25Celebrating

YearsT wenty-fifth anniversaries are traditionally

major events, whether in the span of a marriage or in the lifetime of a business. It’s a time for sentimentality, a time for look-ing back and pointing to the events - good and bad - which have brought you to this point. And there are going to be some bad moments. On the whole, however, things are usually looking pretty good, so it’s a time for a celebration. And, let’s face it, when HOOTERS throws a party, it’s a blast.

So, welcome to HOOTERS 25th Anniversary celebration. A jubilee, as it were, with silver cymbals crashing, confetti flying and HOOTERS Girls leading the band.

Appropriately enough for an establishment like this, HOOTERS was incorporated on April Fools Day 1983 and opened its first restaurant the follow-ing October in Clearwater, FL run by six business-men who obviously had too much time on their hands. The now famous “HOOTERS Six” were: L.D. Stewart, a painting contractor; Gil DiGiannanto-nio, a liquor salesman; “Uncle Billy” Ranieri, a re-tired service station owner; Ed Droste, a real estate

executive; Dennis Johnson, a brick mason by trade; and Ken Wimmer, a partner in the painting business with L.D.

After hiring Lynne Austin to be the first HOOTERS Girl, Droste donned a chicken suit and started ushering patrons into the new era of food. By late ‘84, HOOTERS was dealing with two-hour waits to get in the door. So the HOOTERS Six met and struck a deal with a likable nut, Hugh Connerty, who wanted to take the restaurant worldwide. When an injection of capital was necessary to stimulate future growth, Connerty turned to a Texan named Jim Ham-mond, then Robert Brooks, founder and owner of a company in Atlanta called Eastern Foods that supplied food products to restaurants and grocery outlets. A few years later, Brooks would take over from Connerty and build the company to what it is today.

We’ve compiled a brief historical timeline of the past 25 years, a walk down memory lane with a brief stop at some of the highlights we think are the most interesting. We hope you’re looking forward to the next 25 years as much as we are.

The first edition of HOOTERS Calendar hits the few HOOTERS Restaurants in existence at that time. Clearwater, Tampa, Casselberry, Jacksonville and Lakeland almost sold out of the 2,500 copies printed that year.

HOOTERS was appropriately incorporated on April Fool’s Day, 1983, when six businessmen ( The now famous ”HOOTERS Six”), with no previous restaurant experience, got together and decided to open a place they couldn’t get kicked out of. From their fertile imaginations came

the concept of HOOTERS. The restaurant would combine their favorite manly finger foods with the 50s and 60s music they felt best exemplified a happy, nostalgic time in most Americans’ memories. It combined nicely with the most important element, the beautiful and vivacious HOOTERS Girls. The name HOOTERS came from a popular comedy sketch by one of the nation’s hottest comedians of that time, Steve Martin.

l to r: Ed Droste, Gill DiGiannatonio, L.D. Stewart, Denny Johnson, Bill Ranieri. (Not pictured, Ken Wimmer)

April 1, 1983 1986

October 1983 - The doors to the first HOOTERS Restaurant opened October 3, 1983 in Clearwater, Florida at 2800 Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard.

One fine day in sunny Florida, one of the HOOTERS Six anchored his boat off Clearwater Beach to watch the Jose Cuervo bikini contest. Droste bet the gang on the boat that he could entice the winner of the contest to become the first HOOTERS Girl. He then bravely paddled into shore.

After failing to convince the subsequent winner (Lynne Austin) to join the troop right then and there, Droste handed Lynne a business card and told her that if her job as a GTE telephone operator didn’t work out, she should call them. Weeks later, Lynne tried to get off work at GTE to attend yet another bikini contest. She quit the job when they refused. The next day, she called Ed to join the HOOTERS team.

The First HOOTERS Girl, Lynne Austin

Robert H. Brooks partners up with the fledgling corporation with an infusion of cash to help it expand.

July, 1986 - Lynne Austin is chosen as Playboy’s Playmate of the Month for July.

June 18, Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space, on the space shuttle Challenger.

The Origin of HOOTERS

July - Live Aid, a multi-venue global rock music concert, was organized in order to raise funds for famine relief in Ethiopia.

19851984

First Hooters outside the state of Florida opens in Atlanta, GA.

Compact discs first hit the market.

First Hooters Franchisee location opened in Louisville KY by RMD Corp

Winter - The first edition of HOOTERS Magazine makes its appearance.

1991 - In October, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) files a charge of discrimination against HOOTERS. Commissioner Ricky Siberman initiates a charge that says HOOTERS’ refusal to hire men as “waiters, bartenders or hosts” constitutes sex discrimination.

HOOTERS vs EEOC

1988 1989 1991

With new units and sales steadily increasing, HOOTERS went international. Tranquility set in for a brief time until…the EEOC. After four years of investigating HOOTERS’ policy of hiring only women to be HOOTERS Girls, the commission concluded that HOOTERS was discriminating against men by not hiring them to be HOOTERS Girls (huh?). In a move to protect the very essence of the concept, HOOTERS, Inc. and HOOTERS of America joined forces to bring their case to the world.

Soliciting grassroots support from customers and supporters, the gang took the first “HOOTERS Guy” (a virile and scruffy HOOTERS manager by the name of Vince Gigliotti) and hundreds of thousands of written protests to

Washington to protest the EEOC’s investigation and findings. In a fluke of circumstance, the timing coincided with the government shutdown on November 15, 1995. HOOTERS’ plight was the top media story of the moment. (Another then not-so-publi-cized event occurred simultaneously while the HOOTERS Girls marched on Washing- an intern was delivering a pizza to a cer-tain oval office. Coincidence? Maybe…but the HOOTERS Girls did march past the White House earlier that day.)

Representatives took the floor of Congress on HOOTERS’ behalf. Newt Gingrich took a stand on Meet the Press, while Crossfire and editorials across the country took up HOOTERS’ cause. The world responded, and finally, so did the EEOC. The future of the HOOTERS Girl was secured.

October 1991 - May 1996

August - The Chicago Cubs play their first ever night game at home in Wrigley Field.

December - Pan Am Flight 103 is blown up by Libyan terrorists over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing a total of 270 people.

March - Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska’s Prince William Sound.

April - The Dilbert comic strip is syndicated for the first time.

19901987

April - The first appearance of The Simpsons airs on television.

1992 - Restaurant Business Magazine names HOOTERS the fastest growing restaurant chainin America.

1992 - Alan Kulwiki wins the NASCAR/Winston Cup championship. The 1992 HOOTERS 500 was the final race of the 1992 NASCAR season. The race is considered one of the best NASCAR races ever. It was held November 15 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The race marked the final NASCAR start for seven-time champion Richard Petty and the first Winston Cup start for future champion Jeff Gordon. For two years (1992-1994), Atlanta Motor Speedway was home to the HOOTERS 500.

1992 - The HOOTERS Community Endowment Fund (HOO.C.E.F.) is founded. Originally, the fund was established to benefit MDA. Since then, it has expanded and in the last 11 years, HOO.C.E.F. has raised millions of dollars for agen-cies such as Juvenile Diabetes, Special Olympics, and many others.

1992 - 1st HOOTERS opens outside of the US in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

April 4, 1993 - April 4 -NASCAR driver Alan Kulwicki, HOOTERS executives Mark Brooks and Dan Duncan, along with pilot Charlie Campbell are killed in a plane crash near Bristol, TN.

1993 - 100th HOOTERS location opens in North Richland Hills, Dallas, Texas.

1993 - Arena Football: The Miami HOOTERS Arena football team took the

owl to the gridiron. The South Florida HOOT-ERS Franchise group of David Lageshulte and partners Champ Regnier, Terry Brawner, Kit Klingensmith and Paul Lynch bought the Sacramento Attack, renamed it and moved to Miami for three seasons.

1992 1993

August 27 , 1992 - Collapse of the Soviet Union: Moldova declares independence from the Soviet Union.

March - Beavis and Butt-Head debuts on MTV.

April The World Wide Web is born at CERN.

1993 - HOOTERS begins partner-ship with the Jordan Golf Tour, which later will become the NGA HOOTERS Tour. It remains the premiere stepping off tour for many golf greats.

Loy Allen drives the HOOTERS Ford to win the Daytona 500 pole.

January, 1995 - HOOTERS signed a five-year contract to become the title sponsor of the Hula Bowl. The 1997 game marked the 51st for the Hula Bowl, but it would be the last in Honolulu.

Vince Gigliotti - do you know that name? Probably not, but in one day this Cleve-

land native went from a manager at HOOTERS of St.

Petersburg to the living rooms of more than 150 million Americans as Vince the HOOTERS Guy.

On November 15, 1995, he walked into a tent packed with Washington media dressed in a HOOTERS Girl uniform to show the world just how ridiculous the whole situation was.

“I knew my cue to come out and I was fine. I didn’t have any butterflies until about five minutes before, when I got into the HOOT-ERS Guy suit,” he said about those

first steps. “It was overwhelming to me. HOOTERS spent a lot of time and money and said ‘We’re going after this’. I enjoyed being a part of the campaign.”

Part of the campaign included giant bill-boards. “I was standing next to Lynne Austin, the original billboard model and she said to me that sooner or later she was going to be off the billboard. But she never thought she would be losing it to me,” he said. “That just made me chuckle because I’ve known Lynne since she was a HOOTERS Girl at Clearwater.” It was a relationship with everyone at the original HOOTERS that led Vince to the role. After a softball game, that Bud Light commercial with the cross-dress-ing guys came on and someone yelled that Vince looked like the impostor with the mustache.

“My wife said if I put on a blonde wig, I would look just like that guy. Well, Ed Droste was there and gave me a pretty strange look.” Vince said. “A week later, he gave me a call and asked me what I thought about being the HOOTERS Guy. I had an audition with a Marilyn Monroe wig and it took off from there.”

He hopped on a jet to Atlanta for a photo shoot that would become the billboards, posters and life-sized cardboard standups.

Vince appeared in the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Fortune Magazine and hundreds of newspapers and magazines.

Fortunately for all of us, Vince and the HOOTERS Guy is a thing of the past.

MEET VINCE

April, 1994 - The April issue of Playboy Magazine gave readers a little more than they’re used to seeing in HOOTERS Magazine. The bright yellow cover entitled “The Girls of HOOTERS,” hit the shelves featuring a girl in a slightly modified version of the HOOTERS Girl uniform on the cover. The magazine featured a 10-page layout of several HOOTERS Girls who, let’s say, weren’t on the shy side.

Jane Pauley of NBC Dateline features HOOTERS

1994 1995

March 21, 1994 - Film director Steven Spielberg’s film “Schindler’s List” wins 7 Oscars, including Best Picture, at the 66th Academy Awards.

January 6, 1994 - In Detroit, Michigan, Nancy Kerrigan is clubbed on the right leg by an assailant under orders from figure skating rival Tonya Harding’s ex-husband.

June 12, 1994 - Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman are murdered outside the Simpson home in Los Angeles, California. O.J. Simpson is later acquitted of the killings, but is held liable in a civil suit.

1995 - First HOOTERS International Swimsuit Pageant is held at an outdoor tiki bar in Aloha Tower next to the Honolulu HOOTERS. Paula Cobb from Texas took home a grand prize of $2500.

October, HOOTERS’ own isotonic sports drink was introduced.

November, 1995 - HOOTERS begins the “Washington: Get a Grip” campaign. On November 15, 1995 - Vince Gigliotti walked into a tent packed with Washington media dressed in a HOOTERS Girl uniform to show the world just how ridiculous the whole situation was.

1996 - HOOTERS of America, Inc. chairman Robert Brooks donated $250,000 to complete the Alan Kulwicki Park in Greenfield, WI. The centerpiece of the 28-acre park is the Brooks Pavilion, a multiple-use facility and home to the Alan Kulwicki museum.

1997 - USAR HOOTERS ProCup Series formed to honor the memory of the “Four Champions”- Mark Brooks, Alan Kulwicki, Charlie Campbell and Dan Duncan.

1997 - HOOTERSports News, a publication designed to report on the many sports arenas in which HOOTERS has become involved, is lanuched.

1996 1997

August - Diana, Princess of Wales, dies in a car crash shortly after midnight in the Pont de l’Alma road tunnel in Paris.

July, 1996 - “Independence Day” is the highest ranking film of 1996, grossing $816,969,268.

1998

2002 - Dick Vitale asks HOOTERS to become involved with the V Foundation for Cancer Research.

2002 - Former HOOTERS Girl Adrianne Curry wins the title of America’s Next Top Model on the first season of the reality show.

2002 - HOOTERS Road Trip, a racing game for PC and Play-Station, based on the HOOTERS franchise, is released 2002.

1999 - The Adam Sandler movie “Big Daddy” is released and references HOOTERS throughout, with the final scene taking place in the HOOTERS of Manhattan on the corner of W. 56th St. and Broadway.

1999 - Vaughn Taylor is the NGA HOOTERS Tour Rookie of the Year. Wins two PGA Tours over the years since.

2001 – Ben Curtis joins the NGA HOOTERS Tour and has one career HOOTERS title and three PGA Tour wins.

2001 - Zach Johnson is the NGA HOOTERS Tour Player of the Year.

2002 - Former HOOTERS Calendar Girl, and the first HOOTERS Girl to become manager at a HOOTERS Restaurant, Kelly Jo Dowd discovers she has breast cancer. As a result of her battle, HOOTERS becomes involved with the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

1999 2001 2002

September 11, 2001 - Almost 3,000 people are killed in the September 11, 2001 attacks at the World Trade Center in New York City, The Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and in rural Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

October 23, 2001 - Apple Computer releases the first iPod.

1999 - The human population of the world surpasses six billion.

LET FREEDOMWING TOUR

March - HOOTERS Air takes off. HOOTERS buys North Carolina-based charter airlines Pace Airlines. Airline personnel would staff each flight and HOOTERS Girls would provide the kind of service patrons of HOOT-ERS Restaurants have always received. In 2006 HOOTERS Air stopped flying due to rising costs in the airline industry.

HOOTERS Celebrates its 20th anniversary.

2003 2004

October 27, 2004 - The Boston Red Sox win the World Series for the first time since 1918, breaking the Curse of the Bambino.

December 12, 2003 - Saddam Hussein, former President of Iraq, is captured.

In the 1960s, entertainer Bob Hope used a blend of music, comedy and beautiful women to lift the spirits of US Armed Forces personnel fighting in Vietnam. Nearly 40 years later, HOOTERS found that the formula still works. On May 26, 2004 a team of 15 hearty HOOTERS souls embarked on a five-country, 16-day, Armed Forces Entertainment Tour to visit with troops fighting in Afghanistan as well as neighboring countries such as Pakistan where support bases are located. The HOOTERS goodwill tour, dubbed Operation: Let Freedom Wing featured a 90-minute variety show packed with music, humor and beautiful HOOTERS Girls and UC3, the dynamic new girl singing group, which HOOTERS sponsors. One thing for sure is the Military loves HOOTERS. At every stop the group was advised that it was the best attended show ever.

2003 - Robert Brooks’ son and president of HOOTERS Coby Brooks, quickly earns the respect of the collective HOOTERS system, accelerating the expansion across the globe and re-instilling the commitment to quality and charitable involvement from neighborhoods to nations.

HOOTERS opens in Thailand, China and Australia.

HOOTERS opens its 400th Restaurant: Thun, Switzerland is the 400th store and the 34th international HOOTERS

Over 16,000 HOOTERS Calendars, from HOOTERS customers, are shipped out to military bases during the holidays for Operation Calendar Drop.

April - HOOTERS of America announced it would team up with professional golfer John Daly to help market the world famous HOOTERS Restaurants and its various brands.

The movie “The Bad News Bears” with Billy Bob Thornton sets a celebratory scene at the local HOOTERS. Coach Thornton, the coach of a children’s baseball team, takes the team to HOOTERS after their first victory.

Betty Boop becomes the oldest HOOTERS Girl at 75, when the company releases 10 designs featuring the sexy senior citizen as part of its HOOTERS Collectible Pins set.

HOOTERS locations across the country have partnered up with the American Red Cross in an ef-fort to contribute to the Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund. HOOTERS locations collect contributions from staff and guests for the HOOTERS Hope Cards displayed in the restaurants to raise money for the cause.

猫头鹰November - Ted Koppel steps down as host of Nightline after 25 years with the program.

March 3, 2005 - Steve Fossett breaks a world record by completing the first non-stop, non-refueled, solo flight around the world in the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer.

2005

2004 - HOOTERS introduces its own potato chips line.

August - Hurricane Katrina strikes coastal areas from Louisiana to Alabama, killing 1,836.

HOOTERS Cookbook - We decided to share delicious recipes with our fans.

February 2006 - The HOOTERS Casino Hotel opens. The HOOTERS Six retained the rights to open a casino in Las Vegas. The actual car that Alan Kulwicki raced in the ‘92 Winston Cup is located at HOOTERS Casino Hotel.

2006 - HOOTERS makes the news when CEO Bob Brooks offers to reimburse FEMA when it comes to light that government funds slated for aid to Katrina victims was, instead, used by a customer to purchase a $200 bottle of Dom Perignon. HOOTERS was unaware of the source of the funds at the time.

July 17, 2006 - HOOTERS of America Chairman of the Board, Worldwide Wing Commander Robert H. Brooks dies unexpectedly at his home in Myrtle Beach, SC at the age of 69.

2006 - HOOTERS branches out from beer and wine to begin serving mixed drinks in many restaurants.

2006 - HOOTERS, partnered with the V Foundation for Cancer Research, established a $2 Million

Breast Cancer Research Grant in Dowd’s name. The company also launched an awareness and early detection educational program using videos featuring Kelly Jo that have been viewed by thousands.

2006

July - Tenth annual HOOTERS Swimsuit Pageant is held at Planet Hollywood Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, NV. Michelle Nunes from Las Vegas, NV took home the grand prize of $50,000.

U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shoots his friend and lawyer, Harry Whittington, in the face with a shotgun on a south Texas ranch.

Kobe Bryant scored 81 points in regulation and is second only to the legendary 1960s center Wilt Chamberlain, who had 100 points.

The Nintendo Wii is released.

Former NGA HOOTERS Tour Player of the Year Zach Johnson wins the 2007 Masters Tournament.

February, 2007 - HOOTERS introduces its first Energy Drink and the HOOTERS Energy racing team with Craftsman Truck racer Casey Kingsland.

September 2007 - HOOTERS Girls on the Great Wall- HOOTERS of Beijing opens.

March - FOX Sports Best Damn Sports Show Period and HOOTERS selected 16 of the hottest HOOTERS Girls for the HOOTERS Magazine Best Damn Swimsuit Edition. The first HOOTERS Best Damn Dream Girl cover girl winner was Anna Burns of Fayetteville, NC.

May - Kelly Jo Dowd loses her battle with breast cancer.

2007 2008 and beyond!

HOOTERS Celebrates 25th Anniversary

2007 - The Adam Sandler and Kevin James movie “I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry” is released with references to HOOTERS throughout the film. HOOTERS Magazine makes its first silver screen appearance.

February - Anna Nicole Smith dies at the age of 39.

November - Motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel dies at age 69.

April - 32 people are killed in a shooting massacre on the premises of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA.

HOOTERS branches out from beer and wine to begin serving mixed drinks in many restaurants.