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SUMMARY

BIOGRAPHICAL/HISTORICAL NOTE-

*Piccadilly Cafeterias, Inc. was founded during World War II, by Tandy Hannibal Hamilton, who had already been working in the cafeteria business for 21 years when he traveled to Louisiana to consider purchasing the small Piccadilly Cafeteria located on Third Street in downtown Baton Rouge. At the time, Hamilton was living in Kansas City, where he was serving as general manager of The Forum, a Midwestern cafeteria chain. After forming a family partnership with his wife, Tela, his daughter, Julia, and his son-in-law, William A. Richards, Hamilton bought the Piccadilly from the original owner, Thomas J. Costas, for $65,000. Hamilton and Costas closed the sale on February 1, 1944.

H. L. "Tandy" Hamilton was born in the Indian Territories of Oklahoma in 1897, the son of a former federal marshal Hamilton was eight years old when an outlaw fatally shot his father in the back. His mother remarried, but the family was poor. Hamilton picked cotton and worked as a cattle rustler near McAlester, Okla. After drifting as a hobo, he took various restaurant jobs in Wichita, Kan. By the time he joined the Army in 1918, Tandy had served a full apprenticeship as a chef, and he got further training under European chefs while on his duty tour in France. After the war, Tandy returned to Oklahoma, where he met his future wife, Tela Meier, a court clerk in Shawnee. After they married, the couple moved to Wichita Falls, Texas, where Hamilton secured a job as sous chef in the deluxe Kemp Hotel. Because of the oil boom and the scarcity of inexpensive housing, the Hamiltons had to live in a tent city set up for oil-field transients near downtown Wichita Falls. Their daughter, Julia, was born there.

In 1923, the Hamiltons moved to Kansas City, where The Forum Cafeterias chain had its central office. At the time, The Forum operated 15 units in Midwestern states, and Hamilton secured a chef's position through the company's president, C. M. Hayman. Within just a couple of years, Tandy advanced into management, moving from one operation to another, until, in 1934, he became the chain's general manager and settled in Kansas City. He spent the next ten years learning the cafeteria business inside and out. By 1941, partly because nepotism in The Forum organization limited his prospects for further promotion, he had also decided that he wanted to begin his own cafeteria chain. The first step in his dream of owning and operating a 40-unit cafeteria chain was taken when he purchased the Piccadilly from Costas in 1944.

Hamilton began building the business immediately, despite the wartime difficulties imposed by food rationing and equipment shortages. He contacted several friends and associates, some still in the service, encouraging them to join the operation. He also opened a small cafe just across Third Street from the Piccadilly, naming it Tandy's Eat Shop. He opened the cafe to provide temporary employment for those he was hiring as future chefs and managers as his Piccadilly chain expanded, and the establishment was sold off soon after the chain's expansion got under way.

Hamilton and his family partners set up business headquarters in the limited office space on the second floor, above the Third Street cafeteria. Tandy put together a small but

dedicated staff whose primary function was to facilitate his expansion plans. H.J. DeBlanc and Allen Dyer were his key headquarters personnel.

As a way of accommodating the planned growth, Hamilton chartered individual corporations for funding the start-up of new units in the Piccadilly chain. He believed that key personnel should invest in the business, so he sold part interest in each of the five corporations he created for the company's expansion. In the basic plan, Tandy and his wife owned 25 percent, his daughter Julia and her husband Bill Richards owned 25 percent, and the remainder was sold to employees selected to participate in ownership. Upon occasion, Hamilton lent the purchase money to his associates, convinced that they would have no problem in repaying the loan from their corporate earnings.

The first corporate group put the second Piccadilly Cafeteria into operation in Beaumont, Texas, in October of 1946, under the management of Frank Emmer, who would later become Piccadilly's first district manager. The next year, a Memphis corporation was chartered to open a new unit in that city. It started up in 1948, under the management of Meredith Curtis, assisted by Phil Listen, an old Navy friend of Bill Richards. In that same year, Hamilton organized a third corporation to start up a fourth Piccadilly, in Waco , Texas. It opened its doors in January, 1949, under the management of Jim Sorrells. Dick Quick, another of Richards' service friends, became Sorrells's assistant.

To ensure quality control, Tandy Hamilton insisted on consistency throughout the burgeoning chain of cafeterias. He personally developed and field-tested most of the recipes used in each of the Piccadilly locales, but he also encouraged chain managers to submit their own recipes for his approval. Any such approved recipe would then be used at each establishment. Hamilton was also a great proponent of efficiency, partly because he was determined to keep his prices fair, the quality of the food high, and the portions generous. To that end, he and his staff worked out a fairly rigorous and complicated system of purchasing and kitchen control designed to avoid food waste and other unnecessary expenses.

