All he really wants is a chance to remind Friendly's of some of the business principles that made it great. Mr. Blake and his brother, Curtis, opened the first Friendly's shop in Springfield, Mass., in 1935. By the 1950's, they had turned that into a string of 500 restaurants known for their Fribble frappes and Big Beef hamburgers. To help pay that down, it closed about 80 restaurants last March and announced plans to close about 70 more. Mr. Blake, who has followed Friendly's from a distance, disagrees with that strategy.
Nobody gets anything out of it.
He is still devoted to his former employees. It has been 22 years since he sold out, but every Christmas he still tours the Friendly plant in Wilbraham, Mass., just east of Springfield. Perhaps on some level. Soon after his large stock purchase, he met with Mr. Smith, the chairman, and John L. Cutter, the president and chief executive. He presented a detailed list of proposed changes which he declined to divulge.