All language subtitles for The.Food.That.Built.America.S01E01.WEBRip.x264-ION10.English

- Over 250
million HERSHEY Bars a year.

More than 650 million
bottles of HEINZ Ketchup.

1.9 billion servings
of Coca-Cola a day.

Over 300 billion
McDonald's burgers sold.

These iconic brands
fuel modern America,

helping to drive the most
powerful economy on Earth.

But 150 years ago,
they don't exist.

At a time of
unimaginable change,

it takes brave visionaries
risking everything

to create some of the most

recognizable empires
on the planet.

- I call it the MILKY WAY.

- Well that's a first.

- It's chaos out there.

- Fire, fire!

- Get out everything,
the back door!

- Start working!

- This is a federal seizure.

- Innovators like
Henry Heinz, Milton Hershey

and Clarence Birdseye push
the limits of technology.

- This is the future
and I need it.

- American dynasties
like Post and Kellogg's,

battle each other to
build their fortunes.

- We should be making
stacks of money off of this.

- You're not capable.

- I'm going to bury you.

- And bold pioneers
like the McDonald brothers.

- Flip 'em, let's go.

- And Colonel Sanders.

Face the challenges

of a cutthroat new era
of opportunity.

- Hershey isn't our supplier,
they're our competition.

- These billion dollar empires

are American icons.

- The American people will
never forget the name McDonalds.

- That help
transform the country

into the most powerful
nation on Earth.

This is the story of
how they all began.

- It's been ten years

since the end of the Civil War

and one of the most important
eras of America's history

is just getting started.

It'll be called the
Industrial Revolution,

and it will usher in a wave
of unbridled entrepreneurship.

- I look at those early
days of burgeoning industry

and I think this is an
amazing opportunity, you know?

Who doesn't wanna be successful?

Who does wanna, you
know, change the world

and make quite a bit
of money doing it?

I think that's the brass ring.

You might come up with this
great iconic American brand

and the brand that
shapes America.

- Before industrialization,
when people live on farms,

they're pretty nearly
self-sufficient.

But all the people
who live in cities

for the first time in
history of the United States,

they've got to be
fed by somebody else.

- The Industrial
Revolution is a time

when you start seeing
factories developing,

but part of that is the
phenomenon of urbanization.

People were coming
together as a workforce

and living in cities
more and more.

Life was changing for people

and it was changing
very quickly.

- Nearly a third
of Americans flood into cities

without space to
grow their own food,

causing a crisis
and an opportunity.

- No longer could you go
to your hen house, get egg.

No longer would your wife
cook you up some fresh chicken

that she just slaughtered
on your front porch.

There was this need to
sort of feed the masses.

- People were moving to
cities from farms in America.

And the mass production
of food was very unusual.

In fact, it didn't exist and
this was a really big deal.

- In one of the
fastest growing cities,

one struggling entrepreneur
pursues his ambition

of selling his products
all across the country.

But he's about to
hit rock bottom.

His name is Henry Heinz.

- Where are the
rest of the checks?

The checks, where are they?

Give me half.

Hurry.

Listen to me.

These paychecks will clear
but only if they go out today.

You have to get to the post
office before it closes.

- Pittsburgh Police.

We have a warrant for the
arrest of Henry Heinz.

- Sir?

- Here, go to the post
office, then straight home.

Families are depending on
this, do you understand me?

Go.

- On December 15,
1875 local authorities arrest

31 year old Henry Heinz.

A company built on his
name will someday sell

for 23 billion dollars.

But for now, after taking out
loans to expand production

on his horse radish sauce, he
has overreached on a product

that doesn't sell enough
to keep it in business.

- With every new development,

every innovation in the
food production process,

when you're sort of
near the cutting edge

of the way things are going,
this is the riskiest edge.

- Heinz started buying
more and more produce.

He bought out whole farms.

But when creditors came
calling, he couldn't pay.

So he was arrested for fraud.

But, it wasn't his fault.

At the time, packaged foods
were not commonly eaten

in the United States.

- In the late 1800's,

food preservation
is still primitive.

Small, local farmers bring
their products into cities,

where they sit on shelves
or in barrels for days,

or sometimes even weeks.

- The state of food in
America was pretty deplorable.

Remember, there's
no refrigeration.

Grocers often didn't care

where their products
were coming from.

They were selling spoiled meat.

Fish was a little bit off.

When people bought
things in barrels,

you never knew what
you were gonna get.

- Pickles were
colored with copper

to make them look more green.

They'd put laundry bluing in
milk to make it look white.

You had to trust
your own ability

to tell what was good
and what was not.

- Most Americans don't trust

the food they're being sold

and Heinz's bold attempt
to expand his business

ends in disaster.

- H. J. Heinz found his
name in the newspaper

not for a budding entrepreneur,
but as a criminal.

This really
humiliated H. J. Heinz.

- His parents' home
got repossessed.

He had to watch his mother
cry as they took furniture

and he had been the
root cause of this.

It all exploded.

He failed.

- Henry Heinz is ruined

but he's determined to pick
himself up and start again

520 miles to the south,
in Atlanta, Georgia,

the scars of the Civil
War are still raw.

- And tens
of thousands of veterans

are dealing with the
pain of their injuries.

- Never forget what
a horrific experience

that Civil War was for
the American people.

It's very difficult to
imagine the carnage.

People were suffering.

- Almost all
the fighting took place

below the Mason-Dixon
Line leaving the South,

and its economy, in ruins.

- The disparity between
North and South is huge.

In the South the primary
economic driver was agriculture,

and cotton is no longer king.

The war devastates agriculture

and the South's gonna
have to reinvent itself.

- In the heart of
this unstable environment,

a local entrepreneur struggles
to keep his business afloat.

He's a civil war veteran and
pharmacist named John Pemberton

- John Pemberton was
kind of a creative genius

who is tragic in his own way.

He was never a
great businessman.

He would go bankrupt and
would start over again.

His signature invention
will someday be served

over ten thousand
times per second.

- But for now, Pemberton works

late into the night,
hoping perfect a formula

that'll help him cash
in on the latest craze

sweeping the country,
miracle health tonics

called patent medicine.

- Patent medicines
were very popular

but also fairly adulterated.

The claims of any particular
product were outlandish,

claiming to cure everything
from tuberculosis to cancer,

to itchy scalp, you know,
all on the same product.

- They contain all
sorts of toxic chemicals

and substances that
you wouldn't even

wash your floor with it, let
alone take it or ingest it.

- John Pemberton's war wounds

have left him
addicted to morphine.

