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View Full Version : interesting info about Robert McColluch



Sherpa
03-08-2005, 10:34 AM
I saw this while googling about McColluch go-kart engines and stuff....
I always wondered how the guy got sooo weathly....
Married Barba Ann Briggs (of Briggs and Strattion Fame) discovered Havasu
as a place to test his outboard boat engines......... some cool old photos
and interesting reading..... here's the link:
http://havasumagazine.com/history_of_lake_havasu_city.htm
--Sherpa

Flying Tiger
03-08-2005, 10:47 AM
Don't hold me to it, but I think he also was one of the first to get involved in Chili cookoffs.
Perhaps even the first to throw one.
He didn't believe in product improvement.
I bought a McCulloch chain saw once and the sawdust ejector fed a fresh supply of sawdust directly and perfectly into the air intake on the carb.
Not another dime from the TPC after that fiasco.
I think they're outta biz now. (Sure saw that coming. (Pun intended)

Ziggy
03-08-2005, 10:49 AM
I saw this while googling about McColluch go-kart engines and stuff....
I always wondered how the guy got sooo weathly....
Married Barba Ann Briggs (of Briggs and Strattion Fame) discovered Havasu
as a place to test his outboard boat engines......... some cool old photos
and interesting reading..... here's the link:
http://havasumagazine.com/history_of_lake_havasu_city.htm
--Sherpa
You didn't know that? :idea: Shit, its on half of the restaraunt placemats around town :D
Cool link though ;)

THATJEFFGUY
03-08-2005, 11:04 AM
Don't hold me to it, but I think he also was one of the first to get involved in Chili cookoffs.
Perhaps even the first to throw one.
He didn't believe in product improvement.
I bought a McCulloch chain saw once and the sawdust ejector fed a fresh supply of sawdust directly and perfectly into the air intake on the carb.
Not another dime from the TPC after that fiasco.
I think they're outta biz now. (Sure saw that coming. (Pun intended)
You know he's partly responsible for the London Bridge too, along with his friend C.V. Wood, Jr. who also built Disneyland ?
"Folks laughed when chainsaw magnate Robert McCulloch announced he was bringing the 140-year old London Bridge to the Arizona desert. Nobody laughs anymore.In the late '60s, the London Bridge was sinking into the clay of London, England's Thames River. Built in 1831, it was the victim of its own immense weight. London officials said they'd have to replace the bridge. But what to do with the old one -- the one of children's nursery rhymes? Enter McCulloch. He and a buddy purchased the falling down bridge for $2.4 million. At the time it was the highest price ever paid for an antique. For the next three years, workers disassembled the bridge in London, then flew its bricks to America where they were hauled to then-tiny Lake Havasu City where they were reassembled over a newly dug out lagoon alongside Lake Havasu. The bridge was ready for business in 1971"
McCulloch was not the first to hold a chili cookoff, although he was best friends with C.V. Wood Jr. who was involved in forming the International Chili Society. Here's some history on thati....
When Carroll Shelby and Dallas attorney Dave Witts wanted to sell their ranch in Terlingua, Texas, they first asked a PR man by the name of Tom Tierney, "What can we do to get rid of that 150,000 acres of rocks and rattlesnakes?" A couple of weeks later, no doubt over a bowl of chili and some cocktails, Tierney blurted out the words that would change so many lives: "We'll always have Paris."
No, really, what he said was "Let's hold a chili cookoff."
No one had ever heard of a chili cookoff, but it sounded like a good idea and before anyone knew it, the thing was organized and on board. Or, as Shelby says, "disorganized and on board."
A year later, to the growing astonishment of the "organizers," people from all over the country were clamoring to be included in the contest, each proclaiming he concocted the finest chili in the nation. (Women were not allowed at this point.)
Joe DeFrates, who packaged chili in Illinois, heard about it on the radio, told his wife, "I've got to get in on this," and showed up to cook in 1969 against Fowler and C.V. Wood, the man who had brought the London Bridge to Lake Havasu and built Disneyland.

Flying Tiger
03-08-2005, 02:43 PM
You can still buy Carol Shelby Chili powder at Gelsons.
The Cobra Carol Shelby.
Shelby and McCulloch touted beanless chili.
I remember the old man's words:
"Putting Beans in Chili is like adding a loaf of bread to Meatloaf"
- McCulloch

Essex_Sterling
03-08-2005, 03:22 PM
Don't you think it's odd that McCulloch loved to race boats and wanted Lake Havasu as a place to test his motors. One can certainly reason that he liked the sound of the boats yet one of his own businesses is now trying to play god and prevent people with perfectly legal boats from launching. That's right, McCulloch started the marina. Rumor has it the manager is his son-in-law or related to him somehow.

mbrown2
03-08-2005, 03:26 PM
Out of all the article what stood out the most was the $75 per acre.. :idea: