Jack in the Box: My Old Fast Food Friend

The statue of limitations has run out on this secret, so I am going to share.

When the cafeteria in elementary school served spaghetti on Wednesdays, I would sneak off on my bike to have lunch at Jack in the Box. The teacher at the school gate was given a story about riding home for lunch, but instead I took a back route through a field to Jack’s. My lunch money bought a hamburger, french fries, soda, and hot apple turnover, with a little left over for some penny candy from the counter at the variety store. I hated the school’s version of pasta with red sauce, but looked forward to an adventure every Wednesday.

Jack in the Box has been around as long as I can remember. It was my first fast food. The restaurant started in San Diego in 1951 on El Cajon Boulevard, and by 1957 one was built in Lemon Grove.

The forerunner of Jack’s was Oscar’s Drive-In, a “Happy Days” kind of place complete with carhops. Then founder Robert O. Peterson had the idea of using a two-way speaker with a drive-through system to speed up service. To make it more personal, he covered the intercom with a colorful clown head. You had to talk to the clown. I am sure it was this experience that kept me from having coulrophobia.

So the drive-through was perfected in San Diego, and was a trend-setting hit. All the Oscar’s were converted to Jack in the Boxes, and by 1964 there were 100 restaurants. The company, called Foodmaker, had phenomenal growth, and in 1968 Peterson sold it to Ralston Purina. It was a little unsettling at the time— the same company that made Fido’s food was now making my hamburger.

The chain kept growing. In the early 1980s a marketing decision was made to blow up the clown, literally, on TV ads. Not the best idea. Remember New Coke? Indeed, back in that decade there were a lot of bad choices going on.

The Jack in the Box division was eventually sold to the management team, and in 1994 they brought the clown back, aka the fictitious CEO Jack Box. The long running "Jack's Back" commercials have been very successful, and have won several advertising industry awards. The spots tend to be funny, and often involve Jack making quirky business decisions.

Today, Jack in the Box is one of the nation’s largest hamburger chains, with more than 2,200 restaurants in 19 states. It is the only restaurant in Lemon Grove with two locations—both are on Broadway, one at the end and the other by the border. The original Jack in the Box structure is now .

I heard that at company headquarters in Kearny Mesa there is a parking spot reserved for Jack Box in front of the complex. Thinking that might make a good picture for the story, I headed over to the corporate office.

Dutifully, I reported my mission to the receptionist and asked permission to snap a photo of the parking spot. She could not have been sweeter, and was incredibly competent in putting me in touch with Brian Luscomb, vice president of corporate communications. Luscomb not only granted permission, but came outside to greet me while I was taking the picture. Turns out he is a Lemon Grove native, and was happy to help with anything involving the Grove and Jack in the Box—two of his favorite things.

Luscomb explained that the original Jack’s on Broadway opened on April 18,1957, and offered me a picture. He added that when the company was trying to identify that photo, it was he who knew it was Lemon Grove because of the steeple in the background of the Methodist Church, which he attended as a child.

Small world—and pass the secret sauce.