Hoping to create a
safer alternative,

he gambles on a plant
extract from South America.

For thousands of years,
Natives have chewed its leaves,

as part of religious rituals
and as a powerful stimulant.

It's called the coca leaf.

The same thing used
to make cocaine.

- Cocaine was supposed
to be this wonder drug

and nobody recognized
its potential harm

or addictive quality.

A wine infused with coca leaf

was wildly successful
internationally,

in the 1860s, 70s and 80s.

Everybody drank this stuff,

it was supposed
to be a cure-all.

It even had endorsements
from three different popes,

including Pope Leo the 13th.

- Pemberton hasn't yet perfected

the formula that will someday
launch an American empire.

Far from major cities like
Pittsburgh and Atlanta,

in a small town of
just 7,000 people

there's an institution
designed to treat mental

and physical pain in
a much different way.

It's called the Battle
Creek Sanitarium.

One, there you are.

Two.

Three.

- It's run by a renowned doctor

and medical innovator
named John Kellogg

- Everyone follow me.

Arms out, down.

Lower, lower.

Hold and up.

Well done.

- People came from
all around the world

to the Battle Creek Sanitarium.

Amelia Earhart,

Thomas Edison,

Henry Ford,

they came to Battle
Creek to get well

but they also came to see
Dr. John Harvey Kellogg,

who was world famous.

He was one of the most
famous physicians of his day.

- Everything okay, sir?

- People followed the
doctor long distance

through his magazine Good Health

or his many, many
books or his lectures.

Dr. Kellogg's prescriptions
and ideas about medicine

were very much out of the
norm of his colleagues.

- Dr. Kellogg holds a
degree from the prestigious

Bellevue Medical
School in New York.

But some of his
methods are unorthodox.

- He famously supported
sexual abstinence.

He never consummated his
40-year marriage with his wife.

Winter or summer he would
work out in a thong.

- The Battle Creek
Sanitarium was a crazy place!

Some of the things that
went on were wacko.

- Treatments
include experimental therapies

like hot air baths, slapping
machines, foot vibration

and daily yogurt enemas.

- He invented the first
exercise tape if you will.

They were on 78-rpm records

and he had a brass
band behind him

and he would give instructions
for people at home

to exercise the Kellogg way.

So, he was a very,
very inventive guy.

And he had the idea that
for the sick stomach,

you had to make food
more easily digestible.

- Now, Dr.
Kellogg is working

on a totally new
medicine that he believes

will prevent nervous disorders,
tooth decay, even cancer.

But in the end it
won't cure disease,

it'll launch a 37
billion dollar industry.

And tear his family apart

By the 1880s Americans
are flooding into cities

in unprecedented numbers,

and eating local
food from butchers,

or what's sold in bulk by
clerks at general stores.

Food is often preserved
with dangerous chemicals

like formaldehyde or borax.

- There was a high
incidence of stomach cancer

in the turn of the century that
outpaces what we see today.

I think a lot of that was
tied to the American diet.

There were all sorts
of toxic chemicals

that most Americans consumed.

It's no wonder that every
American had a stomachache.

They didn't eat well.

- People are suffering even more

in the Civil War torn South,

turning to miracle health
tonics to cure them.

John Pemberton is desperate
to cash in on the craze

but he still hasn't
perfected his formula.

Already working
with the coca leaf,

he adds an exotic seed
with medicinal qualities,

called the kola nut.

- If you think about
old school pharmacy,

it was all plant based.

Kola nuts originate on the
African continent, in Senegal.

It was considered
improper for a man

to offer women kola
because it was a stimulant,

because it was intoxicating.

- The kola nut
is chewed by local tribes

to combat hunger and fatigue

and they're so valuable

some even use them as currency.

Kola extract has a
strong, bitter taste.

So, Pemberton experiments with
other flavors to temper it.

- He was fine-tuning it
and working in nutmeg oils,

lemon oils, lime
oils, and coriander.

- He added a great
deal of sugar to it

because it was too bitter,

and he added a number
of essential oils,

like oil of neroli,
oil of cinnamon,

seven different substances,

which eventually were
known as the 7X flavor.

- After months of
work, his formula is improving.

But Pemberton slides further
into his morphine addiction.

Retracing his work,
on May 8th, 1886

Pemberton pieces
together the formula

and names his new product
after its two main ingredients.

- Use this one for now.

We'll have to design
something more permanent,

but this will be fine
for the meantime.

- He calls it, Coca-Cola.

- John Pemberton was
a morphine addict

and he was actually
looking for a substitute

but he created that magic
secret original recipe

and that was the
genesis of Coca-Cola,

which I think, is
sort of amazing.

- There are a few
brands in the world

that don't require
any explanation.

Sort of like those
few celebrities

that only need to
go by one name.

Coke is certainly
one of those brands.

- Pemberton
plans to sell his drink

as a health tonic at
nearby soda fountains.

Hoping his cocaine
based concoction

will catch on locally.

Little does he know it'll
become a global phenomenon.

And someone else
will take the credit.

At the Battle Creek Sanitarium,

self-made man Dr. John
Kellogg's unorthodox treatment

have made him one of the most
famous physicians of his day

but one innovation from
the sanitarium kitchens

will soon turn him
into a household name.

- The chief complaint of
people coming to the sanitarium

was some type of stomach
or gastrointestinal problem

and so he had the
notion that eating meat

was dangerous to your health,

and that a grain and
vegetable diet was far better.

- Served as medicinal food,

the product is made
of flour, oatmeal

and cornmeal baked
into brittle cakes

then smashed into granules.

It's unlike anything most
Americans have ever seen.

He calls it granola.

- John Harvey Kellogg
considered his food invention

to be preventive medicine.

He didn't add sugar
because he thought

too much sugar consumption
was bad for you.

But granola was new and
exciting and people loved it.

- Kellogg's
products will someday be eaten

by 350 million
people each morning,

completely redefining
the American breakfast

- Breakfast wasn't a particul

identifiable meal in those days.

It didn't have foods all
that much associated with it.

Often it was leftovers
from the night before.

You couldn't say "That's
what people eat for breakfast."

- In some cases, breakfast
was really just a luxury

that middle-class or
upper-class people ate.

It was very, very
time consuming.

In many cases, it was
women who woke up early,

spent hours and hours and hours

before the family arose
preparing breakfast

- It was a major effort
and took a ton of time.

It became a huge undertaking,

just the simple meal
of breakfast cereal

was something that could
be served hot or cold.

And would take a very short
amount of time to consume.

