Wes Hall & Minute Man
Little Rock native Wes Hall founded the iconic fast food chain Minute Man, which at its peak boasted 57 restaurants in Arkansas and seven surrounding states. Minute Man was a pioneer on the fast food landscape, and its legacy is plain to see in food franchises across the country.
(Find out more about the collection by visiting the finding aid online.)
Hall opened the first Minute Man restaurant at 407 Broadway in Little Rock on May 26, 1948, along with partners Oliver Harper, Walter Oathout, and Alton Barnett. The original Minute Man was a coffee shop with a 24-hour service. in 1956, Hall bought out the other partners and converted the flagship store into a fast-food establishment. A historical marker was later placed at the site.
Groundbreaking Ground Beef
Minute Man was a forerunner in a number of fast-food concepts. In 1948, the Raytheon Company placed three experimental "RadaRange" microwave ovens in locations across the United States; Hall and partners received one of three. They pioneered the use of microwave ovens in the restaurant business. The most popular and publicized offering borne out of these ovens was surely the Radar Deep Dish Pie, a sweet treat that many Arkansans remember of its tendency to burn the roof of one’s mouth. Minute Man also sold “real charcoal-broiled hamburgers,” and offered a gourmet burger with a double full-sized meat patty with extras, called the “Big M,” a full year before McDonald’s debuted the Big Mac.
(Find out more about the collection by visiting the finding aid online.)
Marketing Strategies
Hall became known for his creative marketing campaigns and publicity stunts. Minute Man was the first fast food restaurant to give a free glass to customers as part of a Coca Cola promotion in the early 1970s. Additionally, Minute Man was the first to offer a specialty meal for children, called the Magic Meal. Burger King bought the rights to use the Magic Meal concept and name for 1982-1983. Minute Man’s rights to the slogan “old–fashioned hamburgers” were later sold to Wendy’s. But the most outlandish campaigns started with Arkansans abroad who wrote home grieving their separation from their local Minute Man.
The first came from UA Little Rock student John Carland in 1965, who was studying in India at the time. When Hall heard of his hunger pangs, he sent someone to escort a Minute Man hamburger all the way to Madras to grant Carland’s wish. Some years later, Jacksonville native Sharon Campbell found herself in the same desperate situation after her family moved to a military base in Tehran, Iran. This time, Hall trained up and sent Jacksonville mayor John Harden to cook the burgers barbecue-style for Campbell and a host of friends. In both cases, Minute Man ingredients were packed into styrofoam boxes with dry ice and carried on a plane. It is unclear whether the trips were funded by the company or Hall himself, but with airfare reaching over $1,000 each time, it would have been a grand gesture either way. Local papers in Arkansas would follow the evolution of these events for weeks.
(Find out more about the collection by visiting the finding aid online.)
Life After Minute Man
In addition to Minute Man of America, Inc., Hall operated Dixie Equipment Company, Food Service Supply, and Razorback Sign Company. After selling his controlling interests in these businesses in 1981, Hall formed Corporate Finance Associates, a merger and finance company. Then in 1985, he founded Wes Hall, Inc., a real estate company, before retiring in 1991. Hall served as an adviser to the Service Corporation of Retired Executives (SCORE) until his death in 2002.
The Minute Man brand has since dissolved into the memories of Arkansans and other long-time customers. The last remaining restaurant, no longer franchised, resides in El Dorado, Arkansas. But the legacy of Hall’s innovations is clear to see in today’s food service industry.
(Find out more about the collection by visiting the finding aid online.)