Shakey

Shakey's Pizza is a pizza restaurant chain based in the United States and The Philippines.

Founded in 1954, it was the first franchise pizza chain in the United States.

Shakey's Pizza was founded in Sacramento, California, on April 30, 1954, by Sherwood "Shakey" Johnson and Ed Plummer.

Johnson's nickname resulted from nerve damage following a bout of malaria suffered during World War II.

The parlor opened on a weekend, but since the pizza ovens were not yet completed only beer was served.

Shakey took the profits from beer sales and bought ingredients for pizza the following Monday.

Shakey personally played Dixieland jazz piano to entertain patrons, also hiring the original members of the Silver Dollar Jazz Band, paying the musicians $10 each plus all the beer and pizza they wanted.

(Shakey soon realized it was cheaper to pay the musicians scale).

This brought the music of Lu Watters to the Sacramento area and caused a local sensation.

Jazz historian K.O. Eckland has given this band the credit for the jazz revival in Sacramento that extended to the formation of the Sacramento Traditional Jazz Society.

Shakey's also became known outside Sacramento, not for its pizza, but for the jazz program it sponsored on a regional radio network.

Shakey Johnson is honored in the American Banjo Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, for his longtime use of banjo music at his pizza parlors.

Other live music, including piano, was also a staple in the old Shakey's parlors.

The second Shakey's Pizza Parlor opened in Portland, Oregon, in 1956.

Shakey's opened their third parlor in Albany, Oregon, in 1959, which was the first building Shakey's actually owned and the first building to be built in the distinct building style for which Shakey's is known.

It now operates as a used bookstore.

According to Johnson, Shakey's Pizza engaged in little market research and made most of its decisions on where to locate stores by going where Kinney Shoes opened stores.

By the time Johnson sold his interest in 1967, there were 272 Shakey's Pizza Parlors in the United States.

In 1968, the chain had 342 locations.

The first international store opened in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, in 1968.

Up until the early 1970s printed menus included lyrics to classic barbershop songs so that the customers could sing along with the band while their meals were being prepared.

By the early 1970s, Shakey's had become popular with families and youth sports groups in Southern California.

The long rows of picnic tables end-on-end facilitated large groups.

Youth sports teams would go to Shakey's after their weekend games, where the kids could eat pizza and have fun, and the parents could drink beer and socialize.

In fact, the advertising motto for Shakey's was "We serve fun at Shakey's... also pizza".

One of the features of Shakey's was its large windows between the dining hall and the kitchen.

One could order pizza and then watch as the dough was prepared, sauce and toppings added, and then pizza slid into the oven.

Kids enjoyed watching the process and running to tell their parents when the pizza came out of the oven.

By 1975, the company had expanded to the Pacific Rim, including Japan (in 1973) and the Philippines (in 1975).

The brand became a well-established franchise in the Philippines, where it began in 1975 under the ownership of the country's largest food conglomerate, San Miguel Corporation, primarily promoting their San Miguel draft beer.

Beginning with a restaurant located in Makati Avenue, Makati, the restaurant expanded rapidly in Metro Manila, with most of its outlets offering live music.

San Miguel had difficulty maintaining the consistency of the branches, and ultimately sold the franchise in 1987 to International Family Food Services, Inc. (IFFSI), a group led by the family of sports executive Leo Prieto.

The original parlor (a remodeled grocery store) at 57th and J Streets in Sacramento remained in business until the mid-1990s.

By 1997, it had evolved into mostly a fast-food franchise.

In 2003, the company began "reengineering" the brand as a family-oriented casual dining brand.

In 2004, Shakey's partnered with Sports Vision for the launch of the Shakey's V-League, one of the pioneering volleyball leagues in the country.

As of early 2015, there were 153 Shakey's outlets in the Philippines, more than double the number remaining in the United States.

In March 2016, the Century Pacific Group and the Singapore-based GIC Private Limited acquired the majority shares of IFFSI from the Prieto family, which will retain a minority interest in the company.

The chain had about 500 stores globally, and 58 in the United States, as of July 2019.

Currently, the stores can be found in the states of California and Washington, as well as in the Philippines, Singapore and Japan.