I’ve got to hand it to my pal Bud Kennedy, popular columnist for the Fort Worth Star Telegram. Bud specializes in ferreting out fascinating stuff about his home city and Texas, and now he has tracked down the name of the unsung hero who might be called the stepfather of the Frito.
Bud found the man who sold his little corn-chip biz to San Antonian and Frito inventor Elmer Doolin (is that a great name or what?). It turns out that the fellow was one Gustavo Olguin. In July 1932 Olguin ran an advertisement in the San Antonio Express saying: “CORN chips business for sale, a new food product, making good money. Must sacrifice.” Doolin bought the company, tweaked the recipe, named the chips Fritos, and the rest is history. Olguin apparently returned to Mexico. Read all about it in Bud’s most recent Sunday column.