Burton Leo Baskin (December 17, 1913 December 24, 1967) was an American businessman who co-founded the
Baskin-Robbins
Baskin-Robbins, Inc. is an American multinational chain of ice cream and cake specialty store, specialty shops owned by Inspire Brands. Baskin-Robbins was formed in 1945 by Burt Baskin and Irv Robbins in Glendale, California.ice cream parlor
Ice cream parlors (American English) or ice cream parlours (British English) are parlor that sell ice cream, gelato, sorbet, and/or frozen yogurt to consumers. Ice cream is typically sold as regular ice cream (also called hard-packed or hard- ...
chain in 1946 with business partner and brother-in-law
Irv Robbins
Irvine "Irv" Isaac Robbins (December 6, 1917 – May 5, 2008) was a Canadian-born American businessman. He co-founded the Baskin-Robbins ice cream parlor chain in 1945 with his partner and brother-in-law Burt Baskin.
Early life
Robbins was born ...
.
Early life
Burt Baskin was born in 1913 in
Streator, Illinois
Streator is a city in LaSalle County, Illinois, LaSalle and Livingston County, Illinois, Livingston counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. The city is situated on the Vermilion River (Illinois River tributary), Vermilion River approximately so ...
, the youngest child of Jewish immigrants Harold Baskin and Ida (Chaya) Surie Baskin, who had emigrated in the 1890s from
Smolensk
Smolensk is a city and the administrative center of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the Dnieper River, west-southwest of Moscow.
First mentioned in 863, it is one of the oldest cities in Russia. It has been a regional capital for most of ...
, Russia, and
Łomża
Łomża () is a city in north-eastern Poland, approximately to the north-east of Warsaw and west of Białystok. It is situated alongside the Narew river as part of the Podlaskie Voivodeship. It is the capital of Łomża County and has been the se ...
, Poland, respectively. He had three brothers: Bernard, Albert, and Lester, and a sister, Florence. His father owned Baskin's clothing store in Steator for about 35 years until retiring in 1938.
Burt graduated from
Streator Township High School
Streator Township High School, also known as Streator High School (SHS), is a high school located in Streator, Illinois, approximately 90 miles southwest of Chicago.
History
The school is named after its city's namesake, Worthy S. Streator. The ...
in 1931 and from the
University of Illinois
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...
in 1935 and was a member of the
Zeta Beta Tau
Zeta Beta Tau () is a Greek-letter social fraternity based in North America. It was founded in 1898 at City College of New York. Originally a Zionist youth society, its purpose changed in 1954 when the fraternity became non-sectarian and open to n ...
fraternity.
Business career
Baskin owned a men's store in the
Palmer House Palmer House may refer to:
In the United Kingdom
* Palmer House, Great Torrington, an 18th-century house in Devon
In the United States
Items in this section are alphabetized by state, then city.
* Palmer House (Blackton, Arkansas), listed on th ...
in
Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
, and married
Irv Robbins
Irvine "Irv" Isaac Robbins (December 6, 1917 – May 5, 2008) was a Canadian-born American businessman. He co-founded the Baskin-Robbins ice cream parlor chain in 1945 with his partner and brother-in-law Burt Baskin.
Early life
Robbins was born ...
' sister Shirley in 1942. He had enlisted in the
Navy
A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the military branch, branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral z ...
. He served with Patrol Wing 1 (Later renamed Fleet Air Wing 1) in
Espiritu Santo
Espiritu Santo (, ; ) is the largest island in the nation of Vanuatu, with an area of and a population of around 40,000 according to the 2009 census.
Geography
The island belongs to the archipelago of the New Hebrides in the Pacific region ...
,
Vanuatu
Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (; ), is an island country in Melanesia located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of northern Australia, northeast of New Caledonia, east o ...
, in 1942–43, was released from service early in 1946 and came to California, where Robbins had been operating Snowbird Ice Cream in Glendale. Robbins convinced him that selling ice cream was more fun than selling men's ties and shirts, and within a couple of months he opened Burton's Ice Cream at 561 So. Lake in
Pasadena
Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial d ...
.
By 1948, the five Snowbird and three Burton's shops had been combined into a single enterprise, and they had devised their 31st flavor—Chocolate Mint. The partners came to the conclusion that because of the new stores they had opened, they were devoting less and less time to each individual store. "That's when we hit on selling our stores to our managers", Robbins said in the 1985 ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
'' story. "Without realizing it at the time, we were in the franchise business before the word 'franchise' was fashionable. We opened another store and another and another ..." They made an agreement with the new store owners, which became "franchise agreements" and they became the first food company ever to franchise their outlets. The idea took hold in other retail establishments, and the age of "
franchising
Franchising is based on a marketing concept which can be adopted by an organization as a strategy for business expansion. Where implemented, a franchisor licenses some or all of its know-how, procedures, intellectual property, use of its busines ...
" was underway.
In 1949, with more than 40 stores, Baskin and Robbins purchased their first dairy in
Burbank
Burbank may refer to:
Places Australia
* Burbank, Queensland, a suburb in Brisbane
United States
* Burbank, California, a city in Los Angeles County
* Burbank, Santa Clara County, California, a census-designated place
* Burbank, Illinois, ...
, allowing them "to have complete control over the production of their ice cream, and the development of new ingredients and flavors."
In 1953, they decided to unite Snowbird and Burton's under one name:
Baskin-Robbins
Baskin-Robbins, Inc. is an American multinational chain of ice cream and cake specialty store, specialty shops owned by Inspire Brands. Baskin-Robbins was formed in 1945 by Burt Baskin and Irv Robbins in Glendale, California.
The company had 43 stores by the end of 1949, more than 100 by 1960 and about 500 when the ice cream empire was sold to
United Fruit Company
The United Fruit Company (later the United Brands Company) was an American multinational corporation that traded in tropical fruit (primarily bananas) grown on Latin American plantations and sold in the United States and Europe. The company was ...
for an estimated $12 million in 1967. Robbins stayed involved with the company for 11 more years and retired in 1978. Twenty-five years later, Baskin-Robbins had become the world's largest chain of ice cream stores, with 5,500 outlets around the world.
Personal life
Baskin and Robbins met in 1941 when Baskin began dating Irv's sister, Shirley Robbins, whom he married in
Tacoma, Washington
Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, southwest of Bellevue, Washington, Bellevue, northeast of the state capital, Olympia ...
, in 1942. He served as a Lieutenant Commander of Naval Reserve in the
South Pacific
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...
during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. They had two children:
Edie
Edie is a feminine given name, often a diminutive form (hypocorism) of Edith, as well as a surname. It may refer to:
People Given name
* Edie Adams (1927–2008), American businesswoman, singer, actress and comedian
* Edie Boyer (born 1966), Amer ...
and
Richard Baskin
Aaron Richard Baskin (born December 1, 1948)''Harlan Daily Enterprise'"Actor's Songs Do Not Please Nashville Set"/ref> is an American film composer and producer, best known as the musical director and producer of the Academy Award winning soundtra ...
.
Baskin died from a heart attack at his home in
Studio City, California
Studio City is a neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, United States, in the southeast San Fernando Valley, just west of the Cahuenga Pass. It is named after the studio lot that was established in the area by film producer Mack Sennett in 1 ...
, on December 24, 1967, a week after his 54th birthday. He was interred at Home of Peace Cemetery.