By the 1950s, Hamilton and his son-in-law, Richards, had instituted "standard recipe costing," involving an exact determination of cost per serving for each of the chain's standard recipes, with some allowance for food cost variations at the individual cafeterias. By the end of the decade, they had issued various company manuals to ensure uniform practices in such diverse policies as meat cutting procedures and purchasing and pricing specifications. They also encouraged individual managers to make suggestions for cutting or controlling costs, incorporating some of these into standard, chain-wide policies.

Expansion accelerated in the 1950s, and then boomed in the next three decades. By the end of 1959, 11 units were operating in three states: Louisiana, Texas, and Tennessee. After 1956, thanks to the great success of a unit located in the Gulfgate Shopping Center in Houston, the company elected to locate new cafeterias in the proliferating suburban malls located in or near larger southern and southwestern cities. It proved to be a wise move, for, from 1960 through 1969, Piccadilly was able to add 25 units, operating in a

range that then extended from Jacksonville, Florida to Phoenix, Arizona. That growth and obvious success prompted J. C. Penney, in 1969, to offer $30 million for the whole 36-unit chain. While rejecting the offer, the Piccadilly front office began to reappraise its self-image as a family business. A new sense of being a large and valuable corporate entity would force policy and organizational changes during the 1970s.

In 1971, Hamilton met his personal goal of developing a 40-unit cafeteria chain, when, on November 27, the 40th Piccadilly Cafeteria opened its doors at the South DeKalb Mall in Decatur, Georgia. In the same year, at age 75, Tandy Hamilton assumed the title of chairman of the board and, although he remained active until his death in 1981, he turned the day-to-day operations over to Bill Richards, his successor as president. Hamilton served largely in an advisory capacity, giving Richards free rein .

In 1974, three years before Richards's death in a bicycling accident, Piccadilly moved its central operations into its current corporate headquarters, a 45,000-square-foot building on Sherwood Forest Boulevard in Baton Rouge. In addition to an office complex, the new center housed a test kitchen and an archive for its collection of more than 1,000 current Piccadilly recipes. Piccadilly also maintained a 26,500-square-foot storage facility or commissary in Baton Rouge. Much of the seafood bought in season for off-season use in both cafeterias and restaurants was stored there, in a $2.5 million inventory. It allowed even the more remote cafeterias to serve some dishes at standard prices, even when the food was either not available from wholesalers or was too inflated in cost.

Corporate restructuring was completed in 1979, when Piccadilly went public. It made its first stocking offering on January 30, 1979. Until then, the Piccadilly chain had operated under the auspices of two partnerships and five corporations, the last of which, the Louisiana Corporation, was chartered in 1965. Employee participation in ownership had worked well, but toward the end of the 1970s, stock transfers made through inheritance to outside owners was pushing the legal limit for private corporations. In addition, the complex corporate structure had become unwieldy , and consolidation into a single corporate entity helped streamline operations. The move forced a new employee incentive plan, however, and in 1981 a bonus plan went into effect that within a year doubled the pay of unit managers and associate managers.

Phenomenal growth in the Piccadilly chain continued through the 1980s. At the time of Hamilton's death in 1981, the 40 units of his original dream had doubled to 80. By 1984, all cafeterias and restaurants had also been newly constructed or remodeled. Further, the company reopened the door to partial employee ownership in 1987, when it adopted a stock purchase plan allowing employees to buy up to 1,500 shares of common stock annually. In December of 1988, Piccadilly purchased six Ralph and Kacoo's restaurants, some properties, and all shares of the common stock of Cajun Bayou Distributors and Management, Inc., for barely more than $38 million.

In the mid-1990s, Piccadilly developed plans for a new type of unit, the Piccadilly Express, offering a takeout and pickup service located within retail stores. In May 1997, it announced a joint venture with Associated Grocers , Inc., a distributor of foods to 230

retail food stores. The two companies planned to place Piccadilly Express units in Associated member supermarkets in Louisiana, east Texas, and Mississippi. Each of the mini-cafeterias is to feature hot entrees prepared on the site, providing costumers with convenient meals to take out or eat during a shopping break. The first of the units was scheduled opened in the Hi Nabor Supermarket in Baton Rouge.

Since the late 1990s, Piccadilly has continued to expand and develop its operations from the company headquarters in Baton Rouge. Piccadilly has successfully utilized its unique historical status and intergenerational appeal to maintain a consistent customer base while keeping costs low and quality high. Though Piccadilly has been active within various communities since its inception, the first decade of the 2000s was especially notable for Piccadilly’s civic engagement. During this time Piccadilly has served as a corporate sponsor and partner for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the Louisiana High School Athletic Association, and the Louisiana Special Olympics Summer Games, among others.

*Portions of the Biographical/Historical Note were excerpted from:

"Piccadilly Cafeterias, Inc.," in International Directory of Company Histories, 19. New York: St. James Press, 1998: 299-302.

SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE

The Piccadilly Records are arranged into three series: Tandy Hamilton Papers, Piccadilly Operations Records, and Audio-Visual Materials.

The first series contains materials from Tandy Hamilton, ranging from his early career before the founding of Piccadilly Cafeterias, Inc., up until a few years before his death in 1981. These records include copies of newsletters from The Forum cafeterias, drafts of speeches given while a manger at The Forum, and correspondence to Piccadilly employees, managers, and shareholders. Of note are the dozens of speeches on a variety of topics including marriage and gender relations, personnel and resources management, and others aimed at improving business and motivating the work force, dated approximately from 1939-1941.

The Piccadilly Operations series contains financial and administrative records (annual reports, policy proposals, corporate memoranda, etc.), guidebooks and manuals (food and equipment specification books, training and logistics publications, etc.), a number of recent (post-1990) subject files concerning upper-level strategy and management, and several items of ephemera. Of note are the Steward’s Cost and Specifications Book (1959-1989) and a copy of Tandy Hamilton’s 1994 biography signed by employees upon the donation of these records to LSU Libraries Special Collections in 2009.

The Audio-Visual Materials series consists primarily of photographs documenting the exteriors and interiors of Piccadilly locations and others depicting Piccadilly employees and company events from the early 1960s to the mid 1990s. Several of the location photographs are accompanied by narrative descriptions written by Hamilton detailing the architecture and amenities of each location. The series also contains photographs of Hamilton’s family and images documenting his non-business related activities. In addition the series contains corporate training slide shows and audio cassettes, point of sale posters and in-store signage, and various black and white historical photographs (pre-1960) of Piccadilly’s people and places.

The Piccadilly Records’ original file organization and naming were retained wherever possible. The records have been arranged chronologically within each series and subseries.

LIST OF SUB-GROUPS, SERIES, AND SUBSERIES

Series I. Tandy Hamilton Papers, 1930-1979

Subseries 1. Correspondence, 1938-1979

Subseries 2. Speeches, c. 1938-1941

Subseries 3. Miscellaneous, undated

Subseries 4. Forum Publications, 1930-1937

Series II. Piccadilly Operations Records, 1955-2002

Subseries 1. Financial and Administrative Materials, 1956-2002

Subseries 2. Manuals and Guidebooks, 1955-2001

Subseries 3. Subject Files, 1992-2001

Subseries 4. Ephemera and Artifacts, 1970-1994, undated

Series III. Audio-Visual Materials, 1944-2008

Subseries 1. Photograph, 1958-2008

Sub-Subseries A. Piccadilly people, places, and events, 1944-2008

Sub-Subseries B. Locations with descriptions, 1966-1983

Sub-Subseries C. Locations without descriptions, 1960-1988

Subseries 2. Posters, undated

Subseries 3. Slides and Tapes, undated

SERIES DESCRIPTIONS

Series I. Tandy Hamilton Papers (1930-1979)

This series consists of materials created or accumulated by Hamilton in various professional and personal capacities, dating back to his tenure at Forum Cafeterias.

Subseries 1. Correspondence (1938-1979)

The correspondence is comprised of memoranda and letters to district and facility managers, board members, and stockholders. These covered a range of topics including food preparation, kitchen organization, and ways to maximize sales. Often these memos contained anecdotes and cartoon drawings to help convey Tandy’s message. Also of note in this subseries are customer comments compiled from 1969-1967 and the manager’s news bulletin from 1973-1975.

Subseries 2. Speeches (c. 1938-1941)

Hamilton’s speeches predate his purchase of Piccadilly. The speeches cover various topics including approaches to management (“The Importance of Our Jobs”), workplace psychology (“Stubbornness in Accepting New Ideas”), self-improvement (“Don’t Defeat Yourself”), and family, for example. The dozens of speeches present in this series show Hamilton to be a prolific writer and thinker whose interests extended beyond his immediate professional duties.

