When was Taco Bell founded?

Glen Bell was 23 when he left the Marine Corps. in 1946. World War II was over, and the economy was switching to peacetime pursuits. In five years, business would be booming and fast food along with it. Glen came home to the sleepy agricultural town of San Bernardino, certain that families would be in the market for the recreational activities that disappeared during the war. He first thought of a miniature golf course, but after facing his financial situation, he went to work on something more the size of his pocketbook, a hot dog stand. Bell's Drive-In was the name of that first stand, and Glen learned the business as he went. His next unit would only be large enough for one person to operate and strictly takeout. In 1952, he sold the first stand, and began to build a perfected version. The menu would be hamburgers and hot dogs. As he began building his second, the McDonald brothers started their first unit, in a strange stroke of coincidence, also in San Bernardino. Glen became ...  more