By Samantha Swindler / Managing Editor

Read an excerpt from “The Col. Sanders Story” at the end of this story.

Playwright Bo List has a vision to create an outdoor musical about the life of Corbin — and Kentucky’s — most famous resident, Colonel Harland Sanders. To pull it off, he’ll need the support of the city, the tourism commission, and an amphitheater that will allow a production as big and and colorful as the man himself.

And to answer the question on everyone’s mind — if the project gets off the ground, there’s a good chance you’ll see some dancing pieces of fried chicken on stage.

The Lexington native playwright and director hit upon the idea of a Harland Sanders play while eating lunch at a KFC about two years ago.

“I was at lunch one day all by myself and I was wondering what my next project would be,” he said. “I was literally just sitting there looking at the side of my lunch box, and I said, ‘hmm, he’s from Kentucky.’”

List was toying with the idea of a historical play, so he began some basic research into Sanders’ life.

“Each perspective was very different, but what was constant is that he was just fascinating. He had many careers in his lifetime.

“So I basically just called the Corbin information line or city hall, and I said, ‘I have this crazy idea, what in the world can I do in it?’” he said.

He was put in touch with Betty Comer with the Fine Arts Association of Southeastern Kentucky. Comer got List a meeting with the tourism commission about two years ago, and while the commission seemed to think it was a good idea, List said nothing came from the initial meeting.

His career moved on, and he moved on to Memphis, Tenn., where he is executive producer at the Germantown Community Theatre.

But List didn’t forget about his Sanders musical idea.

He contacted KFC owner Yum! Brands himself, which gave its initial blessing to the project. List said he also interviewed Sander’s surviving grandchildren, all of whom are excited about the play, which will follow Sanders from his childhood to his final years.

Originally from Indiana, Sanders held many jobs before starting his chicken business — he worked on a railroad and was a lawyer, a traveling salesman, a streetcar operator, a soldier and a motel and gas station owner, just to name a few.

As a young man, Sanders also sold tires, during which time he would occasionally dress as the Michelin Tire Man.

“I think it’s hilarious that one of the most recognizable corporate logos spent his youth traveling Kentucky dressed as one of the other most recognizable corporate logos,” List said.

While in Corbin, List said Sanders also worked as a midwife who traveled to mountain areas and delivered babies. Sanders was an advocate of the interstate highway system because he wanted doctors to be able to travel more easily into rural areas, List said.

That highway system eventually bypassed his motel on U.S. 25, and Sanders sold off his Corbin property.

But Sanders had a far better business plan — and it involved fried chicken.

One important scene from Sanders’ life that List wants to include in the play is Sanders’ 1977 testimony before Congress on the idea of a mandatory retirement age. Sanders — who didn’t hit upon success until he invested his first Social Security check at age 65 into his chicken business — told lawmakers that senior citizens still have much to contribute, and they shouldn’t be required to retire at a certain age.

“He was a colorful character,” List said. “He had a foul mouth, a bit of a temper, he enjoyed the ladies, he was a flawed person, but he had a great, big huge heart.”

The idea is to create a musical on Sander’s life that would run several nights a week throughout the summer at an outdoor amphitheater located near Corbin’s south I-75 exit.

Ironically, the same interstate that killed Sander’s motel business will probably be the biggest asset to the musical project.

“Everything about this project is very new and different to me,” List said. “I’ve written plays before and directed a great number of them, but I’ve never written a musical before and I’ve never done anything on this scale.”

And if the plan unfolds, the project could be not only a big boost for List’s career, but for Corbin’s tourism.

According to the Institute of Outdoor Drama, nearly 2.5 million people attend outdoor dramas each year, generating a $500 million economic impact on the national economy. In 2007, there were 99 outdoor theaters, where 31 historical dramas were performed.

List got approval from the Corbin Toursim Commission last month to apply for a state grant that would fund an estimated $16,500-20,000 feasibility study to be conducted by the Institute of Outdoor Drama. The study will determine if there is enough support and revenue to host the play in Corbin.

“There would be no sense in wasting the city’s resources, the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of hours to take and write such a thing,” List said. “We don’t want to do something that’s not great for Corbin.”

List enlisted his friend Chris Toliver, a native of Harlan County and musical director for Lexington Children’s Theatre to help with the musical aspect of the play.

“It’s a fun idea and he enjoyed it as much as I did,” List said. “He’s from Eastern Kentucky and shares the same kind of respect for the area.

