Selling 'em by the Sack: White Castle and the Creation of American Food

"A fascinating story . . .Hogan tells a truly American success story—luck and hard work behind one man to create an industry so pervasive that today it's an integral part of American pop culture."
—Publishers Weekly

"Hogan makes a convincing case for White Castle's influence."
—Jonathan Yardley
Washington Post

"A scholar's lively account of how White Castle, now a largely overlooked but still profitable also-ran in the domestic restaurant trade, made the once-scorned hamburger a U.S. institution and launched the fast-food industry. . . . Informed and engaging perspectives on an often ignored aspect of cultural and commercial Americana."
—Kirkus Reviews

"Full of fascinating details, not only for devotees of the ubiquitous 'slider,' but also for pop-culturists interested in American fast food and how it all got started."
—Minneapolis Star Tribune

"David Hogan's love of fast food goes back at least twenty years: I remember talking to him while he gulped down a McDonald's before the start of class. Few historians I know would be able to translate their penchant for fast food into a wonderful case study of the first chain to sell huge numbers of hamburgers-to-go. Selling 'em by the Sack, which traces the fortunes and failures of White Castle from the 1920s to the 1990s, deftly blends biography, social history, and corporate history. In doing so, Hogan gives us a fascinating glimpse into American popular culture."
—W. Andrew Achenbaum
Professor of History, University of Michigan

In the wake of World War I, the hamburger was still considered a disreputable and undesirable food. Yet by 1930 Americans in every corner of the country accepted the hamburger as a mainstream meal and eventually made it a staple of their diet. The quintessential "American" food, hamburgers have by now spread to almost every country and culture in the world. But how did this fast food icon come to occupy so quickly such a singular role in American mass culture?

In Selling em By the Sack, David Gerard Hogan traces the history of the hamburger's rise as a distinctive American culinary and ethnic symbol through the prism of one of its earliest promoters. The first to market both the hamburger and the "to go" carry-out style to American consumers, White Castle quickly established itself as a cornerstone of the fast food industry. Its founder, Billy Ingram, shrewdly marketed his hamburgers in large quantities at five cents a piece, telling his customers to "Buy'em by the Sack."

The years following World War II saw the rise of great franchised chains such as McDonald's, which challenged and ultimately overshadowed the company that Billy Ingram founded. Yet White Castle stands as a charismatic pioneer in one of America's most formidable industries, a company that drastically changed American eating patterns, and hence, American life. It could be argued that what Henry Ford did for the car and transportation, Billy Ingram did for the hamburger and eating.

The author, David Hogan, effectively makes the case that White Castle and its founders, Billy Ingram and Walt Anderson (especially the former), were the originators of the fast food "carryout" concept, and that they established the humble hamburger as the distinctive ethnic cuisine of the USA. The evolutionary history of White Castle from the early part of the 20th century to the present is described, from its founding in Wichita in 1921, through the Depression and two wars (W.W.II and Korea), to the era of the big chains (like McDonald's and Burger King), which, miraculously, have not brought about its demise. Along the way, Billy Ingram and his successors have successfully coped with an endless series of challenges, the first of which was to make the hamburger perceived as a sanitary and healthy food at all. Then came standardization of the product, national expansion, gaining credibility with and acceptance from the middle class, coping with war rationing, the hiring of women, surviving the rise of the superchains, adapting to suburbanization of the cities, defending against rising urban crime, facing increasing government regulations, and answering the health-conscious critics' attacks on the fast food lifestyle.

Today, White Castle survives as a barely medium-sized chain in the north-central and northeast regions of the United States. It has kept alive the guiding principles of its founders, has acquired a fanatical following, and remains profitable at a time when even larger chains, like Burger Chef and White Tower, have since disappeared from the American landscape.

SELLING `EM BY THE SACK is not a "thriller", offers no high drama, is written with no humor whatsoever, and is actually a little dry. Had it been about a brand of toothpaste or bread, I wouldn't have bothered. But, it's about hamburgers. (Oddly enough, cheeseburgers are never mentioned in any context.) So, I read it, was entertained, and learned a lot.

I've never eaten a White Castle. Where I live, in Southern California, the brand is represented only by its frozen burgers that one can buy in the supermarkets. I've seen them in packages of a dozen. They seem ridiculously small when compared with McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King, Jack-In-the-Box, Carl's, or In-`n'-Out. I think I'll buy a "sack".


Hamburger History   December 21, 1999
 5 out of 5 found this review helpful

Before there was the fast food hamburger shops of today, there was White Castle. And before White Castle, the lowely hamburger was not a respected food. Selling 'Em By the Sack describes the history of the hamburger in American culture and why White Castle started in Wichita, KS. Not only a history lesson about White Castle but a social history of American eating habits in the 20th century. So forget about those other hamburger joints and read where it all got started.