- That one's a little
overcooked,

but we'll still use it.

- To help with day to day tasks,

- Which one is this from?

- John works his assistant hard,

a former employee
at a broom factory.

It's his younger
brother William.

- Even as a young boy,
John was brilliant.

He is the golden child.

His brother Will was nearsighted

but people thought
he was dim-witted

because he sat in the back of
the room and he couldn't see.

And his parents didn't want
to put a lot of investment

in his education
'cause they thought,

well, he's not worth it.

- Will oversees bookkeeping,

staffing, maintenance,

and preparation and
service of John's granola.

- Granola was designed
to be just eaten as is

but William was
the one who thought

of putting milk
on their products,

and that's sort of when it
really becomes more popular.

But William was really lost
in his older brother's shadow.

- I'm giving a talk on Saturday.

Abstinence and physical
health this time.

- Dr. Kellogg was such an
unpleasant, curmudgeonly,

kind of a lousy big brother.

- Are you getting all of this?

- Yeah yeah, I think I got it.

- You know, he used to
make W. K. take dictation

while he was using the toilet.

- You know, it would
be a lot easier

if I could just wait
until you're out.

- So W. K. had this
desire to get out

from his brother's shadow.

- John, John.

I'm listening.

- We should sell the cereal.

Market it to every
man, woman and child.

- No, it's part of a
carefully controlled regimen.

- You're helping
every single patient

who comes through the doors.

But we could help more people
and make a killing doing it.

Would you just at
least consider?

- No!

And that's the end of it.

- It was Will Kellogg
who recognized

there are a lot
more healthy people

who want a nutritious,
easy to prepare breakfast

than ill people who need an
easy to digest breakfast.

And he would say to his brother,

"Look, we're leaving
money on the table.

"Money that could
help the sanitarium.

"That could help us."

But there was a real risk
for John Harvey Kellogg

of marketing cereal
as a regular product.

Doctors themselves
did not advertise.

That was against medical
ethics at that time.

And he had enough problems

with the medical profession
of being accepted.

He thought that if he sold
this product to the mass market

that would be a red flag
to the medical profession.

So, he was very
careful about that.

- Will knows
they're sitting on a cash cow,

but under John's thumb
he can't act on it, yet.

In Pittsburgh, fledgling
entrepreneur Henry Heinz's

ambition to expand beyond
local markets

has left him bankrupt.

- So, how are
Sarah and the kids?

- It hasn't been easy.

Thank you for dinner.

- That's what family's for.

- But he has
the relentless ambition

to build a new company
and risk it all again,

he just needs the right product.

- During Heinz's
day, not all the meat

was ready for human consumption.

Some of it had a pretty strong
smell and people would say,

"We've got to eat
it, it's expensive."

- Will you pass
the catsup please?

- To mask the taste
and smell of tainted meat

people use a variation on
fish sauce used in china

for thousands of years.

- John?

- Yes, please.

- It's called catsup.

- Walnut and mushroom's
all they had at the store.

- The catsup really helps.

- In the Americas ketchup
was made out of celery

or nuts like walnuts.

This lumpy gray product
that had saw dust in it

and all kinds of
artificial preservatives

and things that could harm you.

- Heinz realizes
that if he can create

a new product that
people actually trust,

there's no one in America
who won't want to buy it.

And his dream of creating
the first mass produced

national food product is reborn.

At the end of the 19th
century people are moving

to industrialized
cities in record numbers

and safe, reliable food
is suddenly scarce.

- You have to remember
you're not self-shopping.

There's no supermarket.

You went to a store and
you encountered a clerk.

And you told the
clerk what you wanted,

and they offered a lot
of kind of iffy food.

Food is literally dangerous
to your physical wellbeing

during this period.

- The Industrial
Revolution has opened the door

to all kinds of
daring entrepreneurs.

And Henry Heinz
still has a dream

of being the first to mass
produce a food product

that will appeal
to every American,

and be sold in every
corner of the nation.

Even though his first
attempt drove him bankrupt

less than a year ago.

- In earlier times,
business failure

was seen as a sign
of moral failure.

There was something wrong with
you if your business failed.

But by the period of the
Industrial Revolution

this attitude was changing.

For every John D. Rockefeller
there were a hundred

would be John D. Rockefellers.

There was much more
willingness to take risks.

Along with risks comes the
possibility of failure.

- Along with his brother, John,

he takes his last shot

in a makeshift test
kitchen in his own home.

Draining his family's savings,
desperate to create a safe,

reliable version of a product

the world knows today
as tomato ketchup.

- After the bankruptcy,
Heinz was determined

to restore his reputation.

He knew that people
didn't have the time

to make labor-intensive
sauces and preserves.

And so that's what
he focused on.

Yeah there was walnut ketchup
and there was fish sauce,

there was celery ketchup
but tomato ketchup,

that's something that he
believed would catch on.

This was pioneering.

This was a big idea.

- Heinz needs his ketchup

to appeal to as many
people as possible.

- Hey John, try this.

- And he struggles
to get the taste right.

- What do you think?

- Heinz adds
salt, onion and garlic

to his tomato base,
thickening it with pulp.

Then, he experiments
with a natural,

but highly acidic preservative,

vinegar and sugar to
balance out the sour flavor.

- John, taste this.

- Not bad.

Well, that's not bad at all.

Good God, it might be it.

- Heinz created this
magical concoction

of umami and sweetness
and acidity,

sour, tart, all in one.

And it goes with everything.

- Well done, well done.

- Heinz has just invented

a groundbreaking new product
but now he has a new problem.

He has to get
people to trust it.

At the time, most packaged
food products quickly go rancid

or are full of
harmful ingredients

so they're often
hidden from view.

- In those days, producers
would put their products

in barrels or stoneware.

Sometimes they'd use brown
glass or green glass bottles.

You couldn't see what
was inside the package.

But he knew that
if people could see

the purity of his
ketchup, they'd buy it.

- In a stroke of brilliance,

Heinz packages his ketchup
in clear glass bottles,

one of the first
entrepreneurs to let consumers

see his product
before they buy it

and the most iconic condiment
in the world is born.

- This is the guy who
made the greatest ketchup,

that bottle that
I see everywhere.

That's a piece of America.

To say Henry Heinz
was ahead of his time

is an understatement.

- Henry Heinz was a pioneer
in every sense of the word.

In understanding that if
you could deliver a product

that had the confidence
of the consumer,

you'd really be able
create new markets

and new demand
for those products

in ways that were
unimaginable before.

