Month: August 2016

RSVP

Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be horses that are underdressed for black-tie events

Champagne smallerBig smiles, big personalities and big business networking — yes, it’s everyone’s favorite feature in The Voice-Tribune: party photos! Boulevard picks through the pics, choosing our favorite coverage.

Imagine the following:

One morning in your bathroom, brushing your teeth as you ready for work, you suddenly stop, mid-brush, and ask yourself: “I wonder where I could get a tuxedo for a horse?”

This might seem like an implausible scenario, even if you own a horse. And yet someone at the Kentucky Humane Society faced this very real question before last weekend’s annual Tuxes & Tails Benefit Gala fundraiser, where the theme was Hollywoof and the Cats’ Meow. “The highlight of this event,” the society-newsweekly Voice-Tribune reports this week, “is always the special furry guests who mingle with the crowd during cocktail hour.”

And yet Boulevard thinks the highlight was, in fact, a mini-horse named Abner, who posed with guests outside — in his tuxedo. It’s our party pic of the week. (View the photo gallery.)

Given his stature (height, not social), we wonder: Was he named after Li’l Abner Yokum, the main character of the long-running comic strip about a fictional clan of hillbillies living in dirt-poor Dogpatch, Ky.?

Lil Abner 200
Li’l Abner and Salomey.

We don’t know.

But we do know, thanks to the Internet, that we can buy a horse tuxedo for Continue reading “Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be horses that are underdressed for black-tie events” →

Diversions

Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Speed Cinema: that charming French classic ‘The Red Balloon.’ (And it’s free!)

For its Global Speed program highlighting French culture, the museum is showing one of the most beloved children’s films of all time, 1956’s “The Red Balloon.” The Speed says: “What seems like only the story of a young boy and his balloon reveals itself to possess strong religious subtext as the boy fights to save his toy from danger.” Directed by Albert Lamorisse. 16-mm, 34 minutes.

Playing Sunday at 2 p.m., and every Sunday through Sept. 25. Check out the trailer:

Admission is free as part of the Owsley Sunday program. The free Sunday admission series through March 2021 is named in honor of the late Brown-Forman CEO Owsley Brown II.

Speed Art Museum logoThe 142-seat movie theater is part of the newly renovated museum’s expansion. It’s equipped with state-of-the-art technology, including 16-mm, 35-mm and DCI-compliant 4K digital projection systems.

Cops and Courts

Reward offered in Ohio robbery death of Navy Veteran at Taco Bell drive-thru

The latest crime news across the world of 48,000 restaurants*.

Crime scene tapePolice are offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the identification and arrest of a suspect who shot and killed a 49-year-old Navy veteran at a Taco Bell drive-thru on Sunday in Lorain, Ohio.

Robert Gnizak of Lorain was found dead in the car when police arrived at the restaurant at 11:03 p.m. He was riding in the car with a female friend when the robbery occurred, according to the Chronicle newspaper.

Robert Gnizak
Gnizak

While they were pulled up to order food, a man came up to the passenger side of the car and tried to rob the occupants, before fatally shooting Gnizak, the newspaper said today. It wasn’t clear from the newspaper’s account whether Gnizak was on the passenger side or behind the wheel. Another customer  in a car behind them called 911, police said.

It was the second killing Sunday at a Louisville-based restaurant chain. In Fort Wayne, a 28-year-old man was killed and another man was injured during a shooting outside a Texas Roadhouse in Fort Wayne. Police and court records said the victim had gotten into a fight with members of a motorcycle-riding group he once belonged to. A suspect has been arrested and charged with murder in the case.

* Yum has 43,000 KFCs, Pizza Huts and Taco Bells in nearly 140 countries; Papa John’s has 4,900 outlets in 37 countries, and Texas Roadhouse has 485 restaurants across the U.S. and in five other nations. With that many locations, crimes inevitably occur — with potentially serious legal consequences for the companies.

Latest Headlines

Roadhouse CEO unloads $6.9M in stock; tragedy strikes Calif. Taco Bells when pregnant worker killed in car crash; fiancé is employee, too; Ford extends $400K supercar production

A news summary focused on 10 big employers; updated 8:55 p.m.

Ford 2017 GT supercar
An overhead photo of the 2017 GT; Ford will produce them for four years.
Kent Taylor
Taylor

TEXAS ROADHOUSE founder and CEO Kent Taylor sold $6.9 million of company stock at a hair more than $46 a share Tuesday through yesterday, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Taylor still owns 4.2 million shares worth $192 million at TXRH shares‘ closing price this afternoon of $45.47.

