All language subtitles for The.Food.That.Built.America.S02E01.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-NTb

- Americans consume
3 billion of them each year,

spending over $46 billion on it.

It's the most popular
food on the planet.

Pizza.

- 350 slices a second are
consumed in this country.

- You might like a different
kind of pizza than me

but I've never met a person
that doesn't love pizza.

- But
in 1950s America

it's practically unheard of.

- Can you imagine the
United States without pizza?

- American
pizza as we know it

wasn't shaped in Italy,
New York City, or Chicago.

- Screw what it's
supposed to be.

It is what we say it is.

- It was
created in the Midwest

by two sets of
entrepreneurial brothers.

- Without these two companies

your lives might have
been devoid of pizza.

- Their
battle for supremacy

will introduce
pizza to the nation.

- You can walk into
a Pizza Hut anywhere

and it feels like every other
Pizza Hut you've ever been to.

- And revolutionize
how we eat at home.

- Domino's, guaranteed
delivery in 30 minutes or less.

- The definition
of the word pizza

was created by
Domino's and Pizza Hut.

- They'll
become bitter rivals.

- We'll never stop
coming for you.

- And one
family will be torn apart.

- I don't know about this.

- This-

- This will be fun.

- Is "Pizza Wars."

- It's
the late 1950s.

And in the wake of World War II

the American economy is booming.

More people can afford cars
and homes than ever before.

And a growing middle
class now spends more time

on the road and less
time in the kitchen.

- America was expanding.

The building of the
suburbs was underway.

The interstate highway system

had created all of these roads.

People were commuting the
first time in American history.

- Car culture was
going to give birth

to the desire and demand

for convenience
food and fast food.

As people are on the go,
you're going to have industries

that are looking
at this and saying,

"Can we produce foods that
people can eat on the go?"

So this is going to
fuel new innovation.

It's also going to fuel new
mores in tastes and demand.

- A bold new
generation of entrepreneurs,

like Ray Kroc, rise up to feed

a nation constantly on the move.

- Well, congratulations,
gentlemen.

The American people will never
forget the name McDonald's.

- Creating
what will become

a nearly $650 billion industry.

- All right, keep
it moving, guys.

You're doing great.

- We all take fast
food for granted now.

It didn't exist.

A meal was at least
an hour of your time.

And when McDonald's
rolled around,

oh my gosh, I can
get a hamburger

in a matter of moments?

Don't I have to sit at
the table, give my order,

wait for the waitress
or waiter to come back?

No, those days were gone.

- Igniting
a fast food gold rush.

By 1958, McDonald's has sold
its 100 millionth hamburger.

A growing Miami chain

has just changed its
name to Burger King.

Kentucky Fried Chicken
offers a complete family meal

of chicken, dinner rolls,
and gravy for $3.50.

And even a donut shop
called Dunkin' Donuts

is sweeping the northeast.

In Kansas, a pair of
college-aged brothers

believe they have what it takes

to cash in on the
fast food boom.

But they're starting
at the bottom.

- We'll have seating over here,

build out a kitchen in the back.

- The older brother,

Dan Carney is a
business school student

with no experience in
the restaurant industry.

- How exactly do you plan
on running all of this

with your workload at school?

- I dropped out.

- What?

- Problem solved.

- Dan Carney really
sought to create

a successful life for himself.

He was extremely ambitious
and he wanted to be the man.

He wanted to be an executive.

So he struck out on his own.

So what does he do?

Dan Carney drops out of school.

- Carney
has convinced

his younger brother
Frank to join him,

and with a $600 loan
from their mother

they've rented a
rundown old bar.

- It's perfect.

- I know.

- That was sarcasm.

- I know.

Lighten up, this will be fun.

- Carney
wants to compete

with industry titans
like McDonald's,

but determined to
carve his own path.

He's betting on an obscure dish

he read about in
a local magazine.

Most Americans at the time
have never even heard of it.

It's an Italian peasant
food called pizza.

- Pizza has its origins
in Naples, Italy

sometime in the late
17th, early 18th century.

Old dough was being flattened

and topped and baked
in bread ovens.

And that became known
as pizza napoletana.

Those early pizzas were
really peasant food.

- The first pizzeria
is opened in America

at the turn of the
century in 1905,

Lombardi's Pizza
down in Little Italy.

But let's face it,

it's not something that's
growing across the nation.