“The way that it’s working out now, we start out when he (Sanders) is about 10 years old. That’s when his step-father kicked him out and told him ‘you need to go work.’”

While still a boy, Sanders gets a job with the railroad, and the first big song planned for the play is about Sanders’ learning the language of railroad workers.

“We’re just work shopping it, seeing how scenes play out,” List said.

One scene presented to the Corbin Tourism Commission last month depicts a young Harland as he is courting his first wife.

“The Colonel was a loving man,” List said. “He loved hard, he cursed hard, he fought hard, but he was able to see the real worth in people.”

Though the ending isn’t yet written, List envisions a “big fun production number” that celebrates the Colonel’s life.

And yes, List said, “I would love to see dancing pieces of chicken. I can think of no better thing to see on stage than big, dancing pieces of chicken.

“There will be a cheese factor,” he said. “This is a colorful man who had a lifetime of conflict... He is in fact a corporate business, American logo, so we want to have as much fun with his identity while still celebrating as many aspects of his life as we can.”



Samantha Swindler can be reached at sswindler@thetimestribune.com

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Excerpt from “The Col. Sanders Story”



The Colonel is still a young man and is courting his first wife, Josephine King. Her stern father disapproves of Harland, who was not born to the privilege he believes his daughter deserves. Josephine’s mother, Lucinda, has a soft spot for Harland and shares her daughter’s independent streak.



Downtown Jasper, Alabama, Spring, 1909, The King Family – John, Lucinda and Josephine stroll down Main Street away from the Picture Show.



JOHN KING: …highway robbery, I say! Highway robbery! Fifteen cents for such a trifling amusement. And with a second-rate organist! Lucinda, I could have played better with my feet!

LUCINDA KING: Well, what do you expect, John? This is Jasper, not Montgomery.

JOHN KING: I don’t care if they’re showing pictures on the side of a barn. If they’re going to charge fifteen whole cents –

JOSEPHINE: Oh my! I think I left my parasol back at the theater!

JOHN KING: We don’t have time to go back for it, Josephine. I have to meet Reverend Shiffley for –

JOSEPHINE: Oh, I’ll just go back. You two go on. I’ll be home in just a few minutes.

JOHN KING: Young lady, it isn’t proper for a young lady to –

JOSEPHINE: Father, it’s 1909, not 1809. I’ll be home in just a –

JOHN KING: Do not interrupt me, Josephine King! It is certainly not proper –

LUCINDA KING: - not proper for a respectable young lady to be out in the sun without a parasol. Now, John – let’s go home for the Reverend and Josie will be along.

JOHN KING: Very well. But hurry home. He’ll want to hear how you’re doing on your piano.

JOSEPHINE: I’ll hurry.

JOHN KING: Good then. And if you see that shiftless Harland Sanders, you just walk the other way. I don’t want my daughter gallivanting with some fly-by-night railroad hand. Do you understand me?

JOSEPHINE: Yes, father.

JOHN KING: Good then. Let’s go, Lucinda.

LUCINDA KING: Yes, dear.

JOHN and LUCINDA start to leave.

LUCINDA KING: Oh. Just a moment, John.

LUCINDA crosses back to JOSEPHINE.

LUCINDA KING: (discreetly) Josephine?

JOSEPHINE: Yes, Mother?

LUCINDA KING: You didn’t bring a parasol to the picture show.

JOSEPHINE: No, ma’am.

LUCINDA discreetly plucks a coin from her clutch.

LUCINDA: Here’s a nickel for two phosphates. Don’t be later than twenty minutes and give Harland my best.

JOSEPHINE: Thank you, Mother.

LUCINDA rejoins JOHN.

JOHN KING: What was that all about?

LUCINDA KING: Let’s go, dear. You’ll miss the Reverend.

LUCINDA and JOHN exit. Beat.

JOSEPHINE: (announcing) The coast is clear!

YOUNG HARLAND SANDERS, now 19, steps out from hiding.

YOUNG HARLAND: They gone?

JOSEPHINE: They’re gone. We have twenty minutes. Mother gave me a nickel to go down to Anderson’s for phosphates.

YOUNG HARLAND: I got a better idea. Why don’t we save a nickel and go sit on the bench behind Andersons and –

JOSEPHINE: - Harland Sanders!

YOUNG HARLAND: Aw, I ain’t talkin’ ‘bout nothin’ more’n kissin’.

JOSEPHINE: Even still. It’s not respectable.

YOUNG HARLAND: I ain’t worried about being respectable, Miss King.

JOSEPHINE: Then I’ll be worried enough for the both of us.