23 things you didn’t know about Pizza Hut

Much of the Pizza Hut nostalgia comes from its prime in the 1990s, but the company is much older. Pizza Hut was founded in Wichita, Kansas, in 1958 by two brothers, Dan and Frank Carney.

Dan and Frank Carney weren’t two businessmen flush with cash. They were Wichita State college students who needed to borrow $600 from their mother to open their first restaurant. Mom got some early reassurance, as the brothers opened a second shop after only six months and had a total of six locations after the first year.

The original Pizza Hut location — which was once staffed by the Carney brothers’ friends, family, and fraternity brothers — still stands…sort of. The building on the corner of Bluff and Kellogg on the Wichita State campus is no longer an operational restaurant but instead, a Pizza Hut museum that tells the story of the company’s founding. (The building itself also had to be picked up and moved to its current location!)

The Pizza Hut name wasn’t exactly a well-thought-out plan. The first restaurant’s sign could only fit eight letters, and when you subtract five letters of the word “pizza,” you’re not left with much wiggle room. “Hut” literally fit the bill, and considering the small size of that first location, it worked out.

A long time ago, Pizza Hut unveiled a cartoon mascot named Pizza Pete. The since-retired character — a mustachioed man with a big nose, black hat, and red-and-white checkered neckerchief — was introduced so long ago that he predates most other corporate mascots. His debut in 1963 occurred in the same year that McDonald’s created the character of Ronald McDonald.

Although the original location had a slanted roof, it wasn’t until 1969 that the now-iconic Pizza Hut building first made its debut. And it wasn’t an accident or fate — the structure was intentionally and skillfully designed by Chicago-based architect George Lindstrom. 

Back when only a half-dozen locations existed, the Carney brothers had their eyes on franchising and tried to convince at least one store manager to open his own store. However, the manager, then a Wichita State college student, aspired to become a football coach and chose to follow his dreams instead. It's a good thing, as that kid was named Bill Parcells, and although he doesn’t own a Pizza Hut today, he does own two Super Bowl rings, two NFL Coach of the Year awards, and a well-deserved place in the NFL Hall of Fame.

Coleco is short for The Connecticut Leather Company, best known for creating a hit gaming system in the 1970s. That same decade, Coleco also released a Pizza Hut-branded toy pizza oven that actually cooked food — sort of like an Easy Bake Oven for pizza. If you’re willing to search hard and pay a premium, you can still find some vintage versions for sale online.

The White House once received a Pizza Hut delivery, but it wasn’t a late-night run for President Clinton or a game-day delivery for George W. Bush. First Lady Barbara Bush ordered food for 200 kids as part of a “Reading is Fundamental” pizza party in 1989.

Before starring in the Rob Reiner film North in 1994 and the big-screen adaptation of The Adventures of Huck Finn the previous year, Elijah Wood appeared in a Pizza Hut commercial in 1992. Only 11 years old, Elijah was shown flinging potato salad at a cookout before his parents ditched the BBQ idea in favor of ordering from Pizza Hut.

In the early days of the internet, Pizza Hut was a trailblazer for online ordering — they first offered the service way back in 1994! When the chain demoed its “PizzaNet” website, ordering anything online was a novel concept. For context, 1994 was the same year that Amazon was founded, and they didn’t even go public for another year!

After you deliver a pizza to the White House, the sky’s the limit — literally. In 2001, Pizza Hut sent a pie to the astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS). And it wasn’t just an ordinary order, as the world’s first space-consumable pizza was a year-long collaboration between Pizza Hut and Russian food scientists. It measured just six inches in diameter (to fit inside the ISS’s oven) and was topped with salami because pepperoni didn’t pass the 60-day testing process.

The ISS delivery wasn’t Pizza Hut’s first space goal. A 1999 New York Times article reported that the company’s marketing team first considered projecting its logo on the moon with lasers. However, they scrubbed this campaign’s launch after consulting with astronomers and physicists and concluding that a visible image would have to be the size of Texas…and would cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

Pizza Hut’s Stuffed Crust Pizza brings in billions each year, but when it was first introduced in 1995, the invention seemed destined to flop. The company tried everything to market its new menu item, but it wasn’t until a recently divorced Donald and Ivana Trump appeared in a TV ad that it truly took off. The following year, Pizza Hut increased sales by $300 million, and Stuffed Crust Pizza has remained a restaurant staple ever since.

In 1997, when Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev wanted to promote himself as offering freedom and economic opportunity to the country’s citizens, he filmed a commercial in a Russian Pizza Hut. "Because of him, we have many things, like Pizza Hut,” says one patron in the commercial, leading to cheers of “Hail to Gorbachev!” from the other customers. Gorbachev is then shown smiling as he dines with his granddaughter. The commercial never aired in Russia, but it did appear internationally.

The ubiquity of Pepsi products at Pizza Hut is not a coincidence — the chain was purchased by PepsiCo in 1977. PepsiCo created a spin-off corporation, Yum! Brands, in 1997, which now owns Pizza Hut in addition to KFC and Taco Bell. That’s why you’ll often find combined versions of these fast food restaurants with lifetime contracts requiring them to exclusively serve Pepsi products.

After Dan and Frank Carney sold their company to Pepsi in 1977, they didn’t leave the pizza business. Frank stayed on as president and a member of the board of directors for another three years before doing the unthinkable in 1994: becoming a franchisee for rival chain Papa Johns. Frank owned 133 locations at one point and even appeared in a Papa Johns commercial where he said, “Sorry, guys, I found a better pizza."

For a limited time, Canadian Pizza Hut locations offered a pizza-scented perfume. To be clear, it didn’t smell like pizza but instead had a “freshly baked, hand-tossed dough” scent, according to a 2012 press release. The stunt was staged to commemorate Pizza Hut Canada reaching 100,000 Facebook fans, but only 110 bottles were produced in the end.

Need a fancy place to wear your Pizza Hut fragrance? The same year that the perfume was released, Pizza Hut also announced it was offering a wedding package that included a ruby engagement ring, bouquet of flowers, personal fireworks display, professional photographer, professional videographer, limo service, and a Pizza Hut Dinner Box complete with a pizza, breadsticks, and cinnamon sticks. Despite the $10,000 price tag, Pizza Hut reportedly received more than 500 serious inquiries in just a few hours.

At some point in the early 21st century, Xbox and Pizza Hut realized they appeal to similar demographics, and a partnership was born. Since 2013, gamers have been able to order pizzas through a special "Pizza Hut for Xbox" app. They typically offer 15% off coupons for first-time orders, so if you’re gaming and getting hungry, look out for that promotion!

You’ve heard of meatball pizza, but what about Swedish meatball pizza? That recipe became a reality in 2020 when Pizza Hut teamed up with IKEA to release a limited-time menu item topped with pepperoni and whole meatballs. We won't blame you if you didn’t notice, as the Swedish Meatball Pizza was available only at Hong Kong Pizza Hut locations. 

After six decades of franchising, Pizza Hut now boasts more than 16,000 restaurants worldwide. That includes a whopping 350,000 employees in over 100 countries serving an average of 1 million pizzas daily.

Every chain has a cause, and Pizza Hut’s is literacy. The company launched its BOOK IT! reading incentive program back in 1984 and has been operating it ever since. The program grants Reading Award Certificates to deserving young bookworms, with each certificate good for a free, one-topping Personal Pan Pizza. This program is available for kids from pre-K through sixth grade and is free for both schools and homeschooling parents.