There may be small
pizzerias here and there

in different urban areas

where you have a Southern
Italian community,

but it hasn't hit the big time.

- In the 1950s it's still
very much an Italian product

that most Americans
didn't understand.

So every article that
even mentions pizza

has a description and
a short explanation.

They're not assuming
anybody knows

what the heck they're
talking about.

- The funny thing is, pizza's
such an Italian culture

and you would think
two Irish brothers,

they'd come with fish and chips.

I just think like when
opportunity is there,

somebody else sees it

and they're able
to capitalize on it.

- The Carney brothers

need to turn a profit
to pay their rent

so they're determined to
open in just two weeks,

without any idea
how to make pizza.

- Pizza is tough.

And I think if they'd realized

the odds of them
being successful

they may not have taken them.

Pizza is not just
like frozen patties.

Pizza is a living
growing organism.

There's different
temperatures, humidities.

Pizza is much harder
than it looks.

- Desperate
to figure out a recipe,

they bring in a part-time
chef, John Bender,

to help them crack the code.

- French bread?

I thought pizza was
supposed to be Italian.

- We're working
with what we got.

- The most important
element of a pizza

is without a doubt the crust.

And he had no idea
how to make a dough.

So these resourceful guys
just made something up.

- Mm, mm, it's thin.

It needs more time to rise.

- No, this is it.

- What, no, it says
that it's supposed to be

soft leavened bread, Dan.

- Screw what it's
supposed to be.

It is what we say it is.

This is better.

It's light, it's crispy.

This is our recipe.

- They just kind of threw
ingredients on top of it

and baked it, and that
was the blueprint.

It's totally wild that they

just made something
up and it worked.

- They discovered
for some reason

the taste of French bread
is not bad for a pizza.

And of course, they
created that in Kansas.

And so it makes sense
to create something

that locals are gonna like.

Why would you make an
authentic pizza like in Italy

when you don't have Italians
living in your neighborhoods?

- Write down what we did?

- That's what I'm doing.

- The Carney
brothers' pizzas appeal

to the Midwestern palate,

will someday spawn an
$8.5 billion empire

and popularize pizza
from coast to coast.

But for now, days
away from opening,

they're risking everything
on this new unproven food,

desperate that it'll
somehow catch on.

800 miles from Wichita,
another college student

is struggling to pay
his way through school.

Orphaned at a young age and
with no other family support

Tom Monaghan and his
younger brother, Jim,

have taken out a $900 loan
to buy a local sandwich shop.

- Tom was determined
to become an architect,

to rise above his
station and overcome

the sort of adverse
circumstances of his birth.

While in architecture school

he actually bought a
struggling restaurant

to help pay for school.

- The shop
is called DomiNick's

after its founder,
Dominick DiVarti.

- Let's throw a
little extra cheese on there

to finish it off.

- And the
menu features a variety

of Italian sandwiches
and specialties,

including five different
sizes of pizza,

something the Monaghans
have no idea how to make.

- Throw it in the oven
about 10, maybe 15 minutes.

And you'll know when it's done.

That's all there is to it.

- Is that it?

- That's it.

Most people order sandwiches.

Just follow the
ingredients on the menu.

Your boys seem smart.

You'll figure it out.

She's all yours.

- When you open a restaurant,

there's so many challenges
coming at you every day.

You have to make delicious food.

You have to deal with
customers, staff.

You just don't open a law firm
because you want it, right?

Or you just don't open
a doctor's office.

But people feel like, hey, I
can just open a restaurant.

And I always say, good luck.

- I don't know about this.

- Here they are, these
two Irish brothers

raised in an
orphanage who've never

made pizza in
their lives before,

owning a restaurant
that would become one

of the most successful
on the planet Earth.

- Eventually
bold innovations

and a pivotal name change
will turn the company

into a nearly $15
billion global empire.

but only one brother will
reap the rewards.

- By the late 1950s,

the booming economy lifts
more people out of poverty

and into the middle
class than ever before.

- The 1950s remained the ideal

of what family life should be,

of what home life should be,

of what civic life should be,

and what the middle
class could be.

This is a period
in American history

where the middle
class is in essence

larger than at any time.

And also people can move into it

with greater ease
than at any time.

- In the Midwest,

a surge in commercial
aircraft manufacturing

propels Wichita to become
the largest city in Kansas.

And Dan and Frank
Carney recognized

the unprecedented opportunity

to feed the growing
middle class.

