Minnie Pearl's Chicken 1967 T-Shirt

Minnie Pearl's Chicken is a legendary case study of how not to run a restaurant franchising operation, and one that is still frequently referenced today. In the late 1960s, a Nashville entrepreneur persuaded Sarah Cannon, who performed as Minnie Pearl, to lend her name to a chain of fried chicken restaurants established to compete with top national chains. After initially reporting good results and enjoying public stock worth $64 million, the venture collapsed amid allegations of accounting irregularities and stock price manipulation. The company stated it had lost $5.5 million during the first half of 1969, but when the SEC investigated, it noted that the company had lost a whopping $31 million, leaving the stock to fall to just 44 cents.