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When Burgers Were King

‘ The burgers were better at Burger King,’ writes Bob Byrne of Adelaide’s initiation into the US fast food fad – complete with waitresses on wheels

ADELAIDE’S first taste of American-style fast food happened in 1962, when Don Dervan – originally from Washington D.C. – opened his first Burger King, on the corner of Anzac Highway and Leader St in Keswick.

Burger King 1

Don was living in London in 1959 and met and fell in love with an Adelaide girl, Jean McEntee, who was on a finishing tour after completing school at Woodlands. They came back to Australia in the early ’60s to settle down and raise a family, but when Don noticed there were no American-style fast food restaurants in Adelaide, he decided to start his own.

He chose to name his “drive-in’’ restaurant Burger King, which was also the name of a small but growing hamburger chain in the US. At the time there were no legal obstacles to using the name. In those early years, Burger King brought the American dream to Adelaide with a “car hop’’ service. On pulling into a parking bay, a waitresses would rollerskate to your car, take your order and return later with a tray which was then attached to, and rested on the driver’s side window.

I vividly recall my first visit to Burger King as an impressionable young teenager; I thought I’d died and gone to heaven! Back then we craved all things American. Most of our popular music came from the US, as did our films with movie stars such as James Dean, Natalie Wood, Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello. Here at last was something so American and Adelaide’s teenagers were immediately hooked.

Burger King Poster Adrienne PeelJohn Gunther, in his book Inside Australia and New Zealand, reveals that from 1962 to 1970, Burger King was selling more than a million burgers a year in South Australia, with outlets also opening at South Rd, Darlington; Jetty Rd, Glenelg; a beach kiosk at the end of Anzac Highway and in-store Burger Kings at John Martin’s in the city and Elizabeth. Many Boomer readers will remember those years: carefree happy days when a good weekend included a burger and milkshake at Burger King on a Saturday afternoon while making plans for a big night out.

On the Adelaide Remember When FB website recently, readers joined in with their own special recollections and stories of what the re restaurant means to them.

Wiesia Davis recalls working there back in the 1960s: “We wore little red, pleated skirts and I learnt to ro rollerskate in the kitchen. There were plenty of bruises, but what fun!”

For Heather Kay Thornton, the memories also include her years training as a nurse: “I was at the Royal Adelaide Hospital and it was the only place still open when we finished work. We would drive out to Burger King, get a burger and relax.”

Sonja Klappers and Caroline Lower both remember being members of the children’s birthday club, which included being sent a birthday card and a meal voucher. “And it was such a treat, as fast food then was such a rarity.”Burger King 001

And it wasn’t only teenagers from Adelaide who would gather there. Dennis Bailey reminisces: “On a lazy Saturday afternoon, we would drive down from Port Augusta for a hamburger. Then we’d camp the night at the carpark at the Bay and drive back home on Sunday morning. That’s a 600km round trip for a burger and a milkshake”.

Many other readers have endearing memories, including Trevor Gregory, who writes: “This is where I proposed to my wife one night in 1967. Also the other things I remember were the girls on rollerskates, the trays on the window of the car and the sauce they put on those burgers … great days.”

By the early ’70s, Burger King was employing more than 200 people in 17 fast food restaurants in Adelaide and right across Australia. But Don Dervan knew the writing was on the wall. The big international chains were circling. By his own admission, he had also become tired of looking at burgers and made the decision to sell.

Hungry Jack’s took over the Burger King chain in 1972. After several years and another successful business venture, Don took his young family back to Atlanta in Georgia, where they still live.

Adrienne Peele, Don’s eldest daughter and the little girl who featured on the Burger King poster in the Anzac Highway store, has recently returned to Adelaide with her husband and three daughters. She finds it strange the history of the Hungry Jack’s and Burger King story seems so confused.

“Even when I Google for information, the history starts at 1971 with no information at all about my father, the original businessman who started it all in this country,” she says.

Mr Google may not be clear on how it all started, but there are many Baby Boomers in Adelaide who remember – and with great affection – exactly how and when Burger King arrived in town.

26 Responses to When Burgers Were King

  1. Robert Sheehan March 31, 2015 at 4:28 pm #

    Can still taste them: and watched them grow — not realising it was a local product.

  2. Peter Vasic April 1, 2015 at 4:53 pm #

    Well let’s see a definitive blow by blow history of Burger King in Australia, including the sale of it, the negotiations, the set up of Hungry Jack’s and the interaction between the two companies, warts and all.

  3. Geoff Wilson April 1, 2015 at 5:35 pm #

    Burger King and drive-in theatres … what a pairing in the early ’60s!

  4. Bronte ALLAN April 1, 2015 at 8:14 pm #

    I think there was also a Burger King behind a block of shops on the corner of Main North road & what is now Regency road. I know my mates & our girlfriends had many a fine feed there! I know memory plays tricks on one as we get older, but I seem to remember the waitresses used to bring your order to your car on skates.

  5. Kym h June 10, 2015 at 6:08 pm #

    The good old times and the memeries it’s gone and I’m old I came down after work every night from the riverland car full of mates all the hotel up cars the young girls what a life

  6. Malcolm April 16, 2016 at 11:47 am #

    I don’t really recall the Anzac highway branch,but I was young..Sunday drives mainly if I had..but there was a burger king style setup at welland on the port road..use to ride there and around when i was about 10yrs old..had a close call while dinkying a mate on the handle bars…hit car head on as I remember..bent forks and back to Standish bikes for repair…anyway.does anybody have any pictures of the old welland shopping centre when Coles was there

  7. Alan Behenna August 30, 2016 at 6:25 pm #

    My first visit from the country (Crystal Brook) to Burger King remains always in my fast fading memory. We travelled miles and miles for burgers in those days. It was a rite of teenage passage to do the drive-in burger experience. Wish I could return.