But their restaurant,
which will serve

a virtually unheard-of product,
is set to open in two days.

And among a long list
of growing concerns,

they still don't have a name.

- Pizza Spot?

There's too many letters.

- I know, but it's
gotta have pizza in it.

- Okay, then that leaves
us with three letters.

- On a tight budget,

the Carney brothers plan to use

a free sign from the
Coca-Cola Company.

But it only has room
for eight letters.

- Pizza Pit?

Ah, keep going.

- Pizza.

Pizza Hut?

- Pizza Hut.

- I don't know, man,
really, Pizza Hut?

Really?

- You got a better idea?

- No.

- Pizza Hut.

The place kinda
looks like a hut.

- Long
before becoming

the iconic red-roofed restaurant

with over 18,000 locations
across the globe,

on May 31st, 1958, the
original Pizza Hut opens.

It's the start of a chain
that will redefine dining out

for generations of Americans,

and bring pizza as we
know it to the world.

It's a gamble for
the Carney brothers.

But lucky for them,
Midwesterners are captivated

by this entirely
new type of food.

And within four months locals
are flocking to Pizza Hut

for a fast, filling, affordable
meal for the whole family.

- I think if you
stop and you realize

that the American pizza
started in Kansas,

that alone would
give people pause.

But I think that that also
explains the vast success.

In Italy there's very little
cheese, very little sauce.

It's not like we
have in America.

Dan Carney took an approach

to a decidedly Italian
traditional food

that was very American,

making the crust
more like a biscuit,

having it be a
little more buttery

a little more rich,
a little more fried.

You could have a pizza that
was just yummy comfort food

that happened to be called pizza

even though it resembled
traditional pizza

as much as I resemble Beyonce.

- Hi, how are ya?

Welcome to Pizza Hut.

- Pizza Hut created a definition

for this food for
most Americans.

So I meet somebody from the
West Coast, or the Midwest,

or the Southeast, they grew up

with Pizza Hut as their pizza.

Then all other pizza is
measured up against that.

Whether or not that's an
authentic Italian version,

it makes no difference
to the consumer,

because that becomes
their definition.

- As the
Carneys' dine-in restaurant

is introducing the world
to their version of pizza,

the Monaghans'
cramped sandwich joint

is unexpectedly
exceeding its capacity.

- It's interesting to see
these two brothers in business

doing something that they
had zero idea how to do.

They have this little
tiny restaurant.

You can't fit more tables
into a 500 square foot space.

And being a busy restaurant
is sometimes as bad

as being a slow restaurant,
because the last thing

Tom wanted to do was
turn away any business.

- It's a zoo out there.

We're backed up
halfway to Tuesday.

People have nowhere to sit.

- Tell them to take
their pizzas to go.

That's why it's
called a to go box.

- They're also complaining
about the wait.

- Then tell them
to wait at home.

- Rather than fight against

the small footprint
of his restaurant,

he thought maybe it
would be to an advantage.

Small rent, small space,
bring the food to the people.

- Tom
Monaghan realizes

that if he can bring
his customers food

directly to their door,

he can eliminate lines and
increase his customer base.

- So he decides to use
the roads essentially

as his restaurant
and offer delivery.

And he really, really
pushed delivery

to be the center point
of his business model.

- Home
delivery is an idea

that will redefine
the way Americans eat.

But in the late 1950s, it's
an industry-wide afterthought

limited to a handful
of Chinese restaurants

in densely-populated cities.

- Delivery is not that popular,
hasn't really taken off.

Nobody's delivering to
your door with hot food.

It is a change in
how Americans eat.

- Tom turns
his own beat-up VW Bug

into the company's
first delivery vehicle.

- The idea of being able
to get that experience

in your home, that is really
what they revolutionized.

I mean, it wasn't something

that most Americans
had access to.

- But
Tom's risky decision

to start a delivery service-

- Okay, I'll see you then.

- Opens a rift
between the brothers.

- Jim Monaghan was sort of
the coin flip of Tom Monaghan.

Where Tom was really focused,
Jim was kind of more aloof.

And where Tom would make
a decision right away

based on the logic
of the moment,

Jim would've said, "Let's hold
off and think about it more."

So that split decision making

is a problem for a partnership.

- Although the
strategy is an instant success,

with sales doubling
in just a month,

now it's an intense struggle
to keep up with demand.

- Heads up, got a live one.