- Now Heinz has a choice,

play it safe and sell
his ketchup locally

or gamble everything on the
same strategy of expansion

that drove his last
company out of business.

- Alright, this one's all set.

Keep tasting.

Doesn't matter how much you
make if it doesn't taste good.

Remember, John takes random
samples of every product.

- Meanwhile, Will Kellogg knows

that he and his brother are
sitting on a potential goldmine,

and it's about to be exposed
to an unexpected threat.

- One, two, three.

One, two, three.

Keep your knees level.

- The Battle Creek
Sanitarium has a new patient.

- Head up as you go down.

- A man with a
history of business failures

and years of ill health,
his name is C. W. Post.

- Charlie Post failed at every
business he ever created.

He had what we might
call a nervous breakdown.

So, he was a broken man
when he came to Battle Creek

to try to regain his health.

But he was too broke to
stay at the sanitarium.

- The sanitarium's
ground breaking treatments,

including Kellogg's
revolutionary granola cereal,

cost as much as $60 a month,
more than $2100 today.

So, Post works with Will Kellogg
in the sanitarium kitchens,

helping to make the
groundbreaking granola,

to earn his keep.

- It was an unknown Trojan horse

letting C. W. Post help
cook in the kitchen

- You're a good
worker, Mr. Post.

- Thank you, Will.

- Will keeps meticulous records

of every batch of granola,

hoping he can one day convince
his brother to sell it

and C. W. Post has
a front row seat.

- C. W. Post, being an inventor

and being somebody
who loved to tinker,

he was fascinated
by Kellogg's cereal.

So naturally he wanted
to understand everything

about these health
food preparations.

He was just so eager
to make his fortune.

- Will's
helper is about to become

his most bitter enemy,

igniting a war that will
last for two decades.

In the South, health
tonics are booming.

Now being marketed
as soft drinks,

driven by a growing
push against alcohol

called The Temperance Movement.

- You know, the prohibition
didn't just hatch.

It really emerged because
a lot of American wives

were concerned about
the amount of alcohol

their husbands were consuming.

And it was just massive.

- What do you do when you're
not going to drink alcohol?

Soda fountains are
becoming more and more

and more and more popular.

And people can be social
at soda fountains.

- By the late 1800s,

soda fountains are
a community staple,

rivaling pubs in popularity,

and they're often
located in pharmacies.

But just as Coca-Cola
is making its mark,

John Pemberton is suddenly
too ill to produce his syrup.

- Coca-Cola was
successful locally,

but in the middle of this,
Pemberton got sicker.

It turns out he
had stomach cancer

and his morphine addiction

had taken a firmer
hold than ever.

He needed money.

- In a desperate move,

Pemberton takes out an
ad in the local paper,

offering a 50% stake in
his business for $2000,

about $50,000 in modern money.

Today, half of the
Coca-Cola company

would be worth over 100 billion.

It catches the eye of budding
entrepreneurs across the state

including an ambitious rival
pharmacist named Asa Candler.

- Asa Candler went to Atlanta

with only a $1.75 in his pocket.

He was constantly on the make
looking for a single product

that could make his fortune.

- One minute.

I said one minute.

- Asa Candler, he
had tried Coca-Cola

and he thought that
it cured his headaches

and that was one reason

he wanted to get
ahold of the company.

- You know, a soda
fountain up in Alpharetta,

they're selling something that
they're calling Coca-Cola.

- Really?

That's funny, I've never
been up to Alpharetta.

Unless what you're saying

is my deal with you
isn't exclusive.

- Just making conversation.

- It's confusing how
many people were involved

in this early chain of title.

Pemberton sold Coca-Cola to
a number of different people,

in fact, he'd sold off
two-thirds of the company.

- Candler takes his first step

towards untold riches

by buying a piece of
Pemberton's Coca-Cola company.

- Best of luck to you.

- But in a new,
American industrial age

of ruthless ambition and
self made millionaires,

he's not going to stop
until he has it all.

Asa Candler owns a piece of
the fledgling Coca-Cola brand.

- The Coca-Cola
Company, capital T.

- And he immediately buys up

as much of the company as he can

from anyone else
who has a stake.

- Candler was a driven hustler,

who was going to
succeed no matter what

at something and who wasn't
going to stop until he did.

- Coca-Cola's
founder, John Pemberton,

still owns a third
of the company

and he's the last
obstacle in Candler's way.

Across town,

by 1888, Pemberton's family
can only watch

as his stomach cancer
continues to worsen.

- Candler wanted to
get ahold of Coca-Cola

and by the time he wanted
to, Pemberton was dying

and had already
sold off two-thirds

of The Coca-Cola Company.

- A dying Pemberton has nothing

to leave his wife, Anna Eliza,
and his son, Charles,

except the remaining
rights to Coca-Cola.

And all the riches
they'll someday bring.

By the late 1880s,
the United States

is growing exponentially,

and for the first time the
nation is linked in a way

that, just decades
earlier, was unimaginable.

Thanks to the
Transcontinental Railroad.

Now more than 150,000
miles of train track

crisscross the nation, creating
a path to one of the biggest

periods of business expansion
the country has ever seen,

led by a new breed of pioneer.

Driven by the success
of fellow industrialists

like Andrew Carnegie
and J. P. Morgan.

- Let's go people.

- Who have pushed
expansion the of railroads,

- Thank you sir.

- Henry Heinz has a bold dream

to create a mass produced,
national product.

- The iron and steel industry
could ship its goods by rail.

The modern oil industry
would not have developed

without railroads
because tanker cars

carried oil products
all across the country.

The same was true for any
number of manufactured products.

- Okay, let's keep moving.

We gotta get these orders out.

- Before this period,
what you ate in the West

and what you ate
in the Northeast

and what you ate in the South
was probably very different.

The railroad makes the
entire United States

a possible market
for packaged food.

- To reach
every corner of America,

Heinz needs a factory
far more efficient

and powerful than
anything that exists.

And that means he has
to build it himself.

And as usual, he's thinking big.

- It's perfect.

- That's a lot of money.

Why can't we just rent
some place bigger?

- Early factories were
actually very primitive.

We think about the modern
assembly line and moving parts,

but they were often unsafe,
very hot, unsanitary spaces

that didn't have a great
deal of efficiency.

It was a room full of
people working together

performing certain
repetitive tasks.

You didn't have automation
to speed that process along.

And in this period thinkers
coming up with new ways

to do work that will
make it more efficient

and more profitable.

- Let's focus on what works

and not get so far
ahead of ourselves.

- You're thinking too small.

