3. The restaurant chain with the unfortunate name
In 1957, entrepreneurs Sam Battistone Sr. and Newell Bohnett opened a restaurant in Santa Barbara, California. They named their establishment by creating a portmanteau of their own names, Sam and Bo. The new restaurant became Sambo’s. As they expanded through franchising, the restaurant’s name caused it to be linked to a popular children’s book of the time, The Story of Little Black Sambo. In the story, a young Indian boy avoids being eaten by tigers by giving them his clothes and an umbrella. The vain tigers argue over which is more resplendent, and they chase each other around a tree until they melt themselves into ghee. Ghee is a clarified butter and a staple of Indian cuisine. Sambo’s mother uses the ghee to make pancakes. The restauranteurs exploited the association with décor in the restaurants depicting the story and characters in the book.
By the 1970s, the book and the restaurant were under considerable protest over the racial overtones depicted in each. Sambo came to be considered a pejorative for Black males. Though the company had grown to over 1100 restaurants, its financial situation was poor. Protests and boycotts by activists over its name simply added to the financial pressure. Attempts to change both its name and the appearance of its restaurants were of no avail. Bankruptcy came in 1981. Some of the stores became Denny’s. Others became Baker’s Square restaurants. The last Sambo’s, the original restaurant in Santa Barbara, continued to operate under that name until 2020. Pressure by activists that summer led to a change, and the brand name Sambo’s vanished from the American landscape. The Story of Little Black Sambo, including numerous revisions, name changes, and criticism, remains available, though many American stores refuse to carry it.