- So now the capacity
of his restaurant

was not limited by the
seats at the table.

It was limited by how far
you can drive a delivery car.

And that resulted
in huge success.

But now getting calls means
you have to get the orders

made, and out, and delivered.

- DomiNick's.

- They are probably
missing half a dozen calls

whilst the next order
is sitting there

getting cold on the counter.

- These were supposed to
go out 40 minutes ago.

Come on, get these out the door.

- DomiNicks, what can
I get for you?

Jim, better late than never.

I need you to rush these
up to the north side.

- Now I'm a delivery boy?

- I don't have time to argue.

Are you going to do it or not?

- You're on delivery duty.

- Tom wanted to
do things his way.

And he was working very hard

and he expected
his younger brother

to work as hard and
be as dedicated.

But being the older
brother, he also likely

expected his younger brother
to follow what he was doing.

And that may have grated
on Jim a little bit.

- While tension boils
between the Monaghans,

in Kansas Dan Carney is
preparing another big idea

for his seven-month-old
business.

- I think we're ready.

- Yeah, for what?

- To expand.

This restaurant, it's
just a proof of concept.

- What, you want to
open a second location?

- I was thinking five.

- We can't afford five.

- We don't have to afford it.

We're franchising.

- How bold was it of Dan Carney

to think that he
could just come along

and franchise pizza when pizza

wasn't an established food yet?

- Dan
Carney isn't satisfied

owning Wichita's most
popular pizza joint.

He's determined to introduce
pizza across the nation

and build the biggest
restaurant chain in the country.

- It's 1958 and
the Carney brothers

have opened a
successful restaurant

in which introducing
locals to pizza.

But their goal is to
dominate the market

from coast to coast.

- This is the businessman.

This is the marketeer.

This is the person
who essentially

wants to get a product to
the public to mass produce

and turn that into a fortune.

- To do it, they're
gambling on franchising,

a strategy that can
allow businesses

to expand quickly at low cost

and has been used
to sell everything

from sewing machines to cars.

- Franchising allows the
replication of the brand.

I create a product or a service.

And that system is then licensed

to a third party, a franchisee.

In exchange they charge a
continuing franchise fee.

It may sound very common today,

but it was radical at
that point in time.

It wasn't something that
a lot of people knew.

Very few of them understand it.

- Pioneers
like Harland Sanders

and Ray Kroc applied
franchising to food,

eventually turning
Kentucky Fried Chicken

and McDonald's into
global powerhouses.

Now Dan Carney wants to use
their own strategy against them,

but with pizza as
the new weapon.

- Dan was thinking
about long-term growth

and he wanted this
chain to get started.

I think he extrapolated
into the future.

He said, "Nobody's doing it now,

"but if they can do
it for hamburgers,

"why don't we do it for pizza?"

- It's totally bonkers
that these guys

who have no idea
how to make pizza,

within about a year of them
opening their first restaurant

they start franchising.

I mean, I know people who
work on it for decades

before they start thinking

about how to
franchise that model.

- Even though pizza

is hardly known in the Midwest,

the Carneys quickly
launch six new locations

of the Pizza Hut brand.

- They turned pizza into a
sit down dining experience

that was affordable
and accessible

to the middle American family.

And I think that the genius
of that cannot be overlooked.

- To
accelerate growth,

the Carneys slash franchising
fees to an average of $4,500,

half as much as McDonald's.

- He may have
underpriced himself,

but Dan decided that he
was going to go for growth.

If you at least grow,
you've got cashflow.

You can figure it out later
on as you go down the road.

And that's what the
Carney brothers did.

- One or two? Two?

- By 1963, Pizza
Hut expands out of Kansas

and east of the Mississippi,
growing to 42 locations.

It's the largest pizza
chain in the country

and has no close
competitor, for now.

Meanwhile in Michigan,
Tom Monaghan's bold bet

to take on delivery isn't
making his life

any easier.

- DomiNick's, what
can I get for you?

- As
DomiNick's struggles

to keep up with
its complex menu.

- It had to have been insane.

I mean, you've got
orders coming in

for five different
sizes of pizza.

And if you put the wrong
topping on the wrong size,

then that's a scrap and
that's in the garbage.

If the sandwich is made
wrong, it's lost money.

-
There's only so long

people are willing to wait
for their food,

even at home.

- DomiNick's, what
can I get for you?

I'm sorry, it's on its way.