We build as big as we can

and then we create
the demand for more.

- You'll burn through
all of our cash flow.

- People like Heinz are
not unlike Rockefeller

and JP Morgan, Ford or
any of these other titans.

These are huge American
industrialists.

They are the American dream.

- That makes me nervous.

It should make you nervous, too.

- It'll pay off, trust me.

- Heinz's vision is to create

a new kind of factory,

one that will change the
course of American industry

and he's risking
everything to do it.

Hundreds of miles away,
another future mogul

is prepared to do
anything to succeed.

C.W. Post is leaving the
Battle Creek Sanitarium

and he's taking
something with him.

The ideas behind
Kellogg's cereal.

Taking square aim
at making himself

the founding father of
the American breakfast.

In a test kitchen
hidden in an old barn,

C.W. Post is working on
a revolutionary product

that'll single-handedly
reshape the American morning,

breakfast cereal.

- For a family living in a
big city, life was pretty hard

because both
parents had to work,

often children were working to
help support the households.

There was not a
lot of spare time.

Fast, quick, easy
foods were something

that people were looking for.

- Cereal is promised as bam,

here you can have breakfast
in a bowl, just adding milk.

And you have people kind of
rethinking what breakfast is.

A total invention, right?

I mean, there's no
reason why cereal

should be for breakfast.

It was just invented by
American food makers.

- Cereal is
quick to make, shelf stable

and a stolen idea.

- For C. W. Post to see what
the Kellogg brothers are up to,

then take it back when he
leaves and form his own cereal,

I mean, some would
call it thievery,

others would call it smart
American ingenuity and business.

- To perfect it,
Post is adding an ingredient

the man he took it from. Dr.
John Kellogg, never would.

- He added in sugar.

So suddenly, it was
sweet, it was crunchy,

all of the things that
all of the traditional

sanitarium food wasn't.

- He calls his new product

Grape-Nuts.

- It was called Grape-Nuts

because they were
using grape sugar

and the sort of nuttiness
of the crunchy consistency.

And then, he really began
marketing it everywhere.

- I need you to
fill this one up.

- Yeah.

- It's the
beginning of an American empire

and the opening salvo
in what will soon become

a bitter fight
with the Kelloggs.

As American industry
continues to expand,

a much larger market
is starting to emerge.

By the end of the 19th century,

the Transcontinental
Railroad creates

an unprecedented
means of distribution.

- If you are producing
something in Pittsburgh

and you wanted to
sell it in New York,

before railroads, typically
what you would do,

was ship it all the way
down the Ohio river,

down the Mississippi,
through the Gulf of Mexico

and up the Atlantic
Coast to New York.

Railroads allowed you
to move things swiftly

and inexpensively.

- New opportunities
create the possibility

of untold wealth for those
bold enough to claim it.

Leading a new wave of
American entrepreneurship,

Henry Heinz is
determined to cash in,

investing all his
profits into a sprawling

17 building complex

with direct access to all
major rail lines.

But his boldest gambit yet
is his plan to infuse it

with a new technology that
has yet to be fully harnessed.

In the 1890s, factories
are powered by coal,

and lit by candles
or kerosene lamps.

In 1893, George Westinghouse
lights the Chicago World's Fair

with a new technology that
is still virtually unknown

to most Americans.

It's electricity.

And Heinz wants
it, at all costs.

- It's a lot of money
to spend on technology

that may not even, may not
even be around in a few years.

- We're wiring this
factory starting today.

If this is the
future, I need it.

- Heinz is
determined to become the first

to power his entire
factory using electricity

years before any other
major industrialist.

- There were some people
who thought that electricity

was uncomfortably close to magic

because things would
happen invisibly.

They couldn't see
the forces at work.

And, of course, if you touch it

and got electrocuted
that made everything

more like black magic.

In fact, electricity was far
safer than kerosene lanterns

or candles or
anything like that.

- If he can pull it off,

he'll be ushering in a new
era of American industry,

but he's already failed once

and this is his last shot.

- The Lord is my shepherd.

I shall not want.

- Hundreds of miles away,

John Pemberton's battle
with stomach cancer is over.

On August 16th, 1888,
the inventor of Coca-Cola

is laid to rest.

- No one really thinks
about Doc Pemberton.

I don't think anybody even
knows who Doc Pemberton is.

And it is so sad because this
man really created the recipe,

tried his whole life to
come up with this formula,

and he never really saw
what it was going to become.

- The Coca-Cola brand

is more vulnerable than ever

and Asa Candler sees the
opportunity to strike.

- Mrs. Pemberton, my
name is Asa Candler.

I was a business associate
of your late husband.

- Is there something
I can help you with?

I don't believe we've met.

I'm Charles, John's son.

- I'm sorry, listen
I can help you.

Your father left
expenses behind.

You have a family to look after.

Look, I can pay you in cash.

- Pay me for what?

- I'll give you $300,
right now, today,

for the rights to Coca-Cola.

- 300 for me, and another
300 for my mother.

- Then it's a deal.

- Asa Candler was determined
to get hold of Coca-Cola,

and he did it by
hook or by crook.

Supposedly, he approached
Pemberton's widow at his funeral

and persuaded her to
sell him the brand

for a very small
amount of money.

So, it was really quite,
quite an amazing story.

- In an era before
products are sold nationally,

Asa Candler is determined
to dominate Atlanta

like Pemberton never could,

not yet realizing that he'll
someday dominate the globe.

- America is approaching

the turn of the 20th century,

and a new breed of
ambitious self-made man

is leading a
technological revolution.

Yet the world has almost no
factories with all lights

and machinery completely
powered by electricity,

until now.

In 1898, after 8 costly
years of construction,

Henry Heinz's
fully-electrified factory

is finally about to be powered
on for the very first time.

Outpacing Andrew Carnegie
and JP Morgan's US Steel

by nearly a decade.

- One way to understand how
committed H. J. Heinz was

to being an innovator is that
he was willing to take a leap

into the future and
bring in electricity

at a time when people
were still scared.

I mean, even the president
of the United States

was scared to turn
on the light switch

when the white house
was electrified.

- With a flip of a switch,

Henry Heinz has kickstarted
an era of industrial progress

the likes of which the
world has never seen before.

- The fact that Heinz
said bring this in.

It's the wave of the future.

It's just amazing.

That was a big step forward.

Electricity allows Heinz

to fully realize his next,

and perhaps most
important innovation,

the continuous flow system.

Known today as
the assembly line.