TACO BELL: In San Jose, Calif., a one-day-old baby boy was in critical condition at a South Bay hospital early this morning, after his 18-year-old mother died in a car accident Wednesday. Both the victim, Dulce Capetillo, and the infant’s father, her fiancé Pedro Cortes, were Taco Bell employees working the late shift. Capetillo’s brother was driving her to pick up Cortes at the Taco Bell where he worked. “I just can’t imagine the pain he is going through right now,” said Taco Bell area supervisor Jose Gonzalez. South Bay Taco Bells now have donation boxes in honor of Dulce; the company plans to match customer donations. And a GoFundMe page is also in place to help with funeral costs (ABC 7).

In Toledo, Ohio, a sheriff’s deputy has been fired after making what were considered inappropriate Facebook posts about Taco Bell employees he said had made vulgar remarks about him.

Deputy Thomas Hillenbrand, 57, a 19-year employee, was canned Wednesday. His Facebook post July 23 said a black employee and a co-worker inside the restaurant yelled “Black lives matter,” and laughed at him while he was in his car in the drive-thru. The deputy was in uniform at the time.

His Facebook post said: “I guess we’ll see if they’re still laughing after I call their corporate office on Monday and unload on someone.” He also encouraged fellow officers to boycott the restaurant. Replying to a comment on his post saying he should have reached through the drive-thru window, Hillenbrand wrote: “Couldn’t reach them. In the pre-camera days, Continue reading “Roadhouse CEO unloads $6.9M in stock; tragedy strikes Calif. Taco Bells when pregnant worker killed in car crash; fiancé is employee, too; Ford extends $400K supercar production” →

Diversions

Big business at the Old State Fairgrounds, 1929
Merchants and Manufacturers State Fair 1929
The handful of people in the foreground offers a sense of scale.

This was the Merchants and Manufacturing Building, which had opened eight years before with the claim it was bigger than Madison Square Garden. Built at the old Kentucky State fairgrounds, the cavernous room was filled with company kiosks, including “Southern Star” and “Auto Insurance.”

The old fairgrounds were in the neighborhood now known as Chickasaw. In 1907, 150 acres were purchased at the end of Cecil Avenue, west of 38th Street and north of Gibson Lane, and the fair was held there a year later, according to the University of Louisville Photographic Archives, the source of this photo.

Kentucky State FairThe Kentucky State Fair is one of the oldest in the United States, according to the Filson Historical Society, dating to 1816, when Colonel Lewis Sanders of Fayette County organized the first one in the commonwealth. It became official in 1902 after being mandated by the Kentucky General Assembly.

In 1956 the fair was moved to the Kentucky State Fairgrounds and Exposition Center where it remains today. This year’s opened today and runs through Aug. 28. Admission, hours and more information here.

Media and Marketing

Fasten your VR seatbelt: Ford’s the latest Louisville employer to debut virtual reality marketing

The automaker today unveiled a free virtual reality app that (almost) literally puts U.S. consumers in the driver’s seat. Ford says the new app for iOS and Android users “delivers a powerful storytelling platform for consumers and fans to experience Ford innovations like never before,” according to a press release.

The first content is the story behind the new Ford GT’s return to the iconic French 24 Hours of Le Mans race in June. (Eight-plus minute video, above, but you’ll need to watch it with the app.) Ford developed the software with production company Tool of North America, in Santa Monica, Calif., a leader in virtual reality and 360-degree content and mobile app creation. Consumers can download the app now for iOS and Android. More about Ford’s Louisville operations.

Ford’s app follows Brown-Forman’s dive into VR in mid-July with a 360-degree VR video promoting the flagship Jack Daniel’s brand on its 150th anniversary. The spirits maker showed it at festivals this summer, with plans also for September’s Life is Beautiful in Las Vegas. Watch that video here:

Companies across industries see potential in VR marketing to reach the most coveted consumers, young buyers attracted to the latest technologies. Especially hot sectors include auto, travel and fashion, according to Inc. magazine. Volvo launched a “Volvo Reality” app, immersing consumers in a VR test drive. “Shot on a 60-mile stretch of road,” Inc. said last spring, “this first-ever fully immersive virtual reality test drive blends a CG build of the interior of the car with footage shot on a 60-mile stretch of road in Vancouver, and can be viewed with or without Google Cardboard.”