I understand, okay.

Unbelievable.

That's the third canceled
order in the last hour.

- The more items he had,
and the more options he had,

and the more confusion he had,

the more mistakes they made.

- Everybody, listen up.

We're only selling pizza
the rest of the night,

two sizes only, 12 inch and 16.

- That's less than
half our menu.

The menu stays as is.

- DomiNick's, what
can I get for you?

I'm sorry, but

sandwiches are off
the menu for tonight.

Only 12 and 16 inch pies
for the rest of the night.

Great, that's one 16
inch cheese pizza.

That'll be $2 and we'll be
there in less than an hour.

- Rather
than play second fiddle,

Jim Monaghan walks out
of the partnership,

returning to his
job as a mailman

and turning control of
the business over to Tom.

- Jim Monaghan decided to leave.

Tom gave him the delivery
car, the Volkswagen Beetle,

in exchange for his
half of the company.

So, I hope that car
ran for a long time.

- His brother sold his
stake in the company

for their beat-up VW Beetle.

In point of fact, had
he retained his stake,

he would have made $800 million.

Instead he got a VW Beetle.

Bad trade, bad trade.

- By 1968,
less than a decade

after opening the
first Pizza Hut,

the Carney brothers
have catapulted pizza

into the national consciousness.

It's even being sold in
the frozen food aisle.

- That audience
for pizza's growing

as more and more people try it.

So it's not something that
alienates a lot of tastes

but it's something
that kids like.

So it can be eaten
by the whole family.

It has a communalness to it.

And I think that
fuels its growth.

It creates a moment where
people can eat together

and it gets really associated
with family moments.

- At the
end of the 1960s,

Pizza Hut now has 300 locations

serving 1 million
customers every year.

And the Carneys' signature
red-roofed restaurants

can be found from
coast to coast,

making Pizza Hut America's
first national pizza chain.

- The Carneys were very
much ahead of the curve.

They did for pizza what
McDonald's did for hamburgers.

- To keep up
with their rapid expansion,

Frank Carney
introduces a new system

of ingredient distribution,
a central commissary

that freeze dries
each ingredient

and distributes them out to
every Pizza Hut franchise,

guaranteeing consistency.

- They use that
fast food approach,

having an offsite hub
where they can

prepare these ingredients in
advance, precooked,

and just need to
be reheated onsite.

So a lot of the sort of
cooking and the deep labor

that would come with
managing, running,

and supplying a local
pizzeria is eliminated.

- The Carney brothers'
success proves that pizza

is the next franchise gold rush,

breeding copycats and putting
a target on Pizza Hut's back.

In Michigan, Tom Monaghan
is now solely in charge

of DomiNick's, and his bold
move to only sell pizza

has the business running
better than ever.

- He understood that
you need a small menu

that you can put out, many
with the same ingredients,

at a fast pace, and
you streamline it.

If you look at the way
the back of a kitchen runs

and you look at the
automobile factory,

they're both assembly
lines of a different kind.

- Now
Tom sets his sights

on spreading his delivery
pizza across the nation.

- Tom Monaghan, I guess,

was seeing what
Pizza Hut was doing.

And Tom said, "Why not us?"

- To do it, Monaghan
has an ingenious strategy.

He'll target the one demographic

that's responsible for
most of his profits.

College students.

Michigan has the most
colleges in the US

and Tom is opening his
newest store at the doorstep

of the most popular,
Michigan State University.

With a dormitory population
of 20,000 at the time,

it's the largest in the world.

- The decision to expand
near college campuses

was a stroke of genius,

because in a
residential neighborhood

you've got houses
all over the place,

whereas a college dorm building

has hundreds of
potential customers.

So the more deliveries you
can make to a smaller area,

the higher the profit margin.

- Now a
restaurant chain,

Tom unveils his next big
move, a new company logo

with three dots representing
his first three stores

and a new name that
will one day deliver

1.5 million pizzas
every day, Domino's.

- I think Domino's has
always been incredibly clever

when it comes to how
they position themselves

in the marketplace.

They're nearly in every
single college town.

Sadly, at my own
university in Atlanta, Georgia

they affiliated themselves
directly with our meal plan.

My folks had to put more money

in my account halfway
through a semester.

- As Monaghan
lays the foundation

for his empire to flourish,

his success doesn't
go unnoticed.

- Little Caesar's, what
do we know about them?

Funnily that they haven't
even hit the hundreds yet.

