
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: OK, Colonel, hit the road.
HENDERSON: ...The Claudia Sanders Dinner House was the headquarters for the growing fried chicken operation. The Sanders family purchased Blackwood Hall, which sits directly across from the dinner house, and lived there for years. And the colonel would often take his work home.
MORGAN HANCOCK LEWIS: He would put three or four or five franchisees up in here. They would actually stay overnight for, like, a week, and he would come down here and train.
HENDERSON: Morgan Hancock Lewis is a realtor with Six Degrees Real Estate. A week before the auction, she gave tours of Blackwood Hall, which is closed to the public as friends of the Sanders still live there today. The family still runs Claudia Sanders Dinner House as well.
MENISH: Twenty-five. Twenty-five (inaudible) 25...
HENDERSON: In all, nearly $300,000 was made in the auction. While most attendees sought to leave with a coveted item, Elizabeth Ruggles Pitchford says she just wanted to experience the action. She already has plenty of keepsakes from Harland Sanders, her great-grandfather.
ELIZABETH RUGGLES PITCHFORD: And I hope that people can enjoy, like I said, taking a little piece of him with them and appreciating it and continuing the legacy that he has.
CHANG: That report from Andrew Henderson of the Appalachia Mid-South Newsroom.
(SOUNDBITE OF MELANIE MARTINEZ SONG, "VOID") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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