Heinz pioneers a system where
an electric ceiling crane

and trolley brings ingredients
to a series of chutes

and conveyors that move
products through his factory,

allowing workers to
perform one simple task

over and over again

- If you're making
lots of one thing,

if you can make that
absolutely identically

then you can make
it at a lower cost.

If the individual workers
can get more competent,

can get faster at the
production process

you could make their
work more efficient.

This is the first step
toward mass production.

- The continuous flow system

is decades ahead of its time,

and it will go on to inspire
innovations in other industries

that will change every
aspect of American life.

- Before Henry Ford had an
assembly line for his Model T's,

H.J. Heinz had an
assembly line for food.

He was a pioneer.

- Really what you have
here is Ford learning from

and adopting the technology,
that had been applied earlier.

Heinz was a genius
among geniuses

when it came to automation.

- Increased factory output

helps fuel the creation
of a national market.

- If there's a single
secret to America's rise

to the position of world
dominance economically

it was the fact that it
had this single market

where by the end
of the 19th century

a factory in Pittsburgh,

could produce enough to serve
the entire national market.

- Within two years,

Heinz overtakes Carnegie Steel
as one of the fastest growing

companies in the country.

And a few short years later he
is worth 20 million dollars,

over half a billion today.

But success puts a target
squarely on his back.

Other food manufacturers are
quick to follow his lead.

By 1899 sales of, C. W.
Post's Grape-Nuts skyrocket,

and he invests in a factory

to ship his product
coast to coast.

The idea of a national
market is still new.

And since state governments
usually regulate commerce,

there are no rules in
place to oversee it.

- There was no limit
on advertising.

And so you have all these
products that are promised

to save people from everything,

from indigestion to headaches.

And there's no boundaries
on what they can promise.

There was no regulation.

- C. W. Post
takes full advantage,

marketing his cereal
as a miracle cure.

- He would put out
ads that claimed

that they would cure everything

from appendicitis to impotence.

He said anything and everything
that could sell a product.

- Soon, copycat
brands pop up by the dozen.

Like Post, all of
them capitalize

on the Battle Creek
Sanitarium's reputation,

many of them making
outrageous claims.

- You know, when you
patent a food product,

if you're stealing that idea

and you change one
part of that recipe

you're not infringing
on the patent.

By the turn of the century,

there were more than
a hundred different

cereal companies
in Battle Creek.

- Will Kellogg is
desperate to enter the fight

to compete with imitators

but his older brother, John,
still stands in his way.

- Look, another one.

They're all making
money hand over fist,

and none are even
half as big as Post.

- If you have a point, make it.

- Give me one good
reason why we shouldn't

be making stacks
of money off this.

I'll do everything.

I'll oversee everything.

You won't have to lift a finger.

- You're not capable!

The only reason you work here
is because you're my brother.

So don't come whining to me

if you're unhappy with your job.

- The doctor was really
designing theirs products

for their patients, not
for the mass market.

The Battle Creek Sanitarium
was John Harvey Kellogg's baby

and he protected it fiercely.

And that drove Will
Kellogg quite mad.

- Then a simple
mistake changes everything

- Good morning.

- Did you mean to leave
that out last night?

- Shoot.

Help me roll this out.

- To try and salvage a batch

of wheat cereal dough
left out overnight,

Will decides to
roll it out anyway.

The result is a flake.

- Well that's a first.

- This creation was an
accident, an accident!

- It'll someday
generate over 13 billion dollars

in revenue per year.

And it's a brand new weapon
in the fight against Post.

Will Kellogg has spent
years watching food titans

like C. W. Post make a killing.

Now, he's stumbled
on a new weapon

he can use against his rival,

the cereal flake.

- Well, that's a first.

- This creation was an
accident, an accident!

You stop and you think, what
if they just disposed of it?

What if they didn't force
their way through the crank?

And the thing that I
think is so fantastic,

is you never know where

that moment of inspiration
is gonna strike.

- To produce
flakes, dough is boiled,

left out to ferment
for several hours,

and then compressed through
rollers into thin sheets.

Those sheets are baked,

and naturally flake
off when scraped.

- Flake cereal was very popular.

It was remarkably welcomed

by people who ate
at the sanitarium.

It was a eureka-like moment.

- The first
flakes are made with wheat,

but Will begins experimenting
with other grains

until the first Kellogg's
corn flake is born.

- Will Kellogg hated Charlie
Post for stealing his ideas

and he knew he had a better
product than Grape-Nuts.

He could see in the dining room

how much people enjoyed
eating flake cereal.

He kept track of
people who wronged him

and he would strike back.

- Will Kellogg has
watched Post make millions

selling ideas he stole
from the sanitarium.

He may finally have a cereal
that can put Post in his place,

if he can bring it to market.

In Atlanta, Asa Candler
dreams of owning

the first national soft drink.

He ramps up production
on Coca-Cola

using a clever strategy to
expand quickly and cheaply,

an early form of franchising.

- These need to be
on the first shipment

out tomorrow morning.

Do you hear me?

- Yes, sir.

- Candler sells his syrup

to independent distributors
across the country

who mix and bottle it
in their own factories,

spreading Coca-Cola
at no cost to Candler.

Soon, coke is so popular
Candler opens syrup factories

in Dallas, Chicago,
Baltimore and Los Angeles.

- This is going to be great.

You know I haven't been to
Texas since I was a kid.

I hear Dallas is a real jewel.

- Certainly is.

- Should we sit down
in let's say two weeks?

- Sounds good.

- Looking forward to it.

- All right.

- Coke is a company
way ahead of its time.

It's a company that
basically is lean

from the very beginning,
doesn't have a lot of factories,

doesn't have a lot
of fixed costs to it.

And once it sort of reaches
out across the South

as a regional product,

it quickly becomes
a national product.

- Candler
also tweaks the recipe,

removing one of John
Pemberton's key ingredients.

- Asa Candler very quietly
hired a chemical company

to decocainize it in 1903.

And since then
virtually no cocaine

has been in
Coca-Cola since 1903.

It still does
contain decocainized

coca leaf extracts, to this day.

Coca-Cola is the source
of legal importation

of whole coca leaf, the
only legal importation

of whole coca leaf
into this country.

By 1901 Coca-Cola's distributors

produce over 500,000
barrels a year,

bringing in a million
dollars in revenue,

more than thirty million today.

By 1905, the Heinz Company
profits top 11 million,

more than 300 million today.

But Heinz has a problem.

- Let's go, gentlemen, let's go.

Move it.

There we go.

Careful, gentlemen, careful.

I know it's heavy
but let's be careful.