Now I'll take a
look at Shakey's.

Shakey's, California,
West Coast brand.

They're not a threat to us.

- Sir, you're going to
want to take a look at this.

- See that right there?

- Is that real?

- Yeah.

- It says Domino's,
another Michigan place.

They're offering a
delivery service.

How are we supposed
to beat that?

- While Domino's Pizza
is relatively small,

they're growing exponentially.

In 1969 they're opening
nearly a store a week.

- We're the McDonald's of pizza.

They're not even Burger King.

- For now,
Domino's' delivery model

isn't a threat,
but left unchecked

it will soon become Pizza
Hut's most bitter rival.

- By 1970,

Pizza Hut sales surge
past $31 million a year,

the modern equivalent
of 250 million.

But after years of
unbridled growth

Frank and Dan Carney have
hit a major obstacle.

Over 100 of their restaurants

are teetering on the
brink of collapse.

And the problem is clear.

America's first
national pizza chain

is failing on the East Coast.

- The Northeast
has its own style.

It was really where
Italians settled

and Italians'
expectations for pizza

were not going to be met
by pizza from the Midwest.

- Nothing.

- People on the East Coast

have an emotional
attachment to pizza.

So now you're
treading on my pizza.

You know, this is an insult.

Pizza Hut was thin and crispy.

You call this a pizza?

This isn't recognizable to me.

- McDonald's is
McDonald's, KFC is KFC.

They don't change their formula

just because someone
somewhere doesn't like it.

- I am not suggesting
a major change, Dan.

- No?

You just want to
change the one recipe

that's gotten us
to where we are.

You want to serve thin
crust in some states

and thick crust in others?

It's not scalable.

The whole point of
what we've built

is that you can walk
into a Pizza Hut anywhere

and it feels like every other
Pizza Hut you've ever been to.

- Then we do both.

We offer thin crust and we
offer thick crust, two options.

But we can handle it.

The restaurants,
they can handle it.

We can do this.

- 15 years
after developing

their signature pizza crust,

Dan and Frank Carney
are back in the kitchen,

working on a recipe
that they believe

will appeal to
customers more familiar

with traditional Italian pizza.

- Pizza Hut decided that the
way to get by on the East Coast

was not to compete
with the beloved pizzas

that people are used
to on the East Coast,

but to come at it from
a different direction.

So this is where they came up

with a thicker-style pizza
that wouldn't be confused,

you know, we're not
trying to copy your pizza.

This is something different.

We're Pizza Hut.

- In 1973, Pizza Hut

finally unveils its thick crust.

- It's almost definitely
meant to be cut

with a fork and a knife.

The toppings would spill over.

The crust was thicker
than most regular pizzas.

The center of the
crust was more buttery,

pillowy, doughy in terms of its
design and its construction.

- Pizza
Hut's new thick crust

will come to be
known as pan pizza

and go on to outsell their
original thin crust recipe,

securing its place
as an American icon.

- When Pizza Hut came
with the pan pizza

it was almost like a fantasy.

You'd get a slice of pan
pizza from Pizza Hut.

And they had the cheese
always just looking heavy,

and you get a nice
thick pan pizza

with the garlic
soaked into the crust.

That's a bite you're
going to enjoy.

- While
Pizza Hut's innovation

allows their Northeast
restaurants to thrive,

in Michigan Tom
Monaghan is about

to transform home
delivery forever.

- Good to go.

- Domino's'
fast-paced growth

has exposed a serious problem.

Drivers are stacking
more and more pizzas

for larger delivery runs

and their boxes aren't
up to the challenge.

- I want them
sturdy, reinforced.

- Traditionally
pizza boxes were made

out of much thinner cardboard

and absolutely did
nothing to retain heat.

There was no insulation.

There was no means of
protecting the pizza.

It was just a thin
white cardboard box.

- No, that's right, stackable.

No, not three high.

I'm talking seven, eight.

Okay.

- Where do you want
these delivered?

- Bring them in.

- Tom came up with
the corrugated box

which really revolutionized
the pizza industry.

- It was a heavier gauge
corrugated cardboard

which allowed for a little
more heat to be trapped.

But being durable allowed
the pizzas to be stacked.

- Good to go.
- All right.

- Still protecting the pizza,

but allowing the delivery person

to carry multiple
pizzas at one time.

