Terry Lippold - September 13, 2009
My father, Harold Lippold revived Kitty Clover in Omaha. It was just at the end of the Depression; he was 18 and could not get a job. He bought a defunct company with the logo; a witch’s cauldron sized copper pot, a case of printed bags, a stapler and a hand potato peeler for $150. He pealed, sliced, cooked, bagged and delivered the bags himself. Nobody knew what potato chips were at that time. He could not sell them so he placed them on consignment by walking to all the local restaurants, bars, theaters etc. He traded 40% of the business to my grandfather, Fred Lippold and 20% to my grandmother Louvana for a 50% interest in their car so he could expand. As he grew the business, his mom became the bookkeeper and his dad quit his job as a pharmacist to build the world's larges potato chip company. They only served nine states and the per capita consumption was about 30 pounds per person. Dad retired at the age of 42. The trade magazines could never figure out why he had such extreme success. It was that he never scrimped on ingredients. Kitty Clover became so large and powerful, he could have his own strain of potato grown in Idaho and have them brought directly to his plant on 24th street in Omaha. He used only corn oil for the best flavor. I remember as a kid standing next to the metal conveyor belt and grabbing the hot chips just after they rose from the oil and moving through a shower of salt. You think they were good from the grocer. I can still taste those hot ones 50 years later!