Subseries 3. Miscellaneous (undated)

This subseries contains several undated miscellaneous items including autobiographical information on Hamilton, a guidebook on showing cattle and horses, and a compilation of meeting notes from various Piccadilly department heads.

Subseries 4. Forum Publications (1930-1937)

This subseries contains photocopies of newsletters from Forum Cafeterias during the 1930s when Hamilton was employed there.

Series II. Piccadilly Operations Records (1955-2002)

This series consists primarily of records generated at the centralized corporate level. These include documents related to broader strategy and quality initiatives and standards of day-to-day operational procedures.

Subseries 1. Financial and Administrative Records (1956-2002)

This subseries includes ledgers, reports, presentations, bundled memoranda, and other corporate publications, mostly after 1970. Of note are the stock sale volume compiled when Piccadilly went public in 1979, the Piccadilly W.A.R. bulletin from 1995-2000, and the run of annual reports from 1979-2002.

Subseries 2. Manuals and Guidebooks (1955-2001)

This subseries contains several items detailing management and staffing training, facility and equipment specifications, resource costs and product pricing, and food weights and measurements. Of particular note is the Steward’s Cost and Specification Book, a large alphabetically arranged volume indexing all products used in Piccadilly cafeterias, which was compiled from 1959-1989.

Subseries 3. Subject Files (1992-2001)

The subject files subseries consists of more recent records detailing the broader strategic vision of Piccadilly upon purchase Ralph & Kacoo’s Restaurants in 1992 and Morrison Cafeterias in 1996. The files include expense reports, marketing materials, employee salary and benefit information, and other in-house publications relating to business operations and strategy.

Subseries 4. Ephemera and Artifacts (1970-1994, undated)

This subseries consists of ephemera and artifacts that include historical publications about Tandy Hamilton and Piccadilly, a Piccadilly menu from 1970, and a vinyl record disc from the 1960s with an interview by KWTX in Waco, Texas. Also included are a menu tray and two wooden pie tokens.

Series III. Audio-Visual Materials (1944-2008)

This series consists primarily of photographs from albums and scrapbooks compiled between 1950 and 1992. Most of the photographs prior to 1970 are 8x10 on black and white photo stock. The color photographs are mostly recent 3x5 snapshots. The series also contains several posters and point-of-sale signage used in Piccadilly locations. In addition the series contains several training slideshows with accompanying audio cassette tapes and other miscellaneous slide images.

Subseries 1. Photographs (1958-2008)

The photographs document the Hamilton family, the growth of the Piccadilly chain throughout the southern United States, and the activities of Piccadilly associates. Also included is a CD containing 23 digitized copies of historic Piccadilly images found in paper format within the following sub-subseries.

Sub-Subseries A. Piccadilly people, places, and events (1944-2008)

This sub-subseries contains a number of historic photographs including customer and building images from the original downtown Baton Rouge Piccadilly, others taken at the Hamilton’s ranch Tantela in Covington, Louisiana, and several from the 1953 LSU Livestock Show that feature Tandy Hamilton and Governor Robert Kennon. Later items include snapshots from photo albums commemorating the board of director’s party boat cruise from Baton Rouge to New Orleans in 1978, volunteer efforts at the Special Olympics in 1989, and the 50th Anniversary Celebration in 1994.

Sub-Subseries B. Locations with descriptions (1966-1983)

This sub-subseries consists of photographs (mostly color) of the interiors and exteriors of Piccadilly locations across the South and Southwest as they opened for business. Accompanying the photographs to each location is a narrative written by Tandy Hamilton describing the architectural influences and style of each facility.

Sub-Subseries C. Locations without descriptions (1960-1988)

This sub-subseries also consists of photographs of Piccadilly locations but does not include any further description.

Subseries 2. Posters (undated)

The posters include images of menu items, meal specials, restaurant location listings, and several enlarged historic photographs from Piccadilly’s early years affixed to corkboard.

Subseries 3. Slides and Tapes (undated)

The slideshows and cassette tapes are mostly training presentations with titles including “Through the Eyes of the Customer,” “Achieving Greater Line Speed,” and “Floor Assistant Guidelines.” Also included are various images of Piccadilly customers and employees.

INDEX TERMS

Materials relating to these people, places, and things can be found in the series indicated, as represented by their numbers.

CONTAINER LIST