I think it speaks to the
efficacy of all his ideas

that they have
still been adopted

into the modern pizza industry

to this day in the 21st century.

- By 1973,
just over a decade

after buying DomiNick's,
Tom Monaghan now runs

a small empire of 76 stores
reaching across 13 states.

- Tom Monaghan's always
had a spark in him.

He wanted to turn Domino's

from being a wobbly
upstart company

to being a serious player
in the pizza business.

Tom wanted to challenge the big,

gargantuan red roof Pizza Hut.

- But
Domino's' meteoric rise

comes at a huge cost.

Monaghan is offering investors

sweetheart franchising deals,

even supplying each new store
with a fleet of delivery cars,

eating up all of
Domino's' profits

and forcing him into debt.

The Domino's business
was doing well

but Tom wasn't living
large or anything.

He was living in a
trailer with his wife,

and in order to keep
growing franchises

borrowed $400,000 using his
tiny trailer as collateral.

And he knew that if he defaulted
on that loan, he was out.

- Domino's is in
serious financial trouble.

And his rival, the most
powerful pizza chain

in the world, sees an opening.

- Can I get you anything?

Water, slice of pizza?

- No, we're fine, but thank you.

- In
the fall of 1973,

Domino's' financial
trouble brings Tom Monaghan

face to face with his biggest
rivals, the Carney brothers.

- What's this?

- That's an offer for a
controlling stake in Domino's.

- It's not for sale.

- We know you're hurting.

You could walk away a rich man.

- I appreciate the offer,
I do, but I'm sorry.

Can't do it.

- You sure?

There's nothing that we
can do to change your mind?

- Honestly, no.

It's my baby.

- Betting on yourself, hm.

I'd do the same.

But just so you know,

we'll never stop
coming for you.

Good luck to you.

- Hey, best of luck.

- The reason he
said no is because

he wanted to see
this thing through

and he'd gone through a lot of
work, and he was still young.

He wasn't even 40.

So he still had
some energy in him.

He had lots of
courage and he said,

"We're going to fight
this thing out."

- By the mid 1970s

Domino's is sliding deeper
and deeper into debt.

Tom Monaghan's missed his
chance to cash out and get rich.

And without a sudden
reversal of fortune

Domino's will continue to fall

further and further
behind Pizza Hut.

- People in the food
industry are dreamers.

I mean, I think that's the one
trait that we have in common.

We're dreamers.

The idea of being able
to create your own party

and have people from
all over the community,

all over the city,
possibly the country

come to the party you create.

I think that drives people.

- Oh, one more
order just came in.

- No, sorry, my
shift's about to end.

- It's just one
delivery, real quick.

- I got somewhere to
be in half an hour.

- I guarantee you, you
can make it there and back

in less than 30 minutes.

- Then in
1975, a turning point.

Monaghan devises an
unprecedented assurance

to customers.

- Domino's, guaranteed
delivery on 30 minutes or less.

- He promises
delivery within half an hour.

- You got it.

- Or
the pizza is free.

- That was unheard of.

To say 30 minutes or it's free,

that you knew without
question or pause

when you would
get your pizza by.

Okay, I'm going to get my
pizza in 30 minutes guaranteed.

And if not, I have a
free pizza coming to me.

That was like a win-win
for the customer.

- Domino's, guaranteed
delivery in 30 minutes or less.

- The 30
minutes or less pledge

is franchise wide and
it's a huge success.

- Domino's
Pizza guaranteed.

- Changing
the trajectory

of the entire company.

- The reason Domino's, I
think, was so successful

is because they made
great delivered pizza.

What they brought to the
table was bringing you a pizza

that was 20 minutes younger
than the competition.

And Tom Monaghan just
attacked the efficiency.

And Domino's, they
still do that today.

- Domino's'
delivery guarantee

helped propel them to become

the best-selling pizza
chain in the world,

with sales skyrocketing
to over $7 billion.

While Pizza Hut is close behind
with 5.5 billion in sales,

it boasts more
stores than Domino's

with 19,000 worldwide
to Domino's' 17,000.

The pizza wars still continue
in their fierce rivalry today.

- Even though
Domino's and Pizza Hut

are not authentic Italian foods,

they have done more
for the spread of pizza

and the awareness of
pizza in the United States

than all the authentic
pizzerias combined.

- Tom Monaghan and
the Carney brothers,

they're both really
playing off of a tradition,

but simultaneously
making it their own.

And that's the American dream.