- Now,
competitors are multiplying,

not only stealing his ideas
but undercutting his product

by using cheap,
dangerous fillers

and there's no law against it.

- This is really sort of
the wild west of food laws

because there was almost
no regulation whatsoever.

You could say that
your food was pure

and sanitary and it wasn't.

So the cleanliness
and additives of food

are really being called into
question on a national scale.

- His competitors
tried to undercut him

by providing food with
fillers and preservatives.

He always kept an eye
on the bottom line

and he knew that he
had to fight them.

- Other producers were using
the same kind of glass bottles

that he was using so he bought

all the glass bottles
in Pittsburgh.

He used what he could,

everything else
he put on a barge,

shoved it out into the
Allegheny river and sank it.

He literally sank
the competition.

Nobody else had any jars or
bottles to put their product in.

- Heinz can't fight
imitators in every market

so he devises another
shrewd plan to strike back.

He'll outwit his foes

by using the new movement
called Progressivism.

- The Progressive Era is a
moment in American history

where reformers start to take

a critical look at
American society

in the hopes of going
after all the social ills

that are undermining
its republican values.

One of the politicians
to benefit from this

is Teddy Roosevelt, who
had come from New York

and really built a political
career as a Progressive,

positioning himself as
someone who is concerned

about these types of reforms.

- In 1904, Teddy Roosevelt

rides a Progressive wave
to a second term in office,

selling himself as an enemy
of big business monopolies

and a champion of
worker's rights

and increased
federal regulations.

- Send this to
Dr. Harvey Willey,

Federal Bureau of Chemistry.

That's all for now, thank you.

- Almost 30
years after he created

a new ketchup to combat
the taste of spoiled meat,

Heinz plans to lobby for
new food safety regulations

that will turn his
competitors into criminals.

- Is that the last barrel for
the Philadelphia shipment?

Excellent.

- In the process,
he'll also pressure test

his 28 year old son
Howard, a recent Yale grad,

with a chemistry degree.

- Good to see you, Father.

- Good to see you!

Come on in side.

There are things I
would like to show you.

- Since he was a child,

Howard has been groomed to
take over his father's company.

Now, he must prove he's ready.

- I have a job for you that I
wanted to discuss in person.

I need you to go to D. C.

and fight for the
future of this company.

- I'm ready.

- Heinz sends his son to address

the government
commission on food safety

convened by President Roosevelt,

his task, use the commission
to hobble his enemies.

- I wouldn't ask you to do this
if I didn't believe in you.

Don't let me down.

- By 1905 packaged foods

are an established
part of American life,

with brands like HEINZ, Post
and Coca-Cola leading the way.

But the food industry has
grown so big, so fast,

that there's no regulation
in place to protect consumers

from false advertising
and harmful additives.

- For most Americans
in the 19th century,

there was generally a belief

that the things that
occurred in daily life

were best dealt with by
states and local governments.

Food production companies
that were producing

for a national market,

whose operations spanned
across several states

they were beyond the
control of any state.

It hadn't occurred to
them that they needed

the federal
government to step in

and improve their daily lives.

- But Henry Heinz
sees a competitive advantage

in the federal
regulation of food

and sends his son Howard to
Washington to lobby for it.

- I'm told you're a whiskey man.

Both of these glasses
contain whiskey

you can find on the shelves
of any liquor store.

One is pure, top-shelf bourbon.

The other is cut with methanol,

the main ingredient
in formaldehyde.

The question is,

can you tell the difference?

Take your time, swirl
them around, smell them,

do whatever you'd like.

- That's the pure whiskey.

- Sure enough to drink it?

- Okay, you've made your point.

- The truth is people are forced

to make this decision every day.

Only they don't know
they're making it.

- I'll take it to the president.

- Thank you, sir.

- Thanks in large
part to Heinz's efforts,

President Theodore
Roosevelt throws his support

behind the initiative.

- We trust the companies
that give us our food

without knowing very much at all

about how they're
getting it to us.

We trust them implicitly.

Sometimes I think too much,
because we don't question.

Most of us don't
even read the labels.

- On June 23rd, 1906,

the Pure Food and
Drug Act is passed.

- The Food and Drug Act
includes laws of purity

and quality and consistency

and what can be included
in what you're selling

and that you can't adulterate.

And also advertising regulation.

You have to actually be
able to back up your claims

of what your food
or product can do.

- The legislation paves the way

for the future Food and
Drug Administration, or FDA.

And it makes many of products
in competition with Heinz

illegal almost immediately.

- Heinz's competitors
lobbied against

the 1906 Food and Drug Act.

They didn't want to
see the act pass.

They fought hard.

Heinz fought harder

and Howard became
the representative

for the company
around the world.

- By 1910 Henry Heniz

is one of the richest
men in America,

a true titan of industry.

He has created the product
that defines ketchup

and revolutionized the
industrial process.

When this visionary
dies in 1919,

his company employs
more than 9000 people

and earns the present
day equivalent

of 200 million dollars.

Today, the company he began
in his family's kitchen

is part of a conglomerate

topping 26 billion
dollars in sales.

- H. J. Heinz was an innovator.

He built trust in
the American public

that you'll get
what you pay for.

Today, Kraft Heinz produces
more than a billion

bottles of ketchup a year.

They produce enough
self-serve packets

for every man, woman,
and child on the planet

to have two of them.

You could literally
slide to the moon

and back on HEINZ
Ketchup packets.

- You could throw any other
bottle of ketchup on the table,

but if it's not HEINZ Ketchu,
I'm going to think twice.

But there was plenty of failure
before there was success.

Henry Heinz went bankrupt
and lost everything,

and a lot of people
would have given up.

But if you have that
sort of perseverance

and you know you've
got that personality

to carry something through,

it could lead to, I
mean, ridiculous success.

- At the
Battle Creek Sanitarium,

Will Kellogg has watched
from the sidelines

as the national cereal market
makes C. W. Post a millionaire.

Then in the middle of the night,

the sanitarium
bursts into flame.

For John Kellogg, it's
a personal tragedy.

For Will,

it's the business opportunity
he's been waiting for.

At the sanitarium
that Dr. John Kellogg

has spent his entire
career building,

a furnace located in one of
the sanitarium's bathrooms

overheats, sending the
building up in flames.

Leaving one patient dead

and John's life work in ruins.

- The Battle Creek Sanitarium
was this grand complex

with beautiful rooms and
all sorts of facilities,

but like many buildings that
were built in the 19th century,

had a brick veneer but
was mostly made of timber.

And the place burned
down in a matter of hours

to mere rubble.

His baby, his creation
had burned to the ground.

- Repairs will
cost a million dollars,

some 30 million today

and while John
Kellogg sees disaster,

Will sees an opportunity
to wrestle Corn Flakes

from his brother's control.

- How you holding up?

- I'll manage.

We'll rebuild.

It'll just take some time.

- Here.

- What's this?

- It's plenty, enough to
get construction started.

- I know, but--

- It's not a gift.

I want to buy the
recipes, our recipes.

- Where'd you get
this kind of money?

- Private investors,
mostly former patients.

I'm going to take the recipes
and start a new company.

I've already leased
a factory space.

- Are you sure you
want to do this?

- I'm positive.

- Will was ready to get out,

so he raised money from
relatives and took out loans

and it was very
hard to get loans

and he found one banker
who had faith in him.

It was about a hundred
thousand dollars,

which was more than a
million dollars, back then.

- I'll take your money, Will
and you can have the recipes.

You'll be out of
business in a year.

You don't even have a
high school education.

What makes you think you can
run a successful business?

- I've been running this
place for years, John.

You're a brilliant doctor but
you don't know everything.

- Goodbye, William.

- I'll see you around, John.

- With the recipes in hand,

will sets out to cash
in on the Kellogg name

and bring his Corn
Flakes to the world.

Across the country, the
Pure Food and Drug Act

is starting to take effect.

Authorities are cracking
down on false labeling,

harmful ingredients and
outlandish health claims.

And in 1909, officials
set their sights

on one of the most
closely guarded

secret formulas in the nation.

- Everyone stay calm,
this is a federal seizure.

Stay where you are and
follow instructions.

- The federal government
claimed,

with some justification,

that Coca-Cola was mislabeled

because ironically, it no
longer had cocaine in it.

So you can't call it Coca-Cola.

And it had a deleterious added
product, which was caffeine.

And so they grabbed
40 barrels and 20 kegs

and mounted this huge
lawsuit against them.

- On March 13th, 1911,

the government sues
Coca-Cola to force them

to remove caffeine
from their formula,

insisting that it's
harmful to children

- It was quite an amusing
lawsuit in many ways

because, some of the
experts claim that Coca-Cola

hardened the heart so that
it didn't beat anymore,

they said that it killed
rabbits and frogs,

but that was because they
had them breathe it in.

- Asa Candler is
determined to fight back,

and the case ascends all the
way to the Supreme Court.

- The federal
government has sued Coca-Cola

over the amount of caffeine
in their secret formula.

The case has lasted
five long years.

Finally Asa Candler
volunteers to reduce it.

- As a result of that
lawsuit Coca-Cola agreed

to cut the amount
of caffeine in half

and Coca-Cola stopped
using children

in their ads forever more.

So they didn't show
anyone under 12

actually drinking the beverage.

- Despite all
his struggles, Asa Candler

has turned John Pemberton's
obscure miracle tonic

into one of the most
recognizable name brands

in the country.

And Candler doesn't
want to share the credit

with anyone else.

- Asa Candler burned early

company records
quite deliberately

and I'm convinced he did so

because he didn't want
anybody to see them.

There may have been
some skullduggery there

but it's not a part of
any official history.

- The mad
genius of John Pemberton

brought Coca-Cola into existence

but it was Asa Candler
who used raw ambition,

shrewd marketing, and
national infrastructure

to turn it into an icon.

- Without each other,

we wouldn't know
who they were today.

You need to have the inventor.

You need to have the person
who can develop the product

that no one else has seen before

and can really change the game.

But, you need to have the
advertising and marketing

and business savvy in order
to be this successful.

You look at how much the
world has changed in the last

10, 20, 50, 100 years, yet
we're still drinking Coke.

That's a piece of
Americana that's in you.

- Asa Candler goes on to become

the richest man in Atlanta,
even serving as mayor.

The company he created will
go on to astonishing success,

employing over 60,000 people
in some 200 countries,

becoming one of the most
recognized brands in the world.

- For me Coke is a staple in,
in everything that's American,

and I've traveled the world
and anywhere you go, it's Coke.

- Just months after buying

cereal recipes from his brother,

Will Kellogg's factory
is up and running.

- You guys take a break
in about 30 minutes, okay?

- And for
the first time Kellogg's

iconic Corn Flakes
hit the mass market.

- Yes.

Very good, very good.

- In his first year,
he manufactures 25,000 cases

per month thanks to his
proprietary industrial rollers.

- Will Kellogg developed a way

of rolling out dough very thin.

He worked with a
Detroit based company.

They made steel rollers mostly
for the tobacco industry

and it was a way of
flattening the tobacco leaves

before they were crushed up

and then made into
on cigarettes.

Will gave them
specifications that he needed

to make his cereal
on a grand scale

and they designed
the first rollers.

- Will's flake
rollers use a revolutionary

water cooling system which
prevents the dough from burning

and sticking to
the metal rollers,

which produces crisp
flakes with no waste.

- He added a little bit of malt

and a little bit of salt
to make it taste better.

And then he put his
name on the cereal box,

so it became
Kellogg's Corn Flakes.

Now, Will says it was because

"I wanted to put
my moniker on it.

"I wanted to tell my customers
that I endorse this product."

But he had to know
that the name Kellogg

was very very marketable
because of the doctor.

But Will Kellogg
was off to the races

and he never looked back.

- With state
of the art equipment

and his famous last names
scrawled across every box,

Will is finally ready to
go to war with C. W. Post.

On the next episode of The
Food That Built America.

A small time candy maker,

named Milton Hershey
hits on a big idea.

- I don't care how
they do it in Europe.

I'm using fresh milk.

- That'll
build an American empire.

- It's chaos out there.

- And a father and son duo

named Frank and Forrest
Mars forge a dynasty

that'll rival Hershey and
tear their family apart.

- Help, help

- An outdoorsman
named Clarence Birdseye,

joins forces with with cereal
empire scion Marjorie Post.

- I'm not interested in owning
three quarters of anything.

- To introduce
the nation to frozen food.

- How much for the rest?

- Ruthless tactics
lead to an all out cereal war.

- I'm gonna bury you.

- A gun slinging
Kentucky businessman

rises from a gas
station kitchen,

- I made you a promise,
remember what I said?

- to become an American icon.

And the McDonald brothers
turn the restaurant kitchen

into an assembly line.

- Okay those are
done, those are done!

Flip 'em, let's go!

- But it's Ray Kroc
who will turn their invention

into the biggest
chain in the world.

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