photograph: John Bonzo |
According to a recent Times
obit Bo Pilgrim who started Pilgrim’s Pride inhabited “Chateau de Pilgrim, a French baroque
mansion…Local residents referred to…as Cluckingham Palace,” located in Pittsburg, not Pennsylvania, but Texas ("Bo Pilgrim, Founder of Pilgram's Pride Poultry Products, Dies at 89"NYT, 7/24/17). All kinds of larger than life personalities have
occupied unusual homes. For instance, Presley lived in Graceland and Prince in
Paisley Park. During the Kennedy Years you were always hearing about Hyannis
Port, though the Kennedy White House was frequently referred to as Camelot. But
it’s interesting to speculate on the décor of a place named Cluckingham Palace.
Would Chicken Little be part of the wall
treatment and would chicken wings be served as appetizers? What were meals like
at the Pilgrim residence? Were steaks, chops and even meatloaf served? One of Mr.
Pilgrim’s greatest innovations according to the Times obit was “the boneless whole chicken,” though it would be an
advertising campaign using his own likeness in a Pilgrim’s hat that would ultimately be the source of his notoreity. The Times obit didn’t mention Frank Perdue, but you can’t but wonder if
these two giants of the poultry business were friends or just rivals and what
about The Colonel (to whom Bo was apparently a supplier)? Even though Pilgrim spent most of his adult life around
chicken, he apparently had a deep faith in God. And it seems unlikely he would
ever have you the dismissive expression, “it’s for the birds.”
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