Pizza Hut

Frank Carney, an 18-year-old student at the University of Wichita, read an article about pizza in the Saturday Evening Post and decided to open a pizza parlor in 1958. With his brother, Dan Carney, he opened a pizza parlor in Wichita, Kansas. They named it Pizza Hut because they believed that the small brick building they rented resembled a hut. Their main product was a small, thin, pan pizza with cheese, sausage, or pepperoni. Initially, it came in two sizes: small, which sold for 95 cents, and large, which sold for $1.50.
At the time there were other pizzerias in Wichita and in many other cities; these were mainly family-owned shops. Six months after the Carneys opened their first restaurant, the brothers opened a second one. Within a year there were six Pizza Hut outlets. The brothers began franchising Pizza Hut in 1959. Pizza Hut popularized pizza as a fast food in America.
In 1963, Pizza Hut designed a building style that was adopted for all restaurants throughout the chain. It had a large dining room with seating for 80 people, and an expanded menu was introduced. The company shifted to a thicker-crust pizza and added several additional types of pizzas, including Chicago pan-style pizza. About 50 percent of their operation was take-out. The company also began its first national advertising campaign with the jingle “Putt-Putt to Pizza Hut.”
PepsiCo purchased Pizza Hut in 1977. Pizza Hut began a process to Americanize its image. Its initial logo—an Italian chef tossing a pizza—was changed to the red roof that symbolized their “hut.” By 1990 Pizza Hut ranked fourth in sales among all chain restaurants.
In 1997, Pizza Hut was spun-off from PepsiCo into Tricon Global Restaurants, now Yum! Brands, Inc. As of 2005, the chain had more than 12,000 restaurants in 86 nations.