Over the years, various stories and myths are attributed to Farrell's - let's see if we can clear up some of them here.

Myth: A plane crashed into the Farrell's in Torrance, California.

Fact: A small commuter plane did crash on Hawthorne Boulevard, in front of the Farrell's parlour in 1982. The store was not hit. In a separate, more tragic event, an F-86 plane crashed into a Farrell's in Sacramento in 1972. 22 people perished in that awful accident.

A plane crashed in front of the Torrance Farrells in 1982 (AP photo)

Myth: In an industry with an 80% failure rate, Bob Farrell opened 130 Farrell's without a single failure.

Fact: An Ohio State study shows that the failure rate of restaurants is much lower than 80% (the commonly accepted rate). This study reinforces a 1991 study by Cornell University and Michigan State University. As for Bob's success, It all depends on how one defines failure. There are different metrics one could use:

• A parlour that closes. (too drastic since they all did close, ultimately).
• A parlour that does not stay open at least one year (too liberal - most company-owned restaurants operate at least 12 months, even if they lose money).
• A parlour that does not stay open at least 3 years (the duration measured in the OSU study, amongst others).
• A parlour that does not recover its financial investment (best measure).

An average parlour, opened in 1971, took around 8 years to recover its investment (around $500k). Using this metric, at least a dozen "failures" occurred, a 10% failure rate. Of these failures, most were attributed to parlours that were opened in the 1973-1975 timeframe. Only two company-owned Farrell's opened after Bob left the company in 1976. If you prefer to use the 3 year milestone, there were still a couple of parlours that didn't make the cut...

Myth: Farrell's sold its birthday list to the Selective Service.

Fact: From 1979 until 1983, Farrell's used an outside marketing company (George Mann Associates) to maintain a computerized database of birthday entrants. This company would send out the birthday cards each year from a database populated from the sign-up forms that were in every parlour. In early 1983, Farrell's discontinued the active promotion of the birthday program and ceased the distribution of birthday cards (This was part of the "Impact '83" program discussed elsewhere on this website). In late 1983 The Selective Service bought the database from George Mann Associates, without Farrell's knowledge and/or consent. I was working in Schaumburg when the news broke that some customer's family dog received a notice from the Selective Service. Farrell's got Uncle Sam to stop using the data, but the damage had been done (although, as my boss often says, you can't buy that kind of publicity).

Story: Rumors circulated through the Midwest parlours in 1984 that someone was looking to buy the Los Angeles parlours. According to a company vice-president that I spoke to at the time, Anson Williams and Al Molinaro from the "Happy Days" television show had approached Farrell's ownership about buying several of the L.A. parlours to convert to a Happy Days/Arnold's Drive-in type of restaurant. That's as far as it went...

Myth: Farrell's was originally a deli-style restaurant, with ice cream only offered as a side dish. Only after employees created some special birthday sundaes did ice cream move to the forefront of the business.

Fact: Ice cream was always the centerpiece of Farrell's. In fact, the first Farrell's did not even have the word "Restaurant" in its name. One-half of the menu was dedicated to ice cream sundaes, sodas and treats, and from the beginning ice cream sales accounted for 60% of the companies revenue.

Myth: Opening Farrell's inside shopping centers was Marriott's idea, while Bob Farrell only served as a consultant to Marriott after selling the chain to the conglomerate. This was reported in a couple of 1985 articles from Nation's Restaurant News.

Fact: Bob Farrell and Ken McCarthy had opposing views regarding placement of Farrell's Ice Cream Parlours in malls. When Ken retired at the beginning of 1970, nearly all the parlours were located outdoors. The only one inside an enclosed mall was the Southcenter, Seattle franchise. This store did very well sales-wise, and perhaps emboldened Bob, because over the next 2 1/2 years (before Marriott bought the chain), he had opened at least 15 new stores, only one of which was not in an enclosed mall. Even after the sale, Farrell's still operated with a great deal of autonomy, keeping offices in Portland, Oregon until Bob left the company. Marriott did provide significant resources for finding locations on the East Coast.

Myth: Farrell's ultimately went bankrupt in the 1980's. This was reported in several newspapers recently.

Fact: Farrell's has been owned by five entities throughout its history:

1. Bob Farrell, Ken McCarthy and Dale Belford (as Farrell's, Inc.), 1963-1972
2. Marriott Corporation, 1972-1982
3. Richard Blum and B-K Restaurant Venture (as Farrell's, Inc.), 1982-1985
4. Marriott Corporation (as sole owner of Farrell's, Inc.), 1985-1996
5. The Kirin Group, Inc., 1996-present

Bob, Ken and Dale did not file bankruptcy; their company was profitable. Marriott has never filed bankruptcy, at least according to publically-available SEC records. Dick Blum and B-K couldn't file bankruptcy since Marriott still held, or were contingently liable for, nearly every store lease in the chain. I am not aware of any bankruptcy filing by the Kirin Group. Bottom line; while Farrell's lost tons of money from 1975 to 1986, Bankruptcy was not an option.

Myth: The original Farrell's recently closed to make way for a condominium building (reported in the Portland Business Journal).

Fact: The parlour in that article was located near Lloyd Center, on Weidler St. That parlour was actually the fourth parlour opened by Ken McCarthy and Bob Farrell. The original parlour was located at 103 NW 21st St; that parlour closed in 1973 after 10 years of operation.