  8. Kath Grant November 3, 2016 at 6:21 pm #

    I was one of several usherettes at The Village Cinema, Glenelg. When we had finished work, particularly on a Saturday night, we’d usually go the The Burger King. The only place open at that time of night. Can anyone remember when they did away with the roller skates?

  9. Raymond November 20, 2016 at 4:39 pm #

    The burger place on the Port Road was “Jaques” I was playing in a band at the time and got to know Jaque who owned the place. One night after a gig he drove my 4 piece band from his establishment to Burger King at 100 miles an hour, average speed down to Anzac Highway in his huge Cadillac and bought us all burgers. He then drove us back to his place, bought us burgers there and asked us, “Which burgers were the best? Jaques of course. I’ll never forget him, such a character. This happened at 1am on a Sunday morning. Wow!,

  10. Mike Da Silva January 14, 2017 at 8:29 pm #

    What was the name of the Night Club in the 60’s on the left side of the Anzac Highway, in a large ‘mansion’. was it called “blue ……. I think the Burger King was just before it

    • Frank Morgan January 2, 2020 at 1:37 pm #

      It was the Lido nightclub, where Kamahl kicked off his professional singing career.

    • Kym July 10, 2020 at 12:25 pm #

      The Lido run by Florence Allvay

  11. Max January 16, 2017 at 6:52 am #

    I use to frequent Burger King on Port Rd Allenby Gardens

  12. Mike Micanopy December 13, 2017 at 12:17 pm #

    When I was 11 in 1969 I used to stop in at the Anzac Highway Burger King on my way to watch trains at the Leader St crossing. I would always have a Princeburger, which had a fantastic sauce that I hade never tasted the likes of before. From what I know now, it was probably a sweetish mustard sauce rather like the one that Fountain make now.

    Burger King’s motto then was “Food and service fit for a King”.

  13. Geoff Sawford February 13, 2018 at 1:39 pm #

    I am sure there was a Burger King on the right hand side of the old main entrance of the Welland Shopping Mall. Further, there was a circular brass engraved plate about the diameter of a Coke can, set in the original floor on the left hand side recording the fact.This disappeared from view when there was a Mall upgrade and Bakers Delight appeared on the original site. My now wife used to go there, and the tray on window service was great. There were separate locked doors to the main Mall to allow for Burger King late closing.

    Geoff Sawford

  14. cristina doyle February 17, 2018 at 10:00 pm #

    are there any of their television commercials in the seventies available somewhere ?

  15. John Lawrance March 2, 2018 at 7:05 am #

    Don Dervan setting up Burger King in Adelaide is the reason the name Hungry Jacks came about. He had the business name registered, so the Australian franchisee of the US based Burger King had to choose an alternate name. Inevitably, Burger King made Don an offer he couldn’t refuse but the name Hungry Jacks was so ingrained by then they dare not change it

  16. Rachel Gilmore September 10, 2018 at 6:13 pm #

    was here ever a Burger King in Victoria ?

  17. sylvia perry March 27, 2019 at 12:41 pm #

    i remember going to berger king anzac highway in the 60’s

  18. Angela Karatassa October 4, 2019 at 11:25 pm #

    Does anyone remember Big Boy Burgers on Glen Osmond Road circa 1974/73??

    • Garry April 12, 2020 at 6:19 pm #

      Yes, I used to hang out at a house of mates on Fully Road around the corner from them and frequent the Fountain Inn at that time. Had many of their burgers.

  19. Frank Morgan January 2, 2020 at 1:08 pm #

    Everard Park was a hotbed of activity in the 50s, 60s and 70s – I lived in Kurralta Park, diagonally adjacent.

    Burger Kings was great, especially the delivery on roller skates. I remember that more so than the burgers and milk-shakes (which were good).

    The Roxy Picture Theatre (down Anzac Highway) was full of kids on Saturday afternoons, with Jaffas being rolled down the aisles, singing (you had to follow the bouncing ball on screen for the lyrics) and pirate movies.

    Most exceptionally, there was the Lido nightclub between Burger King and the Roxy. It was just off Anzac highway roughly where Solver Paints is now, Grove Street. I think the original building was demolished.

    I believe Kamahl got his start at the Lido and was booked into Sydney venues after Rupert Murdoch saw him sing in the late 50s and supported his singing career.

    There are also some nice art-deco flats along Anzac Highway in that stretch.

    My brother and I ventured up Brownhill Creek one day, starting at the Warwick Avenue foot-bridge, then under South Road and coming up near Ashford House in Ashford, on the other side of Anzac Highway from the Lido. I don’t think this would be possible now with the Gallipoli underpass interfering with the course of Brownhill . There’s probably a drain under South Road.

    • Ian September 22, 2020 at 2:54 pm #

      Trying to locate a old foto of the Lido Frank?

  20. Jan Stirling August 28, 2020 at 9:55 pm #

    I remember getting
    Hamburgers from the BURGER KING on Anzac Highway on the way to Glenelg Beach in the 60’s with my brothers & sisters on numerous occasions. To us it was a real treat, never to be forgotten.

  21. June Miller July 4, 2021 at 3:48 pm #

    Yes, Geoff Sawford, there was a Burger King at Welland, and it had to be between late 1960 (when I met my husband-to-be) and very early1963 (when we married), because we used to go there.while going out together. I had thought it was the first, but apparently not

  22. Simon K August 31, 2021 at 8:28 am #

    Hi
    Does anyone know the name of the special green sauce they used to put on